We set off at the usual time and this time we decided to take the metro, just for the experience. Two stops later, we alighted and had a few minutes’ walk to the Old Town, where we decided to have a coffee in the pavement part of one of the restaurants in the city square. Coffee over, the girls decided to visit the bathrooms before we set off for the 12:00 tour of the old town, the same company and format that we’d used previously. A few minutes’ later I heard my name being called and saw Julie gesticulating to me by the entrance to the restaurant – Rosemary had fallen over. It transpired that she had tripped over the step into the restaurant and hit her forehead on the next step. Fortunately she hadn’t passed out but she had cut her forehead and was bleeding copiously. The fluke was that there happened to be passing a Polish doctor, now practising in the USA but was over to visit her family. Not only was she able to give advice, she also had all the requisite bandages and so on in her bag! An ambulance was called, ice and a chair was offered to Rosemary by the obliging and concerned restaurant staff and 15 minutes later, she was whisked away, leaving us to follow as best as we could in a taxi. The nearby Tourist Office was very helpful and organised one for us, resulting in us not being that far behind.

Our wait in A&E didn’t last that long. We were distracted and entertained by the arrival of several policemen and women escorting a handcuffed prisoner, but that was about it. Rosemary was soon released, with 2 stitches and a plaster with instructions to bathe the wound on a daily basis. We decided that we would go back to the apartment for a late lunch, it being around 14:00 by now and if Rosemary felt well enough, we would try again in the Old Town later.

Some of the highlights of the guided tour for me included seeing the house where Poland’s best known daughter was born, the 2 x Nobel prize winner, one for Physics and one for chemistry, one Maria Salomea Sklodowska – better known under her married name Marie Curie. She was the first person and only woman to be awarded two Nobel prizes, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two separate fields and the first woman professor at the University in Paris. Moreover, she was not the only one from this extraordinary family to be awarded a Nobel Prize – they amassed no fewer than 5! Here is Wikipedia’s take on her :-

Of course, this being the city of his birth, some time was also spent on the famous Fryderyk Franciszec Chopin, who settled in France at the age of 20 and became known as Frédérik François Chopin. This child prodigy gave his first public performance on the piano at the age of 6. Sadly, he was not destined to live long, he died of TB at the age of 39. Again, here is more on him :-