London's timeless charm

To the Gherkin - 30 St Mary Axe. Not St Mary Street, not Road, not Avenue, but Axe. New home to the London office of Bank Gospodarki Krajowej - Poland's state development bank, opened in London to support the expansion of Polish businesses into the UK market. Below: the view from the 41st floor (to the south at least, unblocked by neighbouring towers) is magnificent. Tower Bridge and the Tower of London clearly visible in the shot.

Left: the Masons' Arms pub, Maddox Street, Mayfair - three hundred years old. This year marks the tercentenary of this London thoroughfare. The facade alludes to Tudor times, already history in 1720. London has many such gems, though they are rarer in the West End than they are in the City

Below: also dating back to 1720, the Jerusalem Tavern on Britton St in Clerkenwell. The pub's interior is somewhat newer (1990s).

Last week marked the 157th anniversary of the opening of the world's first underground railway, from Paddington to Farringdon, not too far from the Jerusalem Tavern. The railway's opening was nearer in time to the completion of Maddox St and the Jerusalem Tavern than to the present day. London abides. Below: the platforms at Paddington (District and Circle lines), looking much like they would have done more than a century and half ago.

Right: facade on Regent St, looking up above the ground floor. The street is packed from end to end with the flagship stores of the world's most famous clothing brands.

To the west of Regent St - the posh boutiques, art galleries, emporia and showrooms of Mayfair, all the way past Bond Street to Park Lane. To the east - the more accessible shops of Oxford Street and Soho. But since the 19th century, Regent St has been the centre of fashion.

Back to Ealing; three layers (below). In the foreground, a taste of the southern Mediterranean. I used to buy cardamom-flavoured Arabic coffee here before we moved to Poland. Above the bright lights and fragrant displays of foodstuffs, the windows and roofs of 1930s suburbia. Above them in the distance, across the valley of the river Brent, a distant drizzle-soaked ridge - or is it a bank of cloud?

This time last year:
Familiarity, music and memory
[by coincidence, this post also mentions cardamom-flavoured coffee]

This time three years ago:
On taxation and (national) defamation

This time seven years ago:
Where's Britain going to be in Europe?

This time nine years ago:
Jeziorki under water

This time ten years ago:
In a nutshell - the best science book I've ever read

This time 11 years ago:
Flashback to communist times

This time 12 years ago:
Pre-dawn Ursynów

Flying into Heathrow

A lovely day for flying - clear skies over Warsaw, clear skies over London. And a nice window seat, right at the back. BA into Heathrow - so much better than WizzAir to Luton.

Below: PZL W-3 Sokół helicopter configured for flying VIPs, 1st Transport Aviation Base, Warsaw-Okęcie. It was taxiing just as our Airbus was pushing back from the stand.

Below: two USAF C-17 Globemaster II aircraft, in town for the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2. Trump's not coming, so the hardware that these transport giants have brought along will be for the use of the vice-president, Pence.

Below: take off, and immediately visible to the east is the path of the S2 expressway, crossing Ursynów on its way to cross the Vistula. Eventually, the S2/A2 will continue on to the Belarusian border. But just for it to cross the river would be useful.

A thousand miles fly past, under the wings of our plane.

Left; estuarine Essex - this is Foulness. where England meets the North Sea and the highest elevations are two metres above sea level. Will this be under water in fifty years' time?

Flying into London in the early afternoon, sun still high in a cloudless sky, gives good opportunities for photos.

Below: the new Tottenham Hotspurs football stadium, opened four months ago.

Below: Richmond Bridge, catching the sparkle of the River Thames.

Below: homage to 1969, Heathrow, today. This is British Airways' retro-liveried Airbus A320, G-EUPJ, sporting the colours of British European Airlines from the 1960s. A bit of manual de-focus to get a softer image, run through VintageJS software (available free on vintage.js.com) to give that old-timey look, capturing the excitement of the start of a childhood continental summer holiday.

This time four years ago:
The search for the Gold Train intensifies

This time five years ago:
The Vistula from on high

This time eight years ago:
Bad car day

This time nine years ago:
Dragonfly summer

This time 11 years ago:
"What do we want?" "Early retirement!"

This time 12 years ago:
Greenhouse sunset

Warsaw - oblique views from the air

This is little short of amazing - Warsaw from the air like you've never seen it before. Photos taken on six clear days between 8 and 15 April 2018, with astonishing resolution, covering the entire city within its limits. Below: here's an example (for my father) of the building in which he lived before and during the war, on ul. Filtrowa 68...

There are five sets of photos (thumbnailed to the left). The main one above was taken looking north, the others were taken from directly above (which is what you get in Google Earth satellite view, only in higher resolution), looking east, south and west. Lots of interactive fun - the only constraint is the city's boundary.

Below: my office window (middle block, four floors down from the top).

Here's the link - click, explore and enjoy! (lots to find for train and plane spotters!)

This time five years ago
On Calton Hill, Edinburgh

This time six years ago:
Doomsday - the Last Judgment

This time seven years ago:
Sunny Scotland at +23.9C 

This time eight years ago:
The iconic taste of Marmite

This time nine years ago:

My road bike, ready for action

This time ten years ago:

Christ's Passion at the Dominican Abbey

Vintage aerial views of the ground

"When you're asleep they may show you
Aerial views of the ground,
Freudian slumber empty of sound.

Over the rooftops and houses,
Lost as it tries to be seen,
Fields of incentive covered with green."

- Entangled, from the 1975 Genesis LP, A Trick of the Tail

I only recently discovered Britain from Above, a phenomenal resource of aerial photographs taken between the early 1920s and early 1950s. I'm amazed at the high resolution of the b&w pics, and the sheer quantity of material available. It's free (you need to register though). You can search by keyword or browse using a map. Here are some shots of Ealing...

Below: St Stephen's Church, 1935. How few the cars! In the distance, where the Haymills Estate stands today were large houses on the south side of Cleveland Road. Note the turreted houses on the corner of St Stephen's Avenue (running from the bottom left corner to the church) and Colebrook Avenue...

...these turreted houses at the ends of blocks are still here. Below: looking towards St Stephen's Church from Argyle Road, visible on the right (just) are the two turreted houses at the north end of Colebrook Ave. St Stephen's Church was deconsecrated in 1979 and converted into flats. The steeple remains a local landmark.

Below: another Ealing church, this time photographed in 1952. This is the Methodist church on Windsor Road, Ealing Broadway, now the Polish parish church. Lots of cars parked along Windsor Road. On the other side of The Mall are visible the British Railways platforms of Ealing Broadway station...

Below: looking like a b&w photo of a model train set, this was Ealing Broadway station in 1952. Train-spotting anoraks will have a field-day on Britain from Above (you'll not be thanking me as you click on the map to open yet another photo at half-past two in the morning...). I'm amazed to see that Ealing Broadway back then had in effect what was a Platform 9½... There it is at the top, north of Platform 9, and only long enough for two carriages (interesting coupling of older clerestory-style and newer flared-sided Q Stock units). On Platform 5, there's a red Central line train of 1923 Standard Stock, with 'switch' compartment between the driver's cab and passenger compartment. I can still remember these in use in the early 1960s - and the older Q Stock trains in use in the early 1970s.

You will find Britain from Above addictive at first, before it settles down into become yet another extremely valuable online resource for dipping in and out of.

After examining Britain pre-war and post-war for any length of time, I find the atmosphere, the klimat of the photos seeps into my consciousness, I'm there in spirit; I long to dig my hand into the pocket of my baggy trousers and pull out a half-crown, don my hat and raincoat, down the rickety wooden staircase of my digs, turn left into Castle Street, saunter round the corner to the Red Lion, order a pint of frothing bitter and a double whisky, smell the smoke of Craven 'A's and Senior Services, while reading the morning's edition of the Daily Herald.

This time two years ago:
Adventures of a Young Pole in Exile - review

This time three years ago:
Ealing in bloom

This time four years ago:
Keeping warm in January

This time five years ago:
If you can't measure it, you can't manage it (health, that is)

This time six years ago:
Sten guns in Knightsbridge (well, Śródmieście Południowe, actually)

This time eight years ago:
To The Catch - a short story (Part II)

This time nine years ago:
Greed, fear, fight and flight - and the economy

This time ten years ago:
Is there an economic crisis going on in Poland?

Sizewell B from 23,000 ft

"Cabin crew, start of descent"... After crossing the Dutch coast, the WizzAir flight to London Luton begins to descend from cruising altitude. Weather over the North Sea is perfect for aerial photography. I have a window seat. The sight of the dome  of the Sizewell B nuclear power station, just north of Aldeburgh, prompted me to take this shot, and tweak it accordingly...

Looks chilling in black and white. The hemisphere covers the pressurised water reactor at Sizewell B, while in the foreground the rectangular buildings are the where the now-decommissioned Sizewell A, a Magnox reactor, operated from 1966 to 2006.

Archbishop of Canterbury supports nuclear option

"Only the pressurised water reactor," sighs Welby.

My little seasonal bon-mot there.

This time two years ago:
The start of the annual pilgrimage

This time four years ago:
We flew into Manchester that year...

This time five years ago:

Christmas Eve in England

This time six years ago:
Washing the snow away

This time seven years ago:

Traffic at 38,000 ft

Jeziorki's ponds from the air

Flying in yesterday I had excellent conditions for snapping Jeziorki. It was around noon, the day was overcast, so no sharp shadows,and  I had a great seat (3A). A rare opportunity, then, to see how the ponds are doing after the summer's drought. So - from south to north, as my airliner approaches Warsaw Okęcie airport, photos taken from an altitude of around 300ft.

Below: the tarmacked, southern end of ul. Dumki. The water levels didn't go down too far in the southern pond. To the left of this pic, between the trees, there's a small canal linking the southern pond to the middle pond. This summer it was bone-dry.

Below: the middle pond was the most drought-stricken, but recent rains have started to raise the water level, especially at the southern end. It was here that at the height of the drought I could cross the pond in office shoes and not even muddy them.

Below: the northern end, with gabions creating a water retention pond by ul. Kórnicka. The area between Dumki and Trombity here is the remains of the wetlands, left as a wildlife sanctuary for birds - here we have herons, marsh harriers and black-faced gulls.

Next year should bring the development of a park around ul. Dumki, with a footpath and cycle path, fitness equipment and other amenities. Let's hope this body of water will not be spoiled.

This time last year:
Snow or no snow?

This time three years ago:
Old manual-focus Nikkor 28mm lens attached to Nikon D40

This time five years ago:
What's the Polish for 'pattern'?

This time eight years ago:
"Rorate caeli de super nubes pluant justum..."

Shots from the sky

Some aerial shots to share - taken from the BA flight from Warsaw to London, then from London to Warsaw. Flying on the left side of the plane (an 'A' seat) both ways. Below: Crossing the English coast; in the centre of the photo is Foulness Island; the Thames Estuary glinting gold in the distance. "Cabin crew prepare for landing."

Below: on final approach, over Wimbledon. Running through the frame is the London and South West railway line with its depot between Wimbledon and Earlsfield. "Please ensure your seatbelt is fastened, your tray table is in the upright position and your armrests are down."

Below: flying home to Warsaw, with the sun on the other side this time. A circular rainbow preceded the plane for much of the way back. In fact two - and you can just make out a third - and even fourth rainbow, projected over the blanket of cloud covering central Germany.

A rarer phenomenon, below. Looking like the massive stationary ripples of a rainbow explosion in 2D, the multiple circular rainbow flares out towards the bottom as it merges into the clouds over north-west Poland. Contrast and saturation enhanced with Photoshop.

Below: approaching Warsaw, with Puszcza Kampinoska to the left, and in the distance the steam from the power stations at Żerań (centre) and Siekierki (right). That's Al. Jerozolimskie heading into town from the bottom right of the picture.

Below: now the plumes from Siekierki are on the centre of the horizon as the plane turns south to make a north-westerly landing on Runway 33, which means some good aerial views of Jeziorki...

Below: and indeed, there's ul. Trombity, the lakes frozen over. Snow and ice had not been forecast before we left for England a week ago, but a light dusting coats the land, with temperatures steadily falling below zero since Christmas Day and hitting a low today of -8C.

Good to be back in Jeziorki!

This time two years ago:
One-millionth of a zloty

This time three years ago:
Random year-end thoughts

This time four years ago:
Beery litter louts

This time five years ago:
Miserable grey London

This time six years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time seven years ago:
Xmas lites, Jeziorki

Płynie Wisła płynie from 6,500m

My 2,000th blog post, and to mark the occasion some aerial photography. Yesterday I flew to Rzeszów and back, a 38-minute hop covering a distance that would have taken at least five and half hours by train (and there's only two direct services a day from Warsaw). The flight in both directions followed the path of the Vistula, and the weather was good for photography. So then.

I flew port out, port home (A-seats on the plane's left side). On the way out, the sun was in the east, on the way back, on the west, so I was shooting into sun on both flights. Below: the two bridges at Góra Kalwaria, the first Vistula crossings south of Warsaw. I was here a few weeks ago by bike, crossing the road bridge.

Left: view from seat 17A. The plane is a 78-seat Eurolot Bombardier Q400 twin turboprop, a huge advance in terms of smoothness compared to the ATR42s and 72s it replaced. There's no discernable difference between this and a jet. The old ATRs (especially the oldest ones with four-blade props) would grind their way through the skies like a tractor with a broken gearbox.

Down below, the Vistula threads its way through the landscape, between Magnuszew and Ryczywół (lit. "Bellows the ox"). We have reached cruising altitude - 6,500m. The 07:30 flight is airborne at 07:55 and we've disembarked at Rzeszów Jasionka airport at 08:35.

Below: On the way back somewhere between Tarnobank and Sandometer - a numinous sensation. "HAVE - YOU - SEEN - THE - LIGHT?" The westering sun glances off the Vistula, under threatening clouds

Below: a massive rainstorm engulfs Warka and the Pilica valley. Again a short flight; no sooner has the captain announced that we are at cruising altitude, then he announces the start of the descent into Warsaw.

Turning in towards Warsaw, crossing the Vistula looking south, we see the river snaking its way across the plains, with numerous islands along the way.

The Polish landscape is unique and instantly recognisable from the air by its narrow ribbons of fields. From here, the plane heads west towards Czachówek, then aligns itself with the final approach over Piaseczno and Jeziorki.

An hour after flying over my house, I've passed through Frederic Okęcie airport, taken a train from the airport to W-wa Służewiec station, and from there another train to W-wa Jeziorki, and thence a 1km walk home.

This time three years ago:
Bad car day

This time four years ago:
Dragonfly summer

This time six years ago:
"What do we want?" "Early retirement!"

This time seven years ago:
Greenhouse sunset

Weatherwise, it's such a lovely day!

The perfect day for taking off from Warsaw's Okęcie airport and looking at Mazowsze from the air. I'm off to Glasgow for three days. Everything goes smoothly - buses arrive on time to get me from home to the airport, I get through security without a pat-down, I get a good seat (3A), the plane departs on time - and here's a bonus - WizzAir no longer flies to "Glasgow" Prestwick, but to actual Glasgow Glasgow Airport, a mere 20 minutes by bus from the city centre.

So a perfect day for some aerial photography - good weather, good seat. Cloudless skies over a snow-covered Poland.

Below: Kabaty, the southern-most part of Warsaw's Ursynów district. In the bottom right, the Las Kabacki forest; in the top left, the houses and apartment blocks of Kabaty, and in between the Metro depot. In the distance, the Vistula escarpment and the floodplains beyond.

The plane swings around Warsaw, making a 270-degree loop before taking a bearing for Glasgow. Below: the Vistula, looking pretty frozen, with Zawady in the foreground, the Siekierki power station's chimneys in the middle-left of the photo. Trasa Siekierkowska, with the Siekierki bridge run east-west, with the district of Gocław lying on beyond the river.

Below: having taken off at midday, seven minutes later, we're back over the airport. The oval in the left foreground is the smaller of the two horse tracks at Wyścigi. Beyond the S2 expressway lies Raszyn ("fools Raszyn where angels fear to tread") - home of the legendary Fashion from Raszyn website. The town is to Warsaw what Slough is to London.

Below: Węzeł Salomea, the most recently opened junction on the S2. As is the case with Węzeł Warszawa Południe, the southern arm of the junction goes nowhere and stops dead in a field, awaiting the cash needed to extend it to join the S7 expressway running south out of Warsaw.

Left: cruising altitude reached. The plane's heading in a north-westerly direction, rather than flying due west for London. The darkish band crossing the photo from left to right in the middle distance is the Vistula river valley. Ground temperature is -3C. A dazzlingly beautiful day to be flying at 30,000 feet over Poland. As you can see, Mazowsze is as flat as a steamrollered pancake.


This time two years ago:
Temporary home of the National Film Library

This time three years ago:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time four years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time six years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Look on my lack of works, ye tax-payers, and despair!"

Just over two months until the football starts. Looking down over the construction site of the new roads running into Warsaw, it's clear that there is absolutely no way, not even were a thousand athletes to eat a thousand cutlets, that the A2 motorway will be connected to Warsaw in time*. Officially, an August hand-off date is the current target - I don't see that either.

Above: Węzeł Salomea, where the S7/S8 (coming up to Warsaw from the south) meets Al. Jerozolimskie - the main route into town from the south-west. Click on photos to enlarge.

Above: the horizontal sandy scar will be ul. Nowolazurowa; it will cross three lots of railway tracks and finally connect up with ul. Lazurowa, linking the S7/S8 with Wola via Ursus.

Above: Węzeł Lotnisko, the junction of the east-west S2 (the Warsaw bypass - an expressway link from the A2 Berlin-Poznań-Stryków-Konotopa motorway running across the south of Warsaw) and north-south S79, just south of Okęcie airport. So much to be done here, least of all burrowing under the busy Warsaw-Radom railway line.

If the south-western junctions were complete, the lack of readiness of the easternmost stretch of the S2 wouldn't be an issue. But they're not - and they won't be. Tens of thousands of Czech fans will have driven across Poland for the first-round matches to snarl down in horrendous traffic jams outside Warsaw. What kind of impression of our country will this make?

Five years have gone by since the championships were awarded to Poland and Ukraine, and look now. The cities and private sector have generally done their bit. Agencies with a national remit, such as the motorways and highways authority, GDDKiA, and the state railways, have, unsurprisingly shown themselves to be wanting. (The junction of Al. Jerozolimskie and ul. Łopuszańska, a City of Warsaw project, was completed at the end of last year. It's visible towards the top of the first photo.)

For an excellent overview of where Poland's road building programme is right now, visit Student SGH's blog (this post).

* Follow-up comment, June 2012. I eat my words - the motorway was opened (though not completed) in time for the UEFA championships. It would be October before both carriageways were finally completed to motorway standard.

This time last year:
Old-school retail experience: PRL-flavoured carrot juice

This time two years ago:
Easter Sunday - Lent's over

This time three years ago:
Węzeł Lotnisko - site cleared - ready for construction work

This time four years ago:
Classic Polish automobile - the Polski Fiat 125P

This time five years ago:
Jeziorki in Google Earth

S2/S79 works ongoing - from the air

Perfect flying weather for my take-off from Okęcie, bound for London, last week (11 November). And a chance to photograph from the air the road works on the Elka or 'L'-shaped roadworks, the stretch of the north-south S79 between Węzeł Marynarska and Węzeł Lotnisko and the west-east S2 between Węzeł Lotnisko and Węzeł Puławska (węzeł means 'junction' or 'interchange').

Above: immediately after take-off, still within the airport boundary, the Cargo terminal and its apron; behind it the S79. Still much work to do to link Marynarska to the airport junction, not just viaducts and bridges, but whole chunks of missing roadway. Time's ticking away before next June's football championships... I can't see it happening.

Above: the S2, a big hole by ul. Oberka; intermittent sections nearing completion, but again so much to do, especially around the Puławska junction. Click to enlarge to get some more detail, especially the area beyond Puławska. Here - one day (don't ask) a tunnel will burrow under the blocks of flats in Ursynów to emerge by the Vistula escarpment and on to a new bridge over the river - and then onwards to the Belarusian border. I wonder what will happen first - the motorway gets to the border, or Belarussia rids itself of its ridiculous tyrant?

This time last year:
Fish and chips in Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Spirit of place - anomalous familiarity moments

Jeziorki spring update

The terrible national tragedy that befell us two weeks ago eclipsed the perennial story of nature coming back to life after a long and snowy winter. Over those two weeks, leaves have appeared on trees, migratory birds have returned for the summer, the day has gained nearly an hour in length. It's time to sum up in photos how spring looks this year in Jeziorki.

The eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815 threw up vast amounts of ash into the atmosphere, creating spectacular sunsets that were said to inspire the paintings of J.M.W. Turner. Above: The sunset on 16 April, two days after the second Eyjafjallajökull eruption that caused the shut-down of aviation over much of Europe. The photo is entirely unretouched in Photoshop - it is shown as is. Compare to this photo taken the previous day. Can you see the 'volcanic lavendar'?

Above. No, not a volcano erupting in southern Warsaw - rather another rare occurence of mammatus clouds. Not as nice as these ones photographed three years ago, but an awe-inspiring sight nevertheless. These cloud formations appear in the wake of storm fronts that sweep over on warm spring evenings.

Below: Flying home to Warsaw on Tuesday 6 April, our plane passed over the end of ul. Trombity. The photo shows the extent of the flooding caused by the large volumes of melted snow. The road nearest the camera, ul. Dumki, is entirely submerged for much of its length in this picture.
Below: the wetlands, wetter than usual. The view is from the ul. Kórnicka side (the right-hand side of the photo above). The frogs, which had been croaking loudly last week, were strangely silent today. To put into perspective, compare the view with this map and post blogged over three years ago.

Below: the wetlands looking south-west from ul. Dumki towards Kórnicka. The land is extremely waterlogged, despite low rainfall this month, the water levels have not receded much. Still, I was able to do something today I couldn't do a week ago - wade in my wellies along flooded ul. Dumki.

Below: corner of ul. Karczunkowska and ul. Buszycka this morning. I've just been for water at the studnia oligoceńska, and I catch a train-load of empty coal wagons heading back to Okęcie sidings from the Siekierki power station. A classic view of Jeziorki, I think.


Right: Later in the day, walking alongside the track, I catch sight of the Palace of Culture, eight miles (13km) from here as the crow flies. The foreshortening effect of the Nikkor 80-400mm lens makes the density of farm buildings in Jeziorki seem greater than it really is.

Below: Spring in Jeziorki, ul. Nawłocka. The narrow field running alongside the road, ploughed and ready for new crop; trees in blossom, blue sky. A view that never fails to bring on those flashback moments. Another timeless classic view of Jeziorki.