May 2026 Archives

Easter this year fell at the start of April, and I visited Krakow in Poland to see the Easter Market. Krakow's Easter Market is located in the main square with a smaller one behind St. Mary's Cathedral. The one in the main square is larger, but both markets offer similar items - crafts, street food, drinks, and gifts. I explored the Easter Market over several days since I was in Krakow for a week, and I enjoyed the market at different times and in different weather. Easter Sunday was particularly glorious with very warm temperatures, full sun, and many of the street food and gift stalls were still open.

There is an egg sculpture in the market that shows different seasonal scenes. I saw these painted egg sculptures in other towns in Poland as well.

The Easter bunny was also around...

Some of the items for sale included wooden eggs. I did not see any real egg shells that had been painted.

The tornado potato crisps are a big street food.

I had a delicious hot chocolate, and as the weather was still cool, mulled wine and other options were available.

The sausage and meat is an important food in Poland; it was not one that I would try as I don't eat beef nor pork. There were vegetarian options as well -- soup!

Cheese with cranberry sauce is another staple food. I don't know if the cheese is vegetarian, but I did try it, and it did taste nice with the cranberry.

Cookies and biscuits and gingerbread were popular gift choices.

Easter decorations were also common.

The decorations in the square included birds and flowers.

Easter is a pleasant time to enjoy Krakow, and I enjoyed the atmosphere in the city. The weather is starting to get warmer; Easter was a little on the early side this year. I enjoyed exploring the Easter market.

Pieskowa Skała Castle dates from the 14th century and was built by King Casimir III, and it is one of the best examples of Renaissance architecture in Poland. The castle is located northwest of Krakow, and it functions as defenses and residences surrounded by courtyards on top of a rocky hill. I visited the castle in early April. The rooms to visit in the castle are spread over three floors that function as museums (art gallery and European fashion display), and visitors can explore the crypt and St. Michael's chapel inside the castle.

I was able to read some signs in English about the castle. The oldest buildings of the castle did not survive a fire in the 19th century, so the innr courtyard itself is the oldest part of the castle. The castle was also siezed by the Swedish army in 1655, but it was later restored. 

A traditional garden is located at the castle, but this was not open to wander around on my visit.

Part of the castle appears to have been constructed within the rock that the castle is built on.

There were a few rooms to see in the castle that function as museums with displays of art, sculpture, furniture, fashion, porcelain, and more.

The castle had nice views across the valley.

I thought that St. Michael's chapel inside the castle was the most impressive room with a beautiful dome and marble walls. (I assume it is marble and not marbl-effect.)

I enjoyed looking at the different paintings and appreciating the grand rooms.

The crypt is another room to see, and it contains 17th century tin sarcopagi from the Sieniawski family (a man and his three sons), and this is a Polish traditional custom of "coffin portraits" in which the dead hav their life-like portraits on the coffin.

The Italian-style multi-storey arches line the courtyard and give access to the other rooms.  

After coming out of one exhibit on the ground floor, I saw two mating frogs.There are ponds below the castle hill with these frogs, but I do not know how or why these two climbed all the way up to the castle and into the inner courtyard to mate. 

Another couple of rooms were open in the lower level area. One of them had the families that lived in the castle and some history.

The other was the kitchen.

After I finished exploring inside the castle, I wandered around the exterior.

I took some nice views.

I then went for a wander to "Hercules' Rock", a large rock that points horizontally upward and is a defining feature of the castle and had a nice walk back to the bottom of the hill that the castle is on.

There are ponds below the castle with the breeding frogs, and there were so many of them. This is also a good place to see birds.

I enjoyed the visit to this castle, the museums, history, and the little walk.

Earlier this month, I headed to Parlour at Kensal Green to watch TasteFilm's feature "The Goonies". TasteFilm projects a film onto a screen and has a menu that is set to the different scenes in the film. Food and drinks are brought out during that part of the film. This was my second visit to TasteFilm at Parlour, and I like "The Goonies" film and the food and drink on the menu, so I decided to go along. 

I had a couple of gin and tonics while I waited.

I had the optional cocktail to start, which contained truffle and chocolate. I had never had a cocktail taste of truffle, but it was good. This is a throwback to Chunk's character doing the "truffle shuffle" in the scene where we are introduced to him. Everyone got a savoury popcorn to have while waiting for the film. 

We also had various quizzes to fill out, and I for 8 correct after stupidly failing to get one of the answers but knew the bonus question and missed out on one of the two prizes.

The first food brought was a slice of pepperoni pizza and a small cup of strawberry milkshake.

The next was a little fun and coincided with a trip to the attic. We received a little box of ingredients to make the cocktail.

The third was the Sicilian Cellar Feast with chicken and vegetables (for the Sicilian villains in the movie).

The next item coincided with Chunk being captured by the bad guys after finding ice cream. It was a Pepsi float with ice cream and a cherry. 

The next was a tomato soup, which I had with a glass of wine. Some people could get a pairing wine order with the items.

One of the most memorable lines in the movie relates to the candy bar "Baby Ruth" and Rocky Road ice cream. This chocolate bar is a home made version of the nut-marshmallow-and-chocolate combination.

The last item was a sponge with rum, honey, and pineapple. (I think some gold coins or gems would have been good here too to mimic the treature, but this was on the pirate theme).

This was another good movie and food pairing, and I would definitely go again if I like what is on the menu. I previously saw "Bridget Jones' Diary": http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2026/01/taste-film-bridget-jones.html

During my visit to Krakow in Poland at the beginning of April, I had a day trip tour to the town of Zakopane. Zakopane is an entrance to the Tatra national park and landscape, known for its mountains and outdoor activities, such as skiing and snowboarding. I was lucky to have seen the snow on the mountain and in the town during my visit as it had snowed after a spell of nice weather in the weeks before. The town is a tourist destination with thermal spas nearby, a shopping street with wooden buildings (and a large tourist area) and a funicular railway to the top of the mountain for views and more shops.

I started by first getting the cable car to the top of the mountain. 

There are bars and restaurants here as well as little shops / kiosks behind. It was very busy at the top. The views over the mountains were lovely.

I had a mulled wine.

The spiral potatoes (tornado potatoes) were also for sale up here, and I tried one. You can get different seasoning on them, and they were good and tasted like crisps/potato chips. They are deep fried.

The cable cars were packed.

Afterwards, I spent some time in the bottom of the town of Zakopane (at the bottom of the hill). As it was the Saturday before Easter, the churches were busy with people doing their traditional customs of having their food blessed.

The town itself is an attractive one, although it is extremely touristy. There is a little river or stream that runs through it with bridges and shops up to the sides.

There are a lot of horse carriages as well, offering rides to tourists.

There are all sorts of items for sale, and the prices were reasonable. Below, the fried cheese was for sale as well as sausage.

The snow was only at this area in Poland, so there wasn't any on the way back to Krakow.

I enjoyed the town but wish that I had had more time at Zakopane.

Harrods currently offers a Prada Cafe, which is set to close at the end of June. I went to check it out after my visit to Chelsea in Bloom this week. The cafe is located inside the department store with an exterior door and the entrance in a mint green shade. The staff also wear the same colour of green, and the cafe itself is primarily this same colour. The cafe was not packed, but it did get busier by the time I left.

The little treats look stunning with their different designs, and there were chocolates and plenty of hot drinks.

I had the hot chocolate, which was delicious. This is a perfect Italian hot chocolate - rich and delicious. There's very few cafes that match this style of dcadence, so the hot chocolate was a win for me.

The pistachio dessert was also a good quality.

I wanted to try the gelato too. This is where I was let down. I ordered vanilla, strawberry, and pistachio. The quality was not there, and I've had better ice cream and wouldn't recommend this for the price.

The cafe is set to close at the end of June, and I recommend the hot chocolate.

During my April visit to Poland, I visited the Wieliczka Salt Mine near Krakow. The salt mine is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and visits to the mine are through guided tour only. Salt was produced here since Neolithic times, but the mines themselves date from the 13th century and were used to mine salt until 1996. The guided tours only cover a very small portion of the mines, roughly 2 miles, but there are over 280 miles of passageways in total. There are small chapels built into the salt mine rock, carved figures, and an underground lake. 

The tour was very fast-paced without much time to look. We did stop and were quickly told some of the facts as we went. Some of the mining equipment is on display in the mines.

The most impressive room with the chandeliers was later on in the visit, and there are religious carvings in the walls and a chapel. All of these items were carved by the miners.

There is also a statue of the Pope.

All of the tour groups arrived before the group I was on, and the place was packed. Thousands must visit the mines daily.

Lighting was also used in the carvings.

There was also a carved copy of  "The Lord's Supper" painting.

There are underground lakes as well and other chambers with signs to detail the names and the dates in which the area was mined.

The salt itself does not really look much like salt. It's grey in colour. Visitors were told that they could lick the walls if they wanted because the salt is in the walls. I did not want to do this.

We were told a story about the king and the opening of the mines.

We were shown how the miners used to light the mines in the past.

We walked through so many passageways.

One of the tallest shafts is held up with a wooden frame.

We watched a small light show around the lake.

At the bottom of the tallest shaft is a pool of water with one of the tunnels submerged.

There are a total of four chapels carved into the rock.

The salt mines were interesting, especially the large carved chapels. I felt the tour was too rushed and crowded overall, but it is a top attraction.

Back in 2022, I watched the 1970s series "Upstairs, Downstairs". I had never seen it before, but I was instantly hooked on the characters and stories. The series only ran for five years and produced 68 episodes, which was not really that many. I was actually very sad that it was over once I saw the last episode and said "goodbye" to the characters and wished there was a continuation. The story is based on a wealthy family who live in a London townhouse "upstairs" while their servants live "downstairs" (as was the norm in those days). The stories start off in the early 1900s and finish in the 1930s when the wealthy classes started to decline. The episodes cover socially-relevant periods in history and political and technological advances. The series also inspired "Downton Abbey", which I binge-watched at the beginning of the year.

The townhouse in London was filmed at Eaton Place in Belgravia - not far from Knightsbridge, Sloane Square, and Victoria. In the story, the Bellamy household own 165 Eaton Place. The house number does not exist, but they used the exterior of 65 Eaton Place to film the outside shots. They painted a "1" in front of "65". I felt that there should have been a blue plaque, but there wasn't. The interior scenes were filmed in studios.

One of the nearby streets is Chesham Street and Chesham Place, and I liked the placement of the street signs.

If you have never seen the original series "Upstairs, Downstairs", it is worth a watch.

Each year, the restaurants and shops in the Chelsea area of London puts on floral displays to coincide with the annual Chelsea Flower Show. This event attracts thousands of visitors to this part of London for the week in order to see the free floral displays. This year's theme is "Out of This World" and features planets, astrology, mythology, spirituality, Earth, and space. In addition to the shopfronts and restaurants decorating, the area has also created a few displays in central locations. One of them features planet Earth and is a tribute to nature lover and speaker David Attenborough's 100th birthday this month.

One of the central creations was a UFO with aliens.

Mars and Venus, as the god and goddess of mythology

Rockets

The hotel at 11 Cadogan Gardens always does a lovely display.

Tarot cards, suns and moons, unicorns, mythical creatures....

One of the other big central sculptures was a giant inflatable moon and astronaut.

The planet Earth tribute to David Attenborough is located on King's Road.

Plantary ice creams

The Ivy restaurant had a wonderful display with planets, aliens, and astronauts.

Ziggy Stardust, David Bowie, also made the theme.

And mermaids, why not.

Carrots shaped like rockets and other fruit and vegetables in planet forms.

This pink rocket looks a little like something else a little naughty.

A dragon was one of the other central displays.

Pegasus was the also a central display.

The Zodiac with all of the symbols appeared in Sloane Square, but this was impossible to photograph.

Pink sumo wrestlers

A cow abduction

A dragon battle

Two colourful parrots

I loved the daisy flowers.

Medusa

Another dragon

For previous posts on this blog about the Chelsea in Bloom, see below.

<li><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2025/05/chelsea-in-bloom-2025.html">Chelsea in Bloom 2025</a>: Flowers in Fashion</li>
<li><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2016/05/chelsea-bloom-2016.html">Chelsea in Bloom 2016</a></li>
<li><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2022/05/chelsea-in-bloom-british-icons.html">Chelsea in Bloom 2022: British Icons</a></li>
<li><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2023/05/chelsea-in-bloom-2023-flowers-.html">Chelsea in Bloom 2023: Flowers in Film</a></li>
<li><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2024/05/chelsea-in-bloom-2024.html">Chelsea in Bloom 2024: Floral Feasts</a></li>

Queen's House in Greenwich is part of the UNESCO World Heritage site at Greenwich, and it was constructed in the early 1600s as a resort for the kings and queens. The Old Royal Naval College, located in front of the house and facing the Thames, was built by Christopher Wren with the specification to not block the view from Queen's House. Today, the house is a museum to visit and contains paintings and items from maritime importance of the British Empire. It was built on the grounds of Greenwich Palace, which was a favourite of Anne Boleyn and Henry VIII. The house has many paintings in its collection from Gainsborough and Hogarth, and the painted ceilings, internal hall, and spiral staircase are also features to see.

I actually visited Queen's House last spring, but I never got around to posting my photographs of it. There was a free audio guide to listen to which told the highlights of some of the work in the collection. A few months after my visit, I went to Moor Park Mansion, which is built on the same style and reminded me of this house.

Queen's House is free to visit but should be booked in advance.

Conor Harrington is a street artist who creates large-scale murals with a nod to the classic style or painting but with figures and settings shown in conflict or poses that can tell a story. A couple of years ago when I went to Greenwich, I photographed a mural that the artist had created a few years earlier for London Mural Festival. The work shows a figure blinded and hidden behind a Union Jack flag. The title of the work is "The Blind Exit" and is about the Brexit Referendum in which the UK left the EU.

The Union Jack flag is completely covering the subject, who is dressed in old-style dress and has a European Union flag and empty globe in the background. 

More work by Conor Harrington on this blog can be seen here:

<p><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2026/01/conor-harrington-the-duel-of-b.html">Conor Harrington: The Duel of Bristol</a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2022/03/conor-harrington-2022.html"><br />Conor Harrington's Second Mural Off Brick Lane</a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2022/02/new-mural-by-conor-harrington-.html" rel="bookmark"><br />New Mural by Conor Harrington Off Brick Lane<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2013/09/street-art-conor-harrington.html" rel="bookmark">Street Art: Conor Harrington</a><br /><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2013/06/baroque-the-streets-dulwich-st.html" rel="bookmark">Baroque the Streets: Dulwich Street Art<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2014/02/dublin-street-art.html" rel="bookmark">Dublin Street Art<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2014/07/street-art-on-whitecross-stree.html" rel="bookmark">Street Art on Whitecross Street<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2014/09/new-street-art-by-conor-harrin.html" rel="bookmark">New Street Art by Conor Harrington<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2014/10/belfast-street-art.html" rel="bookmark">Belfast Street Art<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2014/03/recent-street-art-in-early-spr.html" rel="bookmark">Street Art Round-up in Early Spring 2014<br /></a><a href="http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2019/03/street-art-tour-of-walthamstow.html" rel="bookmark">Street Art Tour of Walthamstow</a></p>

The One World Trade building was built near to the former World Trade Centre in New York City after the towers were destroyed by a terrorist attack in 2001. The new building is the tallest in the western hemisphere and one of the tallest buildings in the world. When I visited last December, I took some photographs of "ground zero" where the footprints of the two twin towers were located and are now memorials to those who lost their lives. The names of those are located around the base, and roses are placed on the names from time to time to remember special days. Visitors can view the observation deck on the towers for views over New York City.

There is also a museum dedicated to ground zero as well.

The views from the top look amazing.

I saw bands from the Mets baseball game playing on the streets below, street art, and a part of the flag flown for the last time on 11 September 2001 during the tragic day. The flag is located in the post office around the corner.

The observation platform is perfect to see on a clear day.

I remember when "Avenue Q" was shown in the theatre in London from 2006 until 2010, but I never saw it. As it has recently come back for its 20th anniversary show, I decided to get tickets to see it. Unfortunately for me, this was the week of the tube strike at the end of April, so I went to work that day as the tube strikes did not start until mid-day, and I wanted to make sure that I was able to get there.

I had a little time to kill, so I went to the cocktail bar across the street before going to the theatre to have another cocktail and some pretzels. 

The story takes place in New York City with the puppet characters and the human counterparts interacting on stage. It is an adult version of "Sesame Street" with difficult themes of racism and homosexuality and to find purpose.

I will admit that I struggled to get into the show because I was worried about how I would get back home due to the strikes on public transport; trains were explicitly not running to my location, but after an hour walk, I was able to get one of the national rails to a station and walk for another fourty-five minutes to get home. This made a super long day, and unfortunately, I did struggle a bit to enjoy the show. I think I would have enjoyed it much more had it not been for tube strike issues, and I perhaps should have seen the cost of a hotel.

One of the museums that I visited on my last trip to New York City was the Intrepid Museum, a museum dedicated to aviation, space, and sea. The museum is named after the "Intrepid", a 1940s aircraft carrier, where a large display of military aircraft from around the world can be seen on deck with additional exhibits inside the ship.   

There is also a submarine to visit, called the "USS Growler", which was used in the Cold War. Visitors could wander through the lower part of the submarine and see where the crew lived and worked.

Missiles were stored here.

We went in a one-way tour through the submarine museum at our own pace and saw various living, working, and social areas.

A control room

A bedroom for some of the higher levels in the crew 

A control communications room

Kitchen

Officer's room 

Missiles

After visiting the submarine, I went up to the aircraft carrier to have a look around.

There is also a space museum here with one of the spacecraft - Enterprise.

We could also explore the "Intrepid" working areas.

There was also a model of the ship with planes inside the carrier.

This is an informative museum if you enjoy history and aircraft, seacraft, and space. The museum is open daily and is a short walk from Hell's Kitchen.

The Battersea River Walk Market is a summer market that started a few years ago and has returned this summer. The market takes place on Sunday mornings until 4:00 in the afternoon during the spring and summer months, and visitors can buy from a range of different foods. I checked out the market in April.

Cookies, sausage rolls, Scotch eggs, olives, cheese, meat jerky, bread, pastry, nuts, shortbread, and alcohol were all on offer to purchase.

I purchased a couple of items - cookies from Midnight Pantry. I had the Earl Grey and Taro, and they recommended the pepper and chocolate. I was not so keen on the chocolate one, but the Earl Grey one was very delicious.

I also bought a Dubai chocolate cake and milk chocolate chip cookie from another seller who was selling cookies inside the lower ground floor of Battersea Power Station and also at the River Walk Market. It was also delicious.

The final market takes place at the end of August, but this market seems to return each Sunday for the summer months at Battersea.

I visited the Kościuszko Mound in April. The mound is a tribute memorial to Tadeusz Kościuszko and located a couple of miles to the west of central Krakow. Tadeusz Kościuszko was a Polish engineer and military leader who fought against Russia and in the American Revolutionary War during he late 1700s and early 1800s. He was a friend to Thomas Jefferson and sought to protect the less fortunate members of society and to abolish slavery, and he helped to design military forts in the United States, such as Fort Clinton / West Point. The building next to the entrance of the mound contains a museum of the life of Kościuszko with some personal items on display, and visitors can climb the mound for views.

The fort at the mound contains the engineering style (polygon shape) that the engineer created and mimics West Point in the states. He incorporated trees into the design to help protect against wind and climate. There is more information at the mound about the use and style of the fort. 

After learning a little about the man, I took a walk up to the mound to enjoy the views. 

At the top is the memorial ston and flowers. It was windy at the top. I could see the old town in Krakow and the castle.

After descending from the mound, I had a wander around the ruins of the fort outside.

The approach up to the mound and museum was covered with beautiful yellow daffodils in abundance. I took a few photographs of them because they were very pretty.

A taxi to the mound from the centre of Krakow was not very far, and I enjoyed the museum, mound, and the beautiful daffodils.

A friend and I went to enjoy bottomless brunch at Pizza Pilgrims in Liverpool Street last weekend. We had bottomless pizzas and margaritas (with the option of Pornstar Martinis and mocktails). I love the spicy margarita drink, so this was a "must visit' bottomless brunch for me. The brunch included different pizzas, cocktails, and a dessert and lasted for ninety minutes.

Pizza Pilgrims in Liverpool Street is located between Liverpool Street and Bank stations below Tower 42.

It was a humid day, and we had mocktails and the margaritas to start with a margarita pizza.

I was celebrating my birthday early. They also served a selection of dips with the pizza, but these were mayonnaise-based, and I don't like mayonnaise.

We received the following pizzas: margherita, hot honey double pepperoni, nduja, mushroom and truffle, and marinara.

We had a couple of Proseccos.

Because it was my birthday, they brought a tray of tiramisu out. I don't care for this dessert as it tastes like coffee, but they sang to me and had candles.

I enjoyed the bottomless pizzas and spicy margaritas at Pizza Pilgrims. There was only one other table celebrating with bruch with us.

I went to see "The Producers" last month at Garrick Theatre, just around the corner from Trafalgar Square. I was not sure what to expect as I did not read up on the plot beforehand. The story is about two men who want to produce a production. A washed-up theatre producer meets an accountant to produce a play, but they want to produce a play that will flop for tax reasons, after getting others to fund their show. The story takes place in the late 1940s or early 1950s and contains a lot of humour around the Germans in the 1940s.

I recommend this show as it had an element of humour and a historical (but still relevant) story.

A new sculpture by Banksy has appeared at Waterloo Place in central London, which is between the mall and Regent Street (Saint James' end). The sculpture is a political message, such as many of Banksy's works. It shows a marching figure holding a flag, but the flag has blown into the face of the marcher to blind them as they appear to step off of the plinth. I visited it today.

I captured another photograph of Banksy's signature.

Paul "Don" Smith, who is known for the "banker" or "tap man" stencil has also made a mark on the plinth.

At the moment, there isn't any calls to move the sculpture, so please go and visit it. 

Earlier this spring, Elephant Parade, part of Elephant Family, hosted a new elephant sculpture trail at Battersea Power Station to coincide with the Easter break. The train took place during from the end of March until the end of April, and I went to have a look last month. Elephant Family raises awareness of the elephant and ensuring that their habitats and wildlife is protected. The sculptures raise awareness and charity for these causes.

There were over twenty designs of elephants on display. This isn't the first time that they had a trail in London as there had been several in the past.

All of the elephants were easy to access around and inside the power station, although with the multiple levels in Battersea Power Station, it did take some time to locate the ones inside. It is a good day out to explore Battersea Power Station, and I also saw the Sunday market during my visit.

I am a little bit behind on my updates, and as I was looking back through my photographs, I discovered several that I have not gotten around to posting yet from the winter months. It did seem like a long winter this year as the weather was not great. Looking back on it, I did manage to do a few things to break up the time. As always, I enjoy the colour at Covent Garden with their seasonal floral displays.

Before the holidays, I had a trip to The Chocolate Cocktail Club again, and I had their seasonal cocktails.

Of course, I decorated for Christmas.

I had a Christmas lunch with turkey and vegetables.

Eastcote House Gardens always decorates the pine tree, so I got some photographs of this.

Ruislip's Duck Pond Market also had some festive markets set up for the holidays, and I bought some seasonal treats.

I loved the little edible flower pot cakes.

My friends and I also enjoyed a roast Christmas lunch together.

Of course, I always enjoy the local decorations.

The movie "Wicked 2" was out in the cinemas. I did go to see it. Everyone was talking about it.

At the beginning of January, I went to the HotWheels "Monster Trucks" event at the O2. That day, planned tube strikes meant that this took all day to get there and back, making a long day in a cold and gloomy month.

While I was at the O2, I went into the ice cream cafe "Snowflake" and had an ice cream.

In early February, I stopped by my friend's cafe for lunch, tea, and dessert.

I also started a couple of new fitness classes. The first part of the year was virtually impossible to get out and walk due to the rain on an almost-daily basis. However, it meant that my injury on my foot was allowed to heal. 

I also made Indian dishes from scratch and froze some of them. Below is a sambar, and it was really good.

Other than that, I kept busy with work and reading or listening to audio books.