Payback day 

Wednesday 21st March

I woke this morning feeling rotten - tired and weary and bad-tempered and aching. In other words, I've been doing too much for the past few days and it's caught up with me! (With CFS it's typical to get payback 2 or 3 days later. Normally I mange to get through a short holiday and get home before it catches up with me, but I'd been too busy in the weeks leading up to this trip and so started it tired.) I find it difficult to talk when I'm like this, so was not very good company.

Getting up and having a shower didn't help any, as I managed to completely flood the bathroom floor. The cleaner had adjusted the shower head in such a way that the water hit the back wall and then flowed onto the floor. I used up all our towels to soak up the water, walking the towels along from puddle to puddle. I can see it must have happened before as the wood in the doorway is rotted at the bottom!

We started our day back at the Old Town Square, at the Cloth Market. It was a grey day with a chilly wind - perhaps not too inviting but the lovely buildings of Krakow are enough to make one forget the weather.

We didn't have a set programme for the day. I had originally thought of visiting the salt mine, but then we found it involved 360 steps down, which was definitely too much for Marian and only something I might achieve on a good day. Instead we had thought that we might walk around the Planty - the narrow strip of green all around the old town where the old walls and the moat used to be - and then go in to look at places of interest. In preparation for this, we bought Krakow Cards for about £10 each, which gives us free entrance for two days to various museums plus free public transport.

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A quarter of the way around the city we found the Palace of Fine Arts, where Marian explored the paintings while I enjoyed the wonderful building and took photographs outside and rested for a while. I was intrigued by this fountain, covered with greenery for the winter? I felt this ad hoc approach wouldn't work too well as Marian had specific museums in mind (and we'd already backtracked to find this gallery), so we abandoned it. We were only a couple of minutes walk from the central square, so returned to the cloth gallery.

Our Krakow ticket allowed us to explore the museum under the cloth gallery. This showed the history of Krakow through the ages, with cross-sections of ground showing different levels of occupation. It was also possible to see the stonework from previous markets. It was disconcerting in places, walking along glass pathways protecting the stonework beneath. It was a good multi-media presentation.

We split up for a while, as Marian wanted more time in the museum and I liked the idea of wandering and having lunch and a cup of coffee. On meeting up, our next stop was upstairs, to see examples of Polish artwork, plus a visit to the balcony to take photos of the square and of each other.

We divided forces again, with Marian staying to look longer at the artwork and try to find a specific museum with a da Vinci painting (but unfortunately that museum was closed for renovation and the two special paintings were out on loan anyway) while I took a few more photos and then headed back to the hotel for a rest.

I realised I'd been out for about 4 hours, which is the amount of time I normally manage well when I'm on a cruise holiday. Perhaps that's what I should aim for as a daily amount in future holidays, rather than pushing myself too far when it's only a short holiday.

Marian had found a few restaurants for us to choose from for our evening meal. I tasted tarte tatin, something I've seen on TV and in recipe books but never tried before. It was lovely. I was not at all tempted by Marian's chicken liver, cherry liqueur and pear dish. (I'm a boring eater.) The restaurant was very small but had a lovely ceiling and lights.

We headed to the square for coffee, to see it by night, and were amused to be greeted by young men and women offering free hugs (all with hand-made signs in English saying 'free hugs'). I have no idea what it was all about but we got four hugs and my evening was brightened by their generosity.