We arrived here yesterday after a small delay and were met at the airport by a friendly though somewhat taciturn taxi driver ( seems to be the norm here) and rushed to find Auchan so we could buy some basics. We are in an air b and b – always a risk , and this one more than most. The flat seems to be carved out of a ball room. Lovely plaster ceilings, but very sparsely furnished. The kitchen has everything – dish washer, fridge, washing machine, but not much in the way of crockery. Still, we didn’t know that last night.

We rushed out because the shop shuts at nine. We got there just before and tried to do a supermarket sweep for some breakfast basics. Hard though as we couldn’t find a basket.

But eventually we found eggs, butter, bread, oil, and coffee, not to mention beer and water and carried it all up five flights of stairs to the flat. I huffed and puffed as always but managed to unpack it all just before my husband was urging me to go out again. We had to eat something!

We are on the Main Street so we looked around and across the road on the corner was a likely looking place. It looked 1930 ish, the tables were laid with white tablecloths, the waiters were in dickybows and a very old man was playing romantic film music on the grand piano. Done. We went in, sat down and had a look at the (English) menu. I chose cod fritters. Jacek chose cod balls. Mine were 17 euros. His 24. They arrived. Identical. Three pieces of cod in batter. Mine came with delicious bread. His with rice and beans. We both left half as the portions were enormous.

Never mind. The wine was good. The music was lovely – and the pianist dropped us a big hint where he was playing the rest of the week. The restaurant itself was built in the thirties. Lots of art deco elements

Note the table leg.

The room was large, reminiscent of La Coupole in Paris but nowhere near as grand.

The Native American motif was taken up by some of the modern art on the walls – quite strange.

But what struck me was a bas-relief art work on a side wall which was so obviously from the 1930s that I had to go and check.

It’s a bit hard to make out but it’s by

Henrique Moreira

You can find out more on cafeguarany.com.

Back at the flat we went to bed – quite comfortable, but only two pillowcases!! And too much light from the stairwell. But breakfast brought out a surprise.

Only one cup to be found! So we had to take it in turns to have our morning coffee!

First thing we did after church this morning was to buy two mugs. Lucky there are loads of tourist shops here and we managed to buy two quite pretty ones!

We decided not to go to the cathedral as we usually do when we are abroad, but to go to the nearest one . Church of the Trinity. We went in, a man was playing a small organ, people were singing the first hymn, and delightfully the organist’s small son, who must have been about three, was conducting the congregation! The altar itself looked as if it was part of a stage set, with boxes and little balconies around, very strange. And the priest himself was extremely enthusiastic when preaching the homily – almost as if he were indeed playing to the gallery

It’s all very ornate of course. The side altars were very graphic too – I didn’t take any more photos but there was a very lifelike and gruesome sculpture of Christ in his tomb, unwrapped, in a glass case.

We hurried out into the sun, back to Auchan ( a different one, still no baskets) for more basics and off to the coast for a delicious fish lunch.

John Dory My favourite. Dos Peixes is the name of the restaurant should you want a recommendation. We seemed to be the only tourists there and it was FULL