This rather lovely wayside shrine, or Kapliczka, is located on Dzieci Warszawy in the Ursus region of Warsaw. It has been here since the early nineteenth century and inside there was a painting of Our Lady of Częstochowa and a painting of St. Stanislaus. The shrine became derelict in the twentieth century, but was restored in the 1990s and modern copies of the paintings were placed back inside the shrine.
I have no idea what this graffiti means, but I noticed it given my own initials…. Perhaps there’s a deeper meaning.
I don’t have much to add about this cemetery in Warsaw other than to note the remarkable number of flowers on the graves (compared to British ones at least) and how spotlessly clean it was. It was quite a busy cemetery with quite a community feel it and I got the impression that tending graves was bringing people together.
Fort V, also known as Włochy, is part of the outer ring of the Warsaw Fortress which was constructed by the Russians in 1880s. The fortresses, of which there were ultimately 29, weren’t particularly effective in the defence of the city and they had to be upgraded soon after completion due to them already becoming out-of-date against modern weaponry. Then the ridiculous situation occurred in 1909 when the Russians, to save money, started to withdraw from the forts and they destroyed some parts of them. Then, in 1913, it was decided that they’d better start rebuilding them due to the threat of war. They were bloody useless anyway, the city surrendered to the Germans in 1915 without a fight.
One advantage in the Russians leaving Warsaw after the First World War was that a decision was made to allow development outside the ring of forts. The Russians had banned this and it had held the city back from growing. After the First World War, the Poles didn’t really do much with the forts, although they were used when fighting the Germans during the Second World War.
Today, the area of Fort V is a peaceful area with lots of paths and no shortage of lumps and bumps around the place. They could do with some interpretation boards though to try and explain what exactly used to be here, it’s quite a complex site.
Anyway, some photos of the fort…..
This is the new two-page form that everyone entering Poland needs to complete. It’s provided by the airline, although it was only handed out after landing and customers couldn’t leave the aircraft until they’d completed it. This is a slightly odd arrangement as it means customers without pens had to borrow them from others, which negates the non-sharing rule, although fortunately I always have a pen in case I need to fill out a voucher for discounted fast food. One customer didn’t seem keen to fill it in and tried to walk off without handing it over, but the Polish authorities stopped him and walked him back somewhere. It’s quite a detailed form, but at least it means that in the case of emergency the authorities can easily get in touch with those who had been on board.
Having arrived in to Warsaw with British Airways, this was the quietest that I’ve seen Warsaw Chopin airport. The immigration check was via a self-service kiosk, so I didn’t have to interact with anyone during that process.
This moderately concerned me for a while, the signs for the railway into the city centre have been taped over. It’s also fair to say that there were nearly no passengers in the terminal, it all felt a little desolate.
There’s a McDonald’s at the end of this corridor, that only had a handful of customers. It took me a while to establish what the airport had done, which wasn’t to close the train connection with the city, but simply to shut some of the connecting passages. Unusually for this very precise airport, the signage wasn’t entirely clear, but I was pleased to discover (after following some other people) that they had simply directed passengers to the trains via a different route.
I do wonder how long airports will be like this for, they seem very sterile places at the moment, although at least that means they’re clean. The airport staff were also checking the temperatures of everyone entering the terminal, which didn’t happen at London Heathrow.
This is BA A320 G-EUYR after arriving into Warsaw Chopin Airport, an aircraft which has been in the BA fleet since 2013 and one I’ve not been on before. The boarding process at Heathrow T5 C Gates was well managed and customers were boarded from the rear seats to the front, which was efficient and has replaced the previous priority boarding system.
The aircraft, which was probably around 40% occupied.
I had a row of emergency exit row seats to myself and the overhead lockers were only lightly filled, so there was no problem in finding a space.
Power was available in the form of plug sockets and USB sockets.
When boarding, every customer received a hand gel and disinfecting wipe in a larger plastic bag, which the crew collected later on during the flight. The aircraft was as clean as I’ve seen BA manage before, so I’m confident that their new cleaning regime is working for them.
The Buy on Board (BOB) system, which I always hated, has been scrapped for the moment and customers were given this bag free of charge. It contains a packet of crisps, a packet of shortbread and a bottled water. The crew members were visible throughout the flight, giving clear announcements about what customers could do. This was important as I was unsure of the process, so customers had to wear masks throughout and could only go to the washrooms when the green light was on. Anyone who wasn’t going to wear a mask had to explain this situation to the staff at the gate and the crew reminded a few customers to put their mask up over their nose during the flight.
High Life Magazine is no longer offered in the seat backs, but it can be read on-line. There’s wi-fi which costs £2.99 for a flight, but I wasn’t that desperate to check e-mails during the journey.
This flight was reasonably priced at £30.52 for a single journey, which I consider to be excellent value bearing in mind BA also supplied me with lunch and drinks in the lounge, as well as on-board snacks. All told, I remain very impressed that British Airways have managed to deliver such a positive experience given the ridiculous limitations that they’re operating within. And, this is why I don’t feel the need to switch to another airline.
I posted earlier this week about when I visited to see the property where Władysław Szpilman was found by a German who helped to save his life.
I had only seen the film the Pianist, but was recommended to read the book which Szpilman wrote and which the film was based on. It also has some extracts from the diaries of Wilm Hosenfeld and I have to say (write) that the book was hard to put down and I got through it in a couple of hours. I’m pleased to note that the book is available for free here. There might be a queue to read it, as it works like a library and only a limited number of people can have the book downloaded at one time.
I stayed at this hotel twice over the last month, once for one night and once for four nights. I also had to delay writing this review until I spoke to Accor customer services, as the hotel’s manager entirely confused me. Although the hotel has given the blog a new tag-line.
My first visit was mildly confused as the room they gave me wasn’t ready, although fortunately a cleaner stopped me en route and helpfully referred me back to reception. She was very polite, but I was in no hurry so I walked back to reception and thought that I’d enjoy the welcome drink. Little did I know incidentally about the later welcome drink debacle.
The only beer available was Zywiec and this was under-poured. But, since it’s Zywiec, I wasn’t too bothered. The staff member was very apologetic about the room mix-up and I was offered the food menu, which I decided against, but I thought that the staff had been so polite that I’d dine here on my return visit.
The bottled water and a chocolate. I wasn’t sure whether this was in every room or it was a welcome gift, but either way, it was all very nice.
The room, which I’m entirely content with. On the Ibis room matter I posted excessively about, I’ve been moderately relieved to hear from Accor that their plans are being tempered, so we’ll have to see what happens with the future of Ibis rooms and their modernisation programme.
The breakfast room, which is also where meals are served in the afternoon and evening.
The breakfast selection, cold meats, cheeses and there are some hot items available as well.
Right, but now onto the second visit, which started fine and all was well.
About once a year, I get bad service at a pub, restaurant or hotel. It’s incredibly rare for me to experience, something like 1 every 150 visits or so. And, I try and be sympathetic as I don’t know why I’ve received poor service, it could be that the staff member has received some bad news, they’re tired from working hard or something which is entirely relatable. I’ve never previously poor service in Poland, on all my tens of trips, this was the first.
I’ve also spent the last 31 days non-stop in Accor hotels, so I thought it’d be interesting to try the food at an Ibis hotel, and as mentioned above, I had intended to eat here as the staff member had been friendly on the previous occasion. I was also conscious that the Accor member of staff I had spoken to at their Head Office had said they’d monitor my experiences, which is almost certainly something said to shut me up, but I like to please. Ibis run with the same menu across Poland, but I haven’t had anything from it for a couple of years and it’s nice to see how things develop.
On a different note, I was pleased to receive this drinks voucher which is new marketing as part of Accor’s switch to the ALL loyalty programme. This differed from the previous voucher I had received at this hotel and, experienced as I might be with Accor vouchers, I hadn’t seen this one.
Just as an aside on this, there are plenty of drinks vouchers out there and hotels vary in what they offer. They don’t have to be really generous and offer nearly any drink, but some do and they’d use the voucher on the right. Some are more limited, they put on the voucher to check the drinks at the bar, it’s a more limited list. They’re equally common and both are used in Poland. I don’t much care which is used, it’s a little gesture, I don’t assume that I’m going to get the most delicious craft beer.
Anyway, back to being pleased with Accor’s drinks voucher for this hotel. I thought I’d opt for a Zywiec Porter and a burger from the main menu, perhaps buying another drink later on. This plan was all going swimmingly, until I got to the bar.
The barman ignores me and my hello in Polish, but I put that down to the translation issue that I can’t speak the local language very well and clearly they can. Sometimes I get that a staff member can’t speak English and it’s no doubt frustrating for them. Anyway, he clearly doesn’t want to serve any customers, offering someone else before me a less than polite service, and by this stage he seemed entirely irate at me and ignored me for a little while before serving me. Unfortunately, the barman decided that I must be stupid and he made that very clear. His behaviour didn’t credit his hotel, but we’ll put that down to factors that I have no knowledge of. But, staff sneering at customers isn’t a good look.
A relatively large number of my friends don’t like going to restaurants or bars on their own, they find it difficult. I’ve long stopped since caring about these matters for me, but I do always ponder how it would affected friends that would have built up confidence to order at a bar. Conscious that customer service staff are on the receiving end of all manner of abuse, I’ll assume that this barman was having a bad day, but it was some of the worst customer service that I’ve seen and exceptionally rare for Poland.
But, I’m not going to deal with anyone who sneers at customers so I opted for a Pepsi to take to my room, and abandoned my plan to order food. However, I did e-mail the hotel from upstairs (how very British of me, although I did this as I didn’t want any service recovery, I thought that I was being helpful) and query their bloody voucher as without that, I’d have probably never encountered the poor service and I’d have instead happily ordered food. To cut a very long story short, they are defining “any drink other than champagne or spirits” as “any small beer, wine or soft drink”. So, it’s not any drink other than champagne or spirits, indeed, it’s a tiny choice from what they offer paying customers. And, really, the hotel management is blaming Orbis (the company who run Accor hotels in Poland) for giving them the voucher to give out. The management seemed to think it was fine to just hand the voucher out, not mention any limitations, let customers sit down in the restaurant and then mention at this stage the voucher isn’t being honoured. Why on earth try and turn the positivity of a free welcome drink into a negative, I’m unsure.
This situation confused me, and I decided that I must be an idiot and that the hotel manager was perhaps entirely correct. However, I spoke to Accor customer service, and they replied that the hotel should stop using that voucher and I should tell the hotel manager. At this point, I realised I had done enough to reassure myself that the hotel was at fault, so I just left it. I didn’t tell them that it was the hotel manager that decided the voucher was correct.
But, moving on to my thoughts about the hotel generally. The staff at breakfast and the cleaning staff were all friendly and polite, the hotel was spotlessly clean and there were no noise problems either internally or externally. There’s not much point in trying to re-evaluate my entire experience because the member of bar staff sneered at me, but nonetheless, I can’t help thinking that the manager’s decision to give customers a voucher which told them they could get any drink, and then decide that this meant “any drink from a list” was really to blame here. But, such things are up to them, and I was otherwise happy with the hotel. It’s located a little way from the centre of Warsaw, but there are frequent trams which stop just a few minutes away, so it’s not an inconvenient location given that. The prices can also be a little cheaper than the city centre Ibis hotels because of its location.
The lounge that British Airways use at Warsaw Chopin Airport is the Bolero Lounge, located in the non-Schengen section of the airport after the automated passport control. There was a friendly welcome from the staff member behind the desk when I entered and I didn’t have to wait to be given entry into the lounge as there was no queue.
The main food section of the lounge.
Some higher tables and chairs.
Fridges with soft drinks.
There was some hot food, which didn’t look too exciting. The Greek salad was though lovely, with olives on the shelf above it as well.
I had quite a chunk of the lounge’s blue cheese, but there were other types of cheese to choose from and also some cold cuts. There were also cereals, yoghurts and some wraps.
Chocolate.
Fudge.
How very lovely. The lounge didn’t let me down with regards to the chocolate selection and there was a lady from the United States who was almost beside herself with excitement over the options available to her. I was quite pleased by that as she left a larger pile of empty chocolate wrappers than I did.
Since my flight was delayed by an hour, I thought I’d have one beer. I hadn’t heard of this one, it’s a Pilsner style beer brewed by Browary Lubelskie, a brewery founded in an abandoned monastery in 1844. They also make the big-selling Perła beer, which I have heard of before. The beer was fine, nothing exceptional, but it met my expectations and I hadn’t exactly expected the lounge to stock a range of craft beers to meet my ridiculously pretentious needs.
The lounge got busy during the three hours that I was in there, although it was relatively quiet when I had arrived. I found a power point to charge my devices, although there weren’t as many of these as there perhaps could have been. The staff were going around the lounge on a regular basis clearing away empty plates and glasses, so it all felt clean and organised. The toilets are also located at the rear of the lounge, so there’s no need for customers to leave and come back in.
I gained entry into the lounge as part of my BA status, although they also accept Priority Pass and similar card schemes. There’s also the opportunity for customers to buy entry, which is currently 130zl, or £26, which seems a ridiculously high price to me which goes beyond the price of some UK lounges. I suspect that people might be best to spend their £26 in the range of airport restaurants, but each to their own….
There aren’t any announcements made in the lounge, but there were plenty of screens and it transpired that it was just a five-minute walk to the gate for my BA flight. The lounge was generally peaceful other than for some idiot doing rounds of the lounge whilst talking loudly into his phone, I suspect so that people could hear how important he was. I didn’t credit him with more general awareness, so I doubted that he realised that people were making their own visible and audible opinions on him behind his back.
Anyway, a peaceful and clean lounge, and I’d happily come back here for a few hours if I fly back from Warsaw Chopin Airport in the future. All very lovely.
