This was the first time I used any Polish airport other than Warsaw or Gdansk in the last few years (in fact since I flew from Katowice 26 years ago at the age of 9, which doesn't somehow bring any reliable memories).

**Connections**

In the British Isles, apart from London, you can fly to Krakow from Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Bristol and Dublin.

You can fly to Krakow for pretty much the cost of the taxes/charges with Ryanair (plus, of course, the price of getting to the airport in the UK and/or parking there).

**Transport links**

**Check in, Security and the like **

The security check was a standard one nowadays (hand luggage being scanned and the passenger itself walking through a metal-detector gate). Considering the fact that both me and my husband were wearing steel-capped boots and decided (and were advised) to take them off for the easiest passage we must have looked a funny couple there standing in our socks and waiting for everything else to go through. But I liked the fact that instead of frisking people, the security staff waited patiently for passengers to remove suspect pieces of clothing or gear and walk back through the metal detector gate.

Thus, majority of facilities in Balice are located before passport control and from what we experienced this one evening the seemed adequate if not particularly grand.

Our flight was delayed (apparently due to the Horrible French again) so instead of a quick rush-in which we expected, we actually had about an hour to kill. We spend it sitting by a fish tank (Katie's choice) in the upstairs café, drinking very reasonably priced tea and mineral water and browsing around the few small shops there. As I said, the drinks seemed priced very reasonably for an airport (or maybe it was just my feeling after prices in both Gdansk and Warsaw) and when I had a peek at the restaurant menu, the selection and prices seemed OK (if not exactly cheap).

There is a duty free Baltona shop on the airside, we have not bought anything there but it contained the usual selection of fags, booze, sweets and sausage that can be expected in any Polish duty-free.

Apart from the above, the mezzanine level houses a viewing terrace (sadly closed when we were there as only opened during daylight hours, there is a 50p charge), a chapel in which a mass is celebrated every Sunday (fittingly for an airport named after the pope John Paul 2nd and located in one of the most religiously traditional parts of Poland) as well as a spacious if somewhat plastickly furnished mother and baby room (I have a thing about facilities for mothers with babies even though I am not in possession of a baby now). There is also a small play area for toddlers/small children, containing an rocking crocodile and a Wendy house.