Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Poland

  • Malbork – Malbork Castle (Frederick the Great Statue)

    Malbork – Malbork Castle (Frederick the Great Statue)

    Back to another post about Malbork Castle….

    The Germans had a marvellous idea in the 1870s that they would create a large and impressive statue of Frederick the Great (1718-1786) which would stand two metres high. Frederick was the King of Prussia between 1740 and 1786 and responsible for the First Partition of Poland, which was to ultimately destroy the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The aim of their great statue was to have four figures underneath it, each of whom was an important Teutonic Grand Master.

    They picked:

    Hermann von Salza, Grand Master from 1209 until 1239, who secured the status of the Teutonic Order.

    Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, Grand Master from 1303 until 1311, who moved the Teutonic Order base to Prussia.

    Winrich von Kniprode, Grand Master from 1351 until 1382, the longest serving holder of the office.

    Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Grand Master from 1510 until 1525, who turned the Order into a Protestant one following the Reformation (it’s been Catholic again since the 1920s).

    The aim of this little arrangement was to show the continuity between the Teutonic Order and the Prussian Kings, with the statues placed in the central courtyard of Malbork Castle which would make them hard for visitors to miss. The statues were all designed by Rudolf Simering and they were unveiled on 9 October 1877.

    Unfortunately, like a lot of things at the castle, they were badly damaged during the Second World War. The statue of Frederick the Great has been entirely lost, although the four Grand Masters are still here and have since been repaired and restored. Their arrangement today looks a bit random, but they once stood in each corner of the grand monument that had Frederick the Great on top of them. I’m not sure what Frederick the Great would have thought about all this…..

  • Malbork – Malbork Castle (Amber Museum)

    Inside the formidable Malbork Castle is the amber museum which for reasons known only to them is entirely missed off the audio guide they gave to me, and I only found it as I guessed it should be on the tour. The signage on site is pretty poor for this, I think they’re relying on their audio guide.

    It’s quite a sizeable museum and would in normal circumstances be worth a visit in its own right, even if it wasn’t located within the castle. It opened in 1965, just four years after the castle reopened after repairs were made following the serious damage caused during the Second World War.

    Amber is fossilised tree resin which I think is impressive when it contains prehistoric creatures, such as the one above. Amber is also commonly used in jewellery, although that’s of little interest to me. It has though been traded in this part of Poland for centuries and it has apparently been traded for thousands of years. I think it’s possible to walk along the beach and often find some, but on my coastal walk last week it was snowing which made that endeavour rather more complex.

    Some of the examples of amber jewellery.

    A recreation of an amber worker’s set-up.

    There are some inter-active elements in the museum and the whole arrangement felt modern.

    I can’t see that I was overly excited by amber which has been turned into other things, but this was quite impressive. It’s some sort of solitaire game on the left dating from the eighteenth century and on the right are chess pieces dating from the first part of the eighteenth century.

    And my favourite item in the museum was the guild book of the Slupsk (a Polish town a little to the west of Gdansk) amber guild from 1569 until 1804.

    Anyway, it was an interesting distraction from the rest of the castle. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that the audio guide didn’t include this section at all. That’s not entirely true, just as I was leaving the exhibition it decided to tell me that I had reached the beginning of the amber museum. I turned the damn thing off at that point.

  • Gdansk – New Swing Bridge over River Motława

    Gdansk – New Swing Bridge over River Motława

    This new swing bridge for pedestrians was constructed as part of the development of Granary Island and it opened in 2020.

    Here it is in action to let the pirate ship through.

    I think it’s rather nicely designed, it’s quite graceful to watch it spinning around. It was constructed by Immobel (Belgium) and Multibud (Poland) and cost around £1.5 million. This view has certainly changed since I first came to Gdansk a few years ago, with Granary Island still showing the damage from the Second World War, but now it’s a modern leisure and residential complex.

    I took this photo in 2016 and Granary Island is on the left and the swing bridge would be right at the foreground of this image.

    And here it is at night. All rather lovely.

  • Gdansk – Memorial to Murdered Scouts During the Second World War

    Gdansk – Memorial to Murdered Scouts During the Second World War

    I don’t have much to add about this memorial in Gdansk, other than I think it’s a really appealing design to make its appearance look like a tree stump. It’s here to commemorate the lives of those scouts and their leaders who were killed during the Second World War, many of whom were murdered as the organised ranks were considered a threat to the new German regime.

    One of those murdered was Alfa Liczmański who was the co-organiser of the scouting movement in the city, which in 1939 had 2,000 members. He was arrested soon after the Free City of Danzig was seized and was imprisoned locally before being taken to the concentration camp in Stutthof, located around 35 miles from the city. He was executed by the Germans on 20 March 1940, although his body was exhumed after the war and his remains moved to Cmentarz Srebrzysko.

    The memorial was unveiled in 2003 and there’s more information about the movement at https://gdanska.zhp.pl/komisja-historyczna-choragwi-gdanskiej/.

  • Gdansk – 210 Bus to Airport from City Centre

    Gdansk – 210 Bus to Airport from City Centre

    Many cities around the world treat passengers coming in on airlines as this money making opportunity from the moment they get off the aircraft, with dodgy taxi arrangements and expensive public transport from the airport. Glorious Gdansk, as ever, does none of that. The 210 bus goes from the airport to the city centre (and of course back again) and costs 3.8zł, or about 70p, for the journey. The 110 bus also goes into the city, but stops at Galeria Bałtycka (or Gdańsk Wrzeszcz to be precise, but I tend to remember things by shopping centres and their food courts) which then requires a walk/tram/bus/train into the Old Town of Gdansk.

    The bus back to the airport goes from opposite the central railway station, or at this spot near to Forum Gdańsk. There’s not normally more of a 15 minute wait between buses and the times are clearly displayed. There’s a 24-hour service, although the night time version of the 110 and 210 buses is the N3 service.

    Spacious inside and it’s easiest just to buy tickets from the machine by the bus stop, which are available in English and Polish to avoid any purchasing mistakes. They accept card and cash. But it is essential to validate the ticket on boarding, not that I’ve ever been asked to show my ticket in Gdansk.

    The journey takes 45 minutes to get from the centre of Gdansk to the airport.

    Taken at roughly the same place at the airport, it was a little colder when I arrived into Gdansk a couple of weeks ago…..

    And here we are, back at the delights of Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport.

  • Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport – Executive Lounge

    Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport – Executive Lounge

    I’m not entirely sure of the official name here, but I think it’s just ‘Executive Lounge’, so we’ll go with that. It’s the only lounge in Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport, so it’s not a confusing arrangement. It’s only around one minute walk from security and it’s near to most of the gates, with the signage being reasonably clear.

    There was only one staff member visible as it was quiet, and she was welcoming the occasional entrant in a friendly manner, as well as filling up the food and drink supplies.

    As can be seen, not a packed lounge in terms of the number of customers. There were a few power points dotted around, although not really enough, and the lounge uses the airport wi-fi which isn’t of a very high standard. Not an ideal arrangement in either case.

    The view back down onto the concourse, with the queue to for check-in for my flight still visible to me. I was pleased not to be at the back of that queue.

    The drinks selection. There were signs on the fridge saying that staff had to serve the food and drink, but the staff member told me that I could just get whatever I wanted myself. Covid regulations seem to be tailing off quite quickly at the moment and since it was quiet it made more sense for the customers to help themselves.

    Some of the food selection, which is mostly snack based.

    Always a positive sign I think to see a local beer, Jasne from Brovarnia Gdansk. It was an unexceptional lager, but it’s local and hard to find anywhere else, so an effort has been made and so I approve.

    There wasn’t much else in the way of the food, but this salami and salad roll was quite tasty.

    I gained entry into the lounge via my credit card which gives me two free lounge accesses per year, but otherwise it would be £20 to get in. I’m not sure that there’s much value there, unless someone wanted to drink a lot of alcohol quite quickly I suppose. However, I liked the lounge and it was peaceful and quiet. There could perhaps be more power points and the lounge really needs its own wi-fi that works properly, but the arrangement seemed organised and I was pleased to have visited.

  • Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    And it was time to come back to the UK, departing from Lech Wałęsa airport in Gdansk. As an aside, it must feel odd for Lech Wałęsa when he uses this airport to know that the entire place is named after him. I’m always slightly saddened to leave Poland, but I’ll be back in a few weeks and so can look forwards to that.

    Usually I’d just download my boarding pass on my phone and go straight through security, but Wizz Air don’t have any on-line processes in place to check the documents of travellers, so everyone is directed to the check-in desks first. It’s positive that they’re checking the UK’s Locator Form, although to be fair they’re legally obliged to, but a shame they don’t have a set-up similar to that BA have with VeriFLY.

    I tried to get through a little earlier, but the friendly member of staff at check-in said they would only open the boarding desk for my flight two hours before the flight departed. She also helpfully mentioned that my mask wouldn’t be accepted by Wizz Air on any of their flights, although I did silently think it had been accepted on the Wizz Air flight out to Gdansk. But, I wasn’t sure on their policy and had a spare mask, so that was all fine. I was told to check the boarding screens around 150 minutes before the flight, which transpired to be useful advice, as that’s when the check-in desk for my flight opened. I was fortunate to be nearly at the front of the queue, as it snaked back to the entrance to the terminal within a few minutes. The member of check-in staff quickly checked that I had a passenger locator form confirmation and then my boarding pass was printed, which is a free service when customers can’t check-in on-line.

    Safely through security (where I was praised by the security staff for my efficiency, which I lapped up willingly) and into the lounge (more on which in another post) it was time to trek to the corner of the airport and Gate 1, located in the non-Schengen zone. There was a queue, but there’s always a queue with Wizz Air…..

    This process is the same with Wizz Air and Ryanair, they call passengers forwards to wait before the aircraft is ready for boarding. Which means a wait on the steps down to the tarmac, which is fine for me leaning against a wall reading a book on my phone, but less so for those who don’t feel quite as comfortable standing on steps for twenty minutes.

    And it started to rain quite heavily, but it was only a short walk to the aircraft. Wizz Air rarely use airbridges, which has the advantage of meaning that I can take photos of the aircraft.

    The aircraft was registration HA-LXS, an Airbus A321, which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2017.

    I boarded via the back of the aircraft and the flight was clearly busy, and I think just about full.

    I had the middle seat, which is the first time I’ve had this in years, although the other passengers on each side were ideally behave which makes things easier. The leg room on Wizz Air really isn’t ideal, but the flight was only for two hours and so is bearable. The crew were friendly and helpful, although I couldn’t work out where they were from as their ability so speak so many different languages is really quite impressive. The pilot announcements were hard to hear, but we landed on time although the wind made the landing quite bumpy. Well, very bumpy actually, but it added to the excitement, although the babies on board decided at this moment that they really didn’t like what was happening.

    It’s also fair to add here that this flight cost me £7.50, so it’s hard to fault Wizz Air for anything given that. The service ran as expected, the aircraft was clean, the flight was on time and everything was as comfortable as could be expected. The arriving into Luton Airport on time was fortunate as my friend Liam was there to pick me up, so he didn’t have to wait for endless amounts of time in an industrial park in Luton. Anyway, based on this flight I’d happily fly with Wizz Air again, they fly to a wide number of destinations that I want to visit and although I can’t claim the flight was luxurious, it’d be ridiculous to complain at the price that they charged.

  • Gdansk – Czerwony Piec (Słony Spichlerz)

    Gdansk – Czerwony Piec (Słony Spichlerz)

    This is the pizza option at the Słony Spichlerz food court in Gdansk. There were plenty of food venues to choose from, but I do like pizza…..

    There’s the English menu, the pizzas cost between £4 and £6. They give you a buzzer so you know when to go and collect the pizza, which is handy if the nearest seat that you can find is a little bit of a way from the counter. The staff member was helpful and friendly, with the ordering process being easy to understand.

    I went for the N’Duja pizza and it was really rather lovely, with generous toppings, a reasonably large size and lots of delicious spicy sausage. The pizza base was thin and crispy, the tomato sauce was rich and actually quite decadent, with the cheese not being too overpowering. It’s prepared in the wood fired oven and that gives it some nice blackening, and the base they used seems to be of a good quality.

    There were a selection of beers available as well, which were fine for my needs, nothing exceptional but there were some options that I haven’t tried before and so that interested me. The surroundings are clean and comfortable, with the whole set-up feeling organised and well managed. A rather decent final lunch in Gdansk, which is handy as I had saved a visit here until last as a little farewell treat…..

  • Gdansk – Słony Spichlerz (Food Court)

    Gdansk – Słony Spichlerz (Food Court)

    Słony Spichlerz has opened relatively recently and it’s a food court which has a bar and several restaurant options. This whole set-up is becoming more common now and if done well it can be quite effective and on-trend. There are nine different restaurants here which cover a variety of cuisines, with a common seating area between them. That’s a handy option for groups that want to eat different styles of food, as they can all sit together.

    This photo didn’t come out quite as clearly as I would have liked, but it’s one of the rooms with three dining options visible, Bang!Kuk Thai, Sexy Bull Burgers and MexEat Tacos & Burritos.

    This was the option that I went for, the pizza from Czerwony Piec, with the option to the left being Ramen & Sushi and the option to the right (not in the photo) being Great Greek.

    The Pasta Miasta option. All of these outlets looked interesting, so there’s plenty for me to come back to if I come to Gdansk again, which is fairly likely.

    There’s a bar on the first floor, which is Salty Bar, but the beer choices were rather unexciting, so I gave that a miss. This strikes me as unusual as well, the decadent food courts I’ve been to before across Europe tend to have an on trend bar with the latest drinks, whereas here they’ve settled for generic options mainly based around cocktails. I have nothing against Guinness (indeed, I very much like Guinness), but that’s really not the dark beer option that any decent bar should have when there are so many excellent Polish breweries creating marvellous porters and stouts. At least they’ve made the effort to put their menus all around the venue though, which is helpful.

    Anyway, this was an interesting location and I liked the set-up here. I went on a Sunday lunchtime shortly after opening and it was getting quite busy, so it seems to be a popular venue. There’s not a vast amount of seating, so it might take a little waiting for be able to find a table during the summer months. Recommended though, and there should be a dining option for most tastes.

  • Gdansk – Cukiernia Sowa (Ulica Długa)

    Gdansk – Cukiernia Sowa (Ulica Długa)

    This is the first day in Poland on this trip that I didn’t have breakfast at the hotel, so I thought that I’d pop to my favourite Polish chain that is Cukiernia Sowa. This is a substantial sized shop on Ulica Długa, the city’s main street, and it stretches across numerous properties.

    Just as I thought I knew Cukiernia Sowa and their set-up, I realised (well, was told by a polite staff member) that there was table service offered and the counter service was for take-away customers only. I was reassured though to note that from a few on-line reviews and customers in the shop that others were also confused. The usual tempting display of cakes is visible though, all looking beautiful and well presented.

    I had a pleasant seat by the window. The staff member took a few minutes to come over but he was helpful, although seemed moderately surprised that my order was limited to a hot chocolate. They do more substantial meals here to an extent that I haven’t seen before in this chain, the cheese and meat platters looked interesting, but I was saving myself for my lunchtime pizza that I had been planning elsewhere.

    And here’s the entirety of my order, the hot chocolate. I might have been tempted (as I set the bar quite low here on being tempted by an eclair or something) to get a pastry with it if ordering at the counter, but I couldn’t be faffing with that for table service. It’s a rich hot chocolate that you can stand a spoon up in, always a delight, and it costs around £1.70, which I think is a bargain for such decadence.

    As usual, the environment here is calm and comfortable, quite a cosy little arrangement. It took me a few minutes to get the staff member’s attention to get the bill, but it wasn’t an excessive wait. I can see why they’ve switched to table service here, as most customers probably want something a little more substantial and that’s more difficult for the staff members to deal with at the counter in a busy environment. I’m sure one day that will be replaced with ordering via an app, which is always a handy option for me. Anyway, I recommend the hot chocolates here, very delightful.