"She was a daaaaaaytripper.....!"

Wesela + 3

Monday gave us some relief from the hot weather - cool and windy. Dave and Mel and Gill and Alex set off for Canada and England. We are pleased Dave and Mel had such a wonderful short holiday as they both work long hours at their respective jobs back home. Mike and Joanne also left us for a few days for a brief trip to Budapest, so the herding of cats became much easier!

Sound'n Grace had a video shoot about an hour out of town at a huge manmade reservoir called Zrgrze so Kasia drove Bruce, Mom and I out for the afternoon. Makes Conestoga Lake look tiny! It was very windy and we watched a kite surfer and sailboarder. The choir was shooting on a couple of docked sailboats; a sailing school, Karen L!

Ange's good buddy Mark from Canada and Kris had also driven out to the lake, and after a tour around it by car we stopped for a lunch of fresh fish.

A magical mystery tour on the way home  took us ultimately to a small

palace in lovely grounds with a lake. It is now a high class retreat for Polish writers and artists.

 

Wesele + 4

Tuesday was pleasanter. After a quick breakfast of crepes with Ange at an outdoor cafe we left her and drove out through some lovely Polish countryside to Żelazowa Wola (try saying that 3 times quickly in Polish!), the birthplace of the composer Friedrich Chopin. The house is not spectacular but it is an interesting example of a small Polish manor house. The grounds and park are wonderful and considerable effort has gone into preserving it and updating the visitor centre. Rare plants and seedlings were brought from all over the world, including Canada, to develop the property. The best thing about it is that speakers playing Chopin piano music are inconspicuously placed all over the park so that everywhere you walk you hear quiet music. It was a beautiful, serene visit and well worth it for a break from the city. Not too busy with tourists either. As we walked along the small river in the garden, dozens of frogs were hopping from the bank into the water ahead of us. 

Back in Warsaw we finished a very pleasant day with Thai food at an outdoor place near the hotel. It is rare that we eat indoors here - so great!