Last weekend, I made a spontaneous trip to Wroclaw.
The trip was decided only two days before and I went ahead with booking train
tickets after checking that the weather would be pleasant. I have learnt from
my weekend trip to Warsaw that if the weather is miserably cold, it might be wiser
to simply stay in Krakow and shelve the trip for a later date! That said, I have
plans to make another weekend trip to Warsaw, perhaps in the later part of this
month or in May.
Wroclaw was a city in my Polish cities-to-visit bucket list,
prior to my arrival in Poland. I was charmed by the colourful block of houses
that stood on its market square grounds. Given that it is a small city relative
to Krakow and Warsaw, a day trip was sufficient to cover its key sights.
Once again, I decided to hop onto the first train that
departed Krakow for Wroclaw. Being slightly closer by distance, I arrived in
Wroclaw by 9am. Without having to check into a hotel, I was in Central Café for brunch by 9.30am. Despite
being relatively early on a Saturday morning, Central Café was already bustling
with a hungry morning crowd! Signs of a café
that serves good food. The thing about cafes is that they typically have a few
bestsellers (normally two or three of them), which makes for a tough decision in the context of solo travelers. This time around, it was a toss-up between having bagels or
pancakes. Seeing how the staff were preparing freshly baked bagels from the
counter, I couldn’t resist not trying them. I ordered the Bagel with Haloumi cheese
and Spinach, and it was delicious!
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| Interiors of Wroclaw's Central Cafe |
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| Pan Fried Haloumi and Spinach Bagel and Orange Grapefruit Juice. |
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| Playing around with the bagels - a selfie for D. |
Strolling along the streets of Wroclaw's Market Square, it is noticeably smaller than the market squares of larger towns. I went in search of the colourful block of houses, known as Hansel & Gratel House, and located it without much difficulty. It was as beautiful and picturesque as the Google images that I had seen, which set the postcard theme for my mail to D this time around!
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| Wroclaw's Hansel & Gratel colourful housing block. |
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| Wroclaw's Market Square from the front. |
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| Wroclaw's Market Square from the back. |
About 20 minutes walk from Market Square housed the Panorama of Raclawice Battle Painting. It was a sightseeing spot highly recommended by Lonely Planet and I was excited to see this painting, as I had not seen something similar to this before. The exhibition was accompanied by an audio guide, which presented the magnificent painting with an overview of its historical background before zooming into various scenes painted, where interpretations of the scenes captured shed more light around what happened during the Raclawice Battle.
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Panorama of Raclawice Battle -
Can you tell which is part of the painting and which are actual live items?
Pity this photo appears flat. In reality, it is a 3D painting.
Unfortunately, this photo does not do it sufficient justice. |
Wroclaw is also known as the city of Gnomes. There are a total of over 200 gnomes located across the city, with most of them situated in the Old Town area. I decided to find one of them and subsequently, I found this "hunting" game to be pretty addictive and found myself on a Gnome Hunting spree.
Having walked around quite a fair bit, I decided to take a short break and made a pitstop at Vinyl Café. It was pretty unique by concept due to its theme as an old records store. I had researched this place prior to visiting Wroclaw and found that they do a pretty decent cuppa! Unfortunately, I have recently stopped drinking coffee and switched to tea, juices and water. Hence, I went for their homemade chocolate cake and homemade lemonade - a perfect combination which I particularly enjoy. A visit to this cafe is highly recommend
if you are in Wroclaw - it is very local and just a short walk from Market Square.
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Vinyl Cafe has a retro / vintage records store theme and
does a pretty amazing job in home baked creations. |
Perhaps it was because I had just recovered that I was feeling tired by the time it was around 4pm. Having clocked in all the sightseeing spots, I just wanted somewhere to rest my feet and people watch. Craving for croissants, I headed straight for Vincent Bakery, which is pretty known for their croissants and pastries. I loved how the place had intricate tabletop decorations! D was also home then, post dinner, and we decided to FaceTime each other there!
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| Because of the recent research on Paris, I was craving for croissants! |
And there you go! It was a good day trip out of Krakow - Wroclaw
definitely did not disappoint. I am glad that this day trip was a 50-50 balance of
food, fun and adventure!
Till the next adventure, xx,
L
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