Travels in Paris

Steve,

We're departing from virtually the same place and have gone to a lot of the same places.

I ate at Cafe du Marche for both my visits to Paris and for one of them, stayed in a hotel on Rue Cler. I'm lucky I got a room. I spent a night in Chartres after seeing the cathedral. I hope you got a chance to see the two other churches in Chartres. They're almost as interesting as the cathedral.

I also saw Normandy, where I visited the D-Day beaches. (My dad was a WWII vet, though he served in the Pacific.)

Finally, I've been to Barcelona and Krakow, too.

Glad you had a good visit. Cheers.

Would recommend Barcelona over Valencia, and Gdansk over Krakow.

Do you mind sharing why? (I'm most curious about the second comparison)

Thanks for the report, especially the restaurant in Paris. Poland is on my list, but will have to wait till 2018. Did you travel by train, bus or car in Poland? So many places, so little time.

Like Agnes, I too want to know why you preferred Gdansk. I'm working on a trip to Poland and was planning just Warsaw and Krakow, but it's almost a year away, so there's lots of time to adjust the itinerary.

@ Steve.... On comparing or preferring Gdansk over Krakow, I don't think the two cities can be compared in the same manner. To me they're uniquely different. I can see the validity behind your choice of Gdansk over Krakow in one way. It's a hard choice, depending on what your after. I am glad I went to both on two separate trips and had ample time in both, did a ton of walking in both, never took public transportation or a taxi, just went everywhere on foot, but I did wish that in Gdansk I had had an extra night, making it five nights total. But it was not my call then since I was not traveling solo. Ideally, that first time visit in Gdansk should have been .seven nights. The only scenario where I would choose Gdansk over Krakow is if I were very much constrained by time, ie a real time squeeze, either one or the other.

Thank you for all of your comments. My Polish brother-in-law recommended Gdansk over Krakow, saying the old part of Krakow was just a few blocks while Gdansk was much larger. I'm sure both are worth seein g but we only had 6 days.
We traveled by car (with a few short cab rides in Warsaw as parking can be brutal) in Poland but took public transportation in Spain & France. We liked Barcelona better than Valencia mainly because the sea is closer to downtown. Our hotel was just a few blocks away, they had lots of small places to eat & drink. While in Valencia we stayed close to the old market in the old part of town. The sea was a 20-30 minute bus ride away, with just a few hotels and not much "action".

Hi,

Think of it this way while in Gdansk. You are in the area of the lower Vistula and the mouth of that river, plus you can get to the numerous small historical towns, some of which escaped the war in 1945 unscathed, such as Gniew. Spending ten days there in Gdansk plus the side trips (the buses go over in that region if you're not motorised) to outlying towns would be easy. I only made it to Malbork (the huge castle) but saw only a little of the town of Malbork.