Poland

Gdańsk

We began on the night of 20 August, at an outdoor table on the old town's main street, with the Town Hall tower lit up at its end. At half past ten the street was still full of people. Neptune stood on his fountain in front of the Artus Court, and a street performer was spinning fire for a crowd. Down on the river, the old granaries were lit up and a boat glowed purple on the water.

On the 22nd we spent the late morning on the waterfront. From a wooden boardwalk across the Motława we looked back at the tall gabled houses, a black wooden galleon moored in front of them, and the old Crane, its dark timber top jutting out over the water. On the Long Market, Praddy posed with a giant red Angry Bird outside the Hard Rock Cafe.

That evening, back from Sopot, we walked the quieter streets of the old town. Ivy hung over a little canal with a church spire reflected in it, padlocks covered the railings of a footbridge, and the great brick tower of St Mary's stood at the end of a street. By the river a big wheel stood against the evening sky.

Malbork

On the 21st we went to Malbork Castle, and we were there by quarter to four, under a heavy grey sky. Inside, we walked through a great hall where the vaulted ceiling fans out from slender pillars, past a carved crucifix, and down a long vaulted cloister.

Then we went over to the far bank of the Nogat. From there the whole castle runs along the river, a long line of red-brick towers, steep roofs and walls, doubled in the still water. Our last photo in Malbork is the sign at the railway station. By twenty past eight we were back in Gdańsk, where the old gate towers at the end of the main street were floodlit against the night.

Sopot

On the afternoon of the 22nd we went along the coast to Sopot. On the main street stands the Krzywy Domek, the Crooked House, whose walls and windows bend and sag. Meenu sat under the trees on the pedestrian street, then posed on the square by the sea in front of a big white building with red roofs.

Then we went down to the beach. The sand ran a long way round the bay, under a sky full of cloud. Meenu walked along the water's edge, with swans and ducks floating close to the shore beside her.

Warsaw

Our LOT flight from Gdańsk was a small propeller plane, due into Warsaw at one o'clock on the 23rd. Late that afternoon we walked through the Saxon Garden, past its fountain and red flower beds, and out across Piłsudski Square, with the Palace of Culture and Science standing above the trees. We went on past the Grand Theatre and the Presidential Palace, and stopped at a café for an ice cream sundae.

By half past seven we were on Castle Square. Meenu posed in front of the Royal Castle as the floodlights turned its walls orange. As the sky darkened, Sigismund's Column and the houses around the square glowed under a deep blue sky.

The next afternoon we were in a hot tub high above the city, with the Palace of Culture and Science framed in the window. In the early evening we walked through Łazienki Park. Chopin's monument sits under a bronze willow there, an avenue was hung with red lanterns, and the Palace on the Isle stood reflected in its lake.

Then we went to the Old Town. We stopped at the Mermaid statue in the Market Square, and Meenu had an ice cream on the old brick walls by the Barbican. That night we looked down on the Palace of Culture and Science, lit up in blue.

Kraków

We reached Kraków's Main Square on the evening of the 25th, as the light was going. The two brick towers of St Mary's rose over one corner. Meenu, in a red dress, sat by a fountain in front of the Cloth Hall and posed beneath the statue of Adam Mickiewicz.

Then we walked down past the white towers of St Andrew's to the Vistula. The sky turned orange over the river, and the lights came on along the water. Wawel's castle and cathedral were lit up on their hill, and their reflection lay across the river.

Back on the square after dark, white horse-drawn carriages waited under the lamps and the Cloth Hall's arcades glowed gold. A café window was stacked with cakes. At ten o'clock, fountains lit red and white were playing beside a glass pyramid set into the paving.

Auschwitz-Birkenau

On the 26th we went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial. By twenty to ten we were walking in under the iron sign over the gate. The brick blocks stand in rows behind barbed wire strung on concrete posts. Inside the blocks, a board listed how many Jews were deported here from each country, from 430,000 from Hungary down to 690 from Norway. Behind glass lay heaps of pots and bowls taken from the people brought here.

Before noon we were at Birkenau. The railway line runs in through the gatehouse and deep into the camp. At its far end is the memorial, where plaques lie in a row before blocks of dark stone.

Morskie Oko

On the 27th we went up into the Tatra mountains. Soon after ten a covered wagon pulled by two horses was carrying us up a forest road, and we walked the last stretch through the pines. Just after noon we reached Morskie Oko, a lake in a ring of grey peaks. The sky was clear blue, and the still water held the reflection of the slopes.

We sat out on the big rocks along the shore, which were busy with other walkers. In the afternoon we climbed a stone path above the lake and looked down on its deep blue-green water.

Zakopane

Later that day we went up Gubałówka, the hill above Zakopane. A painted sign at the top gives its height as 1,123 metres. The town spread across the valley below us, and the Tatras ran along the skyline. We rode the funicular back down through the pine forest and came out by a funfair with a big wheel.

At dusk we walked along Krupówki, the main street. Wooden restaurants sit over a little stream there, with red flowers along the banks. Meenu sat on the wall above the water while the sky turned pink behind the dark wooden roofs.

Poznań

Our last stop was Poznań, on the evening of the 28th. On the Old Market Square the cafés sat under white umbrellas, and the Town Hall's tower rose beside a white gabled house in the low sun. Nearby, the brick tower of the Royal Castle caught the last of the light.

At dusk we walked out onto the red arches of the Jordan Bridge. At the far end the cathedral's towers stood dark against the sky. While we were on the bridge the floodlights came on and turned them gold, and their reflection lay in the river below. Late that night we were back on the Old Market Square, with the Town Hall lit up above it.