June 2026 Archives

The Rynek Underground Museum is located in Krakow, Poland underneath the central market square. During some paving and escavation works, the ruins of the old square and market building were discovered beneath the existing structures and consuming 4,000 square metres. This was the former mdieval town of Krakow, and we can see the remains of merchant stalls, items discovered, and buildings. There are various multimedia displays and items to see at the museum.

Visitors can see the cobbled stones and walk onto glass walkways above the ruins of the old 13th and 14th century market stalls and see the remains of workshops. Throughout the trail in the museum, I was able to discover many different artefacts that were discovered - toys, decorative figurines, worked metal, gold, coins, jewelry, pottery, tools, weights, and much more.

One of the areas showed workshops belonging to blacksmiths.

Above as some rattles.

Keys and religious symbols.

Weights

Toy horses

Rings and other jewelry

The foundations of the old market building

Cobbled floor

I also saw some burials. There was a section about the vampire burials. These unfortunate people were suspected and decapitatd with the head removed from the body so the body would not come back to life.

I really enjoyed visiting this museum and learning about the medieval history of Krakow.

Chocholow Spa is located near to Zakopane and about an hour and a half's drive from Krakow. I visited the spa at the start of April on a cold day as the region had had snow. The spas are popular with families, and there are different areas, such as adult-only areas and different pools, hot tubs, and exterior pools. There was also a swim-up bar in the adult section. I visited as part of a wider tour to Zakopane, and the general admission covers two hours. We had about an hour and a half, which was due to some rude Italian family who were late to get back to the bus at the previous stop and who also kept the bus waiting for them after having spent half an hour longer at the spa while everyone else was on the bus. 

The spa was busy, and there were many pools to enjoy both indoors and outdoors.

I really liked the outdoor pool, which was heated. 

The spa was a little too busy for my liking as it is popular with tourists as well. The spa was created due to natural healing properties in the water and has been a place to relax and enjoy the water and fresh air for a long time.

Toward the end of last year, I visited New York City. I am still going through my photographs from my trip so that I can post them. Life is getting in the way these days, and work has been busy as wll. I am not finding the time to update this as much as I would like to do.

I visited before the holidays, but I did not get to see the Rockefeller tree lit up.

I stayed at Lotte Towers and had a view overlooking St. Patrick's Cathedral.

I loved finding these little vending machines that gave you a little printed artwork. I found them at various places in Nw York City.

I attended Radio City's famous Rockette Christmas show.

I also saw "Wicked!" I had seen it when it first came out in London. This was my first visit to the theatre in New York City.

I also saw other attractions, such as Plaza Hotel.

The financial district was nice to explore, and I found some nice streets to walk down.

And saw Wall Street.

The famous Raging Bull sculpture is here too.

Ground Zero museum was there to visit, but I did not visit it.

Because space is limited in New York City, parking cars happens in a multiple-storey elevator.

I saw the firehouse building where "Ghostbusters" was filmed.

Chinatown is huge in New York City, contrasting to just the couple of smaller streets London has. This area went on for miles.

I also explored Essex Market.

And Times Square.

And Grand Central Train Station.

More of Times Square

I found som nice markets too, so I explored those.

Of course, I had to visit Macy's and Bloomingdales.

When I'd been to New York City years ago, I didn't like it. I thought it was okay this time, and I already have plans for the next visit, whenever it will be.

I visited New York City at the end of last year, and I am a little bit behind on posting my photographs. In this post, I wanted to cover some of the food I had, notably things that are not that good for the waistline - cookies and doughnuts! I have a weakness for cookies, actually, and I wanted to try different ones in New York City. Fun fact: my favourite cookie is the snickerdoodle, which is a cinnamon and sugar. This is followed by an iced or frosted sugar cookie and the traditional chocolate chip (or chocolate chip with walnuts, which is good).

First up is the best meal that I had in New York City. This was in Hell's Kitchen - Mamasita Bar and Grill. This restaurant serves Mexican food and glasses of frozen margaritas in different sizes. The food and drink was very good!

I had the chicken fajitas, and there was so much food!

Next up was Jeremy's Ale House in the Financial District. I visited with my cousin on this picturesque little street. The bar was showing several football games on different screens. The most notable item is the atmosphere here with the bar covered in bras. This tradition has been happening since the 1970s. In addition to the bras are pictures and writing on the ceiling and walls.

Next up is Dagg, a Thai restaurant located not too far from Central Station. The food and cocktails were nice, but the portions were very large again. It feels awful to waste food as staying in a hotel means that I couldn't take it back and heat it up the following day.

Seven Grams Cafe - They have a large selection of cookies, and they will warm them up for you. I had the chocolate chip. I didn't care much for it warmed up, but it was delicious a few hours later and my favourite.

Chip City - This bakery are located underground at the Rockerfeller Centre and serve different flavours. I tried the chocolate chip and a special apple cookie. The chocolate chip was delicious. It was also one of my favourites.

Crumbl - This bakery went viral last year with its cookies. They sell snack sizes and full sizes, and I regret not getting more of the snack sizes as they did have my favourite type - Snickerdoodle. I tried the iced sugar cookie. I did not think too much of it as it was a little too sweet for me.

There are quite a few little bakeries around New York City.

Buttercup BakeShop has a large selection of cookies, cupcakes, and other treats. I had a cookie, but I was not impressed. I wish I had tried a cupcake as they do look nice.

Jacques Torres Chocolate - The shop is known for its chocolates, but it does sell cookies. The cookie was alright, but it was not my favourite. I did get some chocolate too, but one of the chocolates had a staple inside it, which really put me off. I did go and complain. I don't know how a staple found its way into the chocolate.

One of the ice cream chains is Van Leeuwen, and I tried their ice cream in a couple of places. I really wanted to try the peppermint one advertised, but it wasn't yet in store.

Max Brenner is a restaurant known for its chocolate. It sells hot chocolate that is served thick and in mugs. I decided to give it a try, but a sip was more than enough for me. This was much too sweet for my taste.

The various markets sell doughnuts, cookies, and other snacks.

Doughnut Plant was another place I visited, and it is all about different flavours of doughnut here. I got the pumpkin one, which was delicious. It is located in Grand Central station.

I also enjoyed some cocktails.

I also went to Magnolia Bakery for the famous cupcakes.

I look forward to return to New York City to try more sweet treats.

I took a tour from Krakow in Poland to Zakopane. On the way to Zakopane, the tour bus drove through the wooden village of Chocholow. We were told that we would normally stop here and then look inside the church, but we did not get to stop as the day was the Saturday before Easter, and this is actually a special day in Poland where people go into the churches to have their food for Easter blessed. Luckily, I was at the front of the bus, so I was able to get some drive-by photographs. 

We were told about the history of the village, which is unique in that it is filled with log cabins or wooden houses. Each wooden house is scrubbed clean at least once a year, and we were told that the women did this to find suitors back in the older days. A clean house was a mark of pride and of a good woman.

We drove by the church but did not stop, but we saw many people entering it with small baskets of food and chocolates.

It is a pity that we did not get to stop to have a wander around.

After the village, we stopped off at a little shepherd hut where we had some nice views of mountains and snow.

The hut is a small tourist stop, and they sell different food items, such as the smoked sheep's cheese - oscypek. This is served with cranberry sauce, and I enjoyed it. It seems to be a common food staple here and was also popular at the Easter market.

We also tried two different types of flavourd liqueur. One was apricot, and the other on was a cherry.

Keep coming back to read more about my time in Poland and the stop down the road to the thermal spa here at Chocholow. You can also see my post on Zakopane here: http://almostafternoon.com/blog/2026/05/an-afternoon-at-zakopane-polan.html