Hi and welcome to the report covering my flight back from Krakow to Warsaw with some bonus pictures from the beautiful and full of history city of Krakow.
The WAW - KRK sector can be found here: https://flight-report.com/en/report/32812/LOT-Polish-LO-3903-Warsaw-WAW-Krak-w-KRK
TOURIST BONUS - KRAKOW
Krakow used to be Polish capital during the most prosperous time of our history and even when the king Sigismundus the 3rd moved with his court to Warsaw in the end of 16th century, it still remained the royal city where coronations took place.
The first place that every tourist encounters in the Old Town is - the biggest square of medieval Europe - the main market square with the Cloth Hall, Saint Mary's church and Town Hall's tower.
It's been a while since our last stay in Krakow, so we decided to make a quick tour of the Old Town's most important attractions. The first place was one of the oldest European universities, the Jagiellonian University founden in 1364. It's oldest building, Collegium Maius, hasn't changed much from the medieval times.
The next place was the Saint Mary's church that may change your mind about gothic architecture if you ever thought that all the medieval churches were gray as most of the cathedrals in western Europe. This church is full of colour and I love it!
Its most known part is the great wooden altar from XVth century sculptured by Veit Stoss known in Poland as Wit Stwosz. Some of the figures (there are 200 in total) are even 2,7 meters high!
A visit to the Royal Castle hill is a must while being to Krakow. Most of the Polish kings and queens are buried in the Wawel cathedral church being one of the most important historic sites of the country.
Unfortunately the beautiful renaissance courtyard of the castle is being renovated so there was no possibility of taking a photo without scaffoldings.
The next day the great market square was full of dragons (dragon is one of the symbols of the city, it was thought to live in a cave under the castle that still exists and is called "Dragon's den") after the "Dragons Parade" that took place the evening before.
THE FLIGHT
To reach the airport we took the very comfortable train that brought us there in 20 minutes
The station is connected with the airport, so in less than a couple of mintues we were inside the freshly built terminal.
Let's have a look at the current departures and arrivals board
It's a little bit strange that all the check-in stands are located downstairs. There are no self check in kiosks so in order to print our boarding passes, we needed to visit a regular check-in desk.
After a very smooth security check (when I complained once about a very unpleasant security check in Katowice, I heard: fly from Krakow, it's much better there. It's true) we went to rather small airside part with some shops, cafes and departure gates.
The flight to Gdansk is (almost) always delayed as the aircraft operating on KRK-GDN-KRK route must first come to KRK from Warsaw, the WAW-KRK flight is (almost) always delayed and that's how the domino starts…
Our flight is also slightly delayed but at least our aircraft is changed from Q400 to much more comfortable and quiet E75.
LOT doesn't seem to use jetbridges in Krakow, so we need a good bus ride to reach our plane parked at a remote stand. Our today's ride is SP-LIA - the first E75 delivered to LOT.
It still looks very good inside even though I prefer the black seats of the newer E-jets than the initial grey ones
View from my window on Norwegian 738 departing to CPH
It was completely dark already but some last rays of the sun may still be seen on our cruising altitude
Standard service on domestic flights: a glass of water and choice between chocolate bar and fruit jellys
Approaching Warsaw
This time we will disembark by jetbridge (maybe it's because there are many transer passengers and their flights are waiting for them as CC announces)
That's all about this short domestic flight. Many thanks for reading.
Czesc Loukas!
Nice bonus! Krakow is beautiful, even if "rynek" can be very crowded (same concerning Wawel).
Nice short flight in a new terminal, finally KRK Is equipped with a descent airport!
Milego weekendu!
Salut Benoit! Kraków is very crowded, especially in the summer, yet it is still beautiful :) Thanks for stopping by!
I loved those photos of Krakow! The architecture is overwhelming!
For some strange reason, that fat orange dragon with yellow mane, thin legs, small hands and a big, fat mouth reminded me of a certain US president. I wonder if it was made that way on purpose! XDDDD Was it set on fire after the parade, just like the Falles festival in Valencia, Spain? I hope so! XDDD
It's great that they have some kind of onboard service in such a short flight!
Thanks for sharing, Loukas!
Hi Nechus, I don’t think they burn the dragon, it will rather be reused next year. The service is Ok on domestic flights, pity it’s exactly the same (with addition of tea&coffee) on European routes. Have a nice week!