Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Szczytno – Masuria Museum Special Exhibition

    Locals collecting bricks from damaged buildings so that they can be re-used

    A lot of the time the special exhibitions in museums are of only passing interest to me, as they’re sometimes incredibly niche. However, this was one of the more interesting ones that I’ve seen, and I’m glad that my visit coincided with it taking place.

    It’s just two rooms of photographs, but they are from the period 1945 until 1955 when Warsaw was being rebuilt. It’s a period of Warsaw’s history that I’ve thought about before when I’ve visited, as they had to rebuild a vast proportion of the city and nearly all of the historic area. It’s also a period of the city’s history which is often neglected in Warsaw museums, so I knew little about it.

    Most of the photos date from the late 1940s, when Varsovians tried to go about their normal lives as best as they could. However, it inevitably took many years to complete the rebuild and these photos are a thought-provokoing reminder of what that period must have been like.

    An enterprising little venture, a bookshop has been set up in the damaged entrance to a building. The notes on the photo suggest that it’s a public building because of the size of the entrance.

    A small chapel, the photo is taken a year after the end of the war.

    People waiting at a tram stop with a damaged building behind, although the reminder of the bombing has been added for some reason, as if the building wasn’t enough.

    The people in the photo are sand dredging, but the city skyline behind shows the damage which had been done to Warsaw.

  • Szczytno – Railway Station

    Szczytno railway station has an impressive exterior and I think it was part of the recent modernisation of the line which was undertaken by the EU. This also saw connections being added to the new Szymany airport, which looks to have improved transportation options greatly for the entire region.

    The station as it looks from the tracks.

    Internally though the railway station is less impressive, as although the building has been partially renovated, there’s currently nothing in it. There are signs for the waiting room, but it isn’t there, and the ticket desk has also entirely closed down. It’s not really entirely clear to me why they keep the building interior open, as there’s nothing in it, but it’s an interesting part of railway history.

    This is now the limit to what passengers can access inside the railway station, and it feels like a recreation of a Victorian railway station in the UK. It’s rather charming in a derelict sort of way.

    Some railway building at the end of the tracks.

    The side of the railway station, with the old German name for the town visible on the main building, Ortelsburg. The railway line here opened in 1888 and the town remained part of Prussia until 1945.

    I like these yellow sheets, which I think are in just about every mainland European country. They’re clear and concise, and show just how few trains operate from here during the day. However, the situation is improving rather than worsening, so hopefully the options will continue to increase. I’d like to think if I come back in twenty years that the whole railway station will be open and there will be a nice cafe (perhaps a Greggs) inside.

  • Szczytno – Pofajdok

    Around the town are several mini statues and it appears that they are called Pofajdok. These, and I quote Wikipedia, are “young men, especially unmarried, who have an irresponsible, mocking and immature approach to life. They walk their own ways, but are kind and helpful”. Well, how quite marvellous!

    I’m slightly disappointed that I didn’t get time to find all of them.

    Jurand (a fictional figure from the novel Teutonic Knights).

    Robber.

    Globetrotter. This is my favourite one   🙂

    These two go together (you can see the second one at the back of the first photo) and it’s the same figure, known as charlatan.

    This is lumberjack.

    This is knight.

    I’m not sure this one is anything to do with it, as it’s not on the list. But I liked it anyway   🙂

    Firefighter (I took this from an unfortunate angle without realising).

  • Szczytno – Castle

    There has been a castle (zamek) in this location since the mid-fourteenth century and it was initially constructed out of wood. This was a little problem when the Lithuanians came along in 1370 and burned it down. So around 100 years later, after the civil engineers had drunk some tea and faffed about, they built another one. This time they built it out of stone.

    So, with their new stone castle all was well. Until the Teutonic Order came along and knocked it down. This was irritating as the new castle had been built up to three storeys and it wasn’t meant to be knocked down. So at the end of the fifteenth century they built an even stronger castle, and this did the trick, the town wasn’t defeated again.

    All was well with this new castle, other than it has slowly fallen down. Bits were chopped off it for three hundred years, and then the local authorities built a lovely town hall over a chunk of it. But, some has survived, and now is the time for it to be restored. As a site it’s fascinating, although there isn’t much narrative around the site, other than for one information board.

    Some wooden figures.

    There used to be a moat.

    The castle has received some EU funds to try and improve accessibility to this site, and to build a new bridge across to it across the moat which no longer exists.

    For anyone wanting to visit the site, it’s freely accessible.

  • Mrągowo – Some Other Photos

    Some other photos from my two days in Mrągowo.

    Signage on buildings.

    There are parks and water features all over the town.

    Sculptures from around the town.

     

    A rather nice floral display, I’m pleased to see it hasn’t been vandalised.

    Photos of the main street.

    European Union Square, a lovely park next to the lake.

    There are numerous bike trails around this area, so this is a useful addition for cyclists.

    Street art.

    One final photo of the lake…

  • Mrągowo – Bus Station

    Located over the road from the town’s railway station (which is closed) is this beautiful bus station. Well, it’s not beautiful, but it does have buses and coaches.

    Here are the extensive facilities that are provided to passengers.

    I like how professionally the signage has been amended to show that there’s one fewer bus operating. I’m sure Arriva can provide something a little better than this.

    A nice coach pulls up, I wonder whether this is my luxury transportation.

    No, this is. I irritated myself (which is rare) by struggling with what the coach driver was saying to me, which was simply asking whether I wanted the central bus station in Szczytno or a suburb, and I only realised what he meant as I sat down.

    Anyway, the driver was really helpful and everything ran like clockwork in terms of the timing. What really impressed me was that Mobilis, the operating company, had e-ticketing. I was the only passenger using it, but this technological advance is beyond some companies in the UK.

    The ticket from Mrągowo to Szczytno took around an hour and cost the equivalent of around £2.50. One of the disadvantages over recent years with the Polish economy growing is that more people can afford cars, which is presenting huge problems for public transport companies in operating their routes. Perhaps the best hope is for an influx of tourists to remoter parts of Poland, as otherwise there’s the risk that both railway and coach stations will be closed down.

  • Mrągowo – St. Adalbert Church

    This church was built in the 1860s and despite being in Prussia, it was constructed as a Catholic church. The tower is thirty metres tall and is visible from throughout much of the town.

    Bright interior, with the church itself being of a neo-Gothic design. The church was extended slightly in the 1890s, but otherwise hasn’t been much changed since then.

    The church organ, not sure why that photo came out blurry. I must take my proper camera on my next trip.

    The pulpit, which looks original to me.

    The altar, which has rather an interesting design.

  • Mrągowo – Hotel Mazuria

    I decided that I’d extend my stay in Mrągowo by one night, an advantage in staying outside the summer season, as there’s pretty good availability in hotels in September. I changed hotel though, just down the road from the Mercure, to the Hotel Mazuria. I arrived when it was just started to hail, so not the ideal welcome weather-wise.

    I had read that the rooms had a lake view, but I assumed that was only some of the rooms and not all of them. However, the hotel has an interesting design, so it’s got a flat front over several floors where all the rooms are located, so they do all have lake views. The reception area and restaurant have been pushed to the back of the building, which is all well thought out. I was very pleased with the view, although it continued to rain for most of the day so sitting out on the balcony wasn’t a viable option.

    The receptionist was helpful and, amongst other things, she told me where the lift was. Although I’ve had this before, where I’ve faffed about finding the lift and it has transpired that my room was literally only 15 seconds walk away as it was from reception. But luckily I’m not very important and so the 30 seconds extra it took me to get to the room via the lift didn’t impact negatively on my day.

    No tea and coffee facilities in his hotel, the first one of this trip not to have them. Although this isn’t unusual for Poland, and they provided bottled water. The room had everything that I needed, other than plug sockets. It did have them, but they’d hidden them behind all the furniture, which meant that I had to move everything. Again, this didn’t impact negatively on my day, but I’m always worried that I’ll break something.

    The room didn’t feel quite as contemporary as some of the other hotels in terms of the design, but it was all well maintained, clean and tidy.

    I wasn’t overly impressed with the breakfast, although they’d clearly gone to some trouble to offer a selection of items. The breakfast room was nearly empty, and I understood that the hotel had low occupancy, which must make providing food more of a challenge. The selection of cold meats didn’t look too appetising, I couldn’t find any milk for the cereals and the choice of bread was, well, one type of roll. I also couldn’t work out what the situation with coffee was, and there were no staff around.

    Not quite as appealing as the other breakfasts I’ve had this week in the region. But, in any event, this room and breakfast cost £24 for the night, so it would be obtuse to complain too much about anything. The strongest point for me about the hotel was the views that it offered, I can imagine it’s quite relaxing to spend a week here overlooking the lake.

  • Mrągowo – Hotel Mercure

    Always keen to visit Accor Hotels, this is one of the few that they operate in this region and it’s part of their Mercure brand. My first impressions were, er, that I couldn’t get into the hotel. This is a flaw in the design for any hotel if I’m being honest, but I put it down to my stupidity. Until over the next two days I helped two other sets of people find their way into the hotel. This made me feel better that I wasn’t alone in understanding the challenges of finding reception.

    There are two entrances to the hotel, one is a car park, which pedestrians can’t use (or couldn’t when I was there) because no-one answers the reception bell, and the other is by steps up from the lake. Although they’ve chosen not to sign these very well either, and the steps just go up into the bar rather than the reception area. It’s not really ideal, but it made it more entertaining battling my way in.

    The location of the hotel was rather agreeable though, just a short walk from the lake (well, a long walk when trying to find the way in) and around a fifteen-minute walk from the town centre. It felt a peaceful environment and there are some quiet and well marked walks nearby.

    For Richard, this Mercure is quite precise on who is entitled to what drinks. The member of bar staff didn’t actually know what drinks I could have, but I asked for beer, and he went with that as a suitable option. All the staff were helpful at the hotel, but I got the impression that they mostly spoke German and Polish, as this is a popular destination for Germans.

    The free beer, which as far as Żywiec goes was perfectly acceptable.

    I noted that a fair few of the reviews of this hotel commented on how out of date the rooms looked. I imagine this was a renovated room, as it looked fine to me.

    This is also one of the few Accor hotels that I can remember who decided not to provide an information folder in the room. I had no idea what time the restaurant was open, what it served, or what facilities the hotel had. I could have gone and asked, but providing details about breakfast times, check-out times and the like would have been useful in the room.

    My room had a balcony, which overlooked the woods.

    How lovely.

    It’s the first time in quite a while that there has been an umbrella in the room.

    The bar, which certainly made an impact with its design as I felt that I was in Las Vegas again. I exaggerate slightly, as there were no roulette tables, free drinks or smokers, but it was quite definitely rather bright.

    You could get a drink from the bar and then come and sit in the neighbouring seating area. Which was rather more conservatively decorated.

    The breakfast counters, with an extensive amount of bread, cheeses, cold meats, yoghurts and juices. There was a hot food section of sausages, eggs and vegetables.

    Breakfast (the photos are from different days, not the same day).

    The hotel had a decent terrace area overlooking the lake, although it was quite cold on my visit and I was the only one sitting on it. I can imagine in summer that it’s much harder to find a table here. They also have numerous functions which take place here, so combined with coach parties, I can imagine how busy the whole hotel gets. But it is a large site, there are rows of rooms with balconies, some chalets for those who need more space and numerous areas for children to play.

    The cost of this hotel was more expensive than my other accommodation during this trip, coming in at around £42 including breakfast per night. It is a resort hotel though, which explains the extra cost, and there were extensive facilities such as tennis courts, a swimming pool and an antiques room (I never worked that one out). I booked it though as I had a €40 off loyalty voucher, which made the price much more reasonable.

  • Mrągowo – Mufinka

    I initially thought that this was just a bakery, but the interior is rather more comfortable than the exterior might suggest.

    I managed to refrain from the selection of cakes, although one local did come in and buy an entire cake at one stage (as in the whole lot, not just one slice).

    I couldn’t though refrain from the toffee coated roll, which had a fluffy and light interior. That, along with the latte, cost the equivalent of around £2 and the service was warm and friendly.