Wroklaw to Krakow

Lazy day today as we caught the train from Wroklaw to Krakow.

The train station at Wroklaw is fantastic, just like a castle with turrets and flags.

Inside was just as good, but I saw something that backs up one of my recent blogs- it's a flower bouquet 24 hour vending machine.

It's a shame that the romance of it was slightly spoilt by being right under the McDonald's sign, and also that Darren didn't secretly nip back to buy some for me.

But the train ride was good and we arrived safely in Krakow.

We spent a lazy afternoon then went out for evening drinks at the Wine Garage just around the corner from our hotel.

Centennial Hall, Wroclaw

Today we walked to the Centennial Hall in Wroclaw.

It's a fantastic building that was built in 1912, with lots of surrounding buildings that were very badly damaged in WW2.

The giant spike started out at 110 metres tall with an umbrella on the top, but that was very quickly damaged in a storm, and for various undisclosed reasons it is lower now, but still very imposing.

Sorry, strange picture here of the base.

The hall itself is very concrete brutalist building and in 2023 was the venue for filming of the latest Hunger Games film.

Round the back is a more modern feature which we always enjoy - dancing fountains.

These were on at full speed as we rounded the corner out of a fantastic colonnade covered in ivy. We heard music from Carmen, Beethoven's 5th and then some very fast Khachaturian.

Just beyond the lake was yet another great favourite of mine, a Japanese garden.

It was another beautiful area with all of the usual Japanese features.

After having a nice wander around we caught a tram back to the city centre and found another dwarf. This one was in the University area and he was trying to charge his tablet.

Exploring Wroclaw

Today started with a jog, as we ran along the river and explored the city. It was quite hot and humid and I found it a real effort to get back to the hotel.

In the afternoon we went to see the main market and the beautiful flower stalls.

An interesting fact is that some stalls stay open 24 hours a day, seven days a week to cater for romantic emergencies. As you can't believe everything that you read nowadays I tried to check if this is true, and it is widely quoted and that the Poles adore their bouquets. 

I could get up at 3am tomorrow to buy some for Daz to check, but I don't think that he will really appreciate them, so I'll probably just take the internet's word for it.

We then started on a dwarf hunt.

This is also a very interesting story. During the communist rule people started to deface Soviet slogans with drawings of dwarfs to show defiance.

Then after the fall of communism the council decided to commemorate the dwarves by putting up a small statue.

That was quickly followed by dozens more and now there are hundreds of them. Lots are outside shops, and show the dwarves reading books, drinking wine or eating sweets, playing musical instruments and one next to ATM, etc, etc.

They are loved by locals and visitors, and we joined lots of people in trying to track down as many as possible.

After that we stopped for drinks where Darren had a mix of two different beers. It was a strange place where you could buy a full glass of beer, half a glass with lots of froth and even one with a tiny amount of beer and almost a full glass of froth.

I asked the waitress if that last one was a joke, but she said not at all and that I could try one if I liked. (I didn't.)

Ps, all those interesting things and loads of beautiful buildings.

Warsaw to Wroclaw

It was a transfer day today, and we had planned on taking a train, but they were all fully booked so instead we had five and a half hour journey on a very comfortable coach.

We have been practicing how to say Wroclaw for days, and we were pleased that we managed to be understood by the coach driver. Mind you, that was the buses destination, so he didn't have to try too hard.

It's not as you would expect, so for Wroclaw you actually say Rosssh-lav.

We arrived mid afternoon and have had a little scout around. First impressions are good, nice buildings and many churches.

There are also lots of little goblin type things scattered around, and I posed with one to give it scale as I didn't have a banana with me.

We also found a beautiful shiny arch that I am sure that I will find out more about tomorrow.

And probably most importantly, we found a very nice bar serving beer flight tastings.

I was very worried about dropping it, but made it safely to our seats.

100th parkrun location

Exciting day today as I completed my 100th parkrun location. It's only taken 13 years and 316 events, but got there in the end.

Here we are at Pole Mokotowskie parkrun, which is on the outskirts of Warsaw. It's a really beautiful park with a lake and lots of picnic spaces. Everyone was so friendly and it was a shame that we had to rush off back to the hotel, but their breakfast was so great that we didn't want to miss it.

In the afternoon we caught a tram across the river Vistula that runs through the centre of the city and found a vodka tasting centre.

Luck was not on our side as there wasn't an English speaking tour for about two hours, so we sat in the sun outside instead and toasted my achievement.

It was a lovely and lively area, so we people watched for a while before heading back towards the river.

On the way we reached a big statue of a band and Darren posed with them. 

An interesting fact is that the Polish flag is a white horizontal stripe with a red stripe underneath, and the Warsaw local flag is yellow with red underneath.

Darren's outfit is therefore upside down, so I asked him to do a handstand to correct the picture.

He refused, but said that although he had never actually done a handstand he thought that he would be very good at it, although he wasn't going to test that theory today.  So you will just have to imagine it.

There is an almost brand new pedestrian bridge across the river and it was extremely busy today with walkers and cyclists.

At the other end was a statue of a mermaid.

This is a famous symbol of Warsaw, and apparently hundreds of years ago she swam up the river from the Baltic Sea and has stayed ever since to protect the city.

Exploring Warsaw

We arrived yesterday in Warsaw, and set off for a sightseeing day today.

First was the huge Palace of Culture and Science, although it looked to us just like Batman's house. (The first one, not Wollaton Hall.)

It was built on the orders of Stalin after the Russian invasion, so although it is a beautiful building, many people do not like it because of the memories that it brings back.

Darren designed a walking tour of the city and we were very impressed that so much of the city is pedestrianised and very attractive.

The composer Frederick Chopin was born in Warsaw in 1810, and I was very keen to find his benches which were scattered around the city. 

The idea was that you sat on the bench, pressed a button and the bench would play 30 seconds of a Chopin concerto.

We found about 12 of them, one of which was next to a large church. Chopin died in Paris in 1849 and most of his body is buried there, but he wanted his heart to be in Warsaw, so his sister brought it back and it is in an urn in the church.

Quite an  unusual idea I think, and we went inside to try and find it. Unfortunately a service was in progress so we had to abandon that plan, so no photo.

On to the old town that was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis in 1944. It has been rebuilt with a very impressive city wall.

We wandered through the town and out the other side, just in time to hear a bugler playing from high up in a tower.

All we could see was the end of the silver instrument, but after it finished the lady bugler looked out and waved to everyone.

We found the gorgeous Royal Palace gardens and a sign told us to relax on the soft and beautiful green grass, so I did that for a couple of minutes before catching up with Daz.

Finally, we spent some time looking for a statue of Chopin, couldn't find it, but did find a complicated mural.

Lastly a drink at a bar to finish off a good day.

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