Peb7

Very very funny, also I%26#39;m glad to see my limited Czech isn%26#39;t letting me down! I%26#39;d fought the urge to say Amsterdam.

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very impressed with your czech. Krakow will still be cold when you go in a couple of weeks time, but then visiting Auschwitz on a sunny summers day doesn%26#39;t really feel right. go also to the salt mines as the caves and the carvings in salt are something else. And take a tram out to the nova hut steelworks in krakow. The new town that the soviets built is as authentically near to russia as anything outside of russia, apart perhaps Chemnitz. Not on the main tourist trail of course, but absolutely fascinating

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I%26#39;m about to recommence work on my Czech it desperately needs it. Really looking forward to Krakow now, not sure if we%26#39;ll make the salt mines my dad is still a bit wobbly on his feet after his op and his partner is asthmatic. However we might just go without them, although I suspect Krakow will be one of those places we go back to.

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I was pretty disappointed with Krakow. I expected it to be like Prague. Outside of the very city centre, there isn%26#39;t much historic part left due to the war. You can see everything in the centre in a couple of days and if you go out to Auschwitz and the salt mines, you have %26quot;done%26quot; it in 4 days or so.

Make sure you go to the little art gallery just north of the main square. Has a painting by Leonardo da Vinci. He only ever painted about 6 paintings in his life that survive and one of them is in Krakow, and you can see it without the huge crowds that there are in the Louvre. For me, this is the highlight of Krakow.

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Got 3 and a half days I would have also liked to have visited Zakopane but don%26#39;t think we%26#39;ll have the time. Will definately get to see the Lady of the black Madonna, unless its closed or moved I was so disappointed not to get to the Guggenheim in New York or the Picasso museum in Barcelona (husband of course was chuffed as art museums aren%26#39;t his thing, suppose I could always leave him taking tram numbers down)

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Zakopane in March would be madness. About 1 million poles descend on the ski resort every weekend.

The art gallery is so small (it is in a house on a back street and you can easily miss it), you can do the whole thing in an hour and even a tram spotting husband (they have the same CKD trams as they have in Prague, so he should bring the same notebook) should be able to last 10 minutes looking at a Leonardo

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Hey come on you know I often defy sense in travelling, I managed on public transport through the Czech Republic. So I still have Zakopane on the back burner but suspect it will end up a summer walking trip but those skidus (sp) look tempting.

I%26#39;ll cope and report back, are you in Prague for New Year 2006-07 or is it too early to say?

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Zakopane is too crowded, as is the whole Tatras which are full of thousands of Poles. If you want skiing go to austria.

normally we arrive back on 31st in the evening about 9.00pm having driven from Bruges on the day, unpack the car and then dive to the centre for fireworks, so normally not in Prague until that evening.

Saved my 2000th post for replying here

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I feel sooo honoured. I%26#39;m not a skier (yet) the tram spotter is incredibly accident prone so not braved that one yet. I just like hills.

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tatras are not hills; they are mountains and unlike nice austrian green meadowy mountains, they are full of scree and real beasts. Plus in March they are covered by a metre of snow.

I would stick to Ilkley moor

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Don%26#39;t want to start a panic but can you comment on the contents of the following link?

praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/0209/news1.php

Thanks