Europe 2017: Day #24 Warsaw to Krakow by Train

Saturday, 26 August 2017

In our past trips to Europe I've always enjoyed travelling by train rather by any other form of transport.  This time we had some trouble figuring out how to do that and ran into so many difficulties we gave up, hence the bus tours described in previous entries.  The problem with the Baltic states is that they had they train networks "modernised" under the Soviets and all ended up running on the broad gauge.

Estonia, as it does, likes to get ahead of the game so after gaining independence in 1991 it began a process of converting all its broad gauge lines to standard gauge, as used in the rest of western Europe. However , in order to connect with the rest of Europe (with Poland being the eastern-most part at that time) it had to rely on both Latvia and Lithuania converting as well. As far as I could gather the haven't done that as yet.  So any rail trip between Tallinn and Riga requires a change at the border from one train to another.  That might appear to be a simple matter, but it does require the two countries to align their train schedules. And as you might guess, they haven't. 

Vilnius to Warsaw by train is possible if you are willing to transit via Belarus (along with paying for the visa) and then to sit in Bialystok in Poland for 5 hours to make the right connections.   Again no.

There is a great plan being discussed within the Baltic States to build a fast train line that connections Tallinn to Riga to Vilnius to Warsaw but it probably has as much chance of getting up as does the fast-train plan in Australia. Lots of talk, no action.

So with all that taken into account our best chance of  train journey this time round was the Warsaw to Krakow line.  So we took it and a good thing it was. But, frankly, uneventful. Which is exactly the way train travel should be.

Robyn stitches

Our apartment in Krakow looked, from the street, very uninviting.  The interior was a very different matter entirely.  And the location was to die for - being only about 20 metres from the main Krakow Square, and what a lively beauty that is.

We had a walking tour booked for 2pm so we wandered off a for a bite and to orient ourselves as to the meeting place.

The tour gave us a good overview of the Krakow Old Town and highlighted a number of places we wanted to see more of over the coming days.