Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Warsaw

  • Warsaw – So! Coffee (Factory Ursus)

    Warsaw – So! Coffee (Factory Ursus)

    I’m not sure why I haven’t written about So! Coffee before, as I know I’ve visited a few of their outlets before. They are a relatively large chain in Poland, but I like them even though they’re not necessarily the cheapest. This is their outlet in the shopping centre at Factory Ursus.

    The shop was clean and organised, with the staff being ridiculously fluent in English (the Polish exchanges fell apart when I didn’t understand they were asking if I wanted a double shot of coffee) and, as so often in Poland, friendly.

    Latte and apple cake, a perfectly acceptable breakfast as far as I’m concerned. The latte was rich and creamy and the cake had one of my five a day underneath the sugar. All rather lovely.

    And, I’m very easily pleased, so I was entirely happy with the free piece of fudge that comes with the coffee. The shop was a comfortable environment, with seating inside and outside (well, outside the shop, still inside the shopping centre) which was all kept clean.

  • Warsaw – Quo Vadis

    Warsaw – Quo Vadis

    The location of this puzzled me (as many things do) as it’s one of my favourite Latin expressions (where are you marching?), sometimes suitable to describe our politicians…. But, I’ve now discovered it’s also a classic Polish book, written by Henryk Sienkiewicz. One of the characters is Ursus, which is also the part of the city where this road is located and that’s the only reason I can think of why this road has been named as it has….

    Nice though, I’d like to live on a street called this.

  • Warsaw – Wayside Shrine

    Warsaw – Wayside Shrine

    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.

  • Warsaw – Sadist JW

    Warsaw – Sadist JW

    I have no idea what this graffiti means, but I noticed it given my own initials…. Perhaps there’s a deeper meaning.

  • Warsaw – Ursus Parish Cemetery

    Warsaw – Ursus Parish Cemetery

    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.

  • Warsaw – Fort V Włochy

    Warsaw – Fort V Włochy

    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…..

  • Warsaw – Paperwork to Enter Poland

    Warsaw – Paperwork to Enter Poland

    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.

  • Warsaw – Warsaw Chopin Airport

    Warsaw – Warsaw Chopin Airport

    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.

  • British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Warsaw)

    British Airways (Heathrow T5 to Warsaw)

    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.

  • The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

    The Pianist by Władysław Szpilman

    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.