Safely back at Warsaw Chopin airport and ready for my next flight to Bucharest. As usual, there was a minimal wait for the security process and it took under five minutes from scanning my boarding pass to being airside.
That meant a quick stop in the lounge.
It was all clean, comfortable and spacious as usual, with plenty of power points available.
Very healthy.
The spring rolls didn’t look entirely appetising as they were quite broken up, but it transpired that they were really quite agreeable.
The boarding process was efficient and I was flying within the Schengen zone, I didn’t have to wait for an hour for the EES system like last week.
Oh good, a bus gate.
And ready to board. It’s aircraft 9H-WDS, which entered Wizz Air’s fleet in late 2023 and appears to be yet another aircraft that I haven’t been on.
Unusually, I was first to board the aircraft. The excitement of it all….
So here’s a photo of an empty cabin, I don’t get to post these very often.
The seating Gods had given me a window seat and also no-one sitting next to me, which was all very handy. Wizz Air seems to pad their schedules to cover a small delay so the estimated one hour fifty minutes flight time was actually only eighty minutes. The crew were friendly, the aircraft were clean and, once again, there were no negatives for me to mention.
Safely in Bucharest on time and able to walk to the terminal.
I was only in Warsaw for a few hours before it was necessary to return to the airport for the next part of my little expedition. In the centre-left of the photo is Warszawa Śródmieście railway station.
Down to the platforms.
The station was built between 1955 and 1963, initially using the Spanish solution of platforms (where passengers disembark from one side and get on from the other side) although they had abandoned that by the 1980s.
It would not be unkind to say that the station is past its best.
The station was modernised a bit in 2006, but has remained fairly unloved since then.
This book stall hasn’t been open in the years that I’ve been using this station.
The station is useful for S2 connections to Chopin airport, and this journey means that it’s the end of another Warsaw trip. This one was really quiet brief.
And this is what it looks like now. There are some changes that are evident if counting the number of windows, but this remains an impressive rebuilding of a structure as it was entirely demolished by the Germans during the Second World War. Well, other than a couple of small sections of walls, but otherwise the destruction was complete.
There’s one hero in all this, namely Stanisław Lorentz (1899-1991) who was a museum official who was able to take numerous exhibits to save them, including from the Royal Castle. He continued to rebuild the museum service in Poland after the end of the Second World War and he was later involved with the committee that rebuilt the structure between 1971 and 1984. There must have been something very satisfying about being able to watch the rebuilding of not just the rebuilding, but also galleries and museums across the city.
Carrying on from the first part of my post, this is Kościół św. Wojciecha or the Church of St. Wojciech. St Wojciech parish in Warsaw’s Wola district was established in 1927, though plans to build the church itself began in 1898.
It was heavily damaged in September 1939 and during the Warsaw Uprising the Germans used it as a transit camp for civilians expelled from the city, where clergy tried to help those imprisoned there and some were killed. The church was rebuilt following the end of the Second World War and it’s hard to imagine the terrors, such as those in the above photo, that took place here.
This is a German photo from around 1941 showing the damage which had been done to the church in 1939.
The grotto outside of the church.
This memorial reads:
“At this site, during the Warsaw Uprising from 1 to 5 August 1944, German forces murdered and burned many residents of nearby homes. Among those killed from 7/9 Syreny Street were members of the Korzeń family: Bolesław, 69; Ludwik, 65; Piotr, 60; Artur, 33; and Hanna Niewiadomska, 21. Unveiled on 1 August 1995.”
This memorial reads:
“In memory of 30 Redemptorist monks and about 2,000 inhabitants of Warsaw’s Wola district who were murdered by the Germans in the Kirchmayer and Marczewski factory on 6 August. They remained faithful to God, the Church and their homeland.”
When I was taking this photo, an elderly lady came up to talk to me. She was putting flowers down and telling me something in Polish about her family, but unfortunately that was the limit of my understanding. Realising I was British, she pointed to other monuments, thanking me several times for what I assume she thought was my interest in the heritage of the city. If it’s the case that this monument represents members of her family, that would have been something of a privilege, so I’m going to assume that it’s that.
This memorial reads:
“This place is consecrated by the blood of Poles who died for the freedom of their country. Here, on 6 and 8 August 1944, German forces shot around 4,000 Poles, including participants in the Warsaw Uprising and residents of nearby homes.”
The Wola Massacre was one of the worst war crimes of the Second World War. I’ll leave this with a quote from a mother who lost her son as part of the murders.
“We were halted, ordered to stand facing the square where the machine guns were positioned, and immediately the first bursts were fired. Hit people fell, shrieking and screaming.
I saw my husband and children go down and I collapsed myself, unhurt; already on the ground, I got a bullet in my left arm. Lying motionless on the corpses, I played dead.
After a while, the bursts died down; both nearby and farther away, I heard heavy steps and single shots. I understood that it was soldiers walking among the bodies, looking for survivors and finishing them off with handguns.
I lay there, quietly, for a long time, maybe two hours, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the ‘Ukrainians’ were still in the square. My little son crawled up to me, wounded. I begged him to lie still and be silent, but he’d been shot through a lung and was in too much pain. An untimely move gave him away.
I heard heavy steps and a shot, and after that, my boy did not move anymore. From the town hall building a burning window frame fell to the street, and I saw the clothes on my son’s dead body catch fire.”
That little boy could well still be alive today if not for the German massacre.
And some street art near the metro station to bring a little positivity to proceedings.
A very jazzy sign on the platform of Płocka, which is located on the M2 metro line. It’s all relatively new, the station opened on 4 April 2020 and is the first station of the extension to the existing line.
It’s not immediately evident what this is in the floor near the entrance, but it’s actually a copy of forest elephant bone that was found here during the construction of the station. The bone that was uncovered dated back around 130,000 years and this was the European elephant which was twice the size of the existing Asian ones.
The whole station feels modern and clean, with the usual lack of visible staff anywhere. But ticket prices for public transport in Warsaw are very cheap, just a fraction of London, and the network feels efficiently run.
My plan for writing about each station is to find elements that are interesting nearby, but there are so many for Płocka that this is something of a challenge to narrow it down. As such, I’m going to have to split this one into two separate posts. There are plenty of residential properties here, which is in the Wola district of Warsaw.
The National Centre of Culture building.
This area was very badly impacted by the German atrocities during the Second World War, particularly towards the end of it. This memorial reads:
“Here, on 5 August 1944, on the grounds of the Ursus factory, at a site of mass execution, the Nazis shot about 7,000 prisoners.”
This is part of what became known as the Wola Massacre and was a response to the hugely successful Warsaw Uprising which shocked and terrified the German high command. The Polish resistance and insanely brave locals fought back and made the situation in Warsaw almost unmanageable to respond to. The Germans responded with mass killings. Now is the time to mention Heinz Reinefarth (1903-1979) who was one of the most evil war criminals of his time, but was shockingly allowed to get away with his crimes after the war. Poland hasn’t forgotten him and his involvement here.
This is the Ursus factory at 55 Wolska Street where the massacres took place of thousands of local residents. Local men, women and children were rounded up and shot, sometimes after being tortured or sexually assaulted.
On 10 August 1944, the Germans murdered around twenty Poles here, outside where the pasta and instant coffee factory was located known as ‘Bramenko’.
When I first came to Warsaw, getting on for 15 years ago now, there were many more derelict buildings like this, but most of them have now been developed.
This memorial on Wolska Street was a little obscured, but it notes the mass killing of many Poles on 23 December 1943 with the full text reading:
“The place sanctified by the blood of Poles who died for the freedom of their homeland. Here, on 21 and 23 December 1943 in mass executions, the Hitlerites shot many Poles”
The plaque commemorates the victims of the street executions conducted in the period completed on the orders of SS-Brigadeführer Franz Kutschera (1904-1944). It’s been noted that following further research that the dates on this are slightly wrong, but that takes nothing away from the murder.
After the train journey from Norwich, I had managed to arrive five hours early for my flight. So, that’s just right, no point in rushing these things. The security process was well managed and only took me a few minutes. I was slightly amused as a woman pushed in front of me, which didn’t concern me as I had five hours spare, but I was directed to another security line which had just opened so I went through much quicker. Karma and all that.
There’s a new menu at Big Smoke, this is the sort of exciting drama that keeps me inspired during travel…..
And very nice, the chicken tenders with hot honey sauce, alongside a non alcohol Stella. Definitely a menu upgrade.
Coffee acquired….
The food selection in My Lounge, which does seem to be getting better. They had the usual dirty cutlery there though, I’m never entirely convinced about their food hygiene standards, although I’d note that they hold a five star rating.
That’ll do as a snack, with a tea and a non alcohol Heineken which tastes of ditch water. A completely pointless beer, but I won’t go down that rabbit hole at the moment.
The lounge was pleasant enough, it was quite quiet, but all of the power points worked and there was food and drink.
That’s my flight at 19:45.
And safely at the gate where everything was clearly signed as usual.
The boarding process was smooth and efficient, with a friendly welcome from the cabin crew. As usual for Wizz Air aircraft, it was all clean and looked in a decent state of repair. The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat, but they also gave me an elderly lady in the seat next to me who fidgeted far too much and spent the flight tearing up bits of the in flight magazine so that she could keep the articles. It would have been easier to take the in flight magazine rather than leave the mutilated copy that she did.
One person clapped as the flight landed, but I was pleased to note that other passengers just looked annoyed at him and so hopefully he won’t do that again. The flight was otherwise as usual for Wizz Air, no drama and no delays, with the crew being friendly and efficient as they completed their service.
The aircraft was HA-LGI, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. This is an Airbus A321 which Wizz Air has had since early 2024. I could have done without the bus gate as I had just 32 minutes from landing to get the last train. This took longer than I would have liked if I’m being honest.
The border was relatively quiet, although there was a problem with the passenger in front of me and his European Entry System arrangement. Fortunately another desk was opened up and I was asked if I was aware I could only spend 90 days out of the last 180 days in the EU. I’m very aware of that and it annoys me, but it’s nice that the border control staff remind people. I did think for a while that the delay would mean that I missed the train, but I was fortunate on this occasion.
With that, I scuttled off to buy a 24 hour day ticket for the public transport in the city and meandered quickly to the railway station at the airport.
With around five minutes to spare, I made it, the last train into Warsaw city centre. This saved me faffing about with night buses…. And for £8.99 for the flight, I was once again pleased with the whole Wizz Air experience.
This wasn’t a rail journey of any great note, but sometimes the mundane still needs to be recorded. After a rather lovely few days at Beer Con, I departed early on Easter Monday morning from Norwich railway station. It was quiet, people were focused on their Easter eggs.
There’s the Greater Anglia train to Ely at the back of the platform.
This service was only going as far as Ely due to engineering works that prevented it from reaching the promised land that is Cambridge. That meant that most sensible people were going to London directly arriving into London Liverpool Street, but that was more expensive and so I wasn’t. Although there were points failure and sadly a suicide on that line, so it might likely have been a slower option anyway. It did at least mean a quiet and peaceful train service, as this line can get rather busy.
And arriving safely into the beautiful city of Ely.
Then the exciting bus replacement service from Ely to Cambridge. I was the last person to board this before they thought it had better get going and everyone else behind crowded onto what looked like a nicer bus. This one was far too hot, I’m surprised passengers didn’t get heat stroke, but the driver was quite chirpy although it might have been delirium caused by the heat.
After a quick visit to the new Tesco opposite Cambridge railway station, I meandered to the platform with around thirty minutes before my train. For reasons I’ve never quite understood, Thameslink trains seem to sometimes depart one minute before the scheduled departure time, which caused an argument as one passenger ran to the train to try and board before being shouted to stand back as it was about to depart. I was restricted by what train I could get with an advance ticket, so I had less need to rush.
I thought I would embark on my meal deal at this point and very unusually I didn’t go for the prawn mayo option as I felt that this was a chicken day. I should probably get out more….
The Thameslink train thundering into the station.
The Thameslink service, which left one minute before the departure time, remained relatively quiet, although as there are twelve carriages it’s not exactly limited for space. And, as part of my survey of global trends, I noted that a passenger had his feet on the seats. Not that I go on about this….
Farringdon station where I was changing for another Thameslink train to take me to Luton Airport Parkway. I’m not sure why the route took me through London St. Pancras to get to Farringdon, then went back that way, so I went to a station further south than I needed. There were some young football fans shouting something about “we are the blues, we are the blue army, who are we?” as if they’d forgotten. They were ignored by everyone, which I felt was positive.
And onto the next Thameslink train which was heading to Bedford. This was relatively quiet and everything was on time, so I arrived into the delights of Luton Airport Parkway station which is slightly less annoying when leaving it than arriving into it.
And the walk to Luton Airport, which is around twenty minutes as I refuse to pay for the shuttle as it’s too expensive. The ticket price for Norwich to Luton Airport Parkway was £22 and as it was on time, annoyingly, there was no Delay Repay…. The ticket didn’t work at the Cambridge or Luton Airport Parkway station barriers, but there were gateline staff to let me through. So, one Greater Anglia train, one Greater Anglia bus replacement and two Thameslink trains….
For the three of my loyal readers who haven’t already been breathless with excitement following my previous brief write-ups, here is the definitive post-mortem of the 2026 Beer Con weekend.
Some overall comments, as numerous people have asked me how it all went. This was a really well planned event, the attention to detail was high and although the ticket prices were over £15 each, there was a wide selection of beer, numerous interesting speakers (not that I quite got to hear them speak as I got distracted by the beer) and other entertainment.
I didn’t hear of anyone who was unhappy with the event, but what was notable to me was the positive and upbeat atmosphere across the three days. The only point that might need addressing is the number of toilets, but that’s a far more minor problem than needing to address the beer quality or selection.
Everything felt safe, secure and the volunteers and staff were always friendly and helpful. I’ve mentioned Bailey and Leanne as I remembered their names (and because they didn’t annoy me, although no-one actually did to be fair…), but it was a delight to volunteer here. Volunteers were looked after with beer, food and free tickets to the event, so it was all suitably rewarding.
I very much liked being able to speak to some brewers and it was good to see some familiar publicans and breweries from outside the area on the trade day. Polly’s made a big impression on many people for all the right reasons and the enthusiasm from Ampersand and Pastore all added positively to the event.
I don’t know how the event worked for the organisers in terms of the finances, but I hope that they want to put another one on. It’s a combination of a trade event and a beer festival which all combined to be a celebration of brewing and liquid education. The reaction from the trade customers seemed to be one of respect for the organisation, which I know isn’t always the case for beer festivals that can sometimes feel a little too commercial.
It was also handy that it was near to the White Lion, although it was clumsy of me to get muddled up every night when I accidentally walked the short distance to it, but Oscar is always pleased to see me. Well, something like that.
I was lucky to work with lovely volunteers, most of whom I already knew, and apologies to those I likely slightly bored with my witterings about beer. I tried not to talk about Polish beer too much, even though it’s hard not to talk about some of the best beer in the world. Anyway, let’s not go down that line again.
Perhaps most importantly, I made a mistake in naming my beer of the festival in an earlier post. After a rigorous check of my Untappd account, it was the 4.6 rated Cosmos [Banana, Mango and Coconut] from Rivington Brewing Co. This was a creamy pastry sour with lots of fruit and really quite decadent. This means I’ll forgive Rivington for not sending me replacement cans that they were going to after a couple rather blew up….. A quite remarkable beer and I hadn’t been aware that they made pastry sours.
Anyway, if the event takes place again next year, and I haven’t been fired, I’d be very willing to help again. All very lovely and an enjoyable Easter weekend.
And back for the third and final day of Beer Con 2026, the sun was sort of shining and I was ready for my two final volunteering shifts.
I was back on the cask and cider bar, being pleased to be put with the wonderful Chris who is one of those responsible for the Curiosity Bar at Norwich Beer Festival. I’m an advocate of increasing their budget, but organiser Craig will just comment that I only like beer that doesn’t taste of beer again….
We were near the band, and I’d better add that they weren’t unpopular, I took this photo whilst they were doing their warm-ups or whatever the musical term is. Fortunately, the music wasn’t too loud as I’m now over 20 and I didn’t like too much frivolity.
For the second session, I was initially at the Beak and Weekend Project, both fine breweries. At the start of proceedings many of the brewers were here themselves, but they weren’t all here on the Saturday night.
The view from behind the counter soon after opening. I like serving keg, although I didn’t do it for long… Incidentally, there’s plenty to this whole Beer Con event, there were talks taking place, entertainment and other things to surprise and delight visitors.
And that was because I was given the exciting promotion (well, I think that it was a promotion) of being on the Old Man Joe’s bar, which had a selection of cask ales, soft drinks and is the area where the snacks were. What could possibly go wrong?
Fair play to the organisers Boom Tower, there’s a real attention to detail in setting up this little traditional pub area. Setting this whole arrangement up across the two floors must have taken some time, but the organisers really thought about adding character to everything.
I popped down to check that Roy and Jen weren’t arguing, but they were focused on chatting to their VIP customer. Note Roy and Jen felt it better to be at the end of their counter section to avoid any disputes.
Roy had created badges so that I was there in spirit 🙂 Looking forwards to the 2026 Norwich Beer Festival!
Roy came to see me anyway to help test some of the cask beers and to check how well I was managing.
After getting muddled up and going to the White Lion and Artichoke again after the end of Beer Con, I discovered that the Black Stars were in the Artichoke practising for our game in a few weeks. Here’s Gabriel, the hero of the practice last week, showing Dave some of his shots.
And then I got muddled up once again and went to the King’s Head.
For those who haven’t had the excitement of reading about day one at Beer Con, do that first. I started off with visiting Lucy and the CAMRA stand upstairs at the event, filling in a survey about beer festivals which gave me the chance to spin the wheel to get a prize. I won a glass. As Roy and I, being the glasses & tokens ‘management’ team from Norwich Beer Festival, were both there we didn’t think that was very exciting so Lucy kindly let me have a cellarmanship book which Ivan had written.
I was volunteering on the first and third day of Beer Con, but they gave me multiple free tickets and lots of beer for the second day where I attended as a visitor in the evening. There was always a positive and inviting atmosphere at the event, being busy but never overly crowded.
Back downstairs, Julian was at the priority seating. This was not so much the decadent private seating for VIPs that Richard would book, but for those who needed a little sit down. Whilst I’m commenting on this photo, I have to note that’s one of the best beers of the festival, the BA Brownie Empress Tonkoko from Brew York, a sweet, punchy, chocolately and decadent little number.
Whilst I’m here I should mention the very delicious Tropical Sundae from Yonder which had a decent mouthfeel, was creamy and fruity. Oh, and the Sticky Toffee Puddin’ which was sweet with a nice toffee flavour, verging on decadent.
And, the best beer of the festival for me was the BA Interceptor Fiji Rum from Emperor’s Brewery. This was smooth, chocolatey, maple flavoured and not too boozy for its 14.3% ABV. The brewery is from Leicestershire and the only other beer I’ve had from them in the past is Too Much Moon Pie, a smooth and decadent stout, which I had the Artichoke last year. But, I will look out for them in the future.
I gave Gordon one of my tickets as I’m friendly like that. Ivan was floating about for a while as well, but he had a Friday Five event to go and manage, something which I will actually go on at some point in the near future;
Julian looking excited to see my selection of Beyond the Firmament from Electric Bear Brewing, which was hazy, hoppy, slightly dank and rather decent. And that’s the exceptional Roy as well. Jen went off dancing, which we all thought was far too vibrant and animated for us so we ignored it and pretended that we didn’t know about it.
And also a delight to see Ben and Chris from Pastore and they had two delicious sours, the Roulade – Blueberry Lemon and the Doom II. The former was my favourite, gently tart and lots of lemon, but the Doom II was also very agreeable, tart, fruity and certainly wild…
After a very enjoyable evening at Beer Con I thought it might be sensible to go home at a sensible time, but then I got muddled up again and went to the White Lion. After a quick bit of interfering with their team’s bar billiards arrangements, it felt only polite to meander to the Artichoke as well.
