Rzeszów and Poznań

Apologies for not posting much - I have been travelling and doing TV and radio appearances (about Brexit, what else?). Before returning to blessed Lenten topics, a quick round-up of snaps from my trips to Rzeszów (Tuesday) and Poznań (Friday). First, Rzeszów. A 40-minute hop from Warsaw. Unlike Wroclaw and Tri-City where the rail modernisation means you can do a day's business there from Warsaw leaving and returning the same day, Rzeszów and Szczecin remain beyond the range of the railways. One way from Warsaw to Rzeszów by train (change at Kraków) is around five hours. But by air, from home, two and half hours.

Below: my seat on the way out, right at the very back of a LOT Polish Airlines Embraer E175 (20A). Nice to get some sunshine, albeit through thick glass! Note the LOT logo on the winglet - designed by Tadeusz Gronowski in 1929, could this be the oldest airline logo in continuous use (90 years this year!) anywhere in the world?

Weather in Rzeszów - snow still on the ground, sunshine alternating with dark clouds rushing in on strong winds bringing more snow and hail, only to rush past leaving sun before next belts of clouds hurry on.

Rzeszów is the capital of Poland's Aviation Valley - many aerospace manufacturers, large and small, have clustered here. British firms too - McBraida, Poeton, Bodycote - working for the big international players. Not just building planes, but teaching aeronautical skills takes place in Rzeszów; below: a Cessna 152 basic trainer was doing touch-and-goes at the airport.

Today's meeting was at the McBraida factory, which makes made-to-order aeroplane parts from hard-to-machine materials such as titanium. The factory is just a short (but muddy) walk from the airport in the adjacent technology park.The flight back was in a LOT Polish Airlines Bombardier Q400 (below). Take-off was at 18:00; I was home at 19:45 - which included a walk from the airport to W-wa Okęcie station and the walk home from W-wa Jeziorki station (around 3,000 paces / 30mins walking).

On to Poznań, for the opening of GlaxoSmithKline's new global business centre. By next year, it will employ 300 people in high-end accountancy and finance roles serving all of GSK's European operations. The biggest concern is finding and retaining skilled people in a city where the registered unemployment rate is just 1.3%, and the economically inactive rate (strip out the cash-in-hand workers) is around 0.8%. The city of Poznań has the lowest unemployment in Poland... and yet, I can't help noticing that compared to other big Polish cities, it's a bit scruffy...

Below: I seemed to have stopped doing Old School Photochallenge posts around 2011, but - well, look you here! There is literally not a single hallmark that would prevent one from placing this photo back in 1989. And yet. Ul. Konopnickiej, Poznań. Friday 16 March 2019.

Below: more old-school retailing; this is the factory-shop window of Herbapol Poznań.

Below: this is more like the Poznań of my imagination - dour Germanic architecture, modern offices and green trams - looking down ul. Fredry, leading (eventually) to the Old Market.

Below: wide streets, good public transport, yet I'm getting the feeling that Poznań could do with a major wash-and-brush-up. It's a wealthier city than it looks.

Usually, I remove grafitto from my published photos with Photoshop, so as not to give vandals any more undue exposure for their uncivilised behaviour than necessary. But this piece (left), on a historical landmark, the Zespół domów urzędniczych on Ul. Marcelińska, is one for metaphysicists to ponder: never mind that energy = mass times the speed of light squared - here in Poznań we learn the equation that time = joy. Heraldicly crossed in saltire, two Camberwell Carrots (or more likely Marchewki Marcelińskie) rather suggest how the artist prefers to spend their time.

Today, I covered 14km around Poznań on foot - the best way to really get to know a city. It occurred to me a while back that the reason my spatial awareness of Poznań for many years was poor stemmed from the fact that I associate the Warsaw to Berlin railway line as one that runs from east to west. Yet as it passes through Poznań - near enough the midway point, it does a little zigzag; the rails running through the city's main station are aligned north-south. So the Poznań Trade Fair buildings are west of the station - not north, as I'd imagined them. And the old town is north-east of the station - and not south-east. This insight only came to me when I got a smartphone with Google Maps in it; prior to that, I'd never noticed!

This time four years ago:
Spiritual mentors and spiritual leaders

This time five years ago:

Architectural contrasts around Wilanowska

This time six years ago:

In memory of me

This time seven years ago:

Cleaning sensors on my Nikons

This time eight years ago:
Changing seasons and one's samopoczucie

This time nine years ago:
Stunning late-winter beauty
[these are among my most gorgeous winter photos ever]

This time ten years ago:
Lenten fare - Jeziorki gumbo

This time 11 years ago:
Digging up Dawidowska