Sunshine at last

6.20pm Saturday 12th September

Just to show us how beautiful it looks in sunshine,  Zakopane turned on its very best balmy weather today - just as we are preparing to leave for Kracow tomorrow.

We decided to have a restful day today but it appears that my compatriots have gone a-walking again and have yet to return,  so maybe I should say I have had a more restful day today.

As we are staying right next door to the Aqua Park, which is an enormous modern glass building that we have passed many times, we decided to risk going there for a swim to get our day started.

It proved to be a fantastic and fairly new water play complex with spas,  indoor and outdoor pools, a whirlpool and, best of all,some enormous water slides. They ranged from a toddler sized one to an enormous curving one, starting high at roof level and only reached by lots of stairs, which eventually dumped the unsuspecting swimmer in the outdoor pool.  We had lots of fun trying out all of the above!

But by far the most entertaininging, and at times mystifying aspect of the Pool was the system for paying and accessing it.  We finally worked it out so in case you are ever at the Aqua  Park in Zakopane here is the crash course for using it for one hour:

1. Arrive at turnstile and get electronic bracelet from receptionist. LOOK AT YOUR WATCH AND REMEMBER THE TIME!
2. Race to change cubicle and get into bathers: enter from one door and exit from the other - don't forget to unlock entry door so next swimmers can access the cubicle.  Take all of your stuff with you!
3. Find the locker with the same number as your electronic bracelet amongst the hundreds in the locker room there, and throw alI of your stuff in except your towel. Now the funny shape on your bracelet needs to be pressed against the sensor on the door in order to lock it.  Undoing your bracelet helps this process!  But does take up valuable time!
4. Walk through the open shower area- don't stop and shower as nobody does and you are on a tight schedule!
5. Out the door and up the steps and finally you have arrived at the pools. Hooray!
6. Try out every pool and water slide but KEEP AN EYE ON THE TIME!
7. Because no one ever allows themselves enough time, you will have to hurtle down the stairs, dash to your locker (remembering that the locker room is unisex!) Grab your shampoo etc: do not take your bathers off and then dash to the shower room to have a quick shower.
8. Return to your locker and unlock it AGAIN! Grab all of your belongings but don't get them too close to your wet bathers.
9. Return to the change cubicles and get dry and changed.
10.Emerge at Reception and give your band back to the receptionist who scowls at you and charges the princely sum of 1 zlotys (about 35 cents) for every minute you are over your allocated 1 hour.  At which point you wonder why you rushed when it was so cheap anyway!!!

After all of that excitement we returned to the apartment to divest ourselves of wet gear before heading off to the shopping street. Everything seems very cheap here and there is endless mountaineering and sporting clothes.

We arranged to meet at the old Church at lunchtime and, as usual, we managed to muck up the meeting point and time. For five supposedly intelligent people we seem to have great difficulty coordinating ourselves.

Lunch was another soup extravaganza: tripe soup for Grazyna and white bean soup with sausage and egg for 3 of us, and roast chicken for Graeme who just had to be different! The soup looked odd but tasted superb.

Fortified we headed for the Funicular Railway as finally we would be a able to enjoy the view in the sunshine, and we did just that.  We managed to work out where we are staying by spotting the Aqua Park - see photo below.

The huge Tatra mountains are on the border with Slovakia and were very impressive from this height.

I retraced my steps by catching the Funicular back down the hills whilst the others trudged off to walk down the hill to a chairlift which should take them home.

That was the theory: in practice the chairlift took them miles away and they didn't arrive home for many hours.

Meanwhile I sat on our verandah and enjoyed the sunshine. Heaven indeed!

Dinner at a place whose name no one can remember was followed by packing as we leave tomorrow morning.

Your warm and well-rested correspondent

Dianne