Day 234, 23 February 2013, Krakow, Poland. Da Vinci's "Lady & Vermin"
OK, OK, Strictly speaking it's called "Lady with an Ermine". As one of only 3 (possibly 4) female portrait paintings done by Leonardo, this was truly a must-see while we were in Krakow. And today was the day for a lazy morning, a long breakfast and a slow start. We eventually took a tram to Wawel Castle where her ladyship is currently on display. One room. Velvet drapes, lots of guards and this one luminescent masterpiece on the wall. Quite different to viewing the Mona Lisa in a scrum of Japanese tour groups at the Louvre in Paris - for sure. We proceeded into town for lunch and then went into St Mary's Basilica in the square for quiet reflection and a view of a medieval sculpture - the great altar (http://www.krakow-info.com/oltarz.htm)
Due to the untimely death of our luggage scales in Bulgaria and the sheer breadth of our luggages the next job was finding new set of scales. We walked into at least half a dozen camping/travelling/luggage stores and asked if they stocked luggage scales. The short answer received over and over again was "no". I eventually started to think in the same way and was highly tempted to ask "why not?" in the same tone of voice. It would seem Polish airlines are the most relaxed in the world. Or don't charge for overweight bags, because no-one in this town feels the need to weigh their luggage. Eventually, in the shopping mall, we found a luggage store stocking Samsonite accessories and quite possibly the only luggage scales in all of Poland. And now they're ours. Not quite such a huge issue since we braved the Polish postal system the other day and sent a box weighing 13 kg back to Australia. We bought a couple of souvenirs down town and headed back to the hotel to play with our bags and new scales. Hours of fun. Tomorrow? Let's all join in a chorus with the 7 dwarves.... Hi ho, Hi ho, it's off to work we go..... That's right. We're off to the mines.