Świnoujście by night, out of season

Rather than hang around after the post-conference speakers' lunch to wait for the night train from Szczecin to Warsaw (departing at 22:38), I decide (once again) to travel out to Świnoujście and catch the same train as starts its journey (at 21:18). This time, I will give myself long enough to cross the Świna river by ferry and explore the town of Świnoujście properly. And actually go down to the Baltic and stroll along the beach.

I catch a local train from Szczecin Główny to Świnoujście; on arrival I make my way to the cross-river ferry terminal to board the half-hourly vessel to the other side. [The opening of a road tunnel this summer means the ferries cross less frequently than before, carrying far fewer cars, but still plenty of foot passengers and cyclists, who are not permitted to use the tunnel.]

Below: the Bielik III, taken from the top deck of the Bielik IV. ('Bielik' means white-tailed or sea eagle). The crossing takes eight minutes. Pedestrians on one side, cyclists on the other, motorists in the cars in the middle (engines off, handbrakes on). One pair of Bieliks ply the river, the other pair are in reserve. All four boats are identical and the same at the bow as at the stern.

Having crossed over, I open Google Maps on my phone and head for the beach. The town is quiet.

Below: this is Holiday City; expensive apartments, one street parallel to the promenade, shuttered for the winter in many cases. Pre-war architecture still prevails. Note the roadsign on the left prohibiting horses - this looks strange until you consider that in summer, elderly German tourists love clip-clopping around down in horse-drawn carriages. The sign suggests that residents of these posh thoroughfares are less than enamoured with equine faecal matter on their asphalt.

Below: deserted streets, temperature below freezing. Many restaurants are still open, serving the year-round residents, but few tables are taken and closing time is early. To the right of frame - the Club of the 8th Coastal Defence Flotilla, Świnoujście, and a full moon beaming through milky clouds.

A little further, I cross the promenade and make it to the beach. I'm surprised at how many people are still out and about - dog-walkers, Nordic walkers, joggers and the occasional visitor like me.

Left: I am blessed with an ideal conjunction of a full moon, obscured only by enough cloud to create a moody atmosphere; the moon's rays reflect off the surf and in the distance, the harbour lights. Photo taken on my Samsung Galaxy phone - its night mode managed to capture the scene better than my Nikon D3500; it struggles in such conditions. The experience of being here, shoes in the sand, listening to the waves lapping on the shore and the cry of gulls, makes even the briefest trip to the Baltic worthwhile.

The overall layout, architecture and look-and-feel of Świnoujście shares as much with the spa resorts of Lower Silesia as it does with seaside resorts such as Sopot or Międzyzdroje - a common German heritage rooted in 19th century ideals of the healthy outdoors. The town's proximity to the German border means vast numbers of Germans come over for cheap Zigaretten and Alcoholen - as well as haircuts, beard-trims, tattoos and body-piercing. There's a Wechselstube every 100m, and most carparks are bewachter. There's a big Lidl in town, so I stocked up with good cheeses.

Below: back on board the ferry, we are passed by the Unity Line ferry, M/F Scania, on its way to Świnoujście Port from Ystad in Sweden, a six-and-half hour journey, carrying passenger cars and trucks.

Below: I disembark from the ferry and head over to Świnoujście station to board the night train back to Warsaw. Just two cars on board my return sailing - not one on the outbound journey. 

While waiting, I stroll to the end of the platform at Świnoujście station and look across to the railway terminus, at Świnoujście Port (below). The distance between the two platform ends is a mere 150m - which must be the shortest distance between any two stations in Poland. InterCity trains to Świnoujście do not continue to the Port station, so foot-passengers wanting to board the ferry must walk from the one to the other (there's a decent path, to the right of this picture) - or wait for a local train to take them the short distance, or catch a taxi to the international ferry terminal. To the right of the picture, the lights of the M/F Scania as it approaches its berth.

Below: before long, the carriages arrive from the sidings, the diesel shunter runs round as the electric locomotive that is to haul the train to Warsaw is coupled at the front. I have over half an hour to get comfortable in my top bunk before departure. Outside it's -3C, inside it's nicely warm. 24,000 paces today - around Szczecin in the morning, Świnoujście in the evening.

Once again, I pledge to return - though in spring or autumn. The chap travelling in my compartment, who lives in Świnoujście the whole year round, says it's unbearably crowded from late June to early September. Late May or mid-September might be nice...

This time last year:

New York City really has it all

This time two years ago:
Where the two contracts end

This time two years ago:
In praise of the Nikon D3500

This time four years ago:
Agnieszka Holland's Mr Jones reviewed

This time five years ago:
The Earth is flat

This time six years ago:
Fiftieth anniversary of the Polski Fiat 125

This time eight years ago:
Wojtek the Bear in Edinburgh

This time 11 years ago:
Red tape and travel
[A fascinating reminder of how bad things once were!]

This time 13 years ago:
How much education does a country need?

This time 14 years ago:
Between Sarabandy and Farbiarska

This time 16 years ago:
Lights in the night sky

Szczecin dawn

I get into Szczecin Główny station at ten past six in the morning; the sun would not rise for another hour and 40 minutes. Indeed, the sun rises over Szczecin half an hour later than it does so over Warsaw. I have plenty of time to investigate the city as daylight approaches. There's no better way to get to know a place, on foot, in the hours before dawn.

Below: from the steps of the Archcathedral Basilica of St James the Apostole, the sun rising over the right-bank district of the city, and the Szczecin combined heat-and-power station across the River Oder.

Below: looking back at the 17th century Baroque Archcathedral Basilica. Note the houses at its feet - they look like billboards, but no - they are indeed three-dimensional residences, each one with a garage facing out into the passage between the houses and the church.

To my surprise, and this is sixth or seventh visit to Szczecin, I discover it has an actual old town. It is, however. Not particularly spectacular as old towns go. The building in the middle is the old town hall.

And from the other side - and that's it as far as the old town goes. Round the corner is the castle, but this is surrounded by steel fencing, as the building is undergoing a remont. There's plenty of work going on - new cycle-paths and other facilities designed to make the city more suitable to the 21st century while drawing out the best of its history. 

Below: entrance gate to the Western Pomerania Voivodship Marshal's Office. I love arches plastered white, the cobblestones, the lanterns and wrought ironwork; an atavistic Mitteleuropäische vibe - Moravia? Silesia? Pomerania?

Below: inside the courtyard of the Marshal's office. It's not yet eight, but all the lights are on, workers are in for an early start. Not something I'd willingly do! Note the stocks and the lack of graffiti. Making any connections?

Left: fragment of the Oberpostdirektion Stettin (Stettin Higher Postal Directorate), a massive neo-gothic building completed in 1905, a mere 40 years before becoming the seat of the administration of the Dyrekcja Okręgu Poczty Polskiej. The rails disappearing into the gate intrigue me; these could not have belonged to a main-line railway, as they emerge at right angles to Aleja Niepodlegóści (formerly Paradeplatz). Maybe a post-tram? A bit of digging on the German tram internet suggests that yes, something like that did exist (see here).

Below: back at the station, looking out over ulica Krzysztofa Kolumba, and the brick-built industrial district between the main railway line and the River Oder. Now being modernised, with new tram tracks being laid down, the old klimat remains.

Like Wrocław a decade ago, Szczecin is still one large building site - once all the works are complete, it will be a great city to live and work in - and visit.

Night should soon fall; before long, I shall be on my way to Świnoujście - more from there anon.

This time last year:

Win-win-win-win-win
(in praise of charity shops)

This time two years ago:
Comfort, discomfort and winter cold

This time three years ago:
Frustration as completion of Chynów station draws near

This time four years ago:
London in verticals

This time seven years ago:
Castro's death divides the world

This time eight years ago:
London to Edinburgh by night bus

This time nine years ago:
The Regent's Canal, London

This time 11 years ago:
An end to the entitlement way of thinking

This time 12 year:
West Ealing - drab and sad suburb

This time 13 years ago:
To Poznań by train

This time 15 years ago:
Late autumn drive-time

Poland by night train

I've been a long-time advocate of the night train. For one ticket you get travel and nocleg (translate that into English with one word - 'a bed for the night' is five). Example: tomorrow, I have to be in Szczecin for a real-estate conference, starting at 10am. As all Poles (except those who live there), Szczecin is a really hard-to-get-to place, nearer Berlin than Gdańsk. Flying is out of the question - never mind the 170 kilograms of carbon dioxide belched out into the atmosphere - Szczecin Goleniów airport is a long way from town, and I don't fancy waking up at 3:30am to be at the airport for 7am for an 8am flight.

And so I take the night train. And year by year, it gets better. The new sleeper-car rolling stock, successively introduced on Polish night trains, is vastly better than the old ones which date back design-wise to communist times. The night trains are run by TLK ('Twoje Linie Kolejowe' - the low-cost brand owned by PKP InterCity); couchette and sleeping carriages attached to the night trains are operated by Wars (of restaurant-car fame).

Here, then, are my night-train tips for Warsaw people who wish to travel out to far-flung destinations from the capital.

1) There are three ways to go - in a normal carriage, slumped in a normal seat. This is hellishly uncomfortable. I've done this once (Wrocław to Warsaw) and never again. Your sleep is continually interrupted. Then there is the couchette (kuszetka) - a bunk without bedding, a place to lie down. Six berths per compartment. Better than a seat, but cramped and lacking privacy. Nowhere near as good as the proper sleeping carriage (wagon sypialny). The sleeping carriages are 100% safe. There's one attendant per carriage keeping watch all night, and each compartment can be locked and chained from the inside. Night-train thefts are rare these days and occur only in the normal seated carriages (though it's been over 20 years since I last heard of such a case).

2) Sleeping carriages: it's worth spending more to get a double rather than triple berth. There's always the chance the other one will be empty (50% chance in my experience). Then you get the whole compartment to yourself. Book early for the popular trains such as those to Szklarska Poręba for the skiing or Kołobrzeg or Hel for the Baltic in summer. Couples - book a double; otherwise compartments are reserved for males or females. You can book a single (much more expensive) if travelling alone - this guarantees that your sleep will not be disturbed by a stranger's snores.

3) Board the train at the station from which it starts its journey, rather than at Warsaw Central. This means you get into the compartment first, usually about 15 minutes before departure. Time to brush teeth and changed into pyjamas before the train moves off. Trains heading south and west start from W-wa Wschodnia; trains heading east and north (there aren't that many) set off from W-wa Zachodnia.

4) Top or bottom bunk? (The middle bunk in a triple berth compartment? Uncomfortable.) Top bunk - more space, more privacy, but a degree of acrobatics required to put up the ladder and climb up and down. Bottom bunk - easier access, but less head-room and privacy.

5) Trips to the WC at the end of the corridor at half-past two in the morning are no fun. Gents - take an empty one-litre wide-necked plastic bottle with screw cap (the type used for fruit juice). Just remember to take it with you when you leave the train in the morning.

6) When boarding, show your ticket to the attendant, who will make a note of where and when to wake you (typically 30 minutes before arrival at your destination). You will be asked whether you'd like a tea or coffee in the morning - which go with a complementary sękacz cake in the cupboard by the sink.

Left: to get to the top bunk, you will need to slide a ladder out of the wall; this is found next to the wardrobe. Press the catch and it pops out. Older carriages still have detachable ladders; these are less convenient to use. Lighting and heating are adjustable, there are mobile-phone chargers, power sockets, cup-holders, cubby-holes and plenty of storage space (for two - tight for three it must be said).

Below: the sink, washing facilities and cupboard, with bunks reflected in the mirror. I open the cupboard to find one cup, one bottle of mineral water, and one sękacz cake - this means I have the entire compartment to myself. Result!

My train departs W-wa Wschodnia on time at 22:01, and arrives in Szczecin Dąbie at 05:52; nine minutes later I hop onto a local train for the three stations into Szczecin Główny, arriving at 06:10.

I slept pretty much the whole way through, to be awakened by the attendant at half past five with a hot coffee. Tomorrow - back again by night train, this time from Świnoujście to Warszawa Gdańska.

This time three years ago:
Frosty goodness

This time four years ago:

The (now legendary) Dream of Biarritz

This time six years ago:
Roadblock and rail-freight

This time seven years ago:
Sunny morning, Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens

This time five years ago:
Brentham Garden Suburb

This time nine years ago:
Ahead of the opening of the second line of the Warsaw Metro 

This time ten years ago:
Keep an eye on Ukraine...

This time 11 years ago:
Płock by day, Płock by night 

This time 12 years ago:
Warning ahead of railway timetable change

This time 16 years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

Encouraging more cycle-railway journeys

Dear PKP PLK [PKP Polskie Linie Kolejowe - Poland's rail infrastructure operator] - this is not how to do things: 

Attention!
The fastening of bicycles to barriers is prohibited.
Vehicles left will be removed at the owner's costs.

More and more of these signs are appearing on Polish stations. Two are posted at Warka station, to which an ever-increasing number of passengers cycle each day to catch their trains. These signs are precisely the wrong reaction. Don't limit the place where people can't chain their bikes - increase they places where they can!

The correct response to a phenomenon that should be encouraged would be to put up more stands and put a small roof over them. At Warka there are two lots of bicycle stands - a group of five next to the station building and a group of four on the other side of the tracks by the entrance to the pedestrian underpass. Here we are in late November. It's snowing. And yet each stand has a bicycle attached to it. 

Now, the stands are designed and spaced so that two bikes can be attached to each one, but even so, that's space for a mere 18 bicycles. At a station that sees 68 trains a day passing through. And the bike stands leave the bikes exposed to the elements. So some cyclists attach their bikes to the railings in the space dedicated for wheelchair users inside the shelters on the platforms or other spaces under a roof. This behaviour indeed should not be tolerated, bikes left here need to be removed. But in general, there are more bicycle users than the number of stands provided for them. And as the number of cycle-using passengers grow, so PKP PLK should plan to provide more and more stands, while discouraging local people from driving a few hundred metres to the station.

Below: in the distance, we can see five bicycle stands, to which eight bicycles are attached; it's 24 November. Imagine the scene on a warmer day. Now, the bike in the foreground is attached to a barrier. But it's not in anyone's way...

...unlike this bike (below). This is absolutely unacceptable, the cycling equivalent of parking on a pavement. Imagine a partially-sighted person hurrying down to the stairs to catch a train on the other platform.

In the meanwhile, car parking space outside stations continues to grow. Wrong priorities, people! Unless there's a good reason, walking or cycling to the station should be the norm. Not mindlessly driving there. PKP PLK should do everything in its power to increase the numbers of cyclists riding their bikes to the station - and not to discourage them with unthinking prohibitions. Cycle stands (professional type) cost around 400zł with another 50zł for installation, each which won't break the bank at PKP PLK, but would send the right signals to commuters.

This time last year:

Time's Telescope

This time two years ago:
Justify the buy: Nikon D5600

[2,990zł two year ago, 4,849zł now]

This time three years ago:
First frost, 2020

This time five years ago:
Edinburgh, again and again

This time nine years ago:
Ahead of the opening of Warsaw's second Metro line

This time ten years ago:
Keep an eye on Ukraine...

This time 11 years ago:
Płock by day, Płock by night 

This time 13 years ago:
Warning ahead of railway timetable change

This time 16 years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

Kraków's symbol of transformation

While visiting Kraków from the 1980s through to the early 2010s, I was increasingly intrigued by the presence not far from the very centre of the city of an unfinished hundred-metre high office tower just standing there. Visit after visit after visit, nothing happening. Decade after decade. My local hosts would point it out to me as a enduring curiosity. 

As time went by, it was neither demolished nor completed - just remaining there an eyesore that suggested helpless civic impotence. And at a time when the city was in the throes of a shared-services boom, many large foreign investors drawn to the city by its human talent, desperately looking for office space.

But back to the beginning... Work started on the NOT tower (Naczelna Organizacja Techniczna) in 1975, and paused in 1979 for the same economic reasons that triggered the workers' strikes that led to the Solidarity movement. Then for over one-third of a century, nothing happened. The skeletal frame of the tower became accepted as a part of the Kraków skyline. There was interest in doing something with it, but effort after effort crashed upon the shores of bureaucratic and legal complexities and the helplessness of the nie da się ('it can't be done') mentality.

Finally, in 2016, something moved. Work began on completing the NOT tower, by this time dubbed by locals 'Szkieletor' (Skeletor) after the skull-faced Masters of the Universe supervillain. The original skeletal frame was kept, but the old floors were taken down and replaced by new ones, reducing their number from 30 to 27. Covid happened just as work was nearing completion, but since 2021, tenants have started moving into the building, renamed Unity Tower.

Below: and here it is, standing proudly in the late-November sun. Photo taken from Rondo Mogilskie, a gyratory traffic system that separates cars from trams and pedestrians in a 1970s sort of way; to get across this on foot means using a succession of tunnels and footpaths and escalators; not a perfect for walkers, but at least cars are not a danger.

Below: my photo of the building taken in August 2019 as work was under way... [Looking at the angle, the car I was sitting in must have been just to the left and above the spot where I took the photo above.]

...and the complex as it appears today from ulica Lubomierskiego. Everything located a short walk from Kraków's main railway station.

The story of how Szkieletor - a building said to have been cursed to remain unfinished for all time - has become a part of Kraków's modern business ecosystem of offices, shared services, IT, accountants and lawyers - is yet more proof that Poland's doing well. Kraków sorely needed modern office space; besides, the trend that's observable across other cities is that edge-of-town campuses are losing in popularity to smaller spaces rented right in the centre.

This time last year:
First proper snow of 2022/23

This time two years ago:

Sleep - a portal to another universe?

This time four years ago:
A month and much progress at Chynów station

This time five years ago:
Tram tips for visiting Edinburgh

This time six years ago:
Warsaw to Edinburgh made easier

This time eight years ago:
Stuffocation: the rich-world problem of dealing with too many things

This time 11 years ago:
Heroes on the wall (for my father)

This time 13 years ago:
Tax dodge or public service?

This time 14 years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time 15 years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time 16 years ago:
Another point of view

An afternoon and evening in Katowice...

A quick in-and-out job, made possible by fast electric trains. Around two and half hours, time to edit articles, read The Economist from the front to the back, and grab a meal in the Wars restaurant wagon.

Arriving in Katowice, it is a short stroll through the city centre to get to the venue of our event today, the KTW office complex. On my way, I note that Katowice's trams have names - a nice human touch to public transport! The one facing the camera is called 'Heniek' (I checked online - there's no 'Ziutek', but there is a 'Zyguś'). Behind the trams, I see that the Christmas fair is already in place, and traders are busy trading.

Left: view from the 30th (and top) floor of the second KTW tower, the highest point in Katowice (133m), looking west. This is an excellent vantage point to witness the fantastic growth potential of the Silesian conurbation. Note the tram interchange at the foot of the the office complex. A dynamic city, Katowice is rapidly accelerating from its coal-mining roots.

Below: heading back to the station for the train back to Warsaw, I pass the Christmas market, now fully illuminated. Billboards advertise festive visits to Brno, which is actually closer to Katowice than Warsaw. And indeed, here and there I could hear Czech spoken by groups of middle-aged tourists, here for the Christmas shopping.

Below: Katowice does neon well. Note the vertical light poles, in the Ukrainian colours. Katowice has not forgotten!

Back in Warsaw, Central station. My return train was the Polonia Vienna-Warsaw express, which called at Ostrava and Katowice on the way. I was hoping the train would consist of Austrian or Czech carriages, so I could sample the in-train dining experience offered by the respective operators, ÖBB or České dráhy, and compare them to PKP's Wars. Sadly, the rolling stock was made up entirely of Polish carriages, although it was hauled by a Czech locomotive (below). I had to make do with Wars for the second time in a day (thought this time only for Polish cider, and peanuts). The train departed and arrived on time, and was profitably full. Hurrah for rail travel!

My second visit to Katowice this year; the city continues to impress with its sheer economic dynamism.

This time three years ago:
Wola's Joryt building (and its place in Polish popular culture)

This time four years ago:
Karczunkowska viaduct opens to cars, but not to pedestrians

This time five years ago:
Edinburgh's Polish statues

This time six years ago:
Edinburgh - walking the Water of Leith

This time seven years ago:
Poland's north-west frontier

This time eight years ago:
Cars must fade from our cities

This time ten years ago:
Unnecessary street lighting wastes public money

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw's heros on the walls 

This time 12 years ago:
Tax dodge or public service? 

This time 14 years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time 15 years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time 16 years ago:
Another point of view

Mid-autumn snow

One for the record-book, it seems. The earliest snows in Warsaw since I started this blog in 2007 were on 14 October 2008 and 28 October 2012. But gosh, this feels weird! Below: my breakfast view this morning. Inside: 19.1C, outside: 1.0C.

We're still in mid-November and there's been a heavy snowfall... Although the temperature hasn't dipped below zero, the volume of snow, which was falling all night and all day today, has ensured that a fair amount has actually settled. Not on roads or pavements however, but everywhere else. And this is why it feels so weird - there are still plenty of trees in leaf - and a fair number of those leaves are still green! After a walk to the shops in Chynów and back and a light lunch, I set off for another stroll through orchards and forests to take in this most unusual landscape - autumn in the snow.

Below: the trees aren't bare yet - indeed, some leaves haven't yet had time to turn brown.

Below: canonical in the early snow, where orchard yields to forest beyond Jakubowizna.

Below: between Jakubowizna and Adamów Rososki. The usual snowscape monochrome broken up with the russet of autumn foliage.

Below: a view of farms in Gaj Żelechowski from the Machcin II to Jakubowizna footpath. Corduroy fields - snow settled only on the furrow tops.

Below: a Warsaw-bound Koleje Mazowieckie train approaching Chynów station. Where it stood, and it stood and it stood. I got all the way home and didn't hear the level crossing barriers or the train whistle... I checked Portal Pasażera. Train delays of up to 100 minutes were showing on the Radom line. Apparently some issue nearer town. Cleared up by the evening.

The next days will see temperatures oscillating between +7C and -7C. Messy. Time to change to my sturdy, warm, waterproof Ukrainian army boots.

This time last year:
The Algorithm of Fate

This time two years ago:
Non-local consciousness - science and spirituality

This time three years ago:
Fenced in at last

This time six years ago:
Poznań's Old Market

This time seven years ago:
Brexit, Trump and negative emotions

This time 12 years ago:
Premier Tusk's second exposé

This time 13 years ago:
Into Poland's former Heart of Darkness

This time 14 years ago:
Commuter schadenfreude

Using it so as not to lose it

I have written before many times about the joys of Wars, Poland's catering company on rails. I make a point of using its services whenever I can, on the basis that its loss - or even its loss of quality - would pain me.

I'm back from Kielce, the journey from Chynów via Warka being a real pleasure these days, travelling on modern Dart trains, with a guaranteed buffet car. 

But buffet cars are not equal to each other... In recent weeks, I have travelled to Łódź, Kraków, Rzeszów, Wrocław and Kielce, using the services of Wars wherever possible, and I'd like to make the following observations. 

Firstly, there are big differences in the quality of service, mostly outside the control of the bar staff. Items might be missing off the menu - there was no chilli con carne on the way down to Kielce, there were no Jan Olbracht craft beers on the train from Wrocław, no hot cabbage, only a cold cabbage salad on two of the trains; and there were paper plates and recyclable wooden cutlery on the Kraków train (apparently there was no water for the on-board dishwasher). And prices are going up. 

Today I paid 59 złotys for schabowy (pork schnitzel) with braised cabbage and boiled potatoes with dill, served with a craft beer, this combo cost 51 złotys last December, and the falling pound means that's now £11.75 compared to £9.35.

And today, I was the only person tucking into a hot lunch - or indeed consuming anything - in the Wars compartment as the train headed north out of Kielce, despite it being half past one. Usually, one has to wait for a seat to become vacant, there being ten seats/three tables in the dining area. I hope this doesn't lead to that vicious spiral of rising prices - falling demand - lower quality of service - even less demand - eventually leading, as it did in the UK, to the end of the restaurant car as we know it. Replaced by a stand-up buffet serving crisps, Mars bars, Coke and tinned lager. If you're lucky.

So - here we are. The joys of Wars. Brought to me at the table, on a porcelain plate, with metal cutlery, with a craft beer, a schabowy lunch, below. Huge, piping hot, very tasty. I could hear the pork fillet being battered with a meat mallet back in the galley, then I could hear it sizzling away on the frying pan. Sadly, no glass glass with brewery logo, just a half-litre plastic beaker (can't have everything I want!), but otherwise ten out of ten.

As the ale cheers me from the inside and the scenery glides past outside, the hot, tasty meal takes on transcendental properties that mere stationary food cannot provide. Between Kielce and Suchedniów, the line snakes through the Góry Świętokrzyskie hills, much of it over 1,000 ft (304m) above sea level, offering the best scenery on the entire Warsaw-Radom-Kielce-Kraków route.

So - if you ever plan to travel around Poland, take the train, and - wherever possible - eat on the train! It's worth every zloty, and there's a danger that this particular joy may disappear if not enough folks indulge in it.

UPDATE 25.11.2023: just days after I travelled from Katowice to Warsaw on the Polonia express  (part of the journey in the restaurant car) PKP InterCity announces that as of the December timetable change, neither the Polonia nor the Moravia international expresses will include a restaurant car. Bastards. That decision has put an end to any plans I had as to visiting Vienna by train. Over nine hours without a hot meal? Surviving on sandwiches and crisps? NO THANKS!

This time two years ago:
Pleasance, the feeling of feeling pleased

This time three years ago:
Another dream of Dziadio

This time eight years ago:
Teetering between rage and reason

This time nine years ago:
Poland - it works!

This time ten years ago:
Bricktorian Birmingham

This time 12 years ago:
Fog hits Modlin Airport

This time 13 years ago:
The local elections and what they mean

This time 14 years ago:
Synchronicity of shape - PKP Powiśle, Hanger Lane, Mel's Drive-In

This time 15 years ago:
The last of Jeziorki's noted landmark - the Rampa na kruszywa

This time 16 years ago:
Jeziorki spared high-density development thanks to airport zoning

Kielce across the tracks

Arriving at Kielce station (now renamed 'Kielce Główny'), cross under the tracks and head east into the city centre, as I did in February this year, and things look promising. The station is undergoing a thorough remont, the city centre is improving greatly. But go west under the tracks, and life as it was before 1989 seems to go on, though having degraded and decayed over the intervening decades. Below: ulica R. Mielczarskiego looking as decrepit as Warsaw's Służewiec Przemysłowy did in the 1990s.

Below: don't look up. Keep looking down unless you want a shoe-full of puddle water, or an ankle twisted on the perpetually uneven surfaces. And from the station to the trade fair, Targi Kielce, it's a five kilometre walk. And every step of the way with cracked, inadequate paving.

Under leaden skies, in on-off rain, the western industrial fringes of Kielce take on a depressing air of how things once were across Poland. Below: ulica Średnia (lit. 'average street' or 'middling street')

Below: don't steal our coal! Behind barbed wire, heaps of coal piled up by the railway station of Kielce Herbskie, along ul. Oskara Kolberga (1814-1890, ethnographer, folklorist, and composer - after whom my train back to Warsaw was also named).

Below: under-invested bus stop. Again, I can just about remember such scenes in Warsaw in the late 1990s.

Below: ul. Hoża; pre-war and post-war architectural styles. At least here the pedestrian crossing has been properly modernised.

Below: graffiti on electrical substation, ul. Batalionów Chłopskich, referring to a clerical sexual-abuse scandal from more than 20 years ago.

Below: back at Kielce Główny station, four local trains standing by the old platforms; to the left of frame the new station building and the modernised platform 1, with works approaching completion.

Given the importance to the importance to the local - and indeed national - economy of Targi Kielce exhibition and conference centre, the city authorities could have done a lot more to make the route there from the station easier on the eye and on the feet. 

This time three years ago:
Chynów situation update

This time four years ago:

Winding down, moving in, keeping on

This time five years ago:
Socialist-realist Tychy

This time seven years ago:
Face to face with the UK retailing scene

This time eight years ago:
Bricktorian Birmingham

This time ten years ago:
Welcome to Lemmingrad

This time 12 years ago:
Dream highway

This time 14 years ago:
The Days are Marching

This time 15 years ago:
First snow, 2007

Edwardów, south-west of Chynów, dusk

Another village yet undiscovered on foot on a there-and-back journey from my działka. Unlike Lasopole, that I hadn't been through at all, Edwardów I know from motorbike journeys down to Warka, especially during the year when the main Chynów-Warka road was being re-laid. And further on down this road - indeed the next village along - is Budziszyn, home of Browar Perun craft brewery.

To get to Edwardów by foot from Jakubowizna meant making my way through the forest between Węszelówka and Wola Chynowska (the latter being Chynów's southern fringe). This route is formally called ulica Polna, though in stretches it's no more than an overgrown footpath, known only to locals. Once over ul. Warecka, the main Chynów-Warka road - now furnished with a proper pavement, I go down one of those roads of dubious right of way - is it a public thoroughfare or a private drive? No signs either way. At the end, ambiguity. According to the satellite photos, I should turn left at the end. Here I see a path marked as private land, and passing it by, I carry on to the end of an orchard - and then turn right towards Edwardów, passing a group of man-made ponds. Below: looking south across one of the ponds, ten minutes after sunset. 

Below: soon after, I am crossing the Czarna river on a small bridge, sufficient to carry a tractor. In the distance, a sluice gate topped with a foot crossing.

I pass an open gate, a sign on the back of it, not visible from the path, says 'Private land No entry'. I saw no analogous sign from the other side, so hey. I am now on ul. Leśna,below, the main road through Edwardów. This runs south through Budziszyn and Budziszynek, emerging in Michalczew where it meets the Warka road. Note the array of solar panels on the nearest house, and the fresh asphalt.

Edwardów itself is posh. It has no 'centre' as such - it's just a typical Polish village strung out along a road, but the houses on it are a) big and b) new. For some reason, this place attracts the construction of large detached homes, many of which are not yet visible on Google Maps Street View imagery from 2013, or else appear under construction. 

Below: "Soft wind blowin' through the pinewood trees/The folks down there live a life of ease". Dusk, Edwardów.

Below: the road runs north through Edwardów towards Chynów, where it meets the old DK 50.

I'm getting that vibe again. All that's needed between here and the old DK 50 is a neon sign and a roadside bar selling draft Rolling Rock beer.

This time last year:
In which I realise I'm living in old Michałowizna

This time two years ago:
Dealing with the Hammer of Darkness
(Go to bed an hour earlier - ignore time change - went to bed last night I went at 22:00 and had over nine hours of wonderful sleep!)

This time six years ago:
Poland's dream of a superconnector hub
(Looks like it's died)

This time seven years ago:
The magic of superzoom

This time 11 years ago:
Welcome to Lemmingrad

This time 13 years ago:
Dream highway

This time 14 years ago:
The Days are Marching

This time 16 years ago:
First snow, 2007
(It's 12C outside right now!)