This delightful, practical book guides the traveler through the attractions of the cities of Cracow, Gdansk, and Warsaw, with excursions to the mountains around Zakopane, the salt mines of Wieliczka, the concentration-camp complex of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the Teutonic Order’s castle at Malbork, and the Baltic towns of Sopot and Gdynia. Cracow, the medieval capital, remains one of the most romantic cities of Central Europe, with Wawel Castle and Cathedral, the Renaissance Cloth Hall and Market Square, great churches and monasteries, museums and theaters. A vibrant hub of hanseatic trade in former times and of the Solidarity movement more recently, Gdansk is a bustling seaport with maritime traditions and a totally different atmosphere from other Polish cities. Warsaw, devastated in World War II, has become a lively center of commerce industry, and government, The Royal Way from the newly restored Castle to Wilanow Palace had shops, great palaces, and the picturesque Old Market Square. Travel writer Philip Ward has explored fifty countries around the world. His interpretations of the face and heart of Poland, past and present, will strike the reader as compelling, provoking, and above all, unique.