Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: Poland

  • Warsaw – Holiday Inn Express Warsaw Airport

    Warsaw – Holiday Inn Express Warsaw Airport

    I stayed in Poland for ten nights on this trip and this was the only one not in an Accor hotel. This hotel isn’t the easiest to get to from the city centre, but it was cheap, coming in at under £25 for a room and breakfast. I had quite low expectations for the hotel, primarily as I don’t often stay in Holiday Inn Express hotels and I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

    My first impressions weren’t marvellous as there was no-one on reception, but everything was clean and organised. And when the receptionist came along, she was friendly and helpful, so my general impressions were restored.

    The room was better than I had expected, all clean and sufficiently large. The desk is bigger than it looks in the photo and there were no noise issues either internally or externally.

    The welcome drink voucher.

    Unlike a few Accor hotels, there was no issue here with me having Zywiec Porter. I was now very impressed at this hotel, a reminder of just how easily pleased I am…..

    The breakfast in the morning was still self-service, the first one I’ve had since March, as other hotels have had staff serving customers. I liked the set-up and it was nice and quiet, so I felt it was all still safe.

    They’ve made the process safe by removing the serving spoons, which I’m not entirely sure is the best solution here, but there we go. There was a sufficiently wide selection to chose from, including cold meats, cheeses and best of all, hot dogs. And I’ve missed those, they were a staple of mine when I went to the Ibis Budget in Torun earlier in the year.

    The reviews for the hotel are generally very positive, although someone was livid earlier this year:

    “I chose the HIE since I love the IHG brand. The night prior i stayed at the Intercontinental in Budapest and had an incredible experience. I stay in IHG hotels 60+ nights a year. I rarely if ever complain but in this case, I have no choice and I must alert other business travelers to this hotel. I will also send a certified letter to the CEO of IHG it was so bad. Once I landed at the WAW Airport, I called the hotel to have a pick up at the airport.”

    The problem was that the shuttle wasn’t there and the receptionist insisted it was, so there was a misunderstanding. I’m not sure that the CEO of IHG would be too concerned at the misunderstanding, but there we go…..

    Overall, I was suitably impressed at this hotel and thought it represented excellent value for money given the price being charged. I wasn’t going to or from the airport when I stayed, but it is conveniently located for that and I think that there’s a free shuttle available (although it might be late judging from the above review). I’d certainly stay here again, my initial low expectations were certainly surpassed. Very lovely.

  • Warsaw – Warsaw Zoo (Jan Żabiński and Antonina Żabińska)

    Warsaw – Warsaw Zoo (Jan Żabiński and Antonina Żabińska)

    This house at Warsaw Zoo is where the head-keeper and his family used to live, an otherwise unassuming building. But, during the Second World War, this is where Jan Żabiński and Antonina Żabińska hid Jews to save them from being killed or sent to concentration camps. Jan Żabiński served as the Director of the Zoo between 1929 and 1939, when he was given the role of looking after the city parks. This gave him access to the Warsaw Ghetto and he helped many Jews escape, placing himself in huge danger.

    Some of the Jews were hidden in the cages where the animals were once held, now most of them had been killed by the Nazis for fear that they would escape. A few Jews were also hidden in the cellars of Żabiński’s house and there was a cellar which linked to a tunnel. This tunnel came out in an area of trees, so if the Nazis raided the house then the Jews could escape and hide above aground.

    Both Jan and Antonina were later awarded the huge honour of Righteous Among the Nations, those who had taken a substantial risk to try and save members of the Jewish community. Jan returned to his role as Director of the Zoo in 1945, where he continued until 1951. The regime of Józef Cyrankiewicz saw an end to that, Jan who had fought courageously with the Home Army in the Warsaw Uprising was fired from his role because of that loyalty to his country, which conflicted with the communist influence from the Soviet Union.

    However, the bravery of Jan and Antonina came to the attention of the world primarily after the publication of the Zookeeper’s Wife, which was turned into a film in 2017.

  • British Airways (Warsaw to Heathrow T5)

    British Airways (Warsaw to Heathrow T5)

    This was the British Airways aircraft in Warsaw, G-NEOY, one of the new Airbus A321-Neo aircraft and this was only delivered to BA on 15 June 2020. It wasn’t the aircraft that they expected to use, but the UK Government announced an end to the travel corridor from Poland and this was one of the last flights back to the UK that avoided this issue. So, the aircraft was entirely full.

    The gate was busy and the announcements were hard to hear as the tannoy wasn’t very loud. There was boarding via seat row and this seemed sufficiently well managed.

    The free snacks provided en route, although three customers near to me tried to order food and drink from the Buy on Board service which has been suspended for some months. The crew explained that it was unsafe to serve customers food at the moment, and one customer asked why they were serving food then. It isn’t an unreasonable question (and the crew member couldn’t answer it), although I’m happy with the current set-up.

    This was one of the tensest flights that I’ve been on with British Airways and it’s clear that some passengers were on edge throughout. A passenger opposite me who reclined his seated immediately and then hugged the seat in front of him was one of the more selfish I’ve seen, but I was pleased he wasn’t near to me. This same customer also irritated a member of cabin crew who ordered him over the tannoy to sit down after we had landed otherwise he’d suspend the disembarkation process. It was the same customer who talked over the safety announcements and ignored the crew throughout, then seemed confused why he was being called out for standing up whilst taxiing to the gate. I quite liked the drama to be fair.

    Overall, this wasn’t an expensive flight as I booked early, although the last few seats were costing hundreds of pounds each for those who needed to return home before 4am on Saturday when the travel corridor option was slammed shut. The problem with this new aircraft is that it’s not very comfortable when it’s at this capacity. There’s not enough space and things such as the at-seat power didn’t work, which it really should have done given how new the aircraft was.

    But, having written that, I was just pleased to get back out of Poland given the travel corridor issue, and British Airways didn’t let me down there. The flight was around thirty minutes late in departing due to a delayed outbound flight to Warsaw, but our aircraft arrived just one minute later than timetabled as they were able to make the time up. It was a slight shame that the aircraft landed at C-gates, as that’s a bit of a trek back, but the airport wasn’t particularly busy. So, all sufficiently pleasant, but not my best flight with BA.

  • Warsaw – Chopin Airport Preludium Lounge

    Warsaw – Chopin Airport Preludium Lounge

    The Bolero Lounge at Warsaw Airport is currently closed, with British Airways customers being asked to use this lounge instead. It’s at the other end of the terminal, but it’s not a particularly onerous walk back to the Schengen area. I had a five-minute wait or so to enter the lounge as it was at capacity, but it seemed to stay a little quieter for the rest of my visit. There might be a few extra customers at the lounge today from the BA flight, now that Poland has been removed from the travel corridor, and perhaps a few paying or Priority Pass customers from the WizzAir flight to Luton.

    Everything in the lounge is now handed over by staff, rather than being self-service. It’s not perhaps ideal, but there wasn’t ever much of a wait to ask for anything. The lounge was clean and comfortable, although it doesn’t have any windows which always makes these places feel just a little forlorn. Staffing was efficient if not always entirely engaging, but I imagine the staff are growing just as tired of this situation as everyone else.

    The food and drinks menus, I thought that this was quite a reasonable choice.

    I couldn’t resist the chocolate and beer….. Incidentally, it’s not craft beer, but it’ll do as it’s free. Amazing how less picky I get when things are free.

    The Greek salad and tuna wrap, the former of which seemed fresh and was sufficiently tasty, the latter was just a bit moist and I’m not a huge tuna fan. But, it was perfectly edible and I had no cause to complain about it.

    So, it’s positive that the lounge is open and in operation, with pretty much the full food and drinks options that they had before the health crisis. I think I preferred the system at the BA lounge at Heathrow, but it’s a comfortable enough place to wait for a flight. Perhaps next time I fly from Warsaw the Bolero lounge will be open again and fully self-service, but that feels a long way off at the moment.

  • Warsaw – Rzeźba Żyrafa

    Warsaw – Rzeźba Żyrafa

    This rather lovely giraffe sculpture was designed in 1967 by Władysław Dariusz Frycz, for a metal sculpture exhibition which was being held in the city. There’s a similar sculpture over in the Woda district of Warsaw, which is in the west of the city. This one is handily located near to the city’s zoo, within Park Praski.

  • Warsaw – Warsaw Metro

    Warsaw – Warsaw Metro

    Despite having visited Warsaw on many previous occasions, I’ve never quite got round to using the city’s Metro network. That’s primarily because trains and trams serve the capital well enough for my needs, but there’s been a large recent investment in the network. Since I had a 72-hour pass to use public transport, which includes the Metro, bus and trams, it seemed sensible to just pop in to have a look.

    The process of getting onto the network is easy, just insert the ubiquitous little public transport ticket into the slot on the machine and all is well. The gate opens and the ticket is spat back out to be used again. When leaving the network, there’s no need to do anything with the ticket, the gates just open to let people out. There are ticket machines all over the place for those who want to use the service, with English available as one of the language options.

    The network is all relatively new, with the first line (M1) opening in 1995 and by 2008 it had been extended and the number of stations served increased. The second line (M2) opened in 2015 and there is work underway to increase the length of it. There are also plans for an M3 line, although nothing concrete (I’m sure there’s a pun there) has been done with that yet. That means that there are currently 34 stations that are now open, with a plan for there to be 58.

    I can’t say that the trains seemed to be particularly busy when I was on them, but they were clean and spacious. The signage on-board the trains is also clear, so that it’s easy for passengers to see where they are and where the train is going. Over the next few decades, I imagine that this network will get even bigger and it’s a cheap and efficient way of getting around the city.

  • Warsaw – Fort Wola

    Warsaw – Fort Wola

    This was of passing interest to me as I’ve never seen a shopping centre in Poland which has been shut down. In the United States there are plenty, as well as a growing number in the UK. It opened in 2001 and the flagship tenant was the large supermarket, Auchan. The shopping centre closed down in May 2017 and it’s looked like this since.

    There are meant to be plans to redevelop the site into a new centre called Galeria na Woli with a large Ikea on site, but little seems to be going on. I can’t imagine that a piece of real estate like this will be left for too long though.

  • Warsaw – Hair Dryers Banned

    Warsaw – Hair Dryers Banned

    Hair dryers have been banned from being used in all of the hotels that I’ve stayed at over the last couple of weeks, although this isn’t something limited to Warsaw. I’m not entirely sure how big the risk is, but there we go, but since none of the hair dryers have been disconnected guests can still use them if they want. More annoyingly though, most public toilets in Warsaw have just turned their hand dryers off and not provided any paper towels or similar, so there’s just a lot of dripping through the shopping centres and so on. Perhaps not ideal….

    Anyway, whatever it takes to get rid of this blasted health crisis.

  • Accor Hotels in Warsaw

    Accor Hotels in Warsaw

    Since I feel I’ve worked around enough of these to justify their own lists, here we go….. I’ve put them into my own categories of those I really like, those that are OK and those I didn’t like as much. I can’t imagine this will interest anyone but me, but it’ll remind me of which ones to book again. As for my favourite one, it’s Mercure Warszawa Ursus.

     

    I REALLY LIKE THESE ONES  🙂

    Ibis Styles Warszawa Centrum

    Ibis Styles Warszawa City

    Mercure Warszawa Ursus

    Novotel Warszawa Centrum

    Ibis Warszawa Centrum

    Mercure Warszawa Airport

    Ibis Warszawa Reduta

     

    THESE ARE OK  😐

    Ibis Warszawa Stare Miasto (hate the new rooms without desks, otherwise brilliant)

    Ibis Budget Warszawa Centrum (all fine, nothing luxurious – no link here as I stayed before starting the blog)

     

    DON’T LIKE THESE ONES SO MUCH  🙁

    Ibis Styles Warszawa West (felt like an Ibis Budget)

    Ibis Warszawa Ostrobramska (only Accor in Poland I’ve been to where the service wasn’t as welcoming as it perhaps could have been)

     

    Accor also operate these hotels in the city, which I haven’t yet been to. And since I’m quite cheap, I’m not sure that I’ll ever visit a couple of them, but you never know….

    Sofitel Warszawa Victoria

    Raffles Warszawa

    Mercure Warszawa Centrum

    Mercure Warszawa Grand

    Novotel Warszawa Airport

  • Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Centrum

    Warsaw – Novotel Warszawa Centrum

    I’ve stayed at this Novotel before and it was a well-run hotel and so I decided to make it my final accommodation choice for this stay in Warsaw. It’s centrally located and near to the railway station so I can get the train back to the airport.

    The room was upgraded and this was clean, comfortable and had excellent views. It seems to have been modernised relatively recently and it was functional with plenty of power points. I never turn TVs on in hotel rooms, but it was a noticeably decent size.

    The staff member at check-in was helpful and humorous, so that was a rather positive first impression. I wasn’t much bothered when he spoke to his colleague in Polish as I could understand it was something about broken IT, but he then apologised for this and said he hadn’t meant to speak in Polish in front of an English guest. Not that Poles should have to apologise for speaking Polish anyway.

    This was the welcome gift bag offered by the hotel, orange juice, some sort of tea thing in a tube and meringues. I noticed when I got to the room that the hotel hadn’t given me the welcome drink voucher, but I decided the orange juice would suffice as I was on the 25th floor and didn’t fancy going straight back down.

    The view from the room and there are some more photos here. Last time I stayed my room pointed the other way and this time I was hoping to get a view of the Palace of Culture and Science building, which is the entirely out of place Soviet style building on the right of the photo. I probably should have just asked at reception to get a room pointing this way, but it didn’t matter, as I was in luck anyway.

    The breakfast is no longer self-service, but staff serve customers what they want from the hot and cold options. It all worked efficiently and there weren’t any queues when I was there, but I look forwards to the time when this isn’t necessary. The hotel has usefully put a QR code in the room so that guests can find out about various elements of their stay, this is the only one I’ve stayed at which has done this.

    And my selection, although I went back for more rolls and croissants. The signage for items was clear, so it was useful to know what I could order from each staff member.

    So, that’s the end of my Warsaw trip in terms of accommodation and I managed to stay in seven hotels, six of them Accor and this was the only one that I had stayed in before. And it was certainly one of the best, everything was clean, professional and comfortable. I was also pleased that it’s possible to open the window, it’s quite relaxing to hear the noises of the city. There is perhaps something ridiculous about when hotels spend a fortune in sound-proofing their rooms only for bloody guests like me commenting they like hearing the road noise, but there we go.

    Hopefully I’ll stay at this Novotel again…..