Beer, a Woman and Song

Our last evening in Poland was rather satisfying. We went to a very traditional restaurant in the Jewish quarter (of Oscar Schindler fame) and had a lovely meal with our own personal music group playing a concert of klezmer music just for us.


We were enthralled, not only by the music, but also by the rather lovely young lady who played the violin exquisitely and sang equally well. Sadly for us we found out she was married, but then we wouldn't want to betray our own bear kind anyway, and, as our friend Naughty Bear is finding out in Chicago, flirting is more fun anyway! Flushed with the success of our recent video clip, we'd like to try another, so that you can share some of this unique experience with us.



The only potential downside of the evening was a worrying moment when we got bearnapped while our minders had gone off to view the sweet trolley. It must say something about them that they were the only 2 of a group of 17 who had sweets! Anyway, one of our fellow cyclists who had observed how much we mean to our minders, thought it would be amusing to separate us and hid us on top of a side board type affair.


Rather than make a fuss, we decided to go along with the joke as we weren't exactly well hidden and we would have shouted loud if they'd tried to go off without us. The rather galling thing was that when they came back after selecting their sweets they didn't notice we were missing! It was only when they came to pay the bill that they noticed we were missing, and we were gratified to see that there was a bit of a panic then. We were soon spotted and re-united.

As we walked back to the hotel after a final beer in the main square, we were informed by an electronic display that the outside temperature, at midnight, was 29 degrees C. So if you want to head for the sun, forget the Med and travel to Poland as you get a great country to explore to boot. We hope you've enjoyed our Polish adventures, but don't worry, you won't be deprived of our travel reports for long as we're off again very soon. Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx

Not Square, but in the Square!

We were pleased to find that our hotel was only 10 minutes walk from the old town of Krakow with it's fine medieval square, known to the initiated as Rynek Glowny. This is actually the biggest square of any medieval city in Europe and as it covers 10 acres we thought it was a bit too big to explore by paw so we found the perfect alternative transport.


It was perfect as it was green in more ways than one. Not only was it a bold green colour it was electrically powered therefore very environmentally friendly. We couldn't persuade our minders to join us, but we did persuade the tour guide to let us drive. We thought it would be better if she concentrated on telling us all there was to know about Krakow rather than her driving.

As we were power assisted in our exploration, unlike our minders who were exploring on foot, we finished our tour first, but had no problems entertaining ourselves while we waited for them.

First there was the excellent street entertainment. We were spoiled for choice but our favourite was the Rzeszow Klesmer Band who really got our toes tapping with their vibrant and upbeat European music. We thought they were so good we bought their CD and then we thought we would help their street collection by sitting on their music case and looking appealing.


We made a point of clapping loudly at the end of each piece so the passers by would get the message that this music was really good.

The other way of passing the time waiting for our minders, was one that comes very naturally to us. Bet you can't guess what we did!


Yes, we made ourselves comfortable with a beer in one of Krakow old town's 600+ bars (needless to say even beer connoisseurs like us couldn't visit them all). We've already introduced you to the Polish Zywiec beer, so now we'd like to give Okocim a plug - it really is very good.

Lots of love, George & Yorkie xxx