2005

We often take a City Break for a few days. Last Spring the "City" was Petra and we went from there into the Sinai peninsula to St Catherine's monastery, and then walked up Mount Sinai during the night with hundreds of others, to experience the dawn on the summit. That was a magical week, but it failed to prompt me to write an article.

Last December we went to Venice, home of the very first Ghetto and the most amazing city I can imagine but, again, it wasn't enough to make me write an article.

EasyJet now operate a service to Krakow, South Poland, so next we decided to go there. The parking fees at Luton Airport apart, a visit to Krakow is very inexpensive. The flight and an excellent hotel was less than £200 for three nights for the two of us, the bus from the airport was 60p each, and we ate out for £3. We didn't go just because of the incredible value, but you can't ignore it.

Krakow was a walled city; the centre was one square kilometre. The moat is now filled-in and most of the wall has been taken down, but it remains a stunning micro-city, full of breathtaking architecture, art, churches, Universities, the biggest square in Europe, a castle and a cathedral. To view it properly could easily take a week, but we scurried around in two days, and that had to include the nostalgic Jewish quarter. Before the last war there were 70,000 Jews in Krakow; there are now a few hundred, but still the historic synagogues are there.

Krakow is full of amazing churches, all full. The people of the late Pope's homeland clearly respect his traditions.