Perfect weather week in Warsaw

Oh how wonderful - so much blue sky, clear and  fresh (on Tuesday and Wednesday). Perfect weather in Warsaw. Below: morning, Palace of Culture.

Below: dusk falls over Warsaw; the Palace of Culture seen from the south, looking up ul. Emilii Plater.

Left: the Palace of Culture across ul. Świętokrzyska, photo taken from the pavement outside my office.

Below: view from my office window looking down over ul. Świętokrzyska and Marszałkowska. Note the construction site just behind the top of the neighbouring building; this will be 22-storey Central Point tower, also known as CBD One (Central Business District). It will be the same height as the building on the opposite corner of the crossroads, the one over McDonald's. Note too the newly-opened Sezam building next to it facing Marszałkowska. The black dome further along Świętokrzyska belongs to the Polish post office; before the war my grandfather Tomasz Dembiński worked in the post office savings bank (PKO) in that very building.

Below: Sezam on the day before its somewhat low-key opening. A very nice piece of neo-modernist architecture, light and airy. It's just under four years ago that the old Sezam (see post about it here) closed for the last time and the old building was demolished.

Below: some balloons - and a new neon just like the old one. The store is open - nothing in the windows, no one inside. No doubt it will soon take off. Will visit. [Update - the store is at level -1, so you have to walk down the steps.]

Below: another former icon of the Warsaw retailing scene about to re-emerge after a major remont - though not as a shop - is the former Dom Handlowy Smyk (before that Centralny Dom Towarowy). The original 1951 modernist facade has been preserved, though the insides are all new. It will be office co-working space when reopened.

Below: Is this Rome? Are we in the Eternal City? No, this is the church of St Antony of Padua (the patron saint of lost things) on ul. Senatorska. Under this sky, we could indeed be in Padua.

And out in the countryside, the same Mediterranean klimat prevails. Below: Jakobowizna, a new house nears completion between the orchards

Below: Jakubowizna, where fruit seems to be exploding out of the earth. This will be a year of bumper crops, cheap produce and complaining farmers.

Weather set to continue sunny on Saturday, then storms will brew up on Sunday. Rain is needed after a hot, dry week.

This time two years ago:
Street art, Piotrków Trybunalski

This time five years ago:
Quality engineering from half a century ago

This time six years ago:
Fans fly in to Warsaw for Euro 2012

This time seven years ago:
Cara al Sol - part II

This time eight years ago:
Still struggling with the floodwaters

This time nine years ago:
European elections - and I buy used D40

The time ten years ago:
To the Vistula, by bike

This time 11 years ago:
Poppy profusion