Two rainbows

My journey to work yesterday was interrupted by the closure of the Metro's middle section, due to the detection of gas in the tunnels. Turns out it was not gas as such, but the chemical used to give (odourless) gas a characteristic smell, tert-Butylthiol (TBM). This incident occurring as it did at the height of the high school final exam week (the matura, which Eddie is currently taking), there is a suspicion that this incident was some form of sabotage.

Anyway, unable to take the Metro to work, I took the tram from Wilanowska, and passing Pl. Zbawiciela, I had the chance of getting a clear shot at Warsaw's rainbow, restored after having being torched for the third (or is it fourth? I lose count) time. Note the fire hydrant in the middle foreground! Yesterday's Gazeta Stołeczna published a poll in which 61% of Varsovians are in favour of keeping the rainbow.  When it first appeared ahead of the Euro2012 football championships, I was sceptical, but now I find myself quite fond of this new symbol of the Polish capital's increasing tolerance.

This evening, arriving home from work, I saw a beautiful double rainbow over Jeziorki, which I snapped from the balcony with my 10-24mm Nikkor zoomed out widest. A polarising filter helped to crank out the maximum from the rainbow, with pleasing result. Under the rainbow, the State Valuable Paper Creation Plant (Państwowa Wytwórnia Papierów Wartościowych) caught in the rays of the evening sun.

This time last year:
Dandelions in bloom (about two weeks later than this year)

This time two years ago:
Warsaw's city centre - a deli-free zone
[Today, the rather poor delis have gone, replaced by better shops. Differ or die.]

This time three years ago:
Patching up the holes

This time four years ago:
In search of the sublime aesthetic

This time seven years ago:
Flying in from the Faroes

Plac Zbawiciela, lunchtime, winter

Plac Zbawiciela lies near the southern end of Śródmieście Południowe, Warsaw's city centre south. Here lies the Church of the Holiest Saviour (Kościół Najświętszego Zbawiciela). Below: I've long been fascinated by this view - the juxtaposition of tram wires and neo-Baroque - the church itself being consecrated just 28 years before the opening of Disneyland.

A short walk from Trasa Łazienkowska which runs under ul. Marszałkowska and you're here - a convenient interchange if heading into town by tram. Pl. Zbawiciela is served by no fewer than five different lines. Be careful which you board - some go north up Marszałkowska, others swing west here, like the number 10 tram seen below.

Left: the steps of the Church of the Holiest Saviour are popular with beggars; whether it's the passing footfall, generous worshippers or a tolerant clergy within, I can't tell.

Below: Pl. Zbawiciela is more of a circus than a square; here's the south-west section. Click on 'Pl. Zbawiciela' label at the bottom of the post for more photos from here.

Pl. Zbawiciela is a busy tram junction, with the socialist-realist MDM (Marszałkowska Dzielnica Mieszkaniowa - 'Marszałkowska Housing District') in the background.

Weatherwise, it's been tolerably cold (around -7C) with light dustings of snow to give the city a cleaner look. Road-salt ensures that snow on the roads turns to slush, which sprays out from under the tyres of passing cars.

This time last year:
Waiting for the thaw

This time two years ago:

At last - some winter gorgeousness

This time three years ago:
New winter wear - my M65 Parka

This time four years ago:
Winter and broken-down trains

This time five years ago:
A pavement for ul. Karczunkowska?
[Hopes dashed. No, after five years - we're still waiting]

This time six years ago:
Just when I thought winter was over...

Kestrel on the roof

Looking out of my window, from my desk, I espied this compact bird of prey on the roof of the neighbouring tenement (kamienica). Turns out it's a common kestrel (pustułka zwyczajna). In the background, the towers of St. Saviour's church (kościół Św. Zbawiciela) on Pl. Zabawiciela.

A migratory bird in this part of Europe; I've not seen it here before since moving to this office in late autumn.

This has been the week where the miracle of spring, that powerful explosion of nature, has made itself Most felt. For the past three days, I've sauntered home from work in broad daylight, wearing nothing more than a suit. Today, the top temperature expected is 23C. Leaves are appearing on trees almost overnight; the sun is rising earlier with each day (quarter past five this morning), and setting later with each day (ten to eight this evening). And to think, there was still plentiful snow on the ground just three weeks ago!

This really is the best time of the year for me - full of optimism, brightness and the prospect of long, summer days ahead.

This time last year:
Britain shivers: 6C to 8C in late April

This time two years ago:
Miracle on the Vistula: Spring explodes across Warsaw

This time three years ago:
Collapsing footbridge over Puławska

This time four years ago:
Four-engined jets at 30,000 ft

Waiting for the thaw

I woke up this morning later than customary for a weekday, just before seven. And yet the online thermometer read still read a chilly -12.8C. As I begin writing this post, just before seven the same evening, the temperature has shot up to -1.1C. Right now, half past eight, as I finish, it's -0.5C. Tomorrow and Wednesday, the forecast is for temperatures above zero - and rain - heavy rain. Rain that will wash away all this winter gorgeousness and turn it into a melting grey muck. Odwilż - the thaw. Something one dreads.

Above: the last snowfall of the current snowy spell? Ul. Marszałkowska, by Trasa Łazienkowska. Snow is swirling about, giving a fresh coat of white to the piles of dirty snow piled up on the pavements.

Uwage sople! Beware, icicles! View outside the office window, Al. Szucha. These beasts are getting ever longer and heavier as melting snow off the rooftops drips down and re-freezes. Our ones are not particularly dangerous, as they would drop onto several parapets before eventually landing, fragmented, on the courtyard.

Above: the flutter of grey pigeons - tupot szarych gołębi- on a pavement recently dusted with snow. Note their footprints.

Right: dealing with rooftop snow and icicles, corner of Pl. Zbawiciela and ul. Nowowiejska. The job's being done safely. The guy on the roof is wearing a harness; the pavement's been roped off; another guy is on the ground warning the shoveller of impeding traffic. Worth remembering that today's the seventh anniversary of the Katowice Trade Hall disaster.

Above: clearing the muck from the steps of Metro Polityechnika. A mixture of snow, meltwater, salt, soil - filthy stuff indeed. Slippery and filthy. And when the snow starts properly melting, any hour now - then the streets of Warsaw will be awash with it and things will be truly horrid - Wellington weather!

This time last year:
At last - some winter gorgeousness

This time two years ago:
New winter wear - my M65 Parka

This time three years ago:
Winter and broken-down trains

This time four years ago:
A pavement for ul. Karczunkowska?
[Hopes dashed. No, after four years - still no pavement]

This time five years ago:
Just when I thought winter was over...

City centre vandalism

Centrum tram stop, Friday lunchtime. Some vandal has smashed the side window on the tram shelter. An unsightly sore on the face of Our City. Younger passers-by ignore the damage.

Shame on the perpetrator - a few days in the stocks would be a good solution - punishment I'd also recommend for fly-tippers who dump their old fridges, sofas and household waste in woods and fields.

Right: framed by the broken glass, a grey-haired passenger takes a moment to survey the damage. He's thinking what I'm thinking. In the background, the Novotel (formerly Forum) hotel on Rondo Dmowskiego. A cold wind's blowing, time to hurry back to the office on board a 35 tram.

Below: as the tram passes Pl. Zbawiciela, I snap the Tolerance Rainbow, which has been torched again by some nasty element.

This time last year:
Kebabville

This time two years ago:
The day I found a million zlotys

This time three years ago:
Making the most of winter

This time four years ago:
Progress along Ballay Street

This time five years ago:
Shortest, mildest, winter?

Warsaw in today's snow

Coming home last night it started to snow heavily; clearly, the forecast thaw was not going to happen. Indeed, in the morning, there was a 20cm / six-inch covering of snow on the ground.

Above: looking north along the tram tracks at the top end of ul. Marszałkowska as it crosses Królewska. The trees of Ogród Saski (Saxon Garden) dressed in snow give a fairy-tale appearance to the scene. Traffic's heavy, though it's lunchtime. Below: the southern end of Marszałkowska, looking towards Pl. Unii Lubelskiej.

Left: the temperature's just below zero, though salt melts the snow, creating large puddles. This one's not too deep; even so sandal-wearing's not to be encouraged. We're on the corner of Świętokrzyska and Marszałkowska, where the second line of the Metro will cut under the first line. This junction's still a dreadful mess even for pedestrians, forced to take long detours. Work on the second Metro line is scheduled to be completed by October 2013, claimed Jerzy Lejk, president of the Warsaw Metro two months ago.

Above: a line of trees on the path from ul. Grzybowska to Al. Piotra Drzewieckiego. Below: Rainbow Repaired - or is it? The burnt sections of the rainbow on Pl. Zbawiciela have been replaced by new artificial flowers - but look at the colour mismatch between the new ones and the undamaged original ones, faded by the summer sun. Looks awful. The artists should replace the lot regularly, otherwise the effect will be washed out. (The photo's a bit soft, taken through the grimy window of a moving tram.)

Right: on Krakowskie Przedmieście, between Świętokrzyska and Traugutta, Holy Cross church (Kościół Świętego Krzyża), a Baroque building finished in 1792. It took 110 years to complete (so perhaps we shouldn't complain too much about how long it's taking to build the Warsaw Metro).

Below: socialist-realist architecture on ul Gagarina, built in the late 1950s; named after the Soviet cosmonaut in 1961.

Left: photo kindly sent in by Marcin Daniecki showing unconventional, though practical, approach to dealing with 20cm of snow on the steps to Imielin Metro station - pile it up on the middle of the staircase. The real test will happen in the evening, when commuters are all rushng off one train and piling home up these stairs - one hopes everyone will be sensible about it!


This time last year:
Art, design and modernity

This time two years ago:
Happy ever after

This time three years ago:
Road and rail let me down again

This time four years ago:
Alignment and synchronicity

This time five years ago:
Retro shop, ul. Fabryczna

Not beyond repair

A thank-you to Kolin for the tip-off on this story - the attempted destruction by a drunken vandal of the floral rainbow that has stood on Pl. Zbawiciela since before the Euro 2012 football championships.

The 29 year-old opponent of peace, love and understanding was caught red-handed by the police, and was found to be seven times over the drink-drive limit. He set fire to one end of the rainbow, and was apprehended while trying to do likewise to the other side. What his motivation was may become clear during his court appearance. (Drunken prank? Dare? Performance art? Political statement? We'll see.)

Four days after the incident, I popped by to see it for myself. Above: the southern end of the rainbow was seriously damaged. Still, the exposed steel lattice-work structure looks starkly impressive against the background of the church of the Holiest Redeemer.

About half of the 16,000 artificial flowers have burnt away. The artist, Julita Wójcik, has pledged that the rainbow will be rebuilt. Below: the southern end was not so badly affected. Still, I guess that when it comes to replacing the flowers, the existing ones will go, as their colour will not match new ones on account of fading in the sunlight.

It's worth recalling that when I polled readers as to whether the the rainbow should stay as a permanent feature of the Warsaw cityscape, only one-third voted yes. That was back in late June, just three weeks after its unveiling. Time makes us more accepting of the ways things are. Joanna Rajkowska's artificial palm tree on Rondo De Gaulle'a (below) has been there for ten years, and I think Warsaw has taken it to heart.

Big public art has a place in any city. It civilises, it enhances citizens' sense of pride in their home town. It is a sign of a city's imagination and innovative thought.

This time last year:
Why no one is Occupying Warsaw

This two years ago:
Of sausages and drains

This time three years ago:
In search of the Sublime Aesthetic at 36,000 ft

This time five years ago:
London from the air

More autumnal gorgeousness from Warsaw

On a day like today, one should be snap-snap-snapping away, to capture Warsaw in its autumnal finery.
Below: Ujazdowski castle, and the Piaseczyński canal in the foreground. Trees blaze with colour.

Below: coming out of the Metro station at Politechnika, ul. Nowowiejska. Oily effect on plexiglass caused by polarising filter, not visible with naked eye.

Below: Pl. Zbawiciela, the church of the Holiest Saviour (Najświętszego Zbawiciela), late afternoon. 

Below: ul. Marszałkowska between Pl. Unii Lubelskiej and Pl. Zbawiciela, over the Trasa Łazienkowska. A new-style Swing tram departs towards Wyścigi.

Below: Trasa Łazienkowska towards the end of the working week. Completely solid. At least the bus lanes keep public transport moving efficiently along this major east-west thoroughfare.

Look at all those short-distance one-per-car commuters going nowhere fast - they should give up their cars, take to public transport and leave the road space for those really need it.

This time last year:
The genius of Donald Tusk

This time two years ago:
Tragic road accident kills 18: Has Poland learnt anything from it?