Dea Birkett's Destination of the Month: Krakow
by Dea Birkett
7 December 2007
My kids love sausages. It’s nothing to do with the taste and everything
to do with the shape. If it’s long and thin – chips, breadsticks,
seaside rock – it’s eaten eagerly by the six-year-old twins; give
them carrot sticks, and they’ll devour them. Give them carrot chopped
into rings, and two upper lips will turn up in disgust.
So Poland – home of some of the world’s finest sausages – seemed
a fine foody destination for our family. But which Polish sausage-making centre?
Krakow is often regarded as the culinary capital of a country which, to be
honest, is also known as the proponent of stewed stuffed cabbage (not a dish
my kids adore). So we set out for Krakow, wrapped up like Mummies for the cold.
Unlike many European cities that sprawl like a collection of loosely-connected
villages, Krakow is family-sized. There’s the central Market Square with
a Royal Castle a brisk 20-minute pushchair ride away. You can walk everywhere
and see everything within a couple of days. An although we usually haughtily
resist such activities, in Krakow the horse and carriages parked up in the
square didn’t seem such a tourist trap; yesterday we trotted up to the
castle like a tribe of princes and princesses. Then we warmed ourselves up
with a cup of mulled wine in the square’s Christmas market, filled with
head-scarfed women handpainting glass baubles and decorating gingerbread.
And – this is very important to us as a family – we’ve been
eating well and cheaply. The street food keeps us satisfied between our lunch
and dinner of different sausages: round balls of ewe’s cheese, like a
Polish mozzerella; pretzels sprinkled with salt crystals or poppy seeds; peirogi
(Polish ravioli) filled with meat or cheese.
If you had to write a blueprint for a family city break it would be to a place
of manageable proportions with a big old castle, a big old central square and
stick-shaped food. If you can think of other cities that fit this bill apart
from Krakow, do let me know.
Next stop: New York
Dea Birkett
December 2007
Useful information about Krakow:
Dea Birkett’s family travelled to Krakow with Regent
Holidays. Please mention Take the Family on all enquiries and see the free Trunki/Moet offer
They took the Cracow Eyewitness Travel Guide.
See Take the Family's Krakow destination guide.
Other feature articles by Dea
- Museums (25 April 2008)
- Edinburgh (1 April 2008)
- Washington DC (14 March 2008)
- New York (29 January 2008)
- Paris (5 November 2007)
- Brighton (1 October 2007)
- Kent (31 August 2007)
- London (31 July 2007)
- Malaysia (30 June 2007)
- Seychelles (31 May 2007)
- St Moritz (30 April 2007)
- Savannah (1 April 2007)
