Aye, that's us: Sept/Oct 2004, Poland

Our holiday in Poland

Warsaw Wed 22 - Fri 24 Sept

Our journey started with B.A. flights to Warsaw via Heathrow. The flight from Edinburgh was delayed and thus began the saga of Morag's luggage. We were met off the flight from Edinburgh, and told to 'run' to the gate for the Warsaw flight!

Warsaw was our first stop, we arrived late in the day and checked into our hotel Hotel Jan III Sobieski - a big place on the outskirts of the inner part of town, but on lots of tram/bus routes and still fairly central. Neither of our suitcases had made the changeover, so we had only hand-luggage. That night we had a nice meal of sushi (the trendy thing in Warsaw), Mal's bag arrived at the hotel at midnight but Morag's was still "somewhere else". Thursday morning was spent shopping for a few bits and pieces for Morag, and a visit to a nearby B.A. office - whereabouts of bag unknown - the afternoon was spent in and around the old town. Once again we stayed up until midnight, but no bag arrived this time.

Here are some Warsaw photos. Click on any photo to see the full-size version in our "photobox" on-line gallery. The gallery will open in a new window, there you will see all the thumbnails, click on any of them to see a bigger version. Sorry about the advertisements, just ignore them (hey, free webspace is free webspace).

Warsaw old town square

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Warsaw old town

Gdansk - Fri 24 - Wed 29 Sept

Early doors saw us out at the airport unsuccessfully trying to track down Morag's bag, seems that BA's luggage tracking system leaves a little to be desired. So, forwarding addresses were left with BA for the hopeful return of the luggage.

We took the train from Warsaw to Gdansk. It was scheduled as a 4 hour journey, and to our horror when we got on we realised that we'd forgotten to ask for non-smoking and the kind person at the ticket office had presumed we would want a fag. Luckily the three people we shared our carriage with didn't smoke either (just played with their mobis the whole time). The first hour was spent travelling about 10 miles through the burbs, after that they cranked up the engine a bit and it did take the scheduled time. Train travel seems to be stuck in the time-warp of the 70's or thereabouts - including the prices

On arrival we took a wee while to get used to the fact that Gdansk is on a much smaller scale that Warsaw, so we quickly walked from the station to our hotel Dom Aktora. We had an apartment in the Aktora which sounded like a good idea but in reality eating out is so cheap that we never used the kitchen. Otherwise the place was clean but a bit tatty, but with friendly service. It's late in the afternoon so we go for a long stroll round the waterfront, then end up at a restaurant directly opposite the hotel - the Mestwyn. This is Mal's kinda place as the emphasis is on good country cooking in large volume. His "soup with bread" is yummy soup inside a hollowed-out loaf. Morag had veggie soup, mains were pork snitzel and roast pork with sauerkraut. All this and a bottle of French red, and pre-dinner drinks complete with parrots, came to 110 zlotys (about £20). And don't forget the entertainment - an old-boy playing the piano-accordian and the locals on the other table dancing.

Sat. morning and more clothes shopping for Morag and while we’re at that end of town we buy our train tix to Krakow. Then back to the waterfront and up the famous medieval crane for a look in and about. It's a really nice waterfront, quite a big harbour/mooring, but not a lot of private yachts - not sunny enough we suppose. After a bit of local sausage and chips, it was only a short stroll back to the hotel for a wee rest and - lo and behold - there's a small white delivery van out the front. Into reception we go and there is a wee man with Morag's suitcase. He seemed a little taken aback to be kissed on both cheeks, Morag was overjoyed at the thought of a plentiful supply of clean clothes (and also some warmer clothes, as it's a bit chilly in the evenings). We'd decided on eating at an Egyptian theme restaurant that night, right in the middle of town. Just as well we skipped starters because our pseudo-Egyptian main courses were huge. Sunday morning saw us at the old post office, this saw action on the first few days of WWII as the Nazis saw it as the centre of communications that had to be captured. A few postal workers held out for some hours against SS troopers with tanks, before being rounded up and shot. Thus the memorial in the photo, fallen postal worker having his gun picked up by Nike, goddess of victory. From there to another monument, for Solidarnosk, where many workers lost their lives at the shipyards in the fight against another form of facism. After that we headed back through run-down suburbs into the delightful old town, some museums were supposed to open at 11am but no sign of life yet, so sat down for a coffee/tea before getting into the town museum (dedicated to sea-faring), Morag climbed the church tower, and we had a look inside the 17thC. town hall - this had a good display showing how 90% of the town had been destroyed in WWII. Late afternoon and we'd had no lunch, so went to the take-away counter of the Egyptian place for a take-away shazlick (huge). After a wee nap we decided on just a pizza for tea, there was a place nearby and we had pizzas and soft-drink - only hiccup was that we ordered a pizza with pineapple, which they thought were peaches, after a bit of explaining we got a pizza with pineapple.

Monday we planned a day-trip to a nearby seaside resort town, Sopot. This is where the rich Russians used to come for holidays in the Soviet era and it's a lovely little town with lots of Rococo buildings. We spent a few hours walking round town and a trip out on the very long pier, before heading back for some fish'n'chips, then back into the centre of Sopot for some lovely cake at a trendy wee cafe. Then it was the 20 min. train trip back to Gdansk in time for a nap before heading out for dinner. Morag had decided on a restaurant in the basement of the old town hall (older than the 17thC one!), that was described as one of the best in Gdansk. Morag had "a variety of herrings" to start, these came with three sauces - red onion, tomatoes and mayo. Meanwhile Mal had "traditional Polish sour soup" - a broth with chunks of white sausage. For main course Morag had medallions of veal with goat's cheese, while Mal had venison in cherry sauce. All of this was accompanied by hot vegetables, shredded beetroot and cabbage. And it was all delicious, and washed down with a bottle of Languedoc red, all for 180 zlotys (about £30). Our guess is that this would have cost about £70 in Edinburgh, Lord knows in London. Tuesday we planned a trip to a huge medieval castle nearby at Malbork (the largest castle in Europe!), built using red brick by Teutonic knights in the 13/14th C, restored in the 19thC, and rebuilt after being destroyed in WWII. This is nearly an hour away on the train so it was after 11:30 by the time we arrived at the castle, it then took over an hour to find the guide for the compulsory guided tour. And once we found him, boy could he talk! All in Polish, we did get some translation from some other folk on the tour, but mainly we just admired the castle, decorations, displays of art, displays of amber while he rabbited on for 3 hours plus. So it was after 6pm by the time we got home and we took the easy option of going straight across the road to the Mestwyn for dinner. This place is "Kashubian" - a region of Poland on the German border, so has a Germanic feel to it. More delicious "soup with bread", more food and finished off with a local tipple - "Goldwasser" - vodka with wee nuggets of gold in it. No idea if the gold really affects the flavour but it looks good.

Here are Gdansk photos. Click on any photo to see the full-size version in our "photobox" on-line gallery. As above.

Gdansk - soup with bread

Gdansk

Gdansk - view from crane

Gdansk - old town

Gdansk - view of crane

Gdansk

Gdansk - view of crane

Gdansk - view of crane

Gdansk - waterfront

Gdansk - waterfront

Gdansk - graffiti

Gdansk - waterfront

Gdansk - Scottish pub

Gdansk - old town

Post Office workers memorial

Solidarnosk memorial

Gdansk old town

Gdansk old town

view from church tower

view from church tower

yes it's ice-cream

Sopot - trendy

Sopot - traditional

Sopot - not so trendy

Malbork castle

Malbork castle

Malbork castle

Malbork castle

Malbork castle

Krakow - Wed 29 Sept - Tue 5 Oct

We say farewell to Dom Aktora, desperate now for good hot showers and a comfy bed. It will be all day on the train today so we buy some picnic provisions on the way to the station, and we have thought to book non-smoking. We have the compartment to ourselves on the 4 hour trip to Warsaw, so we ate our smoked chicken and ham in bread rolls as we watched the forests and occasional field of cabbage roll by. At Warsaw the train filled up for the 3 hours to Krakow, we get there about 5pm and walked across town to our hotel (Senacki). When we got there our receptionist was very apologetic, bad news he said (we had visions of being put on the roof in a tent or something). They had switched on the central heating that day and a pipe had burst in our room, to make up for it they had booked a big room in a nearby hotel and gave us a bottle of wine and a tin of chocolates. They offered to take our luggage but it is on wheels and the other place - Hotel Wawel Tourist - was just a hundred yards back the way, so back we went. Looks like our luck was in as our room is actually a suite on the top floor, with separate living room and a huge bathroom. Excellent. After a quick (boiling hot) shower we headed back to the restaurant at the Senacka, where we'd been promised a 15% discount. Started with smoked duck and fried goat’s cheese, then had "stuffed rabbit's leg" and a "pork joint" (not the gourmand feast the title implies). Still had room for dessert so Morag had apple pie and Mal had white chocolate mousse (with hazelnuts). Delicious it all was too. Had a quick wander round the market square before it started to drizzle and we headed back for a sound night's sleep in a big comfy bed.

Thu. - brekky is a buffet, after which we wandered round and up the hill to the castle - more a collection of big buildings including a castle and a cathedral. Morag just had time to climb the tower at the cathedral before is started to rain. When it stopped again we wandered back down to the town to look round the market square and do some research at the train station. Took shelter from another heavy shower in a "pierogi" place - these are wee dumplings, a bit like Aussie steamed dim sims but smaller. Quite nice but I think you'd quickly get sick of them. For dinner we found a French creperie which made a change from Polish fare.

Friday was our day trip to the Polish village of Oswiecim (on a local bus for the 90 minute trip), where Auschwitz concentration camp is located. This is huge, endless displays about the different peoples murdered here - we hadn't realised until now that Jehovah's Witnesses were executed along with Jews, Gypsies, Russians and so on. There were bizarre displays of the items collected by the Nazis from those they were about to execute, as if they murdered all those people just to collect their suitcases, shoes, combs and cooking utensils. And there was a huge display of matted human hair - piled 6 feet high. If you didn't know it was true you wouldn't believe it was possible. Our visit finished at about 3:30 and got back to Krakow about 5pm. Went to the ticket counter to get our tickets for Warsaw on Monday and after queuing for 20 minutes the girl says they don't take credit cards, so Mal empties his pockets of Polish cash and has exactly 210 zlotys, the right amount right down to the last zloty. Heading back to the hotel and we stumbled across some people filming - obviously a WWII drama, bit of a coincidence after our trip today. In fact, during our 2 weeks in Poland, we came across about 5 film crews in action around the cities we visited. Back to the room for a hot bath and out to a restaurant called Chimera, slow service but excellent food, fried ewe's cheese and country sausage selection to start, then roast duck and a mixed grill of meat and vegetables. Huge portions again! It was 10pm by now but we were so full we needed a walk around before lying down. So strolled round the market square for a while before heading back to the room. Watched a bit of "The Terminator" on TV, Polish TV is bizarre because everything is dubbed into Polish by one bloke - he does every character: male, female, child, whatever, all in the same emotionless drone.

Sat. - did quite a bit of just wandering round today - the Jewish quarter and some other part of the old town - pleasant but not inspiring. Morag looked for some fabric in some cloth shops but nothing grabbed her. Mal looked in an estate agent's window; you can get a 4 bedroom apartment in Krakow for about £40,000. Morag did have some shopping success though, a wee shop across from the hotel had some nice cashmere and she snaffled a nice big cashmere/silk pashmina and a skirt (not cashmere) as well. Dinner that night was a bits'n'pieces picnic in the room with our freebie bottle of Chilean red and watching a really terrible American movie about a giant squid dubbed into German on the cable channel. But hey, that's what holidays are for!

Sunday we decided to head just out of town to the Kosciusko Monument. Aussies will have heard of him because the tallest mountain in Aus is named after him. He is something of a war hero in Poland - having led the 1794 war for independence. The day was spent on the outskirts of town, bit of a nice walk in the wild part of the park, then a climb up the monument - this is basically a big lump of earth. Headed back into town after a while - had decided we should sit in a cafe at the old market and try a cake or two and do some people watching. yes had the coffee and cakes, and watched a bunch of young football supporters being watched very very closely by a bunch of tough looking coppers, with batons. Our final meal in Krakow was no disappointment, another nice place, started with grilled goat’s cheese and soused herring, followed by pork knuckle (yum) and pork with roast apple.

Here are Krakow photos. Click on any photo to see the full-size version in our "photobox" on-line gallery. As above.

Krakow old town

Krakow castle

Krakow castle

view from Krakow castle

Krakow old town

to Edinburgh

Auschwitz - suitcases

Auschwitz streetlight

Auschwitz security

filming in Krakow

Krakow doorway

friendly face

Kosciuszko monument

wee country church

football fans and the plod

Krakow old town

brickwork

Krakow restaurant sign

Warsaw Wed 22 - Fri 24 Sept

The trouble with having such a big room is that your stuff ends up all over the place, so packing took a while, but Morag had time to pop put for lunch provisions. Walked to the station through the park area ("Planty") that circles the old town. Arrived in Warsaw at 2:30 and back to the same hotel. Headed into town to look in some shops and to have a look from the observatory floor on the tallest building, a real Stalinist lump of a place - looks like something straight out of Moscow and had in fact been given to the Polish people as a "gift" by the Soviets. The lifts are super-fast, they have to be as there's hunnerds of floors...well it's a long way up. But it's a 10 minute wait for a lift because they only turn them on if there are people waiting. So we get to the top and yes there are good views over the metropolis. Seems there is a lot of change going in because there are some very modern and big hotels, whether that’s a good thing is arguable, but Warsaw is certainly a thriving metropolis. For dinner that night we revisited the sushi place where we'd started. The next morning we caught the bus to the airport and both of us and all of our bags made it safely back to Edinburgh.

Warsaw street lights

Soviet gift

Hotel in Warsaw

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