Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Ibis Styles

Ljubljana – Day Three (Ibis Styles)

We were all staying in Accor’s Ibis Styles for the three nights that we were in Ljubljana, a conveniently located hotel just a short walk away from the bus stop and railway station.

The set-up here is a little different to the usual Ibis Styles arrangement, as they also have a hostel on the seventh floor which means more social areas are provided for the entire hotel. There is a rooftop bar, which I confess that we forgot to visit.

We were all on different floors, but I think that the rooms looked the same. The bathroom set-up is very Ibis Styles… My room felt functional and bare, but it was clean and I had what I needed. Well, other than a welcome gift….

The view from the hotel over to Ljubljana Castle.

I had been fortunate to obtain a favourable rate that also included breakfast, although the others had booked room options without the breakfast. I didn’t intend to miss out though.

I didn’t bother with the hot options as the cold options were plentiful, but there were some eggs and sausages as well.

Bread, blue cheese, tomatoes, olives, cucumber, salami, croissant, bread and butter, all really rather lovely.

I always find it handy when they do this. I went down between 07:00 and 08:00 to fit in with the others and it was always quiet.

And my welcome drink, which I picked up on the final night. It’s not a beer that I’ve had before, but it was dark and interesting.

As an aside, I liked the lights outside the room which clearly indicated to the cleaning staff who wanted the room cleaned. I opted to just collect the 100 Accor points every night by not having the room cleaned, as every little helps…

I really rather liked this hotel, the staff were friendly, the room was clean, there were no internal or external noise, everything worked properly, there was a nice welcome drink and the breakfast was of a decent quality. I’d certainly stay here again if I come back to the city, which I likely will.

November 29, 2025
Friedrichshafen – Ibis Styles

The final night of our European trip a few weeks ago was to Friedrichshafen and so the first port of call was the Accor operated Ibis Styles. I had rather expected it to be a little more centrally located, but if I had looked at a map before booking it that might have been helpful. Fortunately, it was still walkable, even for Richard, so we were happy with the location.

We were greeted at reception with this mention that we could phone someone for attention. I am most certainly not calling anyone, as I’m quite millennial, I’d rather have a nice WhatsApp link to chat away using text. Anyway, Richard then came clattering into the hotel with his big executive bag and so the receptionist heard us so that avoided that problem.

It was all bright and spacious in the hotel reception, the whole arrangement felt modern. The welcome at reception was also friendly which is always a positive start to any visit.

The seating area by the reception desk.

The walk to the room was along long corridors which took a little longer than ideal to actually light up as the sensors seemed to be rather sluggish.

I reached my room first and noticed the lack of welcome gift, but I was reassured when a few minutes later Richard confirmed to me that he hadn’t got one either. I wasn’t surprised, Accor hotels in Germany aren’t as consistently excellent as the ones in Poland. But I don’t go on about that. I would have gone to reception to complain if Richard had a gift and I didn’t though, as I’m like that….

I couldn’t understand why Richard left this when he got his coffee in McDonald’s earlier on in the day, but waste not, want not. So I had it as my own little welcome gift to myself.

We had our welcome drink after returning back in the evening and the set-up here is that they have a joint reception and bar. The staff member was friendly, engaging and welcoming, with the service always being personable during our visit.

I was surprised and delighted at the choice of beers that I could have as the welcome drink, I opted for the Benediktiner Weissbier Dunkel which is a dark wheat beer. This was decent, it was robust with the wheat beer banana notes and I’m genuinely not sure I’ve had this exact beer style before. Richard opted for some wine and he enchanted the receptionist with his grape chat.

We then sat for hours trying to work out how to get the missing images from this blog sorted. That’s nearly resolved now. This blog is sometimes something of a headache, but I have to persist for my two loyal blog readers. And my own memory actually, I like to be reminded where I’ve been.

We opted to have breakfast at the hotel and there was a decent selection available. He’s Richard getting ready for his coffee and Coco Pops.

The bread selection.

I liked those little edible containers (well, I ate them) for the honey and jams.

And the butter machine.

The cold meats and salad items. Sometimes the ham served at breakfast isn’t entirely appetising, but the ham here was so delicious that I might have had about a kilo of it. I exaggerate, but only slightly….

One of my several plates as I’m quite greedy. The Germans do breakfast perhaps as well as anyone in the world, so I was entirely happy with this whole offering. The breakfast area is also spacious and stress-free, so that helped with the calm and laid-back start to the day.

I really quite liked this hotel, although it felt a little soulless for an Ibis Styles and I’m not sure why they picked that branding for this Accor hotel. But, the rooms were clean, the staff were friendly, the welcome drink selection was generous, the prices were reasonable and so I could forgive the lack of a welcome gift. And if Richard is reading this, he’s probably still wondering how he missed his wafer with his McDonald’s coffee and I couldn’t possibly comment.

September 29, 2025
Budapest – Ibis Styles Budapest Airport

I mentioned in my last post that it took just seven minutes for me to get from the aircraft to the reception desk of the Ibis Styles, a building they share with their sister Accor hotel chain Tribe.

The team member at the reception desk was friendly, engaging and welcoming so my first impressions were positive. They use the bar at Tribe for drinks until midnight, so I was able to get my welcome drink there, opting for the Soproni as that was the only beer that they had. As an aside, an on-trend brand such as Tribe should probably have a better range of beers, but I won’t get distracted down that path.

I note that the hotel gets some negative reviews from airport users who want to come in and use the bar facilities overnight whilst waiting for their early morning flights. I’m with Accor here, you can’t really have a hotel which has a heap of people sleeping in their foyer when they’ve got hundreds of rooms on the floors above. For those staying in the hotel, they do though have a 24 hour bar available.

It was a relaxed and comfortable vibe though, Accor have been pretty ahead of the curve on making these foyer areas feel welcoming.

The room, before I had found the light switches. The hotel didn’t have opening windows, but the air conditioning worked well and soon made the room freezing cold just as I like it. The ceilings in the room are raw concrete, with a couple of lines painted on, which has annoyed a few customers who assumed that their rooms hadn’t been finished. I’m all for the industrial look though, although I didn’t follow the instructions plastered on the wall about making a paper airplane. Quirky is positive though, there’s enough corporate blandness in the world already.

And the room after I had found the light switches.

And the rather lovely welcome gifts which were very much appreciated.

Breakfast was included in the room rate and the hot options were better than they often are, with the potato lumps (probably not their official term), the roasted vegetables and the tomato based sauce all having some taste and flavour to them. The sausage was a bit generic but it was all at the appropriate temperature.

The cold elements of the breakfast, always my favourite part. I tested a lot of the cooked meats selection and that met my expectations.

There we go…. After I had collected the various component parts of the breakfast up as there were separate bread, juice and pastry counters. The breakfast area was quite large and it was quiet when I was there, but the opening hours are long and they offer light breakfasts from 04:00 for those with early flights (or those who just get up early).

I liked this hotel, it was clean, comfortable and everything seemed to work properly. The major selling point is that it’s the airport hotel and is just a two minute walk from the airport terminal, which is rather optimal to say the least when arriving into the city late at night. I’d happily stay here again and the pricing seems reasonable for an airport hotel, it’s cheaper than the numerous options at Luton Airport.

June 2, 2025
Grudziądz – Ibis Styles

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix some broken image links]

The Ibis Styles in Grudziądz, a modern looking building, which is part of the Accor chain. It’s about a ten-minute walk for the railway station and around a five-minute walk from the city centre.

Ibis Styles certainly go for some interesting themes in their hotels. My Ibis Styles in Bremen was themed around space, this hotel seemed to themed around medieval knights.

The theming continued in the room, although I couldn’t help but feel that they gave it an impression of being a children’s room.

Breakfast in the morning exceeded my expectations in terms of the choice and quality of the food and drink. I particularly liked the tubs of Greek salad and the rolls, which were unusually large. The hotel did though seem to have a problem with flies in the breakfast area….

However, the service in the hotel was always friendly, the prices low (a night including breakfast was around £28) and there were no noise issues, either internally or externally.

May 31, 2025
Bremen – Space Hotel

[I originally wrote this in April 2018 but I’m reposting it as I’ve fixed the broken image links. Firstly, I must have been muddled up getting a free glass of wine if there was beer available…. And I think this was before I became quite obsessed with Accor and their hotels. As an aside, Ibis Styles seems to have really moved away for these quirky designs, which is something of a shame.]

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Accor Hotels, consistently good service in clean hotels. And I like that my status gets me a free drink when I arrive at each of their hotels, there’s nothing like winning me over than a lovely glass of cool white wine.

This hotel has proved no different so far, really friendly welcome and a clean environment. And unlike some Ibis hotels I’ve been to, they haven’t been trying to force free apples onto me…..

Anyway, this is the city’s Ibis Styles. Which is, for reasons unknown, designed to have a space theme. It’s certainly an interesting design and I rather like these sort of themed hotels….

Perhaps one of the best signed toilets in a hotel room. The chair is more comfortable than it looks fortunately.

I’m one of those people who never turns on the TV in a hotel room, but it does look rather impressive with its blue glow.

November 26, 2024
Bucharest Trip – Day 3 : Ibis Styles Bucharest City Centre

My hotel for the first two nights of my stay in Bucharest was the Ibis Styles Bucharest City Centre. The others, quite sensibly, managed to stay in the same place for the entire week, but I was on a mission to complete the 6,000 points offer from Accor which involved staying at three hotels for two nights each. Which meant that I stayed here for two nights, then moved to another hotel in the city, then came back again. It’s sub-optimal in many ways, but I like getting Accor points. Incidentally, I’ve been inundated with requests for the return of my Accor blog (well, I had one person asking if I was still doing it) and I’m actively working on that.

The hotel has a modern design and some considerable thought has been put into it. My check-in process was handled by a staff member who was on the phone to a customer the entire time which wasn’t entirely ideal, but I appreciated the efficiency of the operation. The welcome went as expected and I was given a room on the fourth floor. There are low and high tables for those wanting to get a drink, get some work done or meet up with others, with a separate restaurant area at the rear.

For anyone interested (goodness knows who) this is the menu in the hotel’s restaurant.

I didn’t like this room at first sight. I didn’t mind the concrete ceiling and that element of minimalism, but I like having a desk. But, more on that in a moment.

Matters improved considerably when I discovered my welcome gift of cakes and a juice in the fridge. I was becoming rapidly more forgiving. I sent this photo to the group WhatsApp and Bev claimed she thought I had a coffin in the room. She was just jealous that she didn’t have a coffin shaped table in her room I think, she’s quite dark like that. But, of course, I didn’t say anything.

And then I discovered a fold-up desk, so I felt just a little guilty for jumping to conclusions. A few years ago, I was on a panel which discussed the new room design and I mentioned the importance of a desk, even if it just folded up. I’m not saying that they paid any attention to me, as ultimately most people don’t, but they have made a sensible decision here. The other table (on the right of the above photo) is also of an adjustable height, so can be used as a standing desk or a bedside table.

Steve was staying at the hotel, so we had breakfast together on the mornings that I was actually staying there. I don’t much go for hot options at breakfast, so I was suitably surprised and delighted by the cold meats selection. And olives, I like olives. And that red paste, I’m not sure exactly what was in it, added to the proceedings.

The selection from the following morning.

There’s plate one and I did try, despite my previous comment about the hot food, a few of the hot sausages. I wasn’t that engaged with them, so I didn’t repeat that exercise.

Here’s the hot food selection, which doesn’t really inform my two loyal readers as they can’t see what’s in them. There was a choice of, I think, eggs, fatty bacon and sausages. I make regular comments about how bacon should be cooked, including for those who read through my Norwich Market posts. I have agreed, and I am unanimous in this, that bacon should be served crispy and slightly burnt. The Americans know how to do this.

The cereals selection and there was also a juice station with five different juices, served alongside large glasses. This is most unusual, as usually hotels offer little tiny glasses for orange juice which requires me to take around four of them to the table.

Some of the breads and pastries, with a separate doughnut selection which I really quite enjoyed.

And biscuits.

And here’s another plate. I think everyone gets the idea of what I liked….

Anyway, I liked this hotel and my room had a pleasant view. There were no noise disturbances in the hotel either internally or externally and I enjoyed my Ursus Black welcome drink. Steve had a problem with his coffees not being topped up to which he was told that this wasn’t something that reception could do anything about and he had to speak to house-keeping before 18:00. This feels an entirely sub-optimal situation, there’s no reason why the hotel couldn’t have spare coffees behind reception, but there we go, I fortunately didn’t experience any issues.

I’d merrily stay here again and I liked how modern the hotel was, something which Ibis Styles often gets right. The service was friendly, the room was clean and I felt that I received good value for money. I paid £110 for these two nights, including breakfast, but the Accor offer means that the rate was effectively £70 for the two nights. The hotel is very well reviewed and seemed to be at near full occupancy during the time I stayed here, with it being around a twenty minute walk from the city centre.

November 19, 2023
Friday to Monday : The Polish City of Siedlce

I had arrived in the Polish city of Siedlce on time, it’s a relatively short train service from Warsaw. I won’t post about each day individually, I’ll wrap my three day trip up into one blog post to try and theme things together a little better. Less for my two followers to wade through that way as well.

My first sight of Siedlce after leaving the railway station and I never quite know what to expect from Polish cities. I’ve been to thirty or so different large towns or cities in Poland, some feel prosperous and some really don’t seem to have developed much economically since the Second World War. It’s hard to under-estimate how much damage was done to the country during the Second World War, with over half of Siedlce’s buildings being badly damaged or destroyed. The town hall was wrecked and the centre was devastated, with the communist influenced led city not really receiving the investment it should have done in the post-war period either.

My first impressions were a little negative as the railway station was basic and the photo shows the damaged building in a prominent location. However, this wasn’t the general situation in Siedlce, which actually seemed quite prosperous and there were only a handful of buildings that I saw which were derelict. There seems to be an element of wealth to the city now, perhaps its accessible location to Warsaw has helped. It felt very much a city at ease with itself, with a modern edge evident throughout.

Polska niepodległa means “independent Poland” and refers to when the country finally received its independence in 1918, following 123 years of being partitioned by Russia, Prussia and Austria.

13 December 1981 is when martial law was introduced in Poland, after the years of communist greed and incompetence. They arrested over 10,000 activists from Solidarity, or Solidarność, for the period that martial law continued for, which was until July 1983.

“Zlo dobrem zwyciezaj” means overcome evil with good.

There were numerous decorative touches around the city, here are some carefully tended flowers.

Oops.

I didn’t get to go inside as there always seemed to be services, funerals or other functions going on, but this is the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception.

The sign notes that this was the site of the secondary school built in 1919, but the buildings were destroyed during the Second World War. I mention this as the city has placed numerous history boards on buildings, although they’re all only in Polish. That’s not a complaint, just in most Polish cities they also translate into English, so it’s an indication they’re not expecting a huge number of English visitors here.

The former Ogiński Palace, constructed as a grand residential property in the eighteenth century which is now used by the Siedlce University of Natural Sciences and Humanities. It’s not possible to go inside, although since the building was nearly destroyed by fire in 1944, it’s most recreated.

Some kind of sundial in the palace gardens.

The city has a lovely park, Aleksandria (or Alexandria), although it’s closed at the moment whilst they do some faffing about with it. It had a little zoo in it for a while, although most of the buildings in the park were demolished during the Second World War. As an aside, a lot of this city’s narrative still can only be told by the prism of the 1940s, its legacy runs deep.

The water park, which I didn’t go to, but is next to the Ibis Styles hotel where I was staying.

And there’s the hotel, glistening in the sun which made the city too hot.

It’s very much not in the Ibis Styles brand standard, but that’s it was constructed for use as an independent hotel and was brought into Accor later on. The air conditioning makes the rooms freezing, which I was very pleased about as this is my desired state of temperature affairs. They didn’t bother to clean the rooms at any time during the stay, which is something that every other Accor hotel I’ve visited in Poland is managing to do at the moment and have done for some time. There was also an absence of any paperwork relating to the restaurant, hotel facilities or indeed anything else, either in paper or digital form.

A pleasant view from the room.

Later on during the weekend I watched some football matches that were being played. I say watched, I more glanced out of the window every few minutes.

There was no welcome drink offered, although I was given a voucher when I queried it. They made clear though that I couldn’t have any nice beer of which they did sell in bottles, just a small glass of generic and cheap Czech beer. They didn’t use the words generic or cheap, but it seemed a sloppy way to welcome a guest (not that I’m important to need that, but the point of the scheme is to offer a nice welcome) and Orbis who run the Accor hotels in Poland told me before that they had done away with this penny pinching. The hotel did seem badly managed in many ways and it’s the first time I’ve been asked to pay at the end of my stay in an Accor hotel in Poland, payment is always taken before the stay, or occasionally on check-in. They then messed this up, which summed up the stay for me, but I have to add that it was cheap and it would be unfair not to mention that.

The restaurant might be separately managed, it was differently branded to the rest of the hotel, which might explain their lack of wanting to give away any beer that might taste nice. Actually, not wishing to drone on about this, it annoyed me as I was going to eat in their restaurant with my free drink, but I decided against it.

The breakfasts in the hotel were fine, although some of the ingredients changed each day and there were some odd items available, which I assume were left over from the restaurant the previous day.

Back to the city and away from my complaints about what the welcome drink was in the hotel, as if that matters. This is the city’s Jewish cemetery which was established in 1825 and there are apparently 1,000 graves here, the oldest of which remains is from 1855. The last burial took place in 1888, with two exceptions which both relate to mass graves. The first is the Siedlce Pogrom, where 26 Jews were killed by the Russians during an uprising in September 1906. The second is the mass grave of 3,000 Jews from the Second World War.

The cemetery can’t be visited by members of the public, there’s a long brick wall which restricts entrance.

There has been some tidying up of the site and they’ve added these gates to the entrance.

The wall goes on for tens of metres around the site.

The rear of the cemetery.

I took a photo through the gates of the inside of the cemetery, but no stones are visible, although there are a fair few inside.

As the Jewish cemetery was next door to the city’s main cemetery, I had a little look around there instead.

It’s better kept than the Jewish one, although that’s something that is a legacy of the post-war period.

All organised and neatly laid out.

I’m not entirely sure what is happening with this site nearby as there were no information boards or the like, but the site was used as a Catholic cemetery from the end of the eighteenth century until the nineteenth century when it closed. In the 1980s, the site was cleared, but numerous gravestones were kept.

Some of the gravestones which had been kept and positioned neatly around the little chapel.

A statue commemorating the life of Lech Kaczyński, the President of Poland from 2005 until he died in a air crash in 2010. I’m not sure if there’s any connection between him and the city, or whether it’s just something that the locals wanted to build in honour of his life.

The Kolumna Toskańska, erected in 1783 to mark the visit of King Stanisław August Poniatowski. I’m quite surprised it’s still there, it feels a bit in the way to be honest. Obviously it didn’t offend the Germans during the Second World War, since it’s one of the few things they didn’t knock down.

As it was too hot again, I had a sit down next to Ignacy Skorupka (1893-1920) who was a Polish Priest who died during the Battle of Warsaw. This conflict isn’t referred to much, it’s a bit overshadowed by the Second World War, but it’s when in 1920 the Polish troops beat the Soviets who were trying to invade. The Soviets, led by Lenin, wanted to seize and suppress the Poles so that they could spread out across to western Europe countries. The Poles weren’t having any of it, the Soviets were smashed and withdrew. The defeat shocked the Soviets who though they had the military advantage and Skorupka’s death was used as part of the theory that God wanted the Poles to win though divine intervention.

He was fortunate, his bench is in a nice cool area.

Brofaktura, which is meant to be one of the few brewhouses in the city, but I couldn’t get a table as they were closed for private functions. I took a couple of photos anyway.

I went to a bar, Piwiarnia Miejska Siedlce, over the road instead, serving Tyskie.

The burger meat tasted a little odd, but the rest of the meal was fine and I wasn’t ill, so that’s a result. Decent chips it has to be said and this burger and drink came to around £5.

The local Government offices, the photo of which I’ve included here as I like the architecture.

As an aside, I was impressed at how well organised the city was generally for pedestrians (the lighter paving) and cyclists (the red stone).

The city over time.

One of the few buildings in the city which was a bit derelict, although it looks like they’re getting ready to repair it.

This building on the other hand is about to be demolished.

I try and visit the site of the former synagogue, as that tends to be all that’s left, in Polish cities and this is all that remains in Siedlce. The Germans raided the building on the night of 24 December 1939, setting fire to it and destroying it. What was worse is that some Jewish people who had been made homeless were in the building, so the Germans killed them.

Here’s what the synagogue looked like. I had a look around the former Jewish ghetto, but there’s not really anything standing that I could take a photograph of. There’s more information about the ghetto at http://www.holocaustresearchproject.org/ghettos/siedlce.html for anyone interested.

And this is where the synagogue used to stand, although they have put some information boards up in a number of languages to mark what was here. That means of the bustling synagogue, Jewish quarter and cemetery, nothing really remains other than for a number of graves in a mostly inaccessible cemetery.

When I was looking for things to do in Siedlce, the local tourist information web-site said it was essential to look at the church built in the middle of a roundabout. Well, here it is.

Pope John Paul II visited the city in June 1999.

I spotted an ice cream shop and it was still too bloody hot so I thought I’d better pop in.

And I got a delicious affogato. Friendly staff in this ice cream shop, definitely a place to pop in when it’s too hot, which was the entirety of my time in the city (with one exception I mention in a moment).

A monument to Józef Piłsudski, one of the country’s national heroes.

There are a lot of references to him, as indeed there are on this blog generally, since he is revered across Poland.

The city hall, with a grand open public space in front of it.

And that’s the abbreviated story of my time in the city, when it was too hot, with the exception of the moment of when I needed to walk to the railway station to leave Siedlce. There were then Biblical rains, when I had to shelter at a bus stop and then avoid being splashed in the flooded roads (although Polish drivers are very careful, but I was taking no risks). Mind you, it made the temperature just right for me, so I couldn’t really complain. I enjoyed my visit to the city and I was very productive with my laptop when here, so that was useful.

Back at Siedlce railway station, where I’ll pick this ever random story up in the next blog post.

June 26, 2022
Wednesday : London to Warsaw via Helsinki

Today’s adventure wasn’t an ideal situation, but British Airways needed to change my flight from London Heathrow to Warsaw and the only way that they could get me there was via Helsinki. These are challenging times for airlines at the moment, but I hope that these schedules start to settle down over the next few months, it’s not really a routing that I would have thought the most cost effective to arrange.

I was starting at the Ibis Styles at Heathrow, not my first time in the hotel, but my first time in the separate accommodation bloc. It’s really not apparent, but there’s a floor above what is visible here which is reset a little, which is where my room was.

Not that it’s particularly interesting, but that additional floor is visible behind Esso, with the main part of the hotel on the right.

A bus journey to Heathrow T3 central bus station and my complaint, yet again, that Heathrow have blocked off the pedestrian and cyclist entrance to the airport and so people are forced to use cars or go on public transport. In the past, the airport themselves paid for that public transport, but they don’t now. There’s an element of greed here and I find it a little sinister who is benefiting from these changes, but I had better not meander down that path for too long. So a little ride on the Travelator from the central bus station to get me to Heathrow T3.

And here it is again in all its glory, my favourite of the terminals at Heathrow. This is solely because of the lounges where I can get the most free food, T5 is a much better designed and interesting terminal architecturally (including the bits that my friend Liam built).

I can use the premium security line at Heathrow T3 because of my silver card (I have to mention every time that I got this through judicious use of Flyertalk tips, my spend on flights is very low and wouldn’t normally get me such decadence). A member of staff came over and said that the premium security line was longer than the standard line if anyone wanted to move over. I was by that point near the front and didn’t take the risk, but I was amused when someone just behind me said “you’re the one who just sent me over here”. I laughed just a little inside because the man seemed to want an argue but the staff member walked off. Security at T3 always seems quite quick and I got fortunate with my choice of queue, I think I was through within five minutes including the waiting time in the queue.

Lounge hopping at T3, I decided to start with Qantas to get a Salmon Eggs Benedict and delicious it was too. The service in the lounge was as impeccable as ever, efficient, informal and professional.

Part of the cold food selection, but I’ve written about this Qantas lounge before and won’t bore readers unnecessarily. It was though quiet, comfortable and as lovely as ever. I can’t decide which lounge I prefer, Qantas or Cathay Pacific, so I just visit them both.

I thought some exercise would be in order and so I walked to the Cathay Pacific Lounge to get food there, with this being the menu of the day.

Delicious, that Dim Sum selection is always quite beautiful. There was some spicy kick to that Thai coconut and vegetable soup, which complemented the Asahi beer nicely. I didn’t bother visiting the British Airways lounge, it’s just not as decadent and they don’t have any beer there. Well, they have Heineken, but I mean proper beer. The barman mentioned that I had the last bottle of beer he had left, so I hope he had access to some more stock from somewhere. Service here, just as in the Qantas lounge, is professional and although more formal, it always feels welcoming. It’s a comfortable space as well, there are plenty of different seating types as well as lots of power points to charge devices. I mention that frequently as it is quite important to me, just imagine having a phone without any charge. It’s too much to even contemplate, I shall move on and away from that horrible thought.

My flights to Warsaw were with Finn Air, although it was a little difficult to work out when to board as the neighbouring gate spilled over and they had the wrong passengers in each queue for a short whilst. I think the other flight was going to Africa, so it would have been quite some distance if someone landed in Helsinki by mistake. I had a little problem when boarding as the staff member said “since you’re going to Warsaw as your final destination, I need to see your Covid pass”. I’m not actually sure that was right, as Poland doesn’t need the pass any more, so I spent about three minutes (that feels a long time when you know you’re holding up the queue) trying to find my older one, which he said would be sufficient. He was very helpful and after a few seconds of panic that I had forgotten to do something I should have done, I was ready to board.

I don’t know why they were using such a large aircraft, the Airbus A350-900, as the flight wasn’t that busy and it isn’t the usual aircraft that I’ve been on when shunted onto this service before. I was very pleased with it though, as it’s also a long-haul aircraft and I haven’t been on such a large aircraft since 2019.

I rarely get to see these sort of images, as British Airways opted out of the camera installation which isn’t relatively that expensive, they just claimed their passengers wouldn’t want it. I do, I like watching the plane from above and below, it’s quite surreal as it’s not the sort of image I’m used to seeing.

I had the entire row of three seats to myself, so I could lounge out and enjoy my free blueberry juice.

There was in-flight entertainment, so I watched an episode of Bear Grylls doing something adventurous with Alex Honnold, who I watched on board a BA flight a few years ago climbing with ropes in the film Free Solo (I mean I watched him on the BA in-flight entertainment, he wasn’t on the aircraft climbing things, although that would have been exciting). The series is Running Wild with Bear Grylls, it’s the sort of thing that my friend Liam would be excited to be on, it’s full of adventure and danger. I’d rather be in the pub than jumping out of aircraft or eating rattlesnakes.

We landed and I was transfixed watching the servicing of the aircraft underneath me. I hope British Airways change their minds and install these in the future, they’re very informative about how aircraft are serviced after landing, it’s all precisely timed.

I wasn’t in business class as I’m not that decadent, that’s the sort of thing my friend Richard does as he spends a lot of money on things he doesn’t need, but it looked really rather comfortable.

And there’s the aircraft.

I very much enjoyed visiting the non-Schengen Finn Air airport lounge a few weeks ago, but the Schengen one was much smaller and it was at near capacity when I went to it. The staff were friendly, although it’s the first time I’ve gone into a lounge and the check-in process has been via a scanner checking my boarding pass rather than a human inspecting it. The food wasn’t very exciting, a tray of pasta and a tray of cooked vegetables. It’s not exactly Michelin cuisine, nor actually is it even Greggs cuisine.

They had some feta salad with cooked vegetables, but I’d rather have had something cold and crisp with it, it was all very bland. I greedily got two slices of cheesecake as they looked delicious, but they weren’t very nice either. I can’t complain as this was all free, but I just got my hopes up from how good my experience had been before.

I had a couple of hours in the lounge and it got much quieter during the second half of my visit.

Wine and biscuits. I don’t know anything about wine to comment on the quality of that, but they needed some custard creams I thought. Or Jaffa Cakes, that would have been very good.

My laptop and I moved to the window to watch the aircraft. There were lots of power points in the lounge which was handy, so that I could get everything charged ready for the second flight.

All much more sedate when most people had left.

The self-pour selection.

I left the Finn Air lounge a little disappointed it wasn’t as good as their other one in the same airport, but I enjoyed the friendly service, the clean environment and indeed the entire airport felt relaxed and comfortable.

The flight to Warsaw was on a smaller aircraft.

The aircraft was at near capacity, so no empty row for me this time. The curtain between business class and economy is right at the front on this flight, there were just two people in business class. One of the debates on FlyerTalk is whether customers in economy should be able to use the washrooms in business class. usually it’s preferred not to, but on this flight, I saw the crew turning back three customers and sending them to the back of the aircraft to wait. I thought that was petty and it caused them service problems as then customers were trapped behind trolleys in the aisles and the crew had to reverse back up to let them pass. I don’t know how many washrooms they had on this aircraft, probably two at the rear and one at the front. Having one washroom for two customers and the other two for eighty customers doesn’t really make sense, however much you want to offer a differentiated service for business customers.

The crew member made an announcement at the end saying “please let business class passengers off first” which caused amusement as there were only two of them, and she looked annoyed people had laughed. I just thought it was all a bit odd, although it didn’t impact me.

Finn Air offer free blueberry juice and water, with other items being chargeable. I was quite happy with my blueberry juice.

The flight landed on time and I was through Warsaw airport security quickly enough, even though I (and others from the UK, it’s not just me) now have to wait in a queue separate to everyone else as I was from the UK and not in Schengen. I love being back here, it’s the railway station underneath Warsaw airport, which means I’m back in what is now my favourite city.

Warsaw landmarks on the seats, the train spotlessly clean and it cost me 74p for my ticket to the hotel. Bargain.

I was staying at the Warsaw Airport Mercure hotel again, one of my favourites and I’ve stayed there ten or so times I think now. It’s the smallest room I’ve been given in this particular hotel, but they said I might enjoy the tea theme of the room, so I thought that sounded interesting.

I wasn’t going to run out of tea.

My welcome gift and I always appreciate the gesture, even if it is mostly fruit. Indeed, as fruit goes, it was rather nice.

Pictures, all part of the tea theming of the room.

I liked it, there’s something quite fun about hotels having these individually designed rooms, it seems to be something that a few Accor hotels in the city are doing. Having quirky little elements like this makes things just a little more interesting, especially when it’s a room that I haven’t had before.

That’s the end of today’s little instalment. It was good to be back in Warsaw, I very much like it here.

June 25, 2022
Tuesday : Ealing, Angus Deayton and Heathrow

I liked the Ealing Ibis Styles, my first time there and it was a quiet and peaceful hotel with some strong movie related theming. The reviews aren’t great for the hotel and some are complaining that the hotel is charging for luggage storage, which is odd as I’d have thought that should have been included. I was fortunate to get this hotel for a reasonable price, the cost of staying in London is becoming ridiculous at the moment, well above pre-2020 prices. I hope for selfish reasons that this trend doesn’t continue permanently otherwise I’ll hardly be coming to London at all. At the moment, a single night at a city centre Travelodge is the same price as seven nights in an Accor hotel in some parts of Poland.

It was a pleasant day (well, too hot really, but I nearly always think it’s too hot as soon as the sun comes out) and this is Christ the Saviour Church in Ealing. It’s not that hard to guess the designer of this beautiful building, it’s Sir Gilbert Scott. Built in 1852 when Ealing’s population was starting to rapidly increase, it was damaged during the Second World War, but sensitively reconstructed and there’s plenty of foliage today around the building.

Fortunately, the underground strike of the previous day had come to an end, so the District Line was open again at Ealing Broadway Underground station. Note the old style signage of the station in the background.

It’s visible on the right hand side of this photo as well TFL note that these are originals, with the design dating to the early twentieth century. As an aside, you can buy original signage from the Underground at https://www.ltmuseumshop.co.uk/vintage-shop/underground-signs. It’s the kind of thing that I’d like, but it’s far too expensive and it’s not clear to me why I’d want a sign from London Liverpool Street in my flat. Although I would, I’d even appoint my friend Liam as the civil engineer responsible for the installation work.

All credit to TFL for this signage to help those coming from Ukraine.

Not many commuters on the Tuesday morning District Line service into central London. They try and paint the poles the same colour as the train service, so yellow for the Circle Line. It doesn’t always work out though, the District Line is green, but sometimes the lines share trains.

A quick Wetherspoons breakfast alongside countless refillable coffees, although it’s not entirely clear to me what they had done with the sausages, but I’d probably be best not knowing. I’m very productive in these surroundings and the coffees were delicious.

It was too hot so I went to St. James’s Park for a little while, a 57 acre park which was once land owned by the Palace of Whitehall.

This canal was added in the seventeenth century, although it doesn’t really go anywhere and is now more of a lake, they just diverted the Tyburn I think to fill it.

I was here a couple of days after the Jubilee weekend, so a lot of the barriers were still present and endless flags, although they might be permanent. The Government seem to be trying to put the union flag in as many places in London as they can and Priti Patel seems to spend most of her time standing in front of one. Anyway, I mustn’t get distracted back into politics.

I was annoyed at the heat so sat in Green Park trying to avoid the sun. The park was landscaped in 1820, but is one of the plainest of the parks, just lots of grass, but that suited my needs on this boiling hot day. Bloody global warming.

I had free tickets to the recording of Alone, which is a BBC Radio 4 comedy. It’s been going for a few years, but I’d never heard of it and half the audience also put their hands up saying they hadn’t heard the show before. This was by far the quietest of the shows that I’ve been to, the audience were only in the first few rows, although I think they had enough people to make it all work.

Another one of my hopeless photos, but this was the break and the performers (or whatever the word is) were just leaving the stage. There’s Angus Deayton, Pearce Quigley, Abigail Cruttenden, Kate Isitt and Bennett Arron. I like watching the process of recording these shows and how much of it has to be re-recorded because someone has made a mistake, there’s been a sound issue or something else went wrong. I hope the others wouldn’t be offended (although it hardly matters, they’re not going to read this) but I’d only heard of Angus Deayton and Pearce Quigley, the latter from the Detectorists. Anyway, it was all very entertaining.

A pizza from the very reliable and affordable Pizza Union chain, although I was conscious at this point that I should really get a move on to get to my hotel in Heathrow. I always have a slight fear that my hotel room will be resold and that would be a faff to resolve.

I had an hour’s journey on the Piccadilly Line from Holborn to Hounslow Central, where I would get a bus to the hotel. To my great annoyance, Heathrow still haven’t reinstated the Free Travel Zone around the airport, so I thought I’d get a bus from Hounslow instead of faffing about at the airport.

The Ibis Styles Heathrow Airport room, where I stayed a few weeks ago, and the room has a modern feel and I tolerate the lack of desk as that small table is sufficient. That also isn’t an oil slick on the floor, it’s the design of the carpet, which is clever as it hides any stains that guests might leave by just looking like it’s stained anyway. No problems though with my stay, quiet and comfortable with everything as expected.

The free welcome drinks, with the excitement for me that I was going overseas the next day. I never tire of that excited feeling and I wonder if I ever will.

June 25, 2022
Monday : Barnsley to Ealing During an Underground Strike

The LDWA 100 had seemed to go quickly, although the entrants might not say that, and it was the end of the Jubilee Bank Holiday so it was back to usual for me, which meant travelling about the place. I was heading to London, conscious that there was an underground strike which would make crossing the city just that bit more exciting when I got there.

Penny Pie Park is about to reopen soon and this site has had an interesting history. It was a colliery in the mid-nineteenth century, then brickworks were built there and those buildings remained until the post-war period. Then they were demolished and the local authorities dumped a load of refuse into the holes to fill them up, then it became a green space. As the road network nearby has been reworked, they’ve taken this opportunity to develop the park and they’ve been busy moving the trees about the site. They now have 243 trees, which is an increase of four. That doesn’t sound very aspirational to me in terms of increasing the amount of foliage, but there we go. The park wasn’t open when I walked by, but as can be seen, it wasn’t far off and I’m surprised some of the local hoodlums haven’t pulled that fencing down.

After walking back into Barnsley (again) from the hotel, I popped into the library for a while to use their electricity. I had thought about going into the Toby Carvery next to the hotel for another unlimited breakfast, but I overdosed on bacon and salt last time, so decided against it. My train journey was from Barnsley station, which is part of the integrated bus and rail interchange.

Welcome to Barnsley with some vibrant artwork.

I had two trains as part of my journey, the first to Peterborough and everything was going to plan timewise.

Not particularly busy, the colours remind me of a Ryanair aircraft, but the guard didn’t try and sell me lottery tickets.

At Peterborough station, the EMR Intercity train to London arrived a few minutes early.

As can be seen here, I was able to find an empty seat.

Into St. Pancras railway station in London on time. I was annoyed that they’d shut the front of the railway station because of the underground strike, I don’t know why they felt the need to do that, they could have just closed the entrance to the underground network itself. I noticed someone joined the queue to board Eurostar thinking it was the taxi queue, but fortunately he checked before accidentally arriving in Paris or something.

There was though quite a long queue for taxis, the drivers do well out of these strikes.

The strike did reduce my options to get to Ealing somewhat, with absolutely no services from King’s Cross.

So, I remained calm and resourceful and I went to Mikkeller bar to think what I should do. This is the All Day Haze which Mikkeller brew here, a very acceptable Double IPA with a depth of flavour and a not inconsiderable 8.4% ABV.

I’ve never really noticed their brewing equipment at the back at the bar, so I went to sit by it. I’d add there were tables here, I didn’t just sit randomly in their way. Although I could have lingered for hours, I thought one drink was enough as I wasn’t sure how busy the public transport options would be.

And with my plan developed whilst in the pub, I decided that I would walk to Farringdon’s Crossrail station as that line was still operating.

And my first time in the Crossrail part of the station at Farringdon.

I think it was also my first time on the central section of Crossrail, or the Elizabeth Line, which now all joins up to form a complete line, but for the next few months it’s still necessary to change trains at Paddington and Liverpool Street. It’s not ideal, but they’re getting there.

Very nice, platform edge doors have been put in here, just like on the central section of the Jubilee Line.

The section of the journey to Paddington wasn’t particularly busy, but these services are frequent at around every ten minutes and they’re long trains so have plenty of space.

This is a bit of a faff with the current set-up, as it’s necessary to leave Paddington station, walk through the concourse, towards the back and then connect with where the other part of the Crossrail service is. The part of the journey from Paddington to Ealing was much busier, although I was just able to get a seat, but thought it was a bit packed to take a photo.

Although I’m not entirely sure that I needed a seat, it’s only one stop to Ealing from Paddington. This Crossrail thing certainly speeds things up somewhat. And it was fortunate for me on this journey that the Crossrail drivers hadn’t also gone on strike, as otherwise it would have taken me three bus trips to get to Ealing, which would have been quite a trek.

I was staying at Ibis Styles Ealing for the first time, a rather attractive building about a ten-minute walk from the railway station.

There’s a movie theme across the hotel, which is one of the better Ibis Styles designs that I’ve seen. All clean and comfortable, with nothing for me to feel the need to complain about here.

Spot the movie related design items in the photos. I can’t remember why I booked a twin, but it was probably 20p cheaper or something.

My welcome drink, which was the Goose Island IPA, which is something else which is always acceptable to me. It sounds like I’m getting easier to please, but there are some grumbles coming up with some other hotels, so I hope no-one thinks I’m tolerating anything less than what I perceive to be perfection (and what some others would consider to be petty comments).

This is a nice environmental idea, avoiding the need for a plastic keycard.

They’ve put some real effort into this design and the welcome at the front desk was also friendly. The hotel seemed to have decent sound proofing as it felt like it was empty, but I noticed the next morning that it clearly wasn’t given the number of guests at breakfast. With that, it was time to spend some time getting work done that I’d neglected a little over the weekend, pleased that I had managed to tackle a public transport system which was partly on strike. And thank goodness for the Elizabeth Line.

June 24, 2022