HOME | LAST 100 POSTS | CONTACT ME

Blog

Wrocław – Ibis budget Wrocław Południe

For my final night in Wrocław, I switched to the Ibis budget Wrocław Południe which was £30 including breakfast. Fortunately, I had enough points to pay all but 0.8zl (about 15p) which it was noted was the cheapest room they’d charged at the hotel for a while. On which matter, the receptionist was friendly, engaging and spoke beautiful English (as in, she spoke it beautifully rather than me making some general comment about how great English is as a language….).

I forgot to take a photo of the room as I was distracted by the welcome gift, which the hotel doesn’t really need to offer but I always appreciate it. Especially when it’s food. I have stayed at this hotel before, but it was around eight years ago and all I remember is the three mile walk to the city centre. I made sure to leave a five-star review because they gave me a doughnut and that is why hotels should give doughnuts…..

From my extensive collection of photos that I keep….. This is the room in 2017 when I last visited and it hasn’t changed much to be honest.

To quote the great philosopher Frank Spencer, a trouble shared is a trouble doubled, so there are other things…

The view from the window and it’s a peaceful location. The building in front is the Novotel, but it’s quite a bit more expensive than the Ibis Budget and I’m not as decadent as Richard.

The breakfast buffet arrangement, albeit at a slight angle.

Very hearty. Bread, butter, gherkins, salami, a hot dog sausage, tomato, cucumber, cheese, coffee and apple juice.

This is a photo I took in 2017 of the breakfast room, which also hasn’t really changed much. The on-line reviews of the hotel are generally positive, although I suspect that some people have some perhaps excessive expectations for a budget hotel. Such as….

“No brush or toothpaste. No water bottle or drinking water.”

I mean, there is drinking water out of the bloody tap. And there’s a Lidl a short walk away, but I’m not sure many hotels supply toothbrushes in rooms.

“No shelf under the sink”

I really don’t know how some people cope.

“The distance of the hotel from the most important points of the city of Wrocław. Everything is far away. For people who do not have a car at their disposal, it will be incredibly inconvenient.”

I’m annoyed on behalf of the hotel (I’m like that) about reviews like this. Why on earth book a hotel which is three miles out then? It’s a 45 minute walk into the city centre and there’s a bus stop which is a two minute walk away for those who want to use public transport.

“Breakfasts are a big disappointment, a few concise vegetables and cold cuts. I do not recommend buying!”

I like the hotel’s response which was “We would like to remind you that we are an economical one-star hotel that offers basic products for breakfast. However, this does not mean that there is nothing to choose from. In addition to cold meats and vegetables, we also serve yellow and white cheese, pâté, two types of salads, fruit, three hot dishes, breakfast cereals, yogurts and jams. However, if you are looking for more variety, we encourage you to check out the breakfast offer at our partner hotel Novotel Wrocław City, which is a three-star hotel. We believe that the breakfast offer of this hotel will meet your expectations regarding the variety of dishes”.

Anyway, I really like this hotel which is in a peaceful area of the city, it’s keenly priced, the staff are friendly and there were no noise issues. All really rather lovely and I managed admirably without a shelf under the sink.

March 26, 2025
Ridgeway – Day 1 (It’s All About the Greggs)

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

We left the Travelodge all refreshed and reinvigorated for the first day of walking. But all walking adventures need to start with some fine dining, so off to the artisan bakers we went…

Here it is, Swindon’s finest baker. Second to none.

The door situation was confusing, so I let Steve work it out. I also didn’t want to look too desperate by running into Greggs, although that was how I felt…

Here he is at the counter, busy adding things to his order and holding up mine. But my time came, and I got a delicious chicken bake and latte, enough to suffice me for a few hours. We also brought dinner here, as there’s unlikely to be anything as good later on.

So the morning has started off in a lovely manner, it’s now off to the bus station ready to get the bus to Avebury.

March 26, 2025
Ridgeway – Day 0 (Sir Daniel Arms)

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

Our final pub visit of the day was to the Sir Daniel Arms and it was hard to contain Bev’s excitement. When we arrived at the pub Bev was a short distance behind complaining, so it felt that we were back on the Hadrian’s Wall week…..

I used the app as I didn’t want to wait for the others to faff about ordering. My food arrived before the drink, but I’m very patient and didn’t complain to the others in the group that they were holding up my drinks order. Although my rather lazy approach to ordering meant that I never did see what real ales were available at the bar.

Perfectly acceptable burger at a very reasonable price. My food arrived before everyone else’s, so that was perfect as well, win-win.

Here we all are as a group, team Ridgerats or whatever it was Susanna called us. We still haven’t thought of a group name, I was thinking more along the lines of something involving the word Greggs.

Two photos of the pub interior, it was fortunately quite quiet when we were there.

March 26, 2025
Wrocław – National Museum in Wrocław (St. Martin from St. Martin’s Church)

This wooden polychrome sculpture is in the collections of the National Museum in Wrocław and depicts St. Martin of Tours (336AD – 397AD) who was known for cutting his cloak in two to give warmth to a beggar. Very benevolent, although I wonder why he didn’t give him the whole thing, but there we go. As with all these things, some of the cloak that Martin kept survived and became relics likely dotted around numerous locations. The most important one was originally at Marmoutier Abbey and there were priests put in charge of looking after the holy cloak relic and the head priest of this operation became known as the cappellanu. Eventually, all priests who went to serve the military became known as cappellani, which in English became the word chaplain and that was all named after this relic.

Anyway, I digress. This sculpture was likely made in a workshop in Wrocław and it has been dated to around 1490. It was located at St. Martin’s Church, the only survived building from the former Piast’s castle in Wrocław. Before the Second World War, this was where the Polish people in the German city would have gone for services, but the building was damaged during the conflict. The sculpture is in relatively very good condition and a fair chunk of the paint has remained. And the moral of the story is that if you give half of your coat to a beggar, then you too could maybe have your own church named after you in the future and perhaps a word named after you as well.

March 26, 2025
Wrocław – National Museum in Wrocław (Pieta from St. Vincent’s Church)

This pietà is in the collections of the National Museum in Wrocław and it was made in the area, likely in around 1420. It’s a depiction of dead Jesus following the crucifixion, designed to have emotional intensity and evidently from the Gothic tradition. It’s a medieval polychrome wooden statue, although the colours have rather faded away over the centuries. I am fascinated by these depictions, not because they’re particularly cheerful, but because I can try and imagine the thousands of people in the medieval period who would have looked at them and maybe inspired by them.

It was originally located in St. James’s Church which was founded in around 1240 as a Romanesque church, although it underwent significant Gothic reconstruction in the 14th and 15th centuries. In 1530, after the displaced Premonstratensians took the church over when the Franciscans were kicked out, it was rededicated to St. Vincent of Saragossa which was their patron saint of the monastery that they’d been thrown out of. The building was badly damaged during the Second World War, including the Hochberg Chapel where this statue had been located. The chapel has now been reconstructed and they’ve placed a copy of this statue in there, with the main Cathedral (as it now is) being the home of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. I’m not sure whether this statue was recovered after the war from the damaged church, or whether it was moved earlier on to protect it, but it’s something of a survivor.

I also rather like that when this statue was originally placed here, the church was in Poland state (the Piast dynasty), although it then came under the control of the Kingdom of Bohemia, then the Habsburg Monarchy, then the Prussian Empire, then the German Empire, then the Weimar Republic, then Nazi Germany and only in 1945 did it return to Poland again.

March 25, 2025
Wrocław – The Gnomes of Wrocław (B01 : Panoramist)

This gnome of Wrocław is located on the windowsill of the Panorama Racławicka at ul. Purkyniego 11, with more of this important museum coming in a future post…. (oh, the anticipation of it all!) This gallery has the monumental panoramic painting depicting the Battle of Racławice, hence the brave gnome on a horse.

March 25, 2025
Ridgeway – Day 0 (The Hop Inn)

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

Pub number three was the Hop Inn, which Bev told us was a former sex shop. We didn’t feel it appropriate to ask too many questions. Not through lack of wanting to ask questions of Bev, but because we didn’t really want to know the answers. The Bev Enigma is something that needs to unfold slowly.

This is the first pub that all met up at, so Maggie, Bev, Steve M, Steve, Dave and Susanna were all here, marking the official start of the Ridgeway adventure.

I was delighted with the choices here, some interesting beers and numerous ones that I hadn’t seen before. The liquorice stout sounded positively luxurious, but there was no way that I couldn’t order the peanut butter & banana porter. Despite the ABV, it was very drinkable and there was a lingering and pleasant after-taste of the banana, although I couldn’t get the taste of the peanut butter at all. But, I’d order it again.

We were delighted to see that there was a pizza menu, and we planned to just stay here all night. I noticed that the chicaritzo pizza looked particularly tempting, which would have gone beautifully with a pint of stout. Then, horror of horrors, they announced that they had just three pizza bases left. I worked out that as there was seven of us, that would mean that after I had a pizza to myself the others would have just one pizza between three people. This clearly wasn’t sufficient, as one member of our group can devour an entire pizza in one mouthful (not me), so we had to make the sad decision to move on. Which meant I never got to try the liquorice stout….

The interior of the pub, very on-trend and contemporary, and very much my favourite sort of pub. Of all the pubs we got time to go to in Swindon, which was only four, this was my favourite. But, onwards we marched to pub number four for food.

March 25, 2025
Wrocław – The Gnomes of Wrocław (Unknown 1)

One thing that I’m surprised by is how hard it is to identify a lot of the gnomes in Wrocław as the official directory only has a small number in. Even AI can’t sort this out, ChatGPT and Google Gemini give different answers and they’re often not right. So, this gnome is going in my unknown list, anyone who knows what it is officially called can e-mail me at jw@julianwhite.uk 🙂

March 25, 2025
Ridgeway – Day 0 (The Beehive)

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

Second pub was the Beehive, a Greene King pub located on Prospect Hill in Swindon. The welcome was friendly and there were six real ales available, a wide selection for a relatively small pub, although there was nothing which looked particularly interesting for my own preferences. So, it was time for a little cider instead.

There were four rooms in this Victorian pub and a central bar. It had a slightly quirky and interesting interior, and it didn’t feel too mauled about and modernised.

The crisps were three months out of date, but the quality of Monster Munch doesn’t diminish and they tasted fine 🙂 Mind you, we had been tempted to come to this pub by the mention in the Good Beer Guide that they had free crisps, something which wasn’t happening when we got there. If they had been, it is quite possible that we wouldn’t have left….

The cider selection.

Beer notes, which I know Greene King encourage, but many of their pubs don’t provide them so willingly.

Dave and Steve, getting on well with the locals.

Then our quiet was shattered, in marches Bev, complaining that we’re not in the pubs she has gone round looking for us. Before she comes to sit down with us, we discover that she knows half the customers in the bar, reminding us that she used to live down the road.

Actually, this turned into a feature of the whole evening, Bev walking around like she was on a farewell tour of Swindon. Locals fêted her, some confirmed they were related to her and there was a real feel that Bev had made a substantial impact on Swindon during the year which she lived here. If the walls of Swindon could talk, what stories they would tell…

After a second pack of Monster Munch (these ones were in date), it was time to move on to the next pub. Bev had discovered that a former sex shop was now a pub, and that was where she wanted to go.

March 25, 2025
Wrocław – The Gnomes of Wrocław (Farmaceut – the Pharmacist Dwarf)

In the Gnomes of Wrocław collection, this is Farmaceut, the Pharmacist Dwarf, with his own pill blister pack. It’s linked to the Boehringer Ingelheim, a German pharmaceutical company with strong connections to Poland.

March 24, 2025