The best-laid plans

of mice and men
are shot all to hell
once again  --  with apologies to Robert Burns

The pinkest statue/fountain ever

Before heading to the museums, we stop at a grocery & stuff store where I pick up a package of 5 pairs of short socks for 17 zł. Then it's over to a huge Tesco's for a bag of krófki for a friend in Toronto who's made a special request for these milk-toffee candies. A 400 g bag costs less than a TTC token.

Detail on the Śląsk (Silesia) Museum

Our plans for visiting the Śląsk (Silesia) Museum and the old Tenement House Museums are thwarted. Because they were open til midnight last night as part of the tourism fair, they've decided to take the day off. Lazy buggers. Even the tourist office was unaware of this. So there's nothing to do but eat and shop. Awww. Some of the tourism booths have food samples including one with sizable portions of baked cheese cake. The Czech beer people from yesterday aren't around unfortunately. Instead we buy a nice chicken pie (20 zł) and have a half-litre of Czech porter (6 zł) for a very light lunch.

Some cheese to go with yesterday's sausage photograph

Part of the folk music group at the tourism fair --  Strange way to play a cello
Turns out it's not a cello. It's a traditional Polish instrument called a basetla.

Then it's off to the flash mall to see what can be had that you wouldn't find at a North American mall.

This is all candy - we didn't buy any. We did get some batteries for the camera and a nice T-shirt for Clarisse however.

This is half of the beer display at the Alma grocery store. They also gave out food and booze samples.

Artwork in the mall outside a sporting-goods store

This is a chain of small variety stores - often with fresh produce

No idea what this is about - it's on top of a commercial building

At the cathedral

Typical Polish Kiosk

Dinner was simply a matter of walking back to the square and picking up a couple of kebabs (one in a tortilla for 11 zł, one in traditional chelb bread for 10 zł) and two pieces of baklava (5 zł each). We carried them over to the Czech beer dispensary and washed the lot down with another half-litre of porter. Then it was another restless night in our dump of a hotel. I got up at 5 a.m. and wrote a polite letter of complaint to the hotel and booking.com.