And at just after 02:00, I arrived at Ibis Centrum in Wrocław, which is in the same building as the Novotel. The hotel had sorted out the payment earlier in the day (well, the previous day) for me and so the check-in was prompt and efficient. Accor in Poland, as I’ve mentioned several (hundred) times are operated by Orbis and they are a reliable option to stay at.
The hotel has some themed rooms and I was in the Game Room for this visit.
The room decoration and they’ve put some considerable effort into this.
Not that I had time to play it, but there was a games console in the room.
And some board games.
Very nice.
There was also a welcome drink of a decadent apple juice and some ginger biscuits which were rather lovely. There were also teas and coffee, it all proved reasonable value at under £40 for the night. Given the relatively small amount of time that I had in the hotel, I opted against getting breakfast as I didn’t want to get up too early.
I’ve stayed at this hotel, both the lower floors which are Ibis and the higher floors which are Novotel, before and had views over both sides. This is looking out the front and they’re making progress on that building to the right as they were digging the foundations out when I was last here.
I didn’t have any noise disturbances either internally or externally, but the hotel is ready for the construction noise.
Anyway, this was a rather lovely stay once again with everything being trouble free and as expected. Arriving at 02:00 meant that the welcome drink wasn’t an option, as not unsurprisingly they don’t want to keep the bar open that late, and I wanted to get going to my next stop early the following morning. The team members were friendly and it’s just a slight shame that I didn’t have time to play on the games console or the city’s version of Monopoly.
I wasn’t intending to write this bus journey up, so I’ll admit that the photos aren’t quite as professional as I’d like. The bus stop is located by turning right after leaving the airport terminal, it’s right at the end although is clearly signed.
Given the poor quality of the imagery in this post, here’s a better quality photo from last year to add to proceedings.
Anyway, I digress. It’s possible to buy tickets on the bus, but there’s also a ticket machine and I prefer to use this when there’s time available to do so. It accepts cards and can be switched to English, with everything being self-explanatory.
One single ticket costs about 80p and it’s rather lovely that the authorities have made the decision not to take advantage of passengers here by surcharging the airport route. Other airports could perhaps make a similar decision….. I wasn’t intending to use an Uber, but I checked to see how much a journey would cost and it would have been around £8 which is probably a lot less hassle for those with luggage.
The bus was really quite busy on this occasion and although I got a seat as other passengers were faffing about buying a ticket on board, there were some left standing for the journey. It’s around a thirty minute journey to the city centre and the route ends up at the city’s railway station.
And the centre of Wrocław at around 02:00 in the morning. I wasn’t particularly trying to take a photo of the McDonald’s signage, just a night-time shot that came out blurrier than I wanted. I decided not to faff about any more, so that means this is another blog post that isn’t entirely optimal.
Anyway, this all meant that I arrived at the Ibis Hotel the earliest that I could have expected and I was once again delighted by the city’s transportation system. And I might take better photos next time.
Safely at Luton Airport nice and early, as usual. The security process was smooth and efficient, taking less than five minutes from when I scanned my boarding card.
I popped into Big Smoke with my Priority Pass card and had the usual delicious chicken tenders and a slightly less delicious alcohol free Stella. The service is always friendly and efficient here, with plenty of power points to ensure I didn’t have to stress about that.
And then into Nolito for a healthy snack with pineapple juice. It’s quite pricey and I’m not sure that the quality here quite justified the price, but as it was free, I decided that I’d cope.
By then, it was getting nearer the time when boarding started, with my flight being the penultimate out of the airport that day. I rather like days such as this with an evening flight, I get a chance to get on top of everything work wise and nothing feels rushed.
The boarding process was smooth, well managed and everything was clear. The staff here were friendly and personable, it was all efficient and organised.
And then the boarding, I was towards the back of the aircraft and boarded via the rear doors.
The aircraft was HA-LGM, which is yet another one that I haven’t been on before. It was newly delivered to the airline in July 2024 and inside everything was clean and in a decent state of repair.
I have little to report about the flight, as once again, it was operated by Wizz Air with professionalism and efficiency. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat with no-one next to me, the announcements were clear, the crew were friendly and it was all peaceful and organised. We landed on time and the pilots kept us informed of what was going on.
The one negative, which wasn’t the fault of the airline, is that they had expected steps to be brought to the back of the aircraft in Wrocław, but they instead used a jet bridge. That meant it took a bit longer for me to disembark with a wait of nearly fifteen minutes on board. This isn’t a problem, but there’s one bus an hour that departs the airport at night and I didn’t really want to miss it as it was already late enough.
I’ve mentioned this before, but one of the advantages of flying on Wizz Air as a passenger with a British passport is that there aren’t generally many of us (and that is obviously a generalisation). Indeed, despite disembarking almost last, there were only two people ahead of me in the queue at border control. This meant that I was able to get through the border quicker than most holders of EU passports, a rare treat, although I’d still quite like an EU passport once again…
Anyway, the efficiency here meant that I was outside the airport with fifteen minutes to spare before the night bus turned up. Another rather lovely flight and a bargain for just £8.99. And it’s lovely to be back in Poland.
This year, I took considerably more photos than I ever had chance to write about, so to surprise and delight just about no-one other than myself, there will now follow a few end of year things that I feel I should have written about so I don’t forget them.
This painting is by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (1885-1939) who is an intriguing character as he seems to have decided that merely being a painter, playwright, novelist, philosopher and photographer was far too sensible, and so set about turning his entire life into a sort of extended, slightly unhinged performance piece. He ran a formalised “Portrait Painting Firm” with price lists that varied depending on which drugs he was on at the time, annotated his works with cryptic notes about nicotine, peyote or existential despair, and wrote plays so strange that even other avant-gardists occasionally backed away slowly. In the end, he committed suicide shortly after Germany invaded his home country of Poland and it was perhaps fortunate that he didn’t see the destruction of so much of his country.
Back to the artwork, which he painted in 1912, it’s just called “Costume Scene in a Landscape” which doesn’t help with any meaning which the artist intended. I can’t work out what I’m actually looking at, which certainly adds some complexity to arrangements. Is the character on the left wearing an interesting hat or is that a halo? And what is the meaning between the two characters?
But, what reassures me is that the artist was known for trying to engender “the strangeness of existence” in the viewer, where it isn’t possible to establish what reality he was looking for. I’ve decided that’s all the meaning I need…..
I decided that it wasn’t worth leaving the airport as my inbound flight from Madeira reached Warsaw at around 22:45 and my outbound flight to London Luton airport left at 06:00. I would have only reached a city centre hotel by 00:00 and then had to leave it at 03:00, which felt a little wasteful.
There was an hour left in the landside McDonalds before it closed, so I used that opportunity to get a little snack and charge my devices up. Although, it transpired that there were numerous power outlets dotted around the landside area of the terminal.
Very Christmassy.
It was all a bit decadent for me, but they’d certainly made an effort with their Christmas decorations.
I had a little meander around the airport to pass the time, watching an Irish passenger having an argument with the armed airport police after they told him not to leave his bag unattended. They won that argument with their line “would you like to discuss this in an interview room?” in perfect English, which I felt was suitably friendly and he backed down.
I bought these from the shop as breakfast as the lounge didn’t open until 05:00 and it’s the other end of the airport from my gate, so I didn’t want to risk it.
I was one of the first people through to the airside area.
Who needs sleep when you can explore a mostly closed airside terminal?
I found a seat with a power outlet and made a determined effort not to fall asleep and miss my flight. There were clear announcements from the gate staff and the boarding process was once again clearly signed and operated efficiently.
The aircraft was around a five minute bus journey from the terminal, it wasn’t the most pleasant of transfers given how many people they’d shoved on the bus. It felt a little endless and I’m sure we went via the city centre.
It was aircraft registration 9H-WNW, another new plane for me. The seating Gods had given me an aisle seat and I decided that I would now have a little nap on the flight home. Everything went to plan with the flight, with helpful crew, clear updates from the pilots and the aircraft was clean and tidy.
With that, it was a walk to Luton Airport Parkway railway station, the one that I’ve decided is the worst run in the country, before getting a train to St. Alban’s, confusing the gateline staff, then returning to Norwich via London, Cambridge and Ely. All really rather lovely and that was the end of my travels for the year…..
I will return to some more Funchal posts, but to continue the year’s travel, here I was back at Madeira Airport, named after Cristiano Ronaldo. It’s one of the more beautiful vistas that I’ve seen from an airport terminal building.
There were no lounges for me to visit at the airport, so I popped to Burger King as there were some power outlets.
A beer and a burger, very decadent…. It was a very clean and organised Burger King, buying the burger and beer outside of a meal deal proved to be cost effective as well.
As the temperature was pleasant, I went back outside to have a little sit down in the sun.
And after that excitement of looking at the Atlantic, it was time for the flight. Going through security had some drama as a guy with his family decided to open the barriers up and cut through. The guy at security called over “sorry, I didn’t know you worked here”, to which the barrier mover said “I don’t, I’m a passenger” and the retort was “if you don’t work here, why do you think you can change the security process?” before making him go all the way back around. This amused me, but I don’t get out much.
The airport has a viewing terrace so I went to record an easyJet flight land, with this being the Wizz Air aircraft I’d be taking to go back to Warsaw.
The boarding process was organised and efficient, with a staff member checking that passengers weren’t boarding with excessively sized bags.
Given that this was a five and a half hour long flight, I was so delighted that the seating Gods gave me an aisle seat that I purchased a chicken noodle from the trolley to help break up the journey a little. A flight this long in Wizz Air seats with a bag at my feet was a bit long, I’ll be more cautious of this in future.
The crew were, once again, professional and personable, quietly going up and down the cabin a few times with the trolley and collecting rubbish. The aircraft was clean, the announcements were clear and I can’t say that the flight went quickly, but it didn’t feel too onerous and I had paid only £8.99 which felt like a bargain.
And landed safely in Warsaw, although I wasn’t leaving the airport as I had another flight to catch a few hours later.
Back on the rail network from Warszawa Śródmieście station and every time I come here I wonder when they’re going to renovate this as it’s getting ever more rickety. The train signage here is a bit basic, but fortunately Google Maps informed me that my train was running eight minutes late.
I’ll just add here that a train ticket to the airport costs about 85p.
Now this was exciting as there was a ticket check, as the inspectors do monitor this line reasonably frequently. To my right were what I think were a Polish mother and daughter, the former was quite elderly. I, as I may have mentioned, cannot speak Polish of any merit, but I was able to understand enough of the conversation to hear what was going on.
It boiled down to this:
ELDERLY WOMAN : “The ticket machine was broken”
INSPECTOR : “So you have no ticket?”
ELDERLY WOMAN : “I’d like to buy a ticket now”
INSPECTOR : “Yes, you can, that will be 580zl [about £120] including the fine”
ELDERLY WOMAN : “But the machine was broken”
INSPECTOR : “You have no ticket”.
This went on until the train pulled into the airport and it was clear that the pair thought they were getting off and the inspector would forget it. No, the doors opened and he locked the one they were standing by.
I sat on those seats to watch the whole affair unfold, as I don’t get out much. And indeed, the two ladies weren’t getting out much, but their card did and they paid the penalty fares. This is why fare evasion on the Polish rail network seems to be so low, the inspectors will enforce those without tickets.
Very Christmassy. Airport security was interesting, the lady in front of me took a ridiculous amount of time to put her things in the bag. Fortunately, Polish airport security is friendly, calm, collected and told her to hurry up. She got annoyed and so she found herself being interrogated for the entire time I was at security. I like a bit of drama.
Anyway, I reached the lounge and got myself a Greek salad, chicken wrap, coffee and an early morning beer which was to fortify myself for the flight which would take over five hours to get to Madeira. This is another one of my favourite lounges, as there are power outlets, unlimited chocolates, unlimited olives and unlimited Feta cheese.
Mine was the 11:20 flight.
Boarding at the gate was uneventful as it was organised, fast flowing and there were plenty of seats around. Fortunately, Madeira is in Schengen, since it’s part of Portugal, so I didn’t have to faff about with any border control.
This is aircraft 9H-WNS, yet another one that I haven’t been on before. The flight lasted for five hours and thirty minutes, which is quite a strain on a budget airline if I’m being honest. I normally like having my bag under the seat in front of me, but after five hours I was getting annoyed that it was in the way of my legs that needed stretching.
The seating Gods gave me an aisle seat which was very fortunate for a flight of this length, so that did give a degree of comfort. The couple in the window and middle seat were very agreeable and didn’t barge into my seat space, with the crew merrily plodding up and down with the trolley a few times.
The flight cost me £8.99, so I can’t really complain and I find spending this amount of time without a phone signal to be quite relaxing in many ways. I have rather decided, that despite Wizz Air being a perfectly competent and comfortable airline, that flights of this length are perhaps just a bit much.
Safely in Madeira, which is my first time to the island. I understand that pilots require special training to land at this airport as there are strong winds and there’s not a huge amount of space to work with. The landing was sudden but seemed smooth, although I’ve never doubted the competence of Wizz Air pilots as they always seem professional and calm to me.
The view from the runway and the winds were certainly getting up at this stage. I had intended to walk to the hotel, but events meant that didn’t happen….. But more of that in the next ‘riveting’ post.
I would show a photo of the clear exterior of the Novotel, but it was too foggy to see it, but it is to the right hand side of the photo.
I’ve written about this hotel numerous times before, it’s one of my favourites. It’s a towering great affair near to the Palace of Science and Culture and a short walk away from the railway station.
One downside about the incredible growth of Poland’s economy is that hotel prices are routinely much higher than they were, so it’s rare that this hotel is an affordable option now. Luckily, Sunday rates are much lower and there was a friendly welcome at the front desk and they’d kindly upgraded me. They also mentioned it was a while since I’d visited, so I was secretly pleased that their computer hadn’t entirely forgotten about me.
My welcome gifts, local apple juice and chocolate biscuit things.
I arrived at the hotel just five minutes before the bar closed, which had the advantage that I was able to get my welcome drink. Żywiec Porter is always a favourite of mine, malty and rich, certainly good to eat the welcome chocolates with.
The view from the window over Warsaw and the Palace of Science and Culture is sort of visible on the right. I find watching the trams going through the roundabout quite peaceful and relaxing, I always get Sim City vibes sitting up here.
This might not have been the longest of stays, but the room was clean and there were no internal noise issues. I like traffic noise so I opened the window and the sounds of the city didn’t disappoint, Warsaw always feels like a vibrant place. And I use vibrant here in the positive sense, I sometimes refer to pubs as vibrant, by which I mean I feel that they’re close to having a riot.
I had initially intended to stay in Warsaw for a few days, but I accidentally booked a return flight to Madeira. This meant that my intended relaxing stay in the Novotel was rather cut short as I had to leave the hotel at 08:00 to get the train back to the airport. It was foggy, slightly cold and nicely refreshing.
Another day, another trip by train to the airport. I went from Norwich via Cambridge due to work being completed on the Norwich to Ipswich line, with a change at King’s Cross railway station. Surprisingly, the first section of the journey wasn’t that busy, despite it being on a two carriage train that can be really quite packed.
I picked up my free Greggs sausage roll and then boarded the Thameslink train to Luton Airport Parkway.
At Big Smoke, the chicken tenders and freshly squeezed orange juice were a beautifully paired meal. Who needs anything more decadent than this? This is always a handy restaurant as it’s included with Priority Pass and they have plenty of power outlets to charge devices.
Mine was the 19:35 flight to Warsaw, all looking on time. It’s not a bad timed flight, it gets into Warsaw at around 22:30 their time, which is fine as long as I get out of there by the time the last train leaves at 23:45.
A pint of Menabrea and some olives at Nolito.
Some bloody awful non alcoholic Heineken alongside some odd chicken thing at My Lounge. Nice teas though, alongside the usual dirty cutlery. I’ve noticed they’ve had a few negative reviews about the cutlery, it feels odd that they haven’t made any effort to fix this.
Boarding was announced early and then they were swiftly dealing with passengers at the gate. As usual, it was clear where non-priority passengers such as myself needed to go, I like clarity.
Boarding and the seating Gods had given me a middle seat which is never ideal, but wasn’t too problematic on this flight. The aircraft was 9H-WDX, an aircraft that I have been on before when doing this journey the other way around.
The flight was very busy with nearly no free seats. I will write the same as ever about the flight, which is that the crew were friendly, the service was efficient and the pilots made clear and appropriate announcements.
There wasn’t much of a wait at border control at Warsaw airport, so I made good time and was able to get a train to the city centre. It was then just a ten minute walk to the Novotel hotel where I was spending the night, which is one of my favourite accommodation options in Europe.
I had only decided a couple of days before what I’d be doing this week and I ended up on a route that was perhaps not entirely well thought through, but there was adventure and so that’s sufficient to keep me functioning.
I’ve created myself a precedent now by merrily writing about Müllermilch whenever I try a new flavour, so I don’t want to end that routine in case it’s unlikely. Anyway, for my long rail journey from Warsaw to Budapest, I had a couple of these and they were both really rather lovely.
The Angel Hair one tasted of pistachio and was really quite sweet (who would have thought….), although there’s a place for such things…. I preferred the Apple Pie style one, a richer and more decadent taste.
And they’re about 90p each, seemingly with some addictive qualities as I keep finding myself drawn to them…..
