Friday, February 20

We got up in time to have the big buffet breakfast that includes sparkling wine and vodka. As is our habit we chose the former and avoided the latter with great determination.

We got a taxi to the Jewish cemetary which is an enormous and completely overgrown plot of land. We wandered it for an hour or more, marvelling at the trees growing through and around the graves.

We then decided to walk to the Old Town. Walking was a good idea. We passed a lot of tiny shops and kiosks which we went in. We would have missed all of them if we had taken a taxi or even a bus. We passed through an area called Esperanto, which is dominated by a big street named after Zamenhof.

We are half way there and we have come across an adult playground where people in their sixties and seventies are swinging and twisting away. Irma has joined a Polish granny for ten minutes of swing-walking. I will join an old man for five minutes of hip twizzling.

After this we will go to the nearby museum which tells the story of the Jews in Warsaw. Unfortunately this is a long and involved story that is not necessarily very interesting to outsiders like us. Certainly neither of us found it fascinating.

Leaving this we will walk into the Old Town where we will eat at the restaurant we ate at last year. This will not be intentional. It will be where we find ourselves when we realise that we need to eat right away.

In the evening Irma will go out shopping on her own, and it will be her turn to fall asleep as soon as she gets back. She will have walked eight or nine miles today.