I know I’ve posted about these (several times), but I think I’m on the verge of becoming addicted to them. One day maybe Muller will stop passing UK customers off with Frijj drinks and it will move these decadent delights across…. And not only do they give British customers a worse product, but they put it in a smaller bottle than the Poles get. Not that I go on about this a lot, although I suspect I’ll post again in about six months.
Next on my little mission to visit the area around every metro station on the Warsaw network was Kabaty which is at the southern end of the M1 line. The physical commencement of the M1 line was officially marked by the driving of the first steel pile for the tunnel support structure in the Ursynów district on 15 April 1983 and this station opened on 7 April 1995, one of the first ones to open on the network.
As a separate note, there’s excellent signage across Warsaw.
This stone commemorates the life of Andrzej Ciołek of Żelechów (c. 1380 – c. 1448), a Polish Knight and Statesman. Rather notably, in 1404, he undertook a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain, reflecting his devoutness and I can imagine that it felt a long way from home at the time.
It’s rather residential, which does limit me a little bit in this riveting post. A lot of this was empty fields when the metro station was first constructed, so there’s not a huge amount of history immediately visible around this metro station.
Some sculptures in Park Przy Bażantarni. The name of the park translates to ‘By the Pheasantry’ referring to the historical royal pheasantry (Bażantarnia) that once stood nearby during the eighteenth century when the area was part of royal hunting grounds.
A decorative bridge in the park.
The Church of Blessed Władysław of Gielniów (Kościół Błogosławionego Władysława z Gielniowa), dedicated to a fifteenth century Polish Franciscan friar, preacher and poet known for his deep piety and role in promoting vernacular Polish religious hymns. He is one of Poland’s national patrons and the church has something of a modern design.
Inside the station which is quite industrial and the architectural identity, like the other stations on the initial M1 segment, was shaped during the 1983-1985 design phase led by Metroprojekt, with Jasna Strzałkowska-Ryszka as the lead designer. It’s notable incidentally that there are no advertising hoardings all along the station which is somewhat different to many other countries around the world, the initial intention was to deliver an uncluttered public space.
Next on my side quest to visit every station on the Warsaw metro system is Wierzbno on the M1 line.
The station is on the first stretch of the line that opened on the network on Friday 7 April 1995 and it’s a heavily residential area. The station took its name from the local area and the etymology of ‘Wierzbno’ itself traces back to the Polish word ‘wierzba’ meaning willow tree. While the initial Ursynów sections often utilised the cut-and-cover method, the segment running through Mokotów, including the area beneath Aleja Niepodległości where Wierzbno is located, predominantly employed underground tunnelling techniques, often carried out by experienced miners. The construction took nine years in total from when they started, but Poland had gone through some rather seismic political changes during this time.
Translated, this sign says:
“Ksawerów Street – Originally the name of the estate of Ksawery Pułowski (a landowner, collector and philanthropist), established in the mid-19th century near Królikarnia, which was also his property. Over time, the name became the name of the street.”
And the street itself.
Nearby is Park Granat which takes its name from Grupa Artyleryjska „Granat”, or the “Granat” Artillery Group which was a military unit of the Polish Home Army during the Second World War.
As a general comment, the city has a lot of beautiful parks.
There’s a memorial to the Granat unit in the park which specifically highlights the unit’s courageous fight during the Warsaw Uprising in the Mokotów district, which lasted from 1 August to 27 September 1944. The group fought significant battles in this area, suffering heavy casualties (around 230 killed out of 520 who participated). Some of the bravest of the brave.
In this voyage of discovery, I didn’t realise that there was a sculpture park nearby, Park Rzeźby w Królikarni. It’s operated by the National Museum in Warsaw and they have sculptures of various ages located in this eighteenth century garden.
This marble sculpture dates from 1985 and is ‘The Kiss’ by Maria Papa Rostkowska (née Baranowska, 1923–2008). During the war, she was active in the Polish resistance and she participated in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (as a messenger for the People’s Army) and along with her first husband Ludwik Rostkowski she helped rescue Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto. For her wartime bravery, she was awarded the Order of Virtuti Militari, Poland’s highest military decoration.
This bronze sculpture dates from 2017 and is ‘Flor Diente’ by Xawery Wolski (1960-). The information panel notes that the work intentionally refers to the shape of a seed, tooth or flower bud, representing the unshakeable continuity of nature.
A memorial to the Home Army.
This concrete sculpture dates from 1935 and is ‘Wild Boar’ by Stanisław Komaszewski (1906-1945). He studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and exhibited internationally, but his career was brought to a premature end due to the Second World War and much of his artwork was destroyed during the conflict. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising and was arrested and then imprisoned in Dachau concentration camp and from there he was transferred to the Natzweiler-Struthof subcamp in Mannheim-Sandhofen, Germany, where prisoners were subjected to forced labour under brutal conditions at the Daimler-Benz factory. He died there on 24 January 1945 at the age of just 38.
This granite sculpture dates from 1887 and is ‘Dog’ by Edouard-Léon Perrault (1828-1888). It was acquired by the museum just after the end of the Second World War and either this, or a copy, was displayed at the Salon in Paris in 1887.
The palace here was destroyed during the Second World War, but was reconstructed and in 1965 it opened as a museum dedicated to Xawery Dunikowski.
View from the rear of the palace.
The back of the palace, it’s very English country house and when the gardens were laid out originally that was their intention.
This granite sculpture dates from 1974 and is ‘Horizons’ by Magdalena Więcek (1924-2008). Born in Katowice, she studied painting and sculpture after the end of the Second World War, first at the State Higher School of Visual Arts in Sopot (1945-1949) and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw (1949-1952) where she studied under Franciszek Strynkiewicz. Her early works in the 1950s were created during the Socialist Realist period and included figurative sculptures like Górnicy (Miners) and Matka (Mother). The information panel notes that an important aspect of perceiving the sculpture is how it changes along with the movement of the observer.
An old bridge which leads to the palace.
The old external wall of the palace.
Back into the network.
The interior and this is one of stations that was built as a civilian shelter in case some sort of global war broke out. That proved expensive and was dropped from later sections of metro building.
The station map.
It’s not the most decorative, but it’s functional.
The station sign.
As Liam and I had completed the LDWA Capital Challenge earlier in the day, we thought we’d amend our original plans for us to drive somewhere (well, for Liam to drive somewhere whilst I had a nap in the passenger seat) and eat in the hotel since it worked out around £31 each for a three course evening meal, a pint and breakfast in the morning.
I was initially a little sceptical that it would be one of those half board arrangements where the only thing included was the salad or something ridiculous, but it actually included everything with a just a couple of relatively small surcharges for the mixed grill and steak. I’m not a mixed grill or steak person, so that was that sorted for me. Liam, however, being a civil engineer (a profession I suspect requires a daily intake of at least three different types of grilled animal), naturally gravitated towards the mixed grill. It’s in the blueprints, I’m sure.
I had asked the team member at reception a little earlier if we had to book for the evening meal or tell them in advance we wanted the deal. I liked his informality and he hinted that this wasn’t really necessary and I can see why he thought that when we arrived in the bustling restaurant. However, I quite like the idea of a private dining club and I felt that had been achieved here.
We were effectively the only customers, although there was one other table somewhere just out of sight just finishing their meals. The server was trying to man reception, welcome customers, welcome diners and he told us he had to go to a room to provide the customers with more pillows in between serving us. He was enthusiastic, over-worked and kept forgetting Liam’s order before he reached the till, which was actually located just behind Liam so it wasn’t far. On one occasion the team member mouthed “what did he order?” and I liked his whole engagement and attention, it was an informal, endearing and welcoming performance that I thought was perfect for the service we wanted.
Firstly, let me admit that the beer that came with the meal deal was Coors Light. Now, as I had walked 27 miles earlier that day, I needed water and so this was a perfect fit. I went for the prawn cocktail and I’m not entirely sure of the presentation here as it was quite a lot of sauce with some slightly firm prawns, but they had a pleasant enough flavour. I wasn’t sure about the piece of bread and butter, but it was handy for mopping up the sauce. Liam looks surprised and delighted here.
It was becoming evident that presentation wasn’t the key here. However, the chips had a pleasant taste, the chicken was tender and had some flavour to the coating with the bun being fresh and the salad being salady. It was certainly a very reasonable tasting affair and Liam seemed pleased with whatever he was doing with his mixed grill.
The chocolate sundae was served as a large portion and it had a Flake. You can’t argue with a Flake. It’s the universal language of dessert satisfaction.
Breakfast in the morning wasn’t much busier and similarly low-key, but there was a friendly and engaging welcome. I asked if there were fried eggs and there were, I just hadn’t noticed them, but the team member had some more made up for us. They didn’t make the amount we asked for as there was some confusion, but the thought was there and the team members seemed jovial enough despite it being a Sunday morning.
I’m more of a continental breakfast person, but this was a much better cooked offering than somewhere say Travelodge. Travelodge cooked breakfasts are broadly terrible, they don’t deep fry anything and so their hash browns are oven baked (so they’re hard on the outside and uninspiring on the inside), the bacon is often not really cooked and there is no fried egg, just some awful scrambled egg. Here, there are fried eggs, the hash browns are fried and there’s also black pudding.
All very satisfactory and there was a supporting cast of yoghurts, juices, coffees, fruit and the like to add to the arrangement. I would have liked the bacon cooked a little more, but I cut the fat off and was aware they’d probably go and burn me some if I asked as that’s how I like it served. The croissants are also better than the ones at Travelodge that have less taste than the packaging they come in.
Anyway, I was suitably impressed with the whole offer of just under £31 for three courses, a pint and breakfast. The presentation wasn’t great, but the quality was reasonable for a chain restaurant and the service was well above average. Indeed, so good was the service in the evening that I messaged Whitbread who said they’d pass on my thoughts, which I imagine they probably have. Given that there wasn’t anything else nearby in Barking that didn’t require a fifteen minute walk each way (and we’d done enough of that) it was more than satisfactory as a post marathon refuel. I wouldn’t rule out doing this again in future, although it’s obviously dependent on what else is in the local area.
I was eating breakfast this morning at the Mercure in Warsaw and because I’m really exciting, I thought I’d look at reviews of Accor Hotels on Trustpilot. I saw this review and thought that this must be nearly impossible to do and I was initially sceptical how someone could do that.
But I did a dummy booking and, actually, I can see exactly how someone would do this. Accor displays the price in GBP as standard for customers in the UK and as their hotels have similar external designs globally, I don’t see anything in the photo that would immediately stand out. I feel quite sorry for the guy, if he spent over £1,000 on room bookings for a hotel he couldn’t use, that’s really quite sub-optimal and I’d certainly be disappointed as it’s obviously not completely out of their hands. It’s actually very much in their hands.
As a video regarding the current situation in Ukraine, this is probably one of the best I’ve seen. It takes some bravery to go to the eastern front of Ukraine speaking Russian and start videoing people, but he has successfully done so. Remarkable and I hope he does more despite how this one ended. I cannot wait to go back to Ukraine, I hope it’s not too long now, although it’s not clear to me how on earth they can resolve the situation in the very near future.
Easter has caused some surprise and delight to the tram schedules in Warsaw and at times it feels like the logic is just to let the driver go wherever they fancy. However, after some faffing about whilst it poured down with rain, I managed to get to my intended destination of Beer and Bones whilst only being slightly damp.
I wondered how busy it would be on a Friday night over Easter weekend, but there’s the answer.
The bar area and although the beer list isn’t clearly visible here, they put it on-line at https://beer-bones.ontap.pl/ for anyone who wants to peruse it. The service was friendly, immediate and welcoming, with the team members being knowledgeable about the beer offering.
I went for the chorizo burger with fries and it was better presented than this photo suggests. They didn’t bring cutlery, but who needs such devices anyway as a primal approach is just easier. The burger, as is usual in Poland, was cooked medium to be pink in the middle and it was juicy and the slices of chorizo added some extra flavour. I think I would have rather they cooked some sizzling chorizo up rather than using slices, but the taste was there. The chips were firm on the exterior and fluffy on the interior, with a heap of jalapenos to add to the mix. Really all rather delightful.
The beer is the Sir Nick from Piwoteka and it’s cheesecake pastry stout. I thought that it was more like chocolate milk, but it was creamy and reasonably rich. The end taste was a little sweet and the flavours could have been a little more punchy.
It’s a very decent bar and it’s located literally next door to Hopito, so a mini bar crawl isn’t exactly difficult. The welcome was friendly, the food was excellent, the beer selection was well curated and the pricing was moderate for the centre of Poland’s capital. All really rather lovely and it did get slightly busier during the hour or so I was in there. I’d add that the journey back was much smoother and the tram went in the same direction as I had anticipated it would.
I’ve tracked a lot of the Warsaw ghetto wall, but I can’t remember seeing this specific signage before and as the sign says, this is where the Leszno Street entrance to the ghetto was located. The Warsaw Ghetto was established by by the Nazis following German occupation and the area was formally sealed on 16 November 16 1940. There were initially 350,000 Jews walled into the ghetto, but that number soon increased to 460,000 as deportees from other areas arrived in the city.
These maps are located in numerous places across the city, over-laying the location of the ghetto onto the current street plan. Leszno Street was one of the major pre-war streets enclosed within the initial ghetto boundaries established in November 1940. When the ghetto was effectively split into two sections (the “Small Ghetto” south of Chłodna Street and the “Large Ghetto” to the north) following boundary adjustments in late 1941 and early 1942, notably the exclusion of a section west of Żelazna Street between Leszno and Grzybowska Streets, Leszno Street remained a key east-west axis within the Large Ghetto.
The incredible web-site at https://getto.pl/en gives a clear indication of what is happening here.
What the area looks like today, with the line of the ghetto wall visible on the pavement of Żelazna Street.
There’s the line of the former ghetto.
The crossing today and, as ever, it’s very hard to try and envision what this area looked like in the early 1940s.
I frequently go on about the quality of life in Warsaw, the low crime, the low level of anti-social behaviour, the strong policing, the low litter and all manner of other positive attributes about the city. However, one of the historic buildings in Warsaw was lost a few days ago and arson has yet to be ruled out from the investigation.
This bell tower is located next to the Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory and the wooden construction dated to around 1817. For reasons relating to German and Russian occupation, there’s not a huge amount that is old in Warsaw, so the loss of this is highly sub-optimal. It took fire fighters around two hours to put out and they have been able to save around 25% of the wooden structure and the bells in their steel frame also held up.
The two bells, one of which dated to 1772, did quite well not to fall down and so it seems that they can be repaired and there is some excellent documentation of the structure from a few years ago. I don’t know the official titles, but the heritage people have already been on site to work out how to fix the situation. Knowing Poland, it’ll be fixed the next time that I go by and I rather hope that it transpires not to be arson.
And a couple of graves located near to the bell tower.
I usually don’t write anything about the flights I take, but a change is as good as a rest and all that. I’m not sure that Luton Airport has really mastered the art of returning flights efficiently, but the security process is now quite efficient. I have to confess to pure idiocy during security when I managed to leave my belt on during the security scan. I blame the confusion on their policy of leaving liquids and laptops in the bag which throws my system. The member of security staff was though not deterred and, thankfully, my brief masterclass in how not to do security seemed to escape wider notice, preserving my fragile dignity in aviation matters.
They announced the gate quite early, an hour before the flight, the delights of Gate 32 beckoned. Having endured the boarding methodologies back in my BA days, which often resembled a polite but ultimately confusing game of human Tetris, Wizz Air’s approach felt refreshingly straightforward. Every passenger knows, or should know, where to go from signage and they didn’t take long to board everyone. Admittedly, that leads to a lot of waiting on the stairs in the airport terminal to board, but at least it feels efficient although it’s less ideal for people who prefer to have a little sit down rather than balance themselves and their luggage on steps.
The aircraft was ready and for the sake of completion, the registration is 9H-wNE, the same aircraft I went from Gdansk to London Luton on a few months ago. It’s hard not to make that sound quite geekish, but as a reminder, for my two loyal blog readers who can’t remember, it’s an Airbus A321 which was delivered to Wizz Air in March 2024. Feel free to use that aviation nugget of information at your next dinner party, instant social success guaranteed…..
I’ve had a long series of good fortune from the seating Gods where I’ve been aisle or window seats, but that luck had run out for this flight when I was randomly given a middle seat. I always vaguely hope that one of the passengers doesn’t turn up, but they both did. Both were Polish, the one by the aisle fell asleep for most of the flight and the other managed to consume several Polish beers and then needed me to wake up the aisle guy from his hibernation for obvious reasons. I’m not sure that they entirely managed to follow my rule of letting the middle seat passenger have the arm rests, but since that’s a rule I’ve created it’s one that’s hard to enforce. Fortunately, this isn’t a long flight and two hours later we were landing into Warsaw.
The crew on the flight were well presented, engaging and efficient, although that’s the normality for Wizz Air flights I’ve found. Announcements from the pilots were in Polish with a shorter English version following soon after and the safety briefing was completely in a way that the CAA would be pleased by.
The delights of Warsaw always excite me, so I didn’t even mind that it was a bus that took us to border control. Most passengers on the flight were Polish or had EU passports, so the queue for my passport to be stamped was relatively short. The border agent was friendly and for this visit didn’t require a detailed explanation of my life before letting me into Poland. The flight is with my Multi Pass, which I’m still moderately obsessed with, so it cost just £8.99. Armrest battles aside, Wizz Air delivered the goods once again as far as I was concerned.
