Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Lublin – St. Michael’s Church (Ruins)

    St. Michael’s Church is no longer standing, although the ruins are still clearly visible. Work started on the church’s construction in the thirteenth century and it was rebuilt at the end of the sixteenth century when the original building was badly damaged by fire.

    The new sixteenth century building was substantial and it became one of the largest and tallest churches in Lublin. With the opening of the new cathedral building in 1832 the parish moved from St. Michael’s and the church was demolished between 1852 and 1855. Human remains were carefully removed from the cemetery at the site to the city’s new cathedral.

    The church’s stone was reused to build properties and also to use in road construction. Not an entirely ideal use for such an historic building.

    The site was uncovered again in the 1930s and a large scale archaeological dig took place in 1970s. The remains of the church were then permanently revealed in the 1980s and are a reminder of what a beautifully location it was once located in.

  • Lublin – Sexy Duck

    Part of a small chain of two restaurants, which I admit is a small chain, with the other outlet being in Warsaw. Specialising in Italian food, which no end of other Polish restaurants seem to do, it was clean and comfortable inside the restaurant. The service was attentive and helpful, with the staff member finding me a table even though it was relatively busy during my visit.

    Quirky decor…..

    There was a dark beer option, which had a sufficiently interesting taste and was at least refreshing.

    The chicken pasta, clean in its presentation and with a depth of taste to it. The pasta retained some bite whilst the chicken was tender and flavoursome, and the rocket added some texture. The meal cost around £4 and the portion size was sufficiently generous.

    Towards the higher end of the price scale for Lublin, although still not particularly expensive by UK standards, I thought this was a better than average meal and the surroundings were comfortable. There were plenty of duck based dishes which was in keeping with the restaurant’s name, but I wasn’t tempted on this occasion.

  • Lublin – Lublin July (1980s strikes)

    This monument marks Lublin July, a series of stoppages and strikes which took place in the city in July 1980. The complaints were originally about the quality of the food available to workers and also about the increasing costs. The strikes soon spread across the city, and to neighbouring towns, causing great concern to the communist authorities, especially when political demands such as freedom of speech were made.

    The authorities desperately tried to buy the workers off to stop the strikes from spreading, but the discontent was too much to quell. The workers were organised and effective, causing industry to grind to a halt. Within a week of the first workers going on strike the dispute had grown to over 50,000 workers across tens of factories.

    Instead of marching on the streets, which had been a strategy which had failed before, the workers remained in their factories and articulated their grievances from there. The bloodless protest was a pre-cursor to the wave of Solidarity strikes across Poland, which the hapless authorities had little idea how to deal with. Within ten years of the strikes in Lublin the communist authorities collapsed and Lech Wałęsa was the President of Poland.

  • Lublin – Street Art (Interesni Kazki)

    I know very little about street art, but this is apparently by Interesni Kazki and was painted in 2012. It certainly livens up the end of the buildings on this street in Lublin.

  • Ingleton – Three Horseshoes

    I’ve been in this pub before during one of the coast to coast walks I’ve done, so a return visit seemed worthwhile given we were walking by. The pub was very quiet when we walked in, but it seemed warm and comfortable.

    There were no dark beers available either on draft or in bottles, slightly disappointing given that the pub has four ales on. I went for the rather generic Thwaites best bitter, which was bland, but to the pub’s credit, it tasted well kept and was at the appropriate temperature.

    There was nothing particularly wrong with the pub, it was clean and comfortable, with the beers all tasting fine. However, looking at the reviews of the pub, there’s something upsetting a not inconsiderable number of people, although I didn’t encounter the problems raised by others. I do like that the pub has taken a forthright stance in how it replies to reviews though on TripAdvisor.

    “We have opinions of people as well from our side of the bar but these opinions are usually kept to ourselves.In some cases it is just as well.”

    Some responses I found humorous at least…. And one customer wrote:

    “We met up with family and called onto this pub for a drink. The pub was clean and tidy but the bar man was the most miserable, and unfriendly man we’d ever seen. He barely spoke, didn’t smile once and didn’t want to chat. A really poor advocate for customer service!”

    The pub’s response was “we like him” which is an impressively good response in my opinion, no need to bother to defend against such a nasty review.

    “We all enjoy what we do but some times we all get a little bit fraught.It is a family run pub and we do our best for our customers with pleasure. Sometimes though we get it wrong.”

    I quite like the honesty of this response. We didn’t order food this time so I don’t know about the quality, but I’d return here again for drinks. And although I will confess that the service wasn’t particularly engaging, there was certainly none of the rudeness mentioned by others in their reviews.

  • Ingleton – Old Post Office

    The Post Office which operated from here only closed four years ago and it was turned into a bar soon afterwards. There are now new owners of the bar, who took over just a few weeks ago, and the venues positions itself as a primarily craft beer and spirits bar. I came here on two nights and it was busy on both occasions, so they’re doing something right.

    The beer selection with some interesting options available. I tried the rhubarb & custard, toffee temptation and the black cherry from the second shelf down as they sounded tempting. They all had the appropriate taste although the beers were just a little watery and the aftertaste was rather more limited. The lockers on the right of the above photo are also used for storing bottles before moving them into the fridge, a clever use of the limited space that is available.

    The Imperial Flump King at 10% from Hawkshead which had the inevitable depth of taste I’d expect from an imperial stout. There was a slightly sweet taste although I thought it was more vanilla in flavour than marshmallow, but nonetheless, this felt like a quality product. I wonder what this would taste like if available in cask, something rather glorious I should imagine. I was pleased incidentally that there was such a wide selection of dark beers to choose from, not least since I didn’t manage to get that anywhere else in Ingleton.

    Quirky interior and there are numerous decorative items on the wall to add some character. The only element missing for me is that there is nothing about the history of the building, and I’m sure there must be some stories to tell given how long the Post Office was located here.

    The owners were engaging, friendly and welcoming, offering one of the best welcomes I’ve had this year in a pub. They are clearly proud of their new bar and that’s evident in the comfortable nature of the surroundings and the informal nature of the atmosphere. The beer selection on draft is limited, although that’s inevitable given how small this pub is, but there’s some thought been taken with the bottled beers. There are a selection of upmarket snacks and also some slightly quirky spirits to offer extra choice.

    The prices in the bar are reasonable for both bar snacks and drinks, with credit and debit cards being accepted. I have to say (well, write) that this was my favourite pub of the weekend, with the welcome being authentic and I’m confident that it’ll remain a popular location to visit. All very lovely.

  • Ingleton – Masons Freehouse

    With an eventual group size of 11, finding a place to eat in Ingleton isn’t necessarily easy on a Friday night. However, I booked ten months in advance to ensure availability, which was rather organised of me. And to be fair to Masons, they were equally professional and organised, confirming the booking promptly and reconfirming this week. They didn’t need a deposit or pre-ordering, so it all felt well managed.

    And the table was successfully reserved. I liked that the pub was proud of its history by putting some photos up of how it appeared in the nineteenth century and it takes its name from when it was run by a family of masons.

    On the first night I opted for fish and chips, which was well presented. The fish tasted of a good quality, the batter had a reasonable depth of taste and the mushy peas had the appropriately consistency. I wasn’t really sold on the chips, slightly greasy and over-cooked for my liking, but overall this didn’t represent poor value for money.

    We returned for food on the second night, and I went for the steak pie. Stupidly of me I forgot that the chips weren’t overly exciting, but the pie seemed home-made and there was a generous amount of steak inside and this was of a decent quality meat. The gravy was also authentic and home-made with lots of flavour. For the money, this again proved to be perfectly acceptable value for money.

    This pub is mentioned in the Good Beer Guide and is the only location in Ingleton which is. This perhaps increased my expectations too much as the dark beer selection was non existent and the nearest was Doom Bar which has nearly no appeal to me given its lack of flavour (or at least what I perceive to lack flavour as the beer isn’t exactly unpopular). Since the pub doesn’t do bottled dark beer either I just went for soft drinks, a mild disappointment given the selection I’d just experienced in the Old Post Office. Personally, with five real ales on I’d have liked at least one of them to be dark, but it’d be ideal if they could perhaps offer cans or bottles at least as an alternative.

    Anyway, nonetheless, it’s apparent that they’ve tidied up the pub in recent years and it is a professionally run location. We didn’t experience any issues, but I’m fairly sure that they’d have been resolved in a helpful and willing manner if we had. The temperature in the pub was also off the scale hot for my liking, although since the pub was busy it’d be harsh to complain about that.

    So, for those with groups wanting food, this is a location I’d recommend and if I was taking a large party to Ingleton again then I’d certainly book again. The prices were reasonable, the food was brought out promptly and the staff were personable and helpful.

  • Lublin – Majdanek Concentration Camp (Photos from the Site)

    Some photos of the external areas at Majdanek concentration camp.

       

  • Lublin – Majdanek Concentration Camp (Zyklon B)

    What is undeniable is that these Prussian blue stains have been caused by the use of Zyklon B. This is now known to be what was used to kill hundreds of thousands of people in gas chambers at locations such as Auschwitz Birkenau, but it was originally used as a cyanide based substance used to delouse clothes.

    And this area of the camp are barracks 41, with signage indicating that this is where prisoners were gassed. However, there is some considerable argument about whether this can possibly be true, and on the camp’s own web-site there’s a document saying:

    “It is certain, however, that gas chambers were not used for extermination after the executions of 3 November 1943 and that the chamber adjoining the shower room in barracks No. 41 and the chamber in the west part of the bunker were used for the disinfection of blankets and clothes, including those belonging to murdered Jews. These were disinfected using Zyklon B. First, the chamber was warmed up with heated air and, after disinfection was complete; the gas was removed through openings in the roof with the use of a ventilation fan.”

    So although it’s clear that significant numbers of people were killed at Majdanek, I’m not sure that this area is where they actually were murdered. The blue stains do appear to be from when the room was used to delouse blankets and clothing, although it is possible that killings took place earlier on.

    I have to admit to be entirely confused by much of the signage at Majdanek, I ended up with far more questions than answers.

  • Lublin – Majdanek Concentration Camp (Bathing)

    Later on during the war the whole concept of showers in concentration camps took a sinister turn as it was where prisoners were killed using poisonous gas. Here at Majdanek though these showers were intended to clean and disinfect prisoners, usually new arrivals.

    The shower heads and there are numerous reports that these dispensed water that was either freezing cold or boiling hot.

    The large sinks, which were also used to bathe prisoners to disinfect them.

    The prisoners would walk along the wooden slated floor before being herded out of the room. It seems that later on during the war the prisoners were given the opportunity to take more showers to try and get rid of the problem of lice, although since the living accommodation was riven with them it seems a slightly forlorn exercise.