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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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.