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Rotherham – Ibis Rotherham East

This is now routinely the cheapest Accor hotel venue in the country (although it’s the fifth cheapest tonight, Ibis Lincoln is down to £34), priced even lower than the Ibis Budget hotels. I’ve now stayed here twice and the room rate has averaged £26 a night, which is to be fair not very sustainable. However, they don’t need it to be sustainable as the hotel is coming to the end of its 25 year lease and it’s on the market for £4 million and will cease being an Accor hotel in a few months.

I had a seven minute wait for check-in as there were no staff visible. It’s never entirely optimal, but I don’t think they were expecting many guests to check-in. I had two bookings, one of four nights and another of one night, but they didn’t have the technology to merge the two bookings and I often think it’s just best to keep them separate to avoid confusion. All the staff members were helpful and personable, it was probably the main thing that was keeping everything together at the moment.

The room is dated, but serviceable. It’s the old style Ibis design which was phased out several years ago, but I imagine there was little point making a large-scale investment at this stage. The broken hairdryer holder in one room had its last electrical safety check in 2007 to show how little has changed here. The bathrooms need a refit and they need to have the traces of mould removing as well, that’s a slightly sub-optimal arrangement.

I was disappointed when I e-mailed the hotel to say I might not be there for the first night (it was the day of the storm) and they didn’t burden themselves with taking the time to reply. I will be disappointed if I have to chase up the 200 points I got from the above ‘skip the clean’ offer, but I suspect I’ll have to. As a comparison, I e-mailed Ibis Budget Warsaw Centrum a couple of weeks ago to tell them I might be arriving at 01:00 (I’m aware they didn’t need to know this, but they do say to let them know) and they responded within three minutes.

They didn’t mention the welcome drink at check-in, but it was willingly given when I asked for it.

For my purposes, the hotel was generally clean and it represented excellent value for money when taking into account this is boosting my room stay nights at a very low price as I return to Platinum this year. It offers breakfast and meals, but they don’t try very hard to push these, and when I walked by the restaurant area was nearly always empty. It’s a challenge given that they’ve got a McDonald’s literally in front of the hotel, and a Greene King pub next to it. It’s a tired hotel and a country mile behind the standards of Ibis in Poland in particular, but at the price point they’re charging, I was entirely happy. There was some internal noise, but no external noise, with the temperature in the rooms being appropriate. There’s a good chance that I’ll stay here again before they cease being an Accor venue, especially as the regular First buses to Maltby to Sheffield go by the main road adjoining the hotel.

January 31, 2025
Rotherham – Rhinoceros (Closed JD Wetherspoon)

It’s fair to say that there are a few minor defects that stop this former JD Wetherspoon pub from reopening. I’m not a builder, but I can see some things that I suspect need fixing.

The pub was the first Wetherspoon venue in Rotherham when it opened in 1998, although the Bluecoat was later added and that remains trading. The pub was closed by Wetherspoons in October 2019, when it opened under new owners and they remained trading until an arson attack in December 2021. It’s expected to be demolished later in 2025 and new flats and retail units put up in its place. I hadn’t realised that Rotherham once had a third Wetherspoons venue, which were all open at the same time, named the Corn Law Rhymer although that’s now looking permanently closed as well.

A few of us visited the pub back in 2017 and these were the glory years when they sold the pastrami bagels. This is the only photo that I took inside the pub, so that’ll just have to do as my memory of the Rhino.

Luckily, the Google reviews for the venue are still visible, so some of the complaints live on even if the building doesn’t. A fair chunk of the reviews were about other customers, including a male who used the female toilets and a customer who kept licking the window.

January 29, 2025
Thionville – Altar to the Homeland

[I originally posted this in May 2018, but have reposted it now to fix the broken image link. And, whilst I’m here, I can add to what I wrote at the time]

The Altar to the Homeland in Thionville was constructed on 22 September 1796, during the fervour of the French Revolution. There were many of these altars erected during the Revolution, but they were usually built of wood and many were lost under Napoleon’s rule, with this being the last stone one left in the country. It was intended initially to be a focal point for patriotic gatherings, with this one later being relocated to a cemetery and repurposed as a war memorial before being brought back here].

Apparently this is the only one of the 36,000 ‘Altars to the Homeland’ which still stand in France. Which sounds a little unusual and I haven’t yet ascertained as to why just this one exists. But it’s very lovely and the town is apparently very proud of it.

January 29, 2025
Thionville – Little Statue Things

[I originally posted this in May 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

I’m not quite sure what the technical word is for these little statue things, but they’re located above the doors of shops. These are the two that the historical walking leaflet they gave me at the tourist information office mentioned to visit.

This is a sign that was once used by the local brewery.

This is the sign that once indicated a tobacconist’s shop, for which they used a representation of a slave sitting on tobacco and smoking a pipe (long since gone).

January 29, 2025
Thionville – Rue de la Tour

[I originally posted this in May 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

This street dates from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with the staircases apparently being a legacy of the occupation of Thionville by the Spanish in the sixteenth century. Very pretty little street, right near to the town centre.

January 29, 2025
Thionville – Saint-Maximin Church

[I originally posted this in May 2018, but I’ve reposted it and fixed the broken image links]

Currently a little bit of a building site, this is apparently a “stronghold” church, designed to withstand attack. The towers were used as a lookout point and it’s quite an attractive church inside, albeit a little covered up due to construction work.

Some of the photos below seem to be at a bit of an angle, I assume that the church was leaning slightly.

January 29, 2025
Poland – Otwock

I’m aware I’m jumping around topics a bit at the moment, this is from when I was in Poland a week ago.

Otwock is at one end of the S1 line in Warsaw and I thought I’d go there to distract myself for the day. The town dates back to the fifteenth century, but it expanded quickly in the late nineteenth century when the railways arrived here. Located in a forested area it became a popular place for people to take the air and the wealthy Poles came here for rest and relaxation. There was a large Jewish community here (around 5,400 out of a population of 8,500) before the Second World War, but their population was decimated, with most ending up at Treblinka extermination camp. There were five synagogues in the town at the outbreak of the war, but they were all destroyed in October 1939. A ghetto was set up here by the Germans and there’s a plan of it at https://museeholocauste.ca/app/uploads/2017/03/plan-ghetto-otwock-1947.jpg.

It does have one of the most beautiful railway stations that I’ve seen in Poland.

I think this is really rather lovely and it first opened in 1877 as part of the Vistula River Railroad project, although this building is later and dates to 1910. The line was electrified in 1936 as part of the plan to improve the rail services to suburban Warsaw.

There’s a news report in August 1906, when Otwock was part of the Russian Empire, that reads:

“Last night, at Otwock near Warsaw, a band of revolutionaries, all of them Russian Jews, attacked the railway station, firing revolvers. They stole 800 roubles and shot a railway employee dead. During the night troops searched the neighbourhood and arrested eleven suspects. This morning, as the train carrying the prisoners approached Warsaw, it was stopped by fifty men, who fired revolvers at it”.

I’m not sure I entirely understand, as in 1906 there were pogroms across Russia against Jews, although they did defend themselves. There’s another reality that newspapers at the time may or may not have reported accurately anyway.

The town’s Christmas tree was still up in late January.

As noted on the sign, Warsaw is around 25 kilometres away.

I’m not sure that I’d go quite that far. However, Michael Jackson applied to lease a property here in 1997 (in Otwock, not this playing field) so it has attracted many over the years.

I was less interested in this sign than wondering where those Five Guys stickers came from, as I don’t think that they’ve reached Poland yet. Monterock have got the rights to open the brand across the country, but I’m not sure any have opened yet.

Otwock is known for its architecture and this shows some of that off. The style is quite located and took off in the late nineteenth century, primarily formed of quite complex wooden construction, rich ornamentation, verandas, balconies and an attempt to blend in with nature.

As another aside, and as more riveting content, why are the seats like that?

That swing looks like something I’ve arranged. Although something I’ve obviously got some help with as otherwise it wouldn’t be level, nor would it be attached to the trees still.

A water tower.

Just as a note about the railway line that I travelled on from Warsaw, this goes through a town called Wawer. In February 1940, the Germans killed 138 people in reprisal for someone shooting at their police officers and that included a train they stopped which was going to Otwock and they just shot dead one in five of the passengers as a reprisal punishment. This reached the news internationally, it was clear to the world just what was happening in Poland very early on.

In March 1941, the Germans killed seventeen Poles in Otwock because they were dis-satisfied with the number of volunteers who had put their names forward to work in Germany. In late July 1944, the Russian troops liberated Otwock, but it took until January 1945 for them to liberate Warsaw. This was deliberate, they wanted the Polish resistance crushed in Warsaw and were happy for the Germans to do it and this strategic inaction is part of the dislike of Russia that pervades the wider region.

I must admit, I meandered around for a while and this was all that I could find that looked interesting and exciting. The restaurants were mostly not open yet and as I had to get back to Warsaw so I didn’t miss my flight, I limited myself to a three mile walk up and down the streets of Otwock and then went back again.

January 28, 2025
Sheffield – Shakespeares Ale & Cider House

Back on my little expedition around Good Beer Guide listed pubs, I have visited this one before with friends back on 2 November 2019 when I was suitably impressed by the Milky Joe milk stout from Ridgeside Brewing Co, which sadly closed last year. The pub was built as a coaching inn in the 1830s, but Punch acquired it and then managed to have it closed down before it reopened under independent owners in 2011.

The team member was writing this up when I went in, so this might not be entirely complete. There’s a mostly cask option, but numerous craft keg beers to choose from as well.

Quirky and atmospheric and my first beer was the Crimes in Riwaka from Pentrich Brewing Co (Riwaka are a hop from New Zealand) which was punchy and dank, with stonefruit and zestiness to it. It’s not the brightest of pubs in terms of the decor, but I suspect that it would have felt rather more charismatic when customers started to come in. The pub feels old fashioned, but that’s what it’s meant to do, this is a traditional pub with a well curated selection of beers.

The second half pint was the Espresso Stout from Cross Borders Brewing Co, a pleasant tasting stout with a roast coffee flavour, although it was a little thin for the 5.3% ABV.

There are hundreds of beer mats decorating the venue and it’s won numerous awards over the years, both from organisations such as CAMRA and direct from the denizens of Sheffield.

How lovely. It wasn’t very busy when I got there, but it was a wet weekday afternoon and they’d just opened for the day, but the welcome was friendly and personable. A nice pub, although I think matters could be improved with a bar billiards table. Although, I think that, I suspect it’s me thinking about my playing in the World Championships in Sudbury (I mean, where else?) in late March…..

January 28, 2025
Maltby – Church of Saint Bartholomew

The Church of Saint Bartholomew is in a slightly odd place (I mean within the town, I’m not suggesting that Maltby is odd), suggesting that it was built before much else and there might well have been a Saxon church on the site which would explain quite a lot.

It’s an attractive building from the exterior, quite neat and tidy.

The entrance gates.

The nave and chancel of the church are of limited interest, but this tower is quirky and much older than the rest of the structure.

And here’s the reason for the main part of the church being less interesting architecturally, it’s the 1857 plan for the new building. This wasn’t though naive expectations of permanently larger congregations, something which somewhat dominated a lot of Church of England thinking in the late nineteenth century, this was the reality that the building was “too dilipidated to be repaired”. The local landowners, the congregation and the Incorporated Society for the Promoting the Enlargement , Building and Repairing of Churches and Chapels all came together to fund the repairs.

The church isn’t open to the public other than by prior appointment, although it’s still used for Sunday services.

The church came to national attention in May 1830 when body snatchers stole a body from the churchyard. An Irish newspaper reported:

“Some time during the night of Sunday last, the body of a young woman, named Mary Hall, was stolen out of its grave in Maltby Church yard. On Monday morning the clerk of Maltby observed a quantity of shavings scattered near the side of the grave, which excited his suspicion, and he immediately caused the grave to be opened, when the coffin was found broken in pieces, and the body taken away. The Magistrates of Rotherham issued search warrants on Monday last, and the Medical Hall, in Sheffield, and other surgical institutions have been searched, but without any discovery having been made. The friends of the deceased watched the grave for three nights, and on the following night the body was taken away. In consequence of the above unfortunate circumstance, the mother of the girl is in a state of mental derangement.”

The Sheffield Medical Institution had opened on 2 July 1829 and soon had a reputation for body-snatching, so there’s a high chance that’s where the body went, even though it wasn’t found.

Mary was just 25 when she died and the burial record at the church survives. The situation must have been dreadful for her mother, losing her daughter and then knowing that her body was lying likely not that far away being dissected.

It’s an attractive, and soggy, churchyard. As an aside, the congregation gave money in the 1820s to help those in Ireland struggling with famine, a reminder that this had been a long-term problem in the country and wasn’t just limited to the Great Famine.

Anyway, it’s a rather lovely site, although devoid of any signage about the church’s history and I couldn’t see any older gravestones, although the conditions has meant that a fair number of the stones are quite weathered and worn. A little further down the Maltby Dike, which the church backs onto, is Roche Abbey which was a large monastery until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

January 28, 2025
Luxembourg – the SNCF strike

[I originally posted this in May 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

After arriving safely at the railway station in Luxembourg I faced the problem that was the SNCF rail strike. I decided to keep my trip to France, rather than changing to Germany, as the media had reported over recent weeks that support for the strike was falling and that more services were operating.

After checking with a staff member, they said that the trains to Thionville were running every hour, with the half hourly ones being cancelled. That was my expectation from the SNCF web-site, so I went to buy a ticket from a machine. The machine only let me buy tickets on services that were operating, so all seemed well.

Then the board never updated the platform that the train was going from and it then got “deleted”. I went to speak to the staff at the main information kiosk at the station and they confirmed I’d need to wait an hour for the one after.

There seemed something strange about this that didn’t quite ring true, as I didn’t see why so many trains would be cancelled to Thionville, especially as they had just sold me a ticket. So I went to the international departures desk and asked them.

The lady there was very helpful, and she was rather bemused at the situation as well. After a long conversation with her colleagues she said that she thought that the train was running and the information boards were wrong. She then suggested to go to platform nine and see if the train I had booked onto was running, and if not to speak to the conductor on the TGV service to Paris (which stops at Thionville) to see if they’d let me on.

As I got to the platform I could see the train that I had a ticket for was there and wasn’t looking very cancelled. I found a staff member who told me to get on as it was about to leave, which I did, although I was a still little unsure of whether this was actually the right train.

However, the right train it was and my trip to Thionville began. Luxembourg railway station is the first place that I took Dylan to, so happy memories of the place, although it was rather more stressful this time. Still lots of pigeons that looked like they might “get squished”.

The train was a double decker one and looked modern and well presented, although it was unclean and had rather a lot of litter on the floor. The prices for the train also weren’t that cheap, more expensive than the UK for the same distance. However, I got to Thionville safely and happily, so the end result was all very positive.

Thionville railway station.

January 28, 2025