Poznań

Up early this morning, as we - me, Dan, and Abi - needed to be at the Minx's before seven. Both of them were great about getting up and we were out of the house and in the car bang on schedule. And, happily, when we arrived, the Minx had coffee and bacon rolls for us :-) And then we were on our way to John Lennon airport for our flight to Poznań.

This was the first time we taken the kids on one of our little trips and consequently there was no trip to the bar at the airport. Plus, it seemed a lot more stressful getting through security, having them to worry about, too!

But the flight was uneventful and, as usual, the Minx was hugely organised. Arriving at Poznań airport, she knew what bus tickets we needed, which bus we were going to catch (the 159, bus spotters), and where we had to get off. 

It was a beautiful clear, sunny day, which renders everything with a certain minimum beauty. And it was a fascinating city to drive through, with a mixture of old and new buildings, as well as areas of waste ground. As grew closer to where we were going to stay, there were lots of tenement buildings, too. 

It was a short walk from the bus stop to the apartment building, four of us pulling our bags along behind us making a regular racket on the pavement, Dan with a rucksack on his back. The outside of the building was unprepossessing and the inside was quite bare and old, including some beautiful worn wooden steps on the wide staircase up to the third floor. 

But, my God, the apartment was beautiful! Huge rooms, a high ceiling, lovely old heavy wooden doors, wonderful furniture, all lit by the brilliant sunlight coming through the windows. I immediately wanted to stay for longer!

It was at this point - form rather, once we'd unpacked - that we had to make our first adjustment to having the three kids with us. Normally, at this point, we'd have a mooch around, find a nice looking bar, read our books, walk around a bit more and find somewhere to eat. Now we had to ensure the kids were fed and entertained!

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Reading: I finished 2019/Book 3: ‘Middle England’ by Jonathan Coe. Now, I did enjoy this; the writing was excellent and, given that this tells the tale of Brexit, at least tangentially, I’m sure I’ll return to it one day (hopefully celebrating a near miss!). There is one terrible bit where a plot twist is telegraphed and, frankly, it’s a little over-long, with a few largely pointless characters. There were a few evenings where I read a chapter before bed and that was enough, i.e. it didn't really grip me. Still, I have already bought it for one friend, so that should be the takeaway.
I finally finished it today, while we were on the plane, so I had to move on to something already on my Kindle. I decided to go back to an old fave: ‘Matter’ by Iain M Banks.