Every hour, a trumpeter plays a short melody from the taller tower of St Mary's Basilica on Kraków's market square, and every time the tune breaks off abruptly mid-phrase. Legend says it commemorates a watchman shot by a Tatar arrow in the throat as he sounded the alarm in the thirteenth century, and the hejnał has been played that way ever since, broadcast daily on Polish radio at noon. It is a fitting introduction to a city that wears its history so openly. The Rynek Główny, the main square, is one of the largest medieval squares in Europe, with the Renaissance Cloth Hall in the middle, and the historic centre, including Wawel Hill and the Jewish quarter of Kazimierz, was among the first sites ever placed on the UNESCO list in 1978.
Wawel Castle, the residence of Polish kings for centuries, stands on a hill above the Vistula with its cathedral, where kings and national heroes are buried. Kazimierz, once a separate town and later the heart of Jewish life in Kraków, has synagogues, cemeteries and a vibrant scene of cafés, bars and galleries. Kraków escaped major destruction in the Second World War, but the memory of the Holocaust is ever present, and Auschwitz-Birkenau is about an hour away.
Riding into Kraków means dealing with city traffic, trams and cobbles. The old town is largely closed to traffic, and parking is restricted, so leave the bike in a secure garage and explore on foot. The surroundings offer some fine riding: south toward the Tatra mountains and Zakopane, with winding roads through the hills; west through the Jura Krakowsko-Częstochowska, a limestone upland with rocks and castles on the Trail of the Eagles' Nests; and east to the salt mine of Wieliczka, with its underground chapels carved from salt.
Kraków has every service, and it is an excellent place to eat: pierogi, dumplings with all kinds of fillings, żurek, a sour rye soup served in a bread bowl, obwarzanki, the ring-shaped bread sold from carts on every corner, and zapiekanki, open sandwiches from the stands in Kazimierz. Summers are warm and lively, winters cold but atmospheric, especially during the Christmas market.