To Krakow

September 1^st is regarded as the meteorological start of autumn, and the sudden drop in temperatures since the weekend, along with today’s blustery conditions, has certainly given conditions outside a real autumnal feel.

It’s not quite time yet to start battening down the hatches, or putting the garden furniture away, but with evenings starting to encroach on the day it won’t be too long before it’s time to do those tasks and get the wood-burner lit.

Fortunately there’s still time for a late summer-early autumnal getaway, so this weekend sees me flying off to Krakow in southern Poland, for a long-overdue and well-deserved mini-break.

It will be my first time in Poland, a country I have wanted to visit for some time.  I chose Krakow because, unlike the nation’s capital Warsaw, the city was largely spared the destruction of the Second World War. Consequently much of the Krakow’s old town remains intact, so for people like me, who appreciate historic towns, there will be lots of attractive sights and fascinating old buildings to maintain my level of interest and stop me from flagging.

By Jorge Lascar - Sukiennice and Main Square as seen from St. Mary's Basilica, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=26948762

I’ll be travelling alone, as Mrs PBT’s isn’t particularly into sight-seeing and neither is she a fan of multiple pub visits. Instead she has booked us both on a cruise at the end of October. This means I will have free-reign to explore Krakow’s many pubs and bars, and indulge myself with some of the region’s finest local beers.

The weather’s looking rather changeable, so it might not be the blue skies, warm temperatures and wall-to-wall sunshine I am looking for, but whatever the climate, it will be good to get away from the frenzied atmosphere surrounding work, at the moment, and the equally frenetic mood of the dis-United Kingdom in general.