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Category: Poland

Thursday – Tuesday : Krakow Visit (Craft Beer and Pizza)

I’ve visited a good number of the craft beer bars in Krakow before, but to my surprise and delight there have been some new openings, or just venues that I haven’t noticed on previous visits. It felt only appropriate to visit some of them during the week that I was in Krakow, to help me cope with the extreme heat. I’d stress that this was across the week, I didn’t go through all this beer and pizza on one day as I can be very responsible when I want to be.

This is Tea Time, a brewpub which specialises in producing cask beer, which is a rare situation in Poland. There’s a lot of British influence here, other than the fighting, so it felt like something different for Krakow.

Friendly service, with the ordering process being clear of what they had. I have to confess to preferring keg over cask, but I’m happy with both, and variety is the spice of life and all of that. Beer isn’t meant to be staid and dull, that’s why I don’t drink Heineken other than under extreme duress (by duress I mean it’s free).

Note the real ale trail on the wall which starts from Burnley, going through Halifax, Huddersfield and London.

I went for the beer flight thing to try four of the beers, with the peanuts being a free gift from the bar, which was much appreciated. All of the beers were clean tasting, well-kept and at the appropriate temperature. I had gone for the Platinum Blonde, the Helmut, the Anaconda and the Black Prince, with the Anaconda being my favourite, a hazy IPA with a depth of flavour and I thought it was a little unusual as the style felt more like a keg beer. But, delicious. Definitely a recommended venue for the laid-back atmosphere and friendly team members. Oh, it was lovely and cool as well, as I may have mentioned, but it was too hot outside.

Next was Beer Street, a modern and on-trend feeling venue. The service here was polite, although I was unfortunate their Ontap account was just slightly out of date, and so I ended up confusing everyone from that, but they were helpful and fixed everything.

I love this whole arrangement. I’m a loss to the pub industry as if I had a chain of pubs, I’d want some set-ups like this. Obviously I couldn’t build these platforms myself as they’d fall down, but my friend Liam is a civil engineer and is no doubt trained in putting bits of wood together. I’m not sure he’d be very delicate though and he might use a pile driver to get things into place rather than smaller and more subtle tools.

I liked the window view from my perch at the top of the wooden construction and the beer is the Smooth Operator from the ever wonderful Funky Fluid.

I had wanted the Risfactor Blueberry and Vanilla beer as it was on draft on Ontap, but they said they’d just run out. They had the same beer in a bottle, so that sufficed me, and I accidentally ordered a pizza to go with it. All very delicious. The Risfactor is part of a series of beers from PINTA brewery, who I’ve mentioned on this blog numerous times before as they’re another of my favourites.

I really liked this little bar, Spoko, which had a lovely relaxed feel to it. Some decent options on that board that seemed tempting and exciting. I had just eaten (although that doesn’t always stop me) but I noted the bagels they served sounded quite tempting. I’d go back here if I return to Krakow, it had a nice vibe to it.

And a selection in the fridges to widen their offerings.

The beer at the front is the Far Away Galaxy, again from PINTA, which is a sour IPA which had no shortage of fruit flavour to it, suitably tart in taste. The other beer is the Treasure from Browar Nepomucen and I’ve had a few of theirs, including some from the excellent Crazy Lines series. This was a good smoked beer, not perhaps quite as powerful as I’d have liked, but still refreshing and delicious.

It was busier when I arrived, but I waited for people to go before taking a photo. They were much busier outside, but it was too hot for me to sit in the sun, since I had found a nice cool area inside.

This is Nowy Kraftowy, which is a little more central than the other bars and this was perhaps my favourite of the venues I visited, primarily because of the beer selection. Now, let’s dwell on this for a little while 🙂

That beer selection is, if I’m being honest, still exciting to me now when writing this. An excellent range of beer styles, different breweries and some innovative options going on there. Poland can do beer, indeed, Poland can do beer very well.

The pub’s garden area, which was quiet and I was able to sit under a fan as it was too hot.

The beer in the photo is the Rakieta from Browar Kazimierz, a perfectly good IPA. But I also had at the same time the Pretty – Peach, Passionfruit, Mango and Creme Brulee from Magic Road, a bloody lovely beer in every sense I can imagine. Every one of the ingredients could be identified by taste, it was refreshing, smooth and quite beautiful.

I moved inside at this point as I felt the beer menu needed more investigation and I went for the Triple Gelato PB&J which was another exceptional beer. Flavours of blackberry, peanuts and blackcurrants, smooth with a touch of sourness and no artifical edge. Fruit and peanuts are an odd combination perhaps, although that’s the essence of the peanut butter and jelly it’s named after, but it worked in my opinion. It complemented the pizza which I had again accidentally ordered, as all decent beers do, and this was one of the best meal combinations that I’ve ordered myself in a long time. Thank God for Poland.

Wezza Krafta is in the Jewish quarter, and is next to a Jewish museum, hence the vibrant wall painting on the side of the building.

I was far too hot when I arrived and I tried to cool down inside, which took me some time. I went for the Bilberry Giveaway from Magic Road and the Saturator from Ziemia Obiecena, both sours which I enjoyed, although I didn’t feel were exceptional.

And yet again I accidentally ordered a pizza. It’s important to order these key Polish dishes though to keep them alive.

AntyCafe, which is just a short walk from the main market square, which had some interesting options on their board.

It’s a bit of a music venue, but it was quiet on the evening when I was there, which was fortunate as I’m not one for loud music and raucousness. I couldn’t resist the Milk Me from Browar Wrężel, a 6% milk stout which had the appropriate amount of sweetness for me. The venue was relaxed and calm as well, it had looked quite busy from the outside, but only had a handful of customers when I entered.

Krakow is a decent city for craft beer, there are some new openings on a regular basis and some classics bars which offer a reliable service. Prices are reasonable, often a beer and pizza comes to around £7, not bad for a tourist city. And, yes, I know there’s more to a city’s cuisine than beer and pizza. Although, actually, maybe I don’t….

July 4, 2022
Wednesday : Warsaw to Heathrow T3 with Finn Air (via Helsinki)

Yet another breakfast photo, woooo….. I posted this one as there’s a bay leaf on it and I enjoy it when people complain at Chipotle because they think part of a tree has landed into their food. For anyone who wants to see irate people on Twitter, just Google “chipotle bay leaf”. Another cheap and cheerful breakfast, which was suitably filling. I’m not sure why they’re providing biscuits for breakfast, but I didn’t quibble with what I thought was an innovative idea.

I’ll miss Warsaw, but I’ve gone on about that before. Note how bloody hot it was. That made it easier for me to leave the city, so I could escape the rampantly high temperatures that I had endured.

My journey to the airport was far from ideal, I had intended to walk to Warszawa Powiśle railway station to get the train. Unfortunately, this ticket machine en route didn’t supply the ticket I wanted, entirely because the sun was so bright that I couldn’t see the screen properly. There’s no good comes from this extreme weather I’ll say, no good at all.

There’s the railway station I need, but I was on the hunt for a ticket machine. The railway station ticket machine wouldn’t sell me the ticket that I wanted and I couldn’t remember whether the train itself had a ticket machine on it as I always pre-purchase them to avoid any little issues with the guard.

I swore quietly at the situation, then decided to instead walk one stop along to Warszawa Śródmieście as there’s an S2 train to the airport around every thirty minutes. There’s the Palace of Science and Culture in the boiling hot temperature. I was pleased to note that a lot of Polish people seemed to be struggling with the heat. Although I mean that in the way that I’m pleased I wasn’t the only person who was uncomfortable, not that I was pleased Poles were struggling with something.

This wasn’t the train I needed, I just like taking photos of double-decker trains. I should probably get out more….

I was slightly annoyed generally that there were indeed ticket machines on the trains, as can be seen by everyone else buying their tickets on them. I’d mention I was more annoyed that I hadn’t just risked it, but I like to live in a low-risk public transport world.

And that was that, after 20 minutes I was at the railway station saying goodbye to Warsaw for the last time in what will likely be for some months. My journey today was to fly back to Heathrow, but due to problems with British Airways, they were flying me back via Helsinki. This isn’t ideal in many ways and is the second time that they’ve had to do this. One day the rail service will be fast and cheap enough to do this journey back to London without needing to fly, but we’re nowhere near there that stage yet.

That gave me time to visit the Preludium Executive Lounge in Warsaw Airport, again which I’ve written about before. As an aside, the security process was extremely efficient, once again in Warsaw I was through into the lounge area within ten minutes of disembarking the train. Polish efficiency that is.

It wasn’t particularly busy, so I sat near to the food (at the counter behind, not literally this near) with my laptop being productive.

The lounge has finally got rid of the pre-packaged food that it has for some time, replacing it with help yourself food items so that guests can make their own salads or whatever they’d like. There’s also hot food and most importantly, big tubs of chocolates. What a time to be alive….

Chicken wrap with olives, what more could anyone want from their brunch? I say brunch, it was still breakfast time, but I’d already had breakfast at the hotel and it’s bad luck to have two breakfasts.

One quick beer before leaving. I’m not sure I needed that, but it’s another one for Untappd.

The flight was already boarding when I got there. It’s rare that I cut things so fine, although I don’t want anyone thinking I had been unusually reckless, they were just boarding a little early.

Down the airbridge, this is Finn Air’s Embraer E190, registration OH-LKM, an aircraft they’ve operated since it was brought into service in 2008. For anyone wondering why there are so many photos on air bridges, it’s usually so I can get the aircraft registration number, such is the level of detail that I demand for my two readers.

This was a nearly full service, so no photos of the interior. I was pleased to get my free blueberry juice and the service was all efficient and felt a little more professional than my outbound flight. There was a bigger business class section than on the way out, they had the delights of a salad and bread for their morning meal.

A little cloudier than Warsaw, I enjoy knowing that I’m unlikely to get heatstroke in Helsinki. These short stops in Helsinki are slightly sad from the point of view that I’m not leaving the airport to see the actual city.

Back in the non-Schengen lounge at Helsinki Airport and the staff were as friendly as before, with everything being just as ordered and welcoming as I remembered. They have the same self-scanning desks to get into the lounge as their Schengen one elsewhere in the terminal, but they don’t seem to use them here.

The pods and I went to investigate the showers here for the first time. They’re all self-service, you just type in the keypad on the door and if they’ve been cleaned with more towels put in, then they’ll open. When leaving, press a button on the keypad and it alerts the staff that the shower needs cleaning and restocking.

This is much better than the food selection at the Finn Air Schengen lounge. I noted that they were unlikely to run out of plates as well.

Meatballs in pepper sauce and these were delicious. There was also a broad bean tikka masala, which sounded a bit too vegetable orientated in its design to me.

Self-pour beer, meatballs, rice and I even got some roasted vegetables for reasons I can’t remember. I probably got muddled up.

I hadn’t noticed this before, but the text of what they’re doing is readable by clicking on the image, effectively they want some rye spirit ready in 2023 to mark Finn Air reaching 100. A rather lovely idea and not long left now, they thought ahead by starting this process in 2017.

After a quick dessert and some more meatballs, back in the open space of the airport terminal. I wonder if this international terminal ever feels busy and cluttered, it’s hard to imagine that.

The flight was showing a slight delay, but nothing frightening.

Having this much space makes the whole boarding environment feel much more relaxed. Note power points everywhere, no-one is leaving Helsinki without their devices being fully charged.

The airbridge photo again. Finn Air have two separate parts of the waiting area in the gate, so priority passengers were able to board first. A couple of people, whether through accident or design, tried to board in a lane they shouldn’t have done, with the Finn Air staff politely sending them back to the end of the queue, thereby forcing a little walk of shame.

It’s Airbus A319, registration OH-LVL, which Finn Air have operated since new in 2004. I can also confirm that I didn’t overheat in Helsinki Airport.

I’d deliberately put myself on an aisle seat towards the back of the aircraft and this was another flight, with just about every seat taken. If a flight is looking busy, I’d rather just sit at the back and stay out of the way of people trying to navigate their way around the crew with their trolleys.

The drop-down screens showed a variety of television programming throughout the journey, including Tom & Jerry. This reminds me that British Airways has taken screens out of all of their short-haul aircraft, although I recall they only displayed the live map, never anything as exciting as Tom & Jerry cartoons.

I wasn’t tempted as I had just been in the lounge, although I did think from the photo how small the cheese platter was. They didn’t seem to sell much, a few items here and there, but in the main customers just requested the free water or blueberry juice.

And that leads me neatly into the now obligatory photo of blueberry juice.

Back into Heathrow T3, nearly every time I use a Travelator I remember Liam’s children being endlessly excited by this exciting “it’s like an escalator but flat” device. To be fair, they’re not wrong.

I had a fair amount of time at Heathrow Terminal 3, but more about overnight stay there in the next exciting post in this series.

July 3, 2022
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