Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Poland

Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (100 Years of Katowice in Poland)

During my week in the city, I managed by chance to see some of the celebrations marking 100 years since Katowice became part of an independent Poland. No longer would it be Kattowitz under German control, it would be part of what is now known as the Second Polish Republic. The Government has also created a new public holiday for 20 June, marking the Silesian Uprisings and the country’s President, Andrzej Duda, came to Katowice a few weeks ago to sign that into law. My photo is hardly ideal since there’s just lots of backs, but I understand there were some important military figures amongst that group, as well as the country’s Culture Secretary.

This was the formal parade on 20 June at the Silesian Insurgents’ Monument and I think this was more focused on marking the new public holiday. The pride in the city was evident and there was a large turnout of locals of all ages.

This photo was from the day before, and the focus on this was Katowice being 100 years as part of the independent Poland, or at least, that’s what I understand the arrangements were. I noted a brief history of all this in my Bytom post, but it was on 20 June 1922 that the Weimar Republic formally ceded the lands to Poland, with Polish troops moving in two days.

Stanisław Szeptycki (1867-1950), the leader of the Polish troops in Silesia, on his horse taking Katowice for the Polish on 22 June 1922.

I don’t know who they are, but those suited men came in Government cars which swept in, which added to the excitement of the event. Indeed, I was so excited I went to get a beer to help the Polish celebrate.

There were numerous musical performances taking place over the weekend, including also a gathering of Scouts. This made it challenging for the tram network (I mean that there’s a big performance space over the tracks, not the gathering of scouts), which crosses over this square.

There was then a parade of what appears to be of numerous uniformed services which I caught the tail end of.

Beautiful, a proud nation state.

The temperatures in Katowice were what I consider extreme, so these useful water cooling systems were handy for pedestrians in the area. I made several detours over the weekend to walk through this.

A little tank in the main square.

Residents wouldn’t have had any difficulty in finding a police officer during the weekend.

Anyway, I enjoyed visiting the city at this time. I like to think that those in Katowice 100 years ago would be proud of what it has become, still one of the most important cities in what is now the Third Polish Republic. I think it’s got a very positive future in front of it, and I wonder what it will look like in 2122, hopefully there will be plenty of craft beer bars then.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Ibis Budget Katowice)

This is the Accor complex in Katowice of Ibis Budget on the left and Novotel on the right. There’s also a Mercure hotel in the city centre, next to the railway station. This is my fourth stay in this Ibis Budget hotel and I think it’s one of the better managed that I’ve seen. I know that if Richard was here he’d be straight in the Novotel, but he’s very decadent and he likes expensive things.

Ibis Budget don’t need to provide a welcome gift or drink, so this gesture of a chocolate bar and coffee was much appreciated. The staff at this hotel were always friendly and helpful, with the housekeeping staff being thorough and personable as well. I’m not sure if there are kettles in every room or whether they put that in there for me, as it’s not usual to see them in Ibis Budget hotels.

I had been in the room for about three hours before I noticed this. A very nice touch 🙂

The breakfast buffet arrangement.

Half of the breakfast room, which always had plenty of space.

The room and breakfast was about £25 per night, which I thought was excellent value for money given that it was June when hotels are getting busier.

Anyway, this is a really rather lovely hotel at a budget price. Friendly staff, spotlessly clean, I didn’t have any problems during my week here. Although they could do with a faster lift, but I won’t hold that against them.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Selection of Food and Drink)

Well, I couldn’t not post about some random food and drink options I discovered during my week in Katowice. I have been to the city numerous times before, mostly pre-blog, hence why I tried to go to places I hadn’t visited before.

This little oasis of peace and calm is Coffee To Go, inside the Katowice railway station complex. They had power points, rather lovely coffee and friendly staff. It’s actually almost a little too grand an interior for a railway station, but it did work in creating a comfortable atmosphere.

Biała Małpa (white monkey) which confused me a little briefly, the right-hand side is a Mexican restaurant, but this is the left-hand side and the brewery bit. I went in the afternoon when it was quiet, and it’s a clean and comfortable environment. It’s quite large with an upstairs and also a large outside area.

Some excellent beers here, this is the Risfactor Coffee & Maple, from the formidable PINTA brewery which I’ve mentioned a few times as they’ve got their own bar in Warsaw.

Incidentally, that is a cardboard cut-out at the end of the bar. This is the TIPA TDH Cryo Pop, which the bar gave me as they didn’t have enough to serve it in the larger measure that I had asked for. I thought this was very generous, as they could have charged me for a smaller beer.

Either my regular readers might be able to guess where this is from the decor….

The Cukierni Sowa outlet in Katowice. And I’ve realised that I’ve forgotten, yet again, to go to their London outlet, despite my being in Ealing a few weeks ago. I will remember one day.

I thought I’d go to a beer shop, Bierland, which was highly recommended, and it was just slightly difficult to find in a housing estate, but the welcome was immediate and friendly. They had a couple of fridges, alongside this substantial collection of beers across numerous styles.

The friendly guy at the bar decided he wasn’t sure if my carrier bag from Lidl would be strong enough, so he gave me this instead for free.

That was a larger supply of beers that I had intended to get, but they were all rather delicious and decadent. Actually, I did well to manage to limit myself to these, there were more Funky Fluid beers that I could shake a stick at (not recommended with glass bottles actually) and numerous other Polish brewers.

Mr Fox Pub & Resto, where the service was once again impeccable and welcoming. I think the manager was surprised I wanted to sit inside in the air conditioned cold interior, rather where others were outside, but I had been overheated enough already in the Katowice sun.

It’s more common in Poland than the UK to be offered sauce with pizzas, but I think this should be made the law. It makes things much better, although the pizza was already delicious anyway.

The beer and pizza was £6, an indication of the value for money that is available across Poland. I might have mentioned before, I very much like Poland…..

There seems little point me mentioning again the friendly service in Poland as it’s nearly always brilliant, and this was no exception at Browariat Craft Beer Zone. There’s a music theme and they play from vinyl records to add to the character of the venue, although I was there for the range of beer which was exceptional and a little different as well, they’ve sourced some interesting beers from brewers across Europe.

The Coffee Stout from Pivovar Mazak, a Czech brewer.

Sometimes I order from bottles and am slightly disappointed when they pour the drink and chuck the bottle away. This is what I consider poor bar(wo)manship, the empty bottle should be presented with the glass, as it was here. The label was also presented to me facing forwards, an under-rated skill, I do note when the bar server presents the logo on the glass facing towards me. I’d better add that I don’t get annoyed if they don’t, it’s just a touch of professionalism that I do note. Unusually in craft beer terms (although the situation is getting better), this is a French beer and it’s from the interestingly named Piggy Brewing Company, with the beer being called Monstruous Fat Pig Stout Mexican Cake Edition, and very decadent it was too.

That selection will do for now, the prices in Katowice are lower than in other parts of Poland, so there are numerous restaurants, cafes and bars offering some excellent quality for very reasonable prices.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Give Walls a Chance)

Another one of my random posts, I just thought that the wording here was a little different. It’s handy when Poles write graffiti in English, it gives me a chance to understand it.

There are some pockets of Katowice where buildings aren’t in great shape, and I include this here as the graffiti in the first photo is just visible on the extreme right of this photo. This building caused some excitement during the week when some bits fell off it (which I think everyone agrees isn’t ideal), with the fire brigade coming out to deal with the situation. I assume it was made safe, although the only evidence of their work is the taped off section.

Whilst I’m writing of graffiti and the like, there were no shortage of anti-Putin and anti-Russian messages across the city.

And some more street art, this is Wojciech Korfanty (1873-1939), briefly the Deputy Prime Minister of Poland during late 1923. He was heavily involved in the movement to get the area to become part of Poland and is a post-war national hero of the country.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Former Katowice Railway Station)

This is Katowice’s lovely new glass fronted railway station, in the same building as the substantial shopping centre Galerią Katowicką, all very modern and integrated. It’s meant a much better frontage, ticket selling facilities and the like, although the platform section hasn’t much changed. A new station had opened in 1972, but it wasn’t a very impressive building and it was demolished to be replaced with the current one. Fortunately, the 1972 railway station hadn’t been constructed on the site of the earlier nineteenth century building, which meant that the old structures were preserved.

For anyone interested in the old railway station, there’s an article at https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stary_dworzec_kolejowy_w_Katowicach. But, this is what one wing looks like now, feeling rather abandoned, originally constructed in the 1850s although much modified since then.

The area in front of the former railway station is looking much better, with seating and this area has a fountain installed where previously there was just a temporary car park. The building jutting out in the middle is the former entrance to the railway station.

At least this stretch of the building has been kept and I’m sure it’ll be modernised and restored soon.

Inside the derelict building. I mostly took a photo of this just to see how the site develops over the next few years.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday : Leaving Katowice for Warsaw

After a relaxing and productive week in Katowice, it was a late morning intercity train back to Warsaw, costing around £10. As a summary of Katowice, I’d merrily recommend it as a destination and the budget airlines service it well from many cities around Europe. A former manufacturing area, it’s modernising and has plenty now for tourists to do and plenty of craft beer options. Not that craft beer options are the be all and end all of choosing destinations, but it should obviously be a factor….

I’m always a little nervous when two trains are departing at the same time, but mine was the 10:53 to Gdynia. Not the 10:53 to Krakow.

The platforms haven’t been much modernised in terms of facilities, as I made reference to in another post. But, everything was clean and organised and there were sufficient benches available.

Then the excitement starts, the train is showing as being delayed in Austria, as it was coming from Vienna. Obviously, the Polish bit of the journey was all fine, but it turned in around twenty minutes late. It was also evidently going to be a busy train given the number of people waiting for the service.

I can confirm it’s a relief to me when a train turns up when the app I was using it said that it would. I always leave lots of spare time in any travelling schedule, as I like to worry about things and always assume they’ll happen (my friend Liam would knock out all those frivolous gaps if he was arranging my travel, but he isn’t so I needn’t concern myself about that). Although I did think that this delay would be eating into my drinking time.

The train came in back to front, so I was standing at the wrong end of the platform. I muttered silently and traipsed to the other end of the platform and after getting to my carriage I was asked by a young Polish women to help her with getting her luggage on the train. The damn bag must have weighed about 30kgs, but I had to pretend that it was easy for me to manage lugging up the steps onto the train. The older Polish intercity trains aren’t very good for those with disabilities (although I think there are alternatives) and not are they easy to lift bloody heavy luggage up to. It was quite busy, and my reserved table seat had three of us, so this photo is after they left at the stop before me in Warsaw. The train made up the lost time, the guard was helpful and the power worked, all rather lovely.

A photo of the railway civil engineering project that is taking place just outside of Warsaw, I have to keep my content exciting for my friend Liam.

The whole of Warsaw to choose from, but of course, I had to go back to Hoppiness. This is the delectable Gelato : Orange Creamsicle from Funky Fluid, an ice cream sour packed with oranges from Portugal. I suspect this must have counted for three of my five a day, with the burger being as delicious as ever and there’s a tomato and lettuce in it, so that’s the other two of my five a day. I was careful not to impale any part of myself on the stick coming out of the burger.

I might have taken a photo of this before (I forget….) but it’s a pedestrian crossing which comes from all angles. Cars are very good at stopping for pedestrians at this junction, and indeed across Poland, but it’s an odd arrangement. The white hatching in the centre is part of the pedestrian crossing and it cuts across to all three pavements.

I always like looking at the Pomnik Chwała Saperom, or Glory to Sappers Memorial. It’s visible at the far end of this park, Park Sapera, which is currently being renovated and improved. Everything in Warsaw seems to have been either recently improved or redeveloped, part of why I very much like this city. Things seem to work and are constantly getting better in the city, which isn’t the case in other places that I’ve visited.

A monument in the park which I haven’t noticed before (I mean I haven’t noticed the monument, not the entire park), although there are literally thousands of memorials, tablets and plaques to the bravery of Poles in the Second World War, so I imagine I’ll still be noticing new ones for many years to come. This one is dedicated to the “Kryska” Home Army Grouping, although that included men from other European countries, who died during the Warsaw Uprising.

The Glory to Sappers Memorial I’ve written about before.

But this is the first time I’ve noticed there’s a list of names to the side of the memorial. Another list of the brave men who died in World War Two, so much of a generation wiped out by the hatred of a few national leaders who caused the conflict. These lists will be in Ukrainian cities in a few years, marking the bravery of those who lost their lives fighting for their nation and the right to be free.

And back again to the Ibis Budget in Warsaw for my final night in the city, probably for some months. I’ve written about this hotel before, so won’t bore my limited readership with further irrelevant prose…

I love the view over the Vistula and there’s the national stadium visible on the other side of the river. Very peaceful.

July 2, 2022
Tuesday – Tuesday : Katowice Week (Bytom)

Without giving a long lecture about the history of Poland, the area around Katowice is part of Upper Silesia. Before the First World War, the land was mostly part of Prussia, but that conflict changed everything for this region. The new independent Poland was created in 1918, the Second Polish Republic, and the land borders needed to be defined. This was a tricky situation in Upper Silesia, some people considered themselves as German and some considered themselves as Polish, and, of course, the dividing line was not clear.

The League of Nations were trying to resolve the situation when they lost control and the local Poles rose up in anger on three occasions. In the end, there was only one option, which was to have a vote of the people who lived there, asking do you want to be in Poland or Germany? And the results didn’t provide the clarity that the allied authorities might have hoped for. The town of Katowice voted strongly to be German, but the residents around it wanted to be Polish, with a similar situation in Bytom. Bytom’s division was as clear as mud, 73,567 voted to be German, whilst 73,122 wanted to be Polish.

Katowice became Polish because of the wider region, and they built a huge new Parliament building there which was for a long time the largest building in Poland. Bytom though was given to Germany, because they were able to give some of the territory around it to Poland and the city itself had wanted to become German. Looking back, I don’t know if a further eruption of these borders was inevitable, but of course Hitler’s vision for Europe blew the arrangements apart. In 1939, his armies walked into Poland and he claimed Silesia was once permanently reunited as part of Germany.

Following the end of the Second World War, the then border town of Bytom was given to Poland and it’s no longer anywhere near the German border. I mention all this as the city has had a different twentieth century compared to Katowice, given it was under German control for over two decades.

The legacy is still visible, this shopfront still has the pre-war signage from when the city was in Germany. I found this exposed sign fascinating, it does bring the past to life.

Bytom was not treated well under the communist occupied period following the Second World War, it became a dirty, polluted and heavily industralised area, although the seven coal mines provided a lot of work. Its transformation has been dramatic over the last couple of decades, but there’s plenty to do, as is visible with buildings such as this which are next to the main market square.

There were literally tens of large buildings in the central area which are derelict, with no obvious signs that they’re going to be redeveloped any time soon.

Although I’ve jumped a little ahead with this story, the region has excellent transport links, this is the tram I photographed in Katowice which took me straight to Bytom. A day pass to use the entire network of trams in the region, which is one of the largest networks in Europe, costs under £2.

It wasn’t the busiest tram service that I’ve ever been on. And my first impressions of Bytom weren’t great, the tram swept through derelict areas and then when I got off the tram there was a drunk man urinating in the little park area. It’s wrong to judge any location by an initial impression like that, but on this occasion, there didn’t feel the air of confidence that is evident in nearby Katowice.

Excuse my mistranslation, but this means something like “women know what they are doing”.

The Chopin monument in front of the opera house and I don’t know when this was put here, but I’m confident it was after the Second World War given his importance to the Polish nation.

Another derelict building, this one feels very Prussian in design.

All photos of the main market square, which is huge and has had some work to improve its look, although some buildings looking out onto it are derelict. Some structures are grand Prussian designs, others are more utilitarian post-war structures which were almost just thrown up.

The sleeping lion, which is one of the city’s iconic monuments. It dates from 1873 when it was erected on a plinth to mark those from the local area who lost their lives in the Franco-Prussian War. The plinth was destroyed during the Second World War and somehow the lion was moved to Warsaw Zoo where he sat outside guarding the entrance. In 2008, he was returned to Bytom and there are some photos of the lion on the plinth at https://instytutkorfantego.pl/blog/lew-spiacy-historia-jednego-odlewu/.

The catholic Church of St. Mary’s.

Bytom had a feeling that it was on the up, although there’s quite a lot of up still to go. There isn’t the vibrancy in terms of the number of restaurants, cafes and bars, but there’s an evident cultural base to the city with the opera house and other similar institutions.

One sign of wealth coming into a city is the opening of a large shopping centre and Bytom has one of those with an interesting sculpture.

I went to have a look at the sculpture.

They’ve dug one of the main routes up and are just working around the pedestrians.

I had to pop into the city’s outlet of Cukiernia Sowa.

Delicious. That hot chocolate is thick, decadent and bloody lovely.

It had an excellent view of Holy Trinity Church as well throughout the window.

In English, “I’m smiling at you”.

This is Plac Grunwaldzki and that’s the synagogue on the right hand side. It was built in 1869 on the site of a previous synagogue but was destroyed during Kristallnacht on 9 November 1938. This happened just two days after Joseph Goebbels had visited the city calling for hate to be shown to the Jews, with the local Jewish community being forced to watch the destruction of their synagogue. At the time, I imagine the community must have wished they were the other side of the border in Poland, although of course a year later the Germans had marched into Katowice and destroyed the synagogue there as well.

What is haunting is standing in front of the sign with the photo on, seeing that everything is still there other than the synagogue.

A block of apartment buildings has been built on part of the site now, but this plaque was recently put here to reminder people of the history. They did some archaeological work on the site recently, to pin down the exact dimensions of the synagogue and see what evidence could be found of the older structure.

And getting the tram back out, which wasn’t difficult given the excellent public transport system that I’ve already mentioned. Bytom really was an interesting place, it would have been a vibrant Prussian city at the beginning of the twentieth century, with new buildings being constructed and many in the area were becoming wealthy. I can imagine the optimism at that point, which all fell apart during the First World War, then the uncertainty in the years after that conflict. The Germans tried to make their border town wealthy during the inter-war period, but that prosperity collapsed during the Second World War.

The remaining German population was mostly moved out after the Second World War, a mass movement of people which is often overlooked in history, with the Polish population displaced from the eastern side of the country often being moved here. It meant a new city, but the post-war period wasn’t kind to Bytom with the lack of investment. The population started to move away in the 1980s and 1990s, with a return to prosperity only returning relatively recently and there’s still a long way to go. Bearing in mind that the city had a population of 240,000 in 1989 and it’s now 170,000, the size of the challenge is evident.

I’m not sure of the city’s future, it needs more people to move there to see a need to renovate and restore the derelict buildings. It’s not going to be a big tourist attraction, as even the nearby Katowice is often overlooked by visitors to Poland, so it’ll have to find its own economic niche. I get the impression that if I come back to Bytom in 25 years, it’ll be unrecogisable and will feel like a much more modern and vibrant city.

June 30, 2022
Monday : Siedlce to Mokotów Holiday Inn Express via Warsaw Bars

Continuing this story of a soggy Siedlce railway station…. The railway station was constructed in 1866 and, to be honest, it probably needs a bit of modernisation in the way that similar locations are being transformed across Poland. The original buildings were burnt down before the Second World, replaced with rather functional post-war structures and then modernised a bit for when the Pope visited. Handy arrangement that, get a new railway station by the Pope visiting, perhaps he could pop to a few places in the UK that I think need one.

Same sort of train as I got to get to Siedlce, operated by Koleje Mazowieckie. On time again, very reliable.

And not at all busy. Spotlessly clean again.

Back into Warsaw Śródmieście railway station, which always feels Russian to me.

I mentioned in a previous post that there’s only one track here and the railway carriages can be accessed from either side, it’s a bit more obvious in this photo.

I hadn’t been to Hoppiness in Warsaw on this trip, so I treated myself to a decadent and suitably rich beer, the Fruit Machine from Browar Monsters, including passion fruit, white guava, pineapple and vanilla. Very healthy and nutritious.

I couldn’t resist a little trip to Cukiernia Sowa either, one of my favourite Polish chains that I frequently mentioned. I can’t claim great entertainment of new places to write about here, since this is another repeat visit, but quality deserves checking on again and again.

The Siedlce rain reached Warsaw and so I panicked and rushed into a pub for safety. I sat with this beer in PINTA for over an hour, not because it was annoying me somehow, but because it was so rich that it deserved to be savoured slowly. Oh, and it was still raining outside, so I wasn’t going anywhere. And what a beautiful beer, another from PINTA themselves, as this is their taproom, and I had several in this range of imperial stouts at the Warsaw Beer Festival a few months back. This beer was no less delightful, being smooth, rich, velvety, coconuty and a perfect drink for when it’s wet outside. Or indeed when it’s dry outside. That reminds me, I must go back to the Warsaw Beer Festival next year.

There’s the outside of PINTA when it’s not pouring down with rain.

Another tram journey as I was heading towards a hotel I had never stayed in before, the Mokotów Holiday Inn Express.

I may have mentioned before, indeed on several occasions, that I’d like to see more tram services in the UK. They’re much better than buses, they’re easier to board and usually quicker.

I popped to Lidl for two things and they have self-service checkouts, which I’m not sure whether or not is a thing in the UK ones. Anyway, I was third in the queue, and the woman in front of me said to go ahead of her as she had about fifteen things, then so did the woman in front and then the woman in front of her, so I didn’t have to wait very long. I kept trying to say no, as I wasn’t in a rush and hate queue jumping, but I admire the Polish style about these things. It’s a warm feeling about humanity in general. Anyway, there’s a nice bridge to cross the road with.

And the view from above the road, with the tram lines sweeping through. A thoroughly modern city, but I’ve mentioned that about Warsaw before.

My abode for the night, the Holiday Inn Express.

This is one of the best rooms I’ve had in a Holiday Inn Express, not least because the air conditioning worked and the windows opened. It was rather lovely listening to trams clanking on by, I like that sort of street noise, but I could have shut the windows if I didn’t want to hear it. The room was clean, the staff member at reception was friendly, I very much liked the whole arrangement. Unlike the UK, where the night-time street sounds are added to by about 15 groups of drunk groups shouting and smashing things, Poland doesn’t have anywhere near the same problem.

Looking back the other way, I quite like that desk arrangement, it’s a well thought out room, I’d happily stay here again. It was good to be back in Warsaw for one night, but I don’t think anyone who reads this blog would have expected me to write anything different. There was a new week ahead and I was on the move to Katowice.

June 28, 2022
Tuesday : Warsaw to Katowice by Train

Most of this post is simply recounting the story of one train journey, but that’s because I like recording these trips so that I remember them, so apologies to those that think that there’s a lot about trains in these posts. The morning started with the reassuring sounds of trams operating on a marginally different theme though.

The Holiday Inn Express breakfast which is quite heavily orientated to hot items, unlike Accor Hotels who are mostly about cold food options. I didn’t investigate the hot food, but the choice was quite limited, although this breakfast is included in the room rate and that normally restricts things a bit.

That’s more me.

I noted a few things were out of date which seemed odd in a fast moving environment. I doubt many people check these things, but I’m strange like that. Of those who notice, I bet even fewer take the time to photograph the dates and put them on a blog though….. Anyway, moving on.

The hotel is visible on the right of the photo, so near to the tram stop that goes into the centre of Warsaw and takes around 20 minutes.

Yes, yet another photo of a tram interior. This blog is a gift to anyone who likes looking at photos of Warsaw tram interiors.

Oops. I had a couple of hours to kill and I like the Polish KFCs as they are cheap and there’s unlimited soft drinks, so my laptop and I were productive for this time.

This is the ceiling of the shopping centre and that’s some very heavy rain forming.

The main concourse of Warszawa Centralna railway station. There’s free wi-fi from PKP in larger Polish railway stations which is always handy.

Down to platform 3.

And that’s my train, the 14:05 international service which goes to Vienna in Austria, via Katowice. These PKP inter-city trains are more expensive, I bought my ticket the day before and it cost £9 which I don’t think is too bad to cross half-way across Poland.

It was looking a busy service and it had come from Gdynia, another of my favourite cities, located just outside of Gdansk.

I accept this photograph isn’t worth entering into any competitions, unless it’s blurry photos of a train. But that’s what it looks like anyway. The train was too busy for me to take photos on, as I didn’t want people to wonder what I was doing. How travel bloggers video everything without being self-conscious I don’t know.

As mentioned, the service was quite busy, although I had no-one sitting next to me, but the two seats opposite were taken. Polish trains are very keen on seat reservations and the woman opposite me was quite annoyed at another older woman had moved her, it seems incorrectly. I know she was annoyed as she told me (in English, I think she assumed the older woman didn’t speak English), but I wasn’t going to confront a babushka about the situation.

The service was a little hot and we also had windowgate. There are only a couple of windows on the train and the window was located above our table. A young German man came over and said in English he wanted to close it, which seemed a compromise on language that suited me. I didn’t much want to close the window, but I decided to let the lady opposite choose, and she didn’t want a fight, so said yes and the German man shut it. Fifteen minutes later, a grumpy Polish man stomped down and said in Polish he was hot and so could I open the window? I mean, that put me in an awkward place, but I just opened it and was pleased with the outcome, but nervous that the German would stomp back down the carriage. Fortunately, he didn’t, and all was well.

And back in Katowice for the fourth time…..

June 28, 2022
Thursday : Pottering Around Warsaw

I can’t remember the exact number of visits, but this is something like the twentieth time I’ve come to Warsaw, one of my most favourite cities. I thought that I’d treat myself to a leisurely day in the city without needing to rush around.

The leisurely day started with the Mercure hotel breakfast arrangement, with a mound of chicken that I’d hidden underneath the rolls as my first plate.

The selection has definitely got better here over the years, although there are no gherkins which is unusual for a Polish Accor hotel, but the selection of cold meats is certainly sufficiently decadent. Often Ibis hotels have meats that I can’t identify by sight or taste, so I tend to stay clear of those, but it was much better here. There are other counters with pastries, hot food and other random things such as fruit.

I thought I’d splash out the £2 or so for an unlimited travel card for the day, which are much more affordable than the equivalent ticket in London.

The POLIN Jewish museum, which I’ve been to before, but as it was the free admission day, I decided to see what temporary exhibitions they had on. There were a lot of school parties touring the museum, but they were all suitably well behaved, something rather necessary given the nature of the museum. Oddly, the museum has decided to let visitors put their bags into the luggage storage area themselves and pick them up themselves, which seems a slight security risk to me. I spent most of my time in the museum worrying whether my laptop was safe, as unlike my friend Liam, I feel the need to worry about these things. I doubt Liam would have even thought about the risk, he’s far too care-free.

Kazimierz is the Jewish quarter of Krakow, relevant to me as it’s where I’m currently sitting writing this a couple of weeks on. I’ll catch up on posts soon enough…..

The decorative nature of Jewish art, this is a recreation of the Gwoździec Synagogue which is now in Ukraine and which was destroyed by the Nazis during the Second World War.

One of the elements that is interesting to me about the situation for the Jews in Poland during the 1930s is that many didn’t know what to do. Some just hoped the Germans wouldn’t invade Poland, so the fear of repression and hatred that Jews in Germany were suffering from might not have come to pass in anywhere near the same way. This photo is of the Cembal family from the town of Wyszków which is located to the north-east of Warsaw. Israel (third from right) was able to get to Argentina in 1935, but there were sufficient anti-semitic incidents that caused his wife and daughter fearful and so in 1937 they too managed to join Israel in South America.

The part of this which I find relevant is just how much the remainder of the post-war Jewish population must have looked back on their lives and wondered if they should have fled earlier and why they didn’t. Some, such as Otto Frank, had taken their family from Germany to Amsterdam, hoping they would find peace and freedom there. It was never inevitable that the Germans would march across Europe so quickly and decimate the Jewish population to the extent that they did, so it’s understandable that many families didn’t take the risk of uprooting themselves and fleeing. Hindsight is of course a wonderful thing and those who successfully left must have only looked on with horror with what they escaped. Although many Jewish families wouldn’t have sufficient money to be able to afford to flee, or the domestic arrangements to support such a move.

This photograph appears frequently in displays on the Holocaust and it was taken in the Krakow ghetto in 1942 (although the museum dates it to 1940). That grinning face of the Nazi officer is sinister and the ever present on-looker who did nothing to help.

This image is from Krasiński Square in Warsaw and was taken in 1940, with the Polish reading “Jews must not walk on this side of the street”.

The museum doesn’t have a huge number of exhibits, partly because not much survived the ghetto and also because it’s relatively new and so other institutions have had time to build up more substantial collections. This is an anti-typhus vaccine which was smuggled into the Warsaw Ghetto, likely from Lwów (now the Ukrainian city of Lviv) or Krakow.

The ghettos established by the Germans in Poland, this is another example of the sheer enormity of what happened in the country during the early 1940s.

This photo is one of 53 taken by Franz Konrad to show the demise of the Warsaw Ghetto and the destruction of the city’s Jewish population. It’s not clear exactly what humiliation is being meted out by the Nazi guards, but that adds somewhat to the depth of the image, it could have been one of so many things.

Another one from the album of 53 photos, but I’ve seen this one in many exhibitions before given the powerful nature of the imagery. That poor little boy, who I imagine likely lost his life soon after.

Jedwabne is a live political issue in Poland, it’s the site of a war crime where 340 men, women and children were killed in the village. It took place on 10 July 1941 and became a political issue again between 2000 and 2003 when the site was excavated for historical purposes, with the conclusion that local Poles as well as Germans were responsible for the crimes. The Polish President apologised for the crimes against humanity, but some believed this was not the responsibility of the Poles. I’m not sure that the Poles need to be so defensive, the country was not to blame for the Holocaust, but of course there were individuals who signed up the violent and hateful ideology of the Nazis, especially at a time without a free media. There is a widespread feeling though in the country that concentration camps should be referred to Nazi camps in Poland, rather than as Polish concentration camps.

Back to the image, the keys in the photo were excavated from the barn where the villagers were burnt to death, so they’re quite haunting.

The special temporary exhibition in the museum was on Jewish food, which was interesting, although I’m more engaged in the historical angle of the exhibits. And I was also still worrying about my laptop, which I’m pleased to write was sitting there quite happily still in the museum’s luggage storage facility.

The frontage of the museum, which has won numerous design awards.

Located opposite the POLIN museum is this sculpture of Jan Karski who fearlessly travelled Europe to ensure that messages about what was happening in Poland, including in the ghettos, got through to the Provisional Polish Government. He was awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award in June 1982, a formidably brave man and there’s plenty more about his story at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Karski.

One of my many new rituals is to pop to KFC on the first full day that I arrive back in Warsaw. It tastes better than the UK version and it’s much cheaper.

It was very hot, so I thought the underground would be cooler, which it was. Travel during the warmer months is a challenge for me, goodness knows why people go and seek heat out.

Back in Jabeerwocky.

The Bah Oui DNEIPA and the Triple Coffee & Salt, both from Funky Fluid, one of the most creative brewers in Poland. I like the flavour of salt in beer incidentally, it can add a rather pleasant after-taste to the arrangement. Anyway, this is a craft beer pub that is worth a little meander along to.

The Warsaw skyline and I was pleased to see that the sun had disappeared and it was suddenly less hot.

Then something odd happened, all the signage for the trams was put on hold and emergency vehicles were using the tram tracks.

A poor pedestrian had been struck by a tram and was receiving medical attention behind the red hoarding they’d put up. I decided against getting photos any closer as I don’t know what happened in this incident, but I was intrigued to see just how quickly Warsaw became grid-locked. I was also impressed at how quickly the TV crews got there, they were filming right by the accident and I’m never sure how they get to some incidents like this faster than the emergency services.

The air ambulance flew in. Anyway, there’s no need for any more photos of this tragic incident.

It’s not entirely clear in this photo, but I could count over 18 trams lined up. I got on the one near the front and finally after around twenty minutes they were able to clear the road, so we were moving once again.

And the welcome drink back at the hotel, a delicious Żywiec Porter.

June 26, 2022