Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Poland

  • Gdansk – Labeerynt

    Gdansk – Labeerynt

    There are a fair few craft beer bars in Gdansk and this is one that I don’t think that I’ve been to before, a cellar bar in the centre of the city. It’s not unusual for venues here to be creative with their names to get the word beer or similar into the title, this is another quirky choice.

    That’s a really rather lovely blackboard full of exciting drinks across a range of different beer styles.

    The bar is visible on entering, with a few seats at the front near to the door and then a longer section that goes off towards the rear. It’s inevitably a bit dark given that it’s in a cellar, but there’s nothing wrong with that set-up, as the Hop and Vine is one of the best pubs in the UK…. The staff member came and lit a candle for me at the table as well which added some extra light.

    There were some tempting, and expensive, darker beers, but since it was lunchtime I thought that I’d be measured and stick to some lighter beers. This is the Runaway, a fruit sour which was better than I had anticipated with rich flavours of mango. Some of the beer prices, particularly for darker beers, are expensive by Polish standards, but the quality is high and that’s entirely understandable.

    And the Fruit Bomb IPA, stone fruit flavours and very drinkable.

    I liked this bar, it had a welcoming and inviting vibe, important for every venue, but perhaps even more so for arrangements like this, when it’s a cellar bar where people aren’t quite sure what they’re walking into. The prominent blackboard and engaging staff member added positively to the whole experience, and there were plenty of seats available. A well thought beer menu with plenty of choice and the live list is available at https://labeerynt.ontap.pl/. If Poland had a Good Beer Guide, this pub would be in it (and apologies if it already does have an equivalent guide….)

  • Gdansk – Hot Bear Hot Dogs

    Gdansk – Hot Bear Hot Dogs

    It’s cold in Gdansk at the moment, so the thought of a hot dog seemed a perfectly sensible one. Actually, getting out of the wind coming from the river seems an entirely good idea on its own, but the thought of a cosy little restaurant made it even more appealing. Hot Bear came well reviewed in terms of its products and customer service, and it wasn’t far of a walk from the pub that I was in.

    Nice and cosy inside, there were a couple of tables taken by other customers during my visit, but it was generally quiet. That was quite handy as it’s a small venue for eating in and I can imagine getting a table isn’t something that is easily done during the summer months.

    I placed my order at the counter and got the buzzer so that I could collect it when it was ready. I was made to feel welcome when ordering and although they offered me a printed menu, I had already read in advance to decide what I wanted. I can sometimes be an ideal customer in that regard, no delay, just straight to ordering.

    If you’re going to call a place Hot Bear, then it’s only right to have a bear theme to the arrangements.

    And this is a fun touch, the other side of the wall from the previous photo.

    I saw this in the fridges and thought it looked a little different, a strawberry and pepper wheat beer. It’s not going to win any beer of the year awards perhaps, but it was suitably fruity. They’re made a bit of an effort here with the beers to have a decent selection, I was pleased with the options available given it’s a relatively small food venue.

    And the main event, the spicy hot dog, the fries with spicy sauce and a bottle of coke. A generous sized meal, the bun was fresh, the sausage was decadent and meaty with the sauce being spicy. It was a very good hot dog and the fries were moreish, I could have eaten a fair number of those.

    The environment was clean and there were numerous fun design options around the place. It’s understated and laid-back, an inviting atmosphere where I felt welcome. The staff speak fluent English, which is always handy as they battle valiantly against my poor Polish. Absolutely recommended and the prices are reasonable too, with the friendly farewell being called out when I left much appreciated. There were also a fair few delivery orders being collected, so it seems to have a positive reputation locally.

  • Gdansk – I Am Polishing My Polish

    Gdansk – I Am Polishing My Polish

    I got this at the Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum and I rather liked it as a Do Not Disturb hanger for the door. Nice touch I thought.

  • Gdansk – Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum

    Gdansk – Hotel Novotel Gdańsk Centrum

    This is a new Accor hotel to me, the centrally located Novotel Gdansk, which has rooms at relatively low prices at the moment, around £25 per night. Given that Novotel is hardly the budget brand of Accor, that’s a very reasonable price. This is a view of the hotel’s gardens, although some imagination has to be used at the moment.

    The large foyer with its football tables and other distractions for guests, including a number of games consoles. The check-in process was efficient, although I had to wait for a staff member to arrive as if they didn’t expect many guests, although more on that later. All very welcoming though and everything seemed clean and organised.

    A functional and clean room, with a sofa and all the facilities that I would expect. There were no internal or external noise issues at all, so everything was peaceful.

    The welcome gift which I’ve had numerous times before, but I’m always pleased to see it in the room as it’s a handy snack.

    Woooo, a Nespresso machine. OK, I’m easily pleased.

    It felt only appropriate to go for the Żywiec Porter as my welcome drink on my first night back in Poland. It tasted exactly the same as it did a few weeks ago, so all to the good….

    The breakfast buffet arrangement, a very decent selection of cold meats, cheeses and the like. They also asked me if I wanted any eggs cooked and I opted for fried eggs, but I can’t recall being asked this question at an Accor hotel before other than the Sofitel in Warsaw. Which brings me to the situation that I’ve never stayed at an Accor hotel where I haven’t seen another guest, whether at check-in, in the public areas or at breakfast. That did explain the lack of noise issue in the hotel, it all felt a little odd.

    The lack of other guests meant that I had the entire breakfast selection to myself for the 40 minutes that I was there. This usually sounds a lovely thought for convenience and not being annoyed by other guests, but it did feel strange. Anyway, everything was clean and comfortable, so all to the good.

    The reviews aren’t quite as positive as I’d expected and this mostly seems to be down to the rooms being dated. I’m not sure that I understand that from my room, but it’s possible they’re started to renovate and update them and I had a newer decor.

    On a different issue, there was this 1 out of 5 review from a seemingly livid customer:

    “i delivered food to my hotel room ,two days in row,first day it was no problem,the delivery guy comes to my door,second day I order food from wolt again,and the receptionionist calls me and says my food is here,i say ok.do he deliver on my door,then she just hangs up the phone,and i think ok,they will probably come,i wait 5 minutes and still no food on my door,so i go to reception ,and there my food was , and i ask why does he not deliver on door,she say deliverer cannot deliver on room door cause he is not guest,then the whole point of food delivery is wasted.i have never had any problems with having food deliveried to my hotelroom door,and have done it many countries before.”

    On a different matter I was talking to a Deliveroo driver a few weeks ago about this issue and he mentioned that there are a minority of people in hotels who are like this and demand their driver tries to navigate around a hotel through all the security precautions. He has taken to asking everyone ordering at hotels to wait at the front of the building or in reception to collect the food, which seems a very reasonable request to me. It seems very harsh to be so rude to a hotel and attempt to mark them down for trying to keep their hotel secure. But, I’ve digressed again here.

    I had absolutely no complaints about this stay, especially at the low prices that they’re charging, and I’m back at the hotel a couple more times over the next week and perhaps it’ll be a little busier.

  • Gdansk – Just Photos….

    Gdansk – Just Photos….

    Just a few photos (of no great significance) to give an indication of what Gdansk looks like at this time of the year. Incidentally, there appear to be very few tourists about, on my past visits to Gdansk there were lots of British and Germans conversations going on, but all quiet at the moment. I’m not sure it’s ever a packed tourist city in January, but it’s still quieter than I had envisaged.

  • Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

    Wizz Air (Luton to Gdansk)

    This is the delights of Luton airport at 05:45 this morning, after the ten minute walk from the nearby Holiday Inn.

    There’s the Wizz Air flight to Gdansk, with boarding information at 07:35. I didn’t fly with British Airways on this occasion as they have currently dropped the later flight to Warsaw and they’re dropped Krakow entirely. The Wizz Air flight cost a ridiculous £7.50 each way, which was another handy factor in this little arrangement.

    The boarding information didn’t ultimately come until 07:50. Incidentally, the security process at the airport was efficient and I was airside within five minutes of entering the terminal building.

    The boarding process was chaotic and ill-tempered, although I just let them get on with it. The boarding gate is on the lower level and so there is a flight of stairs between the corridor upstairs and the boarding gate, with customers waiting to join the queue. What is poor is that there are very few screens or boards to show customers that they’re in the right location as they’re going to their gate, this is in my view shoddy from Luton Airport, which feels a mismanaged set-up in general, as there were numerous confused customers about the place. I’m reminded just how well Heathrow T5 manage this.

    The set-up here is that there’s a short priority queue and so the staff member called up to ask non-priority (people like me…..) customers to come down as there was a separate waiting area. A woman rushed down the steps, barged me out of the way and announced loudly “I’m priority, let me though” to the staff member. The staff member rolled her eyes and said “I called non-priority, I was very clear” which led to lots of muttering from the annoyed customer. There’s no real reason to need to rush to board, there’s plenty of space for bags and seats are already allocated.

    There was an element of just bad planning here though, as we were in the holding area between the aircraft and the passports being checked for around thirty minutes. I found a seat and read a book on my phone, but there were no seats in the priority area, so those customers were all stuck standing up. It just felt muddled and there were three arguments between staff and customers over bags. I do like the drama to a degree, but some customers were getting quite het up. Oddly, the only customers getting het up seemed to be British, even though the vast majority of the customer on the aircraft seemed to be Polish.

    We were finally allowed out to the aircraft, around twenty minutes later than scheduled. The aircraft is HA-LVI, a nearly new Airbus A321 Neo which has been used by Wizz Air since June 2020. The aircraft had a busy day, it came from Warsaw this morning, then went to Trondheim and back after it arrived in Gdansk. It’s off to Oslo tomorrow and I’m sure it’ll have a lovely time there.

    The flight was absolutely fine. I hadn’t paid to reserve a seat and I was automatically given a window seat, but there was no-one in the middle seat as the aircraft was only about 60% occupied. The announcements from the pilots and cabin crew were polite, but broadly inaudible and the safety announcement was given way too fast to be of any use. However, the cabin crew were friendly and their service was efficient and unobtrusive, with the flight being perfectly relaxed and comfortable.

     

    I had forgotten that it was winter in Poland, so this snow and ice everywhere was a slight surprise.

    The disembarkation process was a little sluggish, with everyone taken to the main terminal by coach. I was in no rush and lingered about, which meant that I was one of the last people to get on the coach. So many people rush about and I can’t be doing with all that stress. By chance, it also meant that as I was the last to board, I was the first off the coach and I was the first person to leave the security area which was handy.

    The member of security staff at border control was helpful, although he didn’t want to see my negative test I got yesterday, but he did check my Covid pass and my locator form. Although I could have got away without paying £32 yesterday for an LFT at Luton Airport, there are two reasons that I’m glad I got it. Firstly, I would have worried all day if I didn’t have it, and secondly, it’s just best to do things properly rather than risk being fined or deported.

    And Gdansk airport terminal, safe and sound. I have to say that this was ridiculously good value for £7.50 and Wizz Air felt a safe and secure airline to travel with, with the cabin crew being friendly and the aircraft being clean. The boarding process was unnecessarily stressful for many customers, but I was quite happy with my window seat and bag near to me, all perfectly comfortable. I will no doubt travel with Wizz Air more this year, not least because of their range of destinations, but also because their flights are so often reasonably priced.

  • Warsaw – National Museum in Warsaw (Bed from Saint John of God Hospital)

    Warsaw – National Museum in Warsaw (Bed from Saint John of God Hospital)

    Fortunately, this isn’t the start of one of my little hotel reviews (I would be annoyed if that was the bed), but from when Richard and I meandered along to the National Museum in Warsaw a few weeks ago. I admit that a photo of a bed might not appear to be riveting blog content, but this oak and birch construction has some charm to it I think. It’s from the Saint John of God Hospital in Warsaw and it dates to between 1757 and 1760. It was donated to the museum in 1931 by the hospital itself, when I assume that it ceased to be needed.

    How on earth this bed survived is a mystery to me, given that nearly everything else in Warsaw was destroyed during the Second World War. And there were likely many more items in the collection that the museum would have focused on saving rather than traipsing a bed around the place during the traumatic war years. I’m going with the answer, as I feel I need a supposition here, that they moved it to the cellars of the museum where it avoided damage and didn’t attract the interest of any Nazi plunderers.

    Back to the hospital itself though, which was first built in 1728 next to the church of Saint John on Bonifraterska Street (which is still named after the Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God) in Warsaw. It had eight beds, but it was clear that the church could help more patients, so they constructed a new building in 1760 which would support 34 patients. And that’s why they know when this bed was made, as it was made specifically for the new hospital building, all funded by the wealthy August Aleksander Czartoryski.

    The church today, courtesy of Google Street View.

    Like most places in Warsaw, the hospital and church buildings were badly damaged during the Second World War, not least because they were used by the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 when they were fighting back against the German occupiers. It was decided that the hospital wouldn’t be reconstructed following the end of the conflict, although the church was rebuilt.

    And I think there’s some magic here, that a bed constructed for patients in 1760 has managed to survive and is now tucked away in a corner of the country’s national museum. Although, and not wanting to be negative about the arrangements, it does look like quite a small bed which might not have entirely suited any tall patients. It is though perhaps one of the very few objects that remain of a hospital that helped so many people given that even the building itself has now gone.

  • Warsaw – Royal Castle (Canaletto Hall)

    Warsaw – Royal Castle (Canaletto Hall)

    I’ve just realised that another thing I never got around to doing was writing about the Royal Castle in Warsaw (on the left in the above photo), which I’ve visited a few times before on free admission days. Very thrifty…. I visited with Richard when we were in the city a few weeks ago and we had a meander around, although the downside of visiting on free admission days is that it’s very busy. But more on the building in another post.

    This post is mostly just photos from one particular room that I’ve managed to misunderstand the importance of before. The paintings are all by Bernardo Bellotto (1721-1780) who was the nephew of Canaletto and he also used his name which confuses things a little. These artworks have had a busy time of it since they were painted between the late 1760s and the early 1780s. They were placed in the castle following their commission by King Stanislaus Augustus, a collection of 22 different street scenes of Warsaw and a canvas showing the King’s election.

    The paintings weren’t here for that long, as Napoleon pinched four of them in 1807, made worse by Tsar Nicholas I stealing the whole lot in 1832. They were recovered and put back in the Royal Castle, but then the Germans pinched the whole collection again in 1939. The Nazis then destroyed the entire castle building in 1945, before it was carefully reconstructed between 1971 and 1984. And then the collection of paintings was put back once again in this recreated room in 1984, an amazing tale of survival. And the paintings have also played a crucial part in the rebuilding of Warsaw, as they were used by the post-war architects to restore the Old Town area back to as it looked in the late eighteenth century.

  • Warsaw – Witold Pilecki

    Warsaw – Witold Pilecki

    I wrote about the Polish hero Witold Pilecki a couple of weeks ago, as he was part of the story of the Municipal Tourist House in Warsaw.

    I was pleased and interested to see that the BBC have published this week an episode about his bravery at volunteering to go to Auschwitz and then managing to escape from it.

  • Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (Early Map of Warsaw)

    Warsaw – Museum of Warsaw (Early Map of Warsaw)

    I’ve decided that I take too many photos, as is apparent when I’m working through my galleries after a visit anywhere, including Poland where I returned back from two weeks ago. But, I doubt I’ll change that little flaw in my character, so I’ll have to just manage the large amount of data I create…..

    Anyway, this is one of the many maps which is available in the Maps Room of the Museum of Warsaw. It’s possible to make the map larger by clicking on the image above, which makes it very evident just how much Warsaw has changed. Although it’s possible to make out the Old Town area and a few of the larger streets, so much of the city has changed that it is quite a challenge to tie everything in (or at least, it was for me). I spent quite a while just gazing at this map, fascinated by just how much Warsaw has evolved over the last two centuries, albeit much of it forced because other countries kept damaging it.