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

Going Underground

While we like to explore in our own bear fashion and try to avoid the crowds at the main tourist sites, on the last day of our holiday we did feel find ourselves going with the flow and catching a minibus to one of Krakow's main tourist attractions, the Wieliczka salt mines.

Our tour started with a long descent underground down a seemingly never ending stairwell. It felt like a Jules Verne Journey to the Centre of the Earth type of adventure. We were descending where thousands of miners had been before us, the mines having been worked since the thirteenth century. This makes them really old. As well as their age, the mines have another major claim to fame. This is the sheer scale of the underground excavations. There are 9 levels (tourist only visit the top 3 for which our legs were grateful), underground lakes and over 2,000 chambers.

Although visitors only get to see 30 of the chambers there is still a lot of walking involved so you need to be fit.


Being small pawed bears, this was a bit daunting and we got quite excited when we found a railway engine and we leapt in thinking this would be a good way to travel between the chambers. However, good mechanics as we are, we just couldn't get it started. Somehow we don't think it had been anywhere for quite a few years.

So what did we see at each of the chambers? We got to see the most amazing sculptures all carved out of salt by former miners. The most impressive is the chapel of Saint Kinga which is a large and very beautiful subterranean church completely carved out of salt. Even the chandeliers are salt carvings.

And guess who we saw at the entrance to this church?


It was Pope John Paul II, who quite literally gets everywhere in Krakow. Having come across him so often on our trip, he felt like an old friend so we joined him for a photo.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Walking in Famous Footsteps

As we continued our cycle tour of Krakow we found we kept encountering a former resident whose fame far surpasses that of the Krakow dragon. This gentleman died in April 2005 at the age of 84 but he wasn't living in Poland when he died. Do you know who we're talking about?


Our picture provides a clue. We're sitting above his crest which is now displayed at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow to commemorate his time there as a student of philosophy.

In case the penny hasn't dropped we'll make it even easier.


Here you see us doing what many thousands of people have done before us. We're sitting outside the rooms, from which he used to work when he was Archbishop of Krakow, looking at a painting of him. You may need to enlarge our picture to see it clearly, but if you do you will see we are looking at a picture of Karol Wojtyla, more commonly known as Pope John Paul II.

To the Poles he was, and still is, a hero, and we can certainly vouch for the fact that you can't travel very far in Krakow without encountering a statue, or some other memorial to him. Even so, we were stil amazed to hear from Jakub, our guide, that after his death this road was closed for several months due to all the floral offerings that were left there. We thought it must have been similar response to that of the British nation after the death of Princess Diana.

We can hardly think of two more different people!

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Back to the Bright Lights

The next day started off with an ascent to a ruined castle that was too steep for bikes so we had to approach on two legs. We could see for miles and the views were well worth the climb. At least having a good view to admire does give tired legs a chance to recover.


When it came to lunch, remembering our healthy fish supper of the night before, we decided to continue to be good and declined a cauldron of delicious bigos is favour of a virtuous salad. Note the beer in the background though - there's only so far you can go with a health kick!


Mind you, you've got to admit it was a rather splendid salad. If they made salads like this at home we'd eat salad more regularly than as an annual event.

After lunch, sadly it was time to leave the charms of rural Poland and head back to Krakow. It's tempting to pretend to you that we pedalled all the way back, but you'd quickly realise that with only a salad to sustain us we wouldn't get very far. We'll therefore reveal the true way our two wheeled steeds returned to the city. Can you find us in the picture? It's a bit like hunting for Bear!


As it was once again baking hot, it was very tempting to travel back to Krakow perched on our saddles but our minders said it wouldn't be safe and they'd miss our company in the minibus. We therefore decided to humour them and join them in the bus.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx

Breakfast Dining Polish Style

After enjoying a great first night out in Poland it was time to try our first Polish breakfast (oh dear, that sounds as if we stayed out all night, which we didn't, we did get to try out our large and comfortable Polish bed!)

We had to stand on the buffet table to see everything that was on offer as we are too short to see if we stand on the ground. We did make sure our paws were clean though before we stood on the nice white table cloth.


Being Norfolk bears we weren't too sure about all the various cheeses, salads, eggs in mayonnaise etc. for breakfast. We're sure they're very nice, but it was a just bit too early in the day for us. We settled therefore, for a bit of a compromise, bread rolls, ham, jam and yoghurt. This was very satisfactory washed down with some orange juice. The tea wasn't so good though as we had to use flasks of hot water which isn't at the boiling point required for a proper English cup of tea. When will they learn?!

Well fortified, and feeling we'd got enough material for the staying in Krakow chapter of the Friendly Planet Guide, we checked out the hotel and set off to meet our tour leader and the rest of the tour group. We hoped we'd like them and they'd be bear friendly!

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

Starting at the Beginning

We're confident that our readers are all so intelligent that you will know by now that our latest adventure was a cycling trip to Poland.

We joined an organised tour, but flew out courtesy of our friends at Easyjet a day early, so as to have a chance to look round the historic city of Krakow.


First glimpses of a country we've not visited before are always very exciting. Here you see us getting our first impressions of Poland from a very modern and clean red and yellow train which took us from the airport into the centre of Krakow for the bargain price of 4 zlotys each (that's under 80p!).

We are pleased with our train photo as it shows what excellent posture bears have - just look at our straight backs! Our minders would do well to emulate us. Secretly, between you and us, we think our excitement and desire to make ourselves taller so as not to miss anyof the sights from the window was largely responsible for our straight backs.

Our travelling got even more exciting when we got off the train and found a tram which was going to our hotel.


We had a great view out of our hotel window and as it was very hot sitting on the window sill was the coolest place to be. We watched the trams coming and going and thought how good it would be if we had more trams in English cities.

We'll start our exploring in our next post so keep reading.

Lots of love George & Yorkie xxx