Where the new motorways will meet

Fleeting glimpses, new atmospheres. New views will appear and then disappear. Here, just south of Okęcie airport, next to the Warsaw-Radom railway line, is where the S2 expressway (linking the Berlin-Warsaw stretch of the A2 with an eventual Warsaw-Moscow bit) will meet the S7 expressway (Gdańsk-Warsaw-Kraków-Budapest). Work has just got under way. Above: Looking south towards ul. Karnawał. Take a good look. You shall never see this scene again (in snow, after tree clearance, before road building).

More than 3,400 trees will have to be cut down before the nesting season starts, says Gazeta Wyborcza. As a result the landscape is changing. Along the southern stretches of ul. Wirażowa, the summerhouses, greenhouses and outhouses of the działki (garden plots) are being pulled down to make way for asphalt. Much has been abandoned long ago, but all will go, and soon as contractors assault the last vestiges of semi-rustic charm in this little corner of suburban Warsaw.

The condemned buildings face their last winter; there's a never-to-be-repeated klimat here. Below: The snow will melt, the orchards and summerhouse will go; the last game of chess has long been played out. In the distance the railway sidings at Okęcie, to the left is Runway 15/33. It never was quiet here, especially when the planes are taking off to the south. But it was green.

Below: on the corner of ul. Karnawał and ul. Złoty Róg. The trees around here have all gone, changing the look and feel of this area (52° 8'18.70"N, 20°59'20.44"E). I wonder how long before this is all asphalt and exhaust fumes. Click here for more info plus maps.


This time last year:
Intimations of spring - in London