In town and around

Below: tram stop outside Rondo ONZ 1 tower. Modern public transport serving modern offices. A safe, clean, modern, reasonably priced city. Though peeking into an estate agent's window, I'm shocked at what's happened to house prices over the past ten years. From 2002 to 2014, hardly any movement, then a London-style explosion.

Below: Rondo ONZ 1 tower from across the road. All this was brand new not so very long ago; today the centre of gravity of Warsaw's business district is shifting westward towards Wola.

Below: one of my favourite thoroughfares in Warsaw, just around the corner from my office, ul. Świętokrzyska. Across the road from the Palace of Culture. And here's one my favourite shops in Warsaw, Voltarex, a shop selling high-end kitchen equipment. I pop in to buy a stainless-steel vegetable steamer insert for my pan; from now on, steamed broccoli, steamed asparagus, steamed runner beans, healthier and tastier than boiled veg. It's the end of April, and the restaurants have their pavement tables out, creating a wonderfully Mediterranean atmosphere. The long weekend is just beginning...

Below: ulica Grzybowska as it intersects aleja Jana Pawła II, shortly after sunset. The old 1990s Atrium International plaza has been demolished; the crane stands where the 34-story Upper One building will shortly emerge. My father spent his earliest years around here; on his last visit to Warsaw in 2019, he was delighted by how modern Warsaw has emerged from the rubble of Nazi occupation.

Warsaw might have moved forward dramatically, but here and there are signs of past ways of thinking. This one, for example, by a block of flats off Grzybowska, reeking linguistically of Tsarist-communist bureaucratic formalism. "Forbids one from leaving uncleanlinesses by the chute, key to the abovementioned space finds itself in the porter's kiosk". Note use of the agentless passive.

Below: back home in Jakubowizna, flags are out for 3 May, Poland's national day, remembering the world's second (after the USA) and Europe's first written constitution (1791).

Below: shimmering in a heat haze, Warsaw's skyline as seen from ul. Kinetyczna ('Kinetic Street'), on the south side of Warsaw airport.

Below: out by Warsaw Okęcie airport –a US Army Beechcraft C-12F Huron shortly after take off. (This is the basic transport aircraft, rather than the RC-12 Guardrail signals intelligence platform, which I see from time to time on FlightRadar24.com flying around the Baltic.)

Below: a Gulfstream G600 business jet belonging to the Bank of Utah (!) taking off from Okęcie.

Below: SP-LIM, a LOT Polish Airlines Embraer EJ170 in retro livery, passing the radio tower at the airport's edge....

...and this time in focus... 'Flying you since 1929'. 

This time three years ago:
Return to the Konstancin-Jeziorna sidings

This time six years ago:
A review of the second part of Hillier's Betjeman biog.

This time seven years ago:
New roads and rails

This time eight years ago:
The Gold Train shoot - lessons learned

This time 11 years ago:
Digbeth, Birmingham 5

This time 12 years ago:
Still months away from the opening of the S2/S79 

This time 13 years ago: 
Looking at progress along the S79  

This time 14 years ago:
Snow on 3 May

This time 15 years ago:
Two Polands

This time 16 years ago:
A delightful weekend in the country

This time 17 years ago:
The dismantling of the Rampa

This time 16 years ago:
Flag day

Jabbed!

Well, I got my first dose of the Pfizer today, and I must say everything went unbelievably smoothly - an experience at odds with every previous encounter with the Polish state health service! I turned up about 12 minutes early, waited a bit, filled in two forms ("have you had/have you got"/"no, no, no, no"), had my blood oxygen taken (98%), then went in to have the jab - which I literally did not feel ("Have you done it yet?" I asked after the doctor swabbed the area.) And - the best bit - I have an appointment for the second jab on 11 May. Before the doctor had even looked up from her laptop, I got a SMS from the system with news of the second appointment on my phone. And - another good bit - seven hours afterwards, I can honestly say I feel no side effects. But I expect a sore arm in the morning after sleeping half the night on it.

Meanwhile, my first journey into Warsaw on public transport since 1 October - and so much change! W-wa Główna station has finally opened (though the footbridge at the western end of the platforms is still not ready); W-wa Zachodnia (below) is deep in the early stages of its latest remont, with some of the long-distance platforms partially demolished already. You can see where the new footbridge is going to go - the pillars are going up. This will replace the tunnel that currently connects the platforms.

Left: this is Central Point, a hole in the ground a year ago as the lockdown began. It is right outside my office (which I have not been to now in over six months) - but as we've moved from the 9th floor to the 4th, I'm no longer expecting any views. In London, I used to work in Centre Point (also on the 9th floor), but Centre Point has 34 floors, Central Point a mere 21, the same height as the four tower blocks on the Ściana Wschodnia.

Right: I can see it from Jeziorki - now, officially the tallest building in the EU, taller than Stalin's Palace of Culture, taller than London's Shard - Varso tower tops out, the mast now up on its roof. It now dominates Warsaw's skyline, the first - I hope - of many skyscrapers that one day will surround the Palace of Culture, rendering it invisible from the distance. From Jeziorki, I see the other (southern-facing) side of the tower. From here (ulica Emilii Plater), I can see how much there's still to finish. To the right - Daniel Libeskind's Żagiel building.

Below: another skyscraper that's popped up since lockdown - Skysawa tower, at 155m not even high enough to get into Warsaw's Ten Tallest. For a long time, a hole in the ground - then suddenly whoomph! and there it is.

Postscript I - I can now feel an odd sensation - my left (jabbed) arm feels like I've overdone the pull-ups and the weights - usually when I get this, it's in both arms!

Postscript II - 48 hours later the dull ache is easing, taking another day off the exercises and walking to be on the safe side.

Postscript III - Neighbours had the AstraZeneca jab yesterday - today, they are reporting fever, shivers and muscle pain.

This time last year:

'God' and 'Nation' don't go together!

This time two years ago:
Działka update 

This time three years ago:
Łódź is a film set

This time four years ago
Contemplative imagery, Ealing and Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
Baffled: my first visit to Jeziorki's Lidl 

This time ten years ago:
In vino veritas?

This time 11 two years ago:
Are we getting more intelligent?

This time 12 three years ago:
Lenten recipe: tuna, chickpea and pesto salad

This time 13 years ago:
Coal train sidings, Konstancin-Jeziorna

This time 14 years ago:
Jeziorki from the air

Grey February dusk, buzzing Warsaw

I can't remember (nor can I google) who said it, the quote about jazz being like going home from work a different way each day. Variety is important; today I got my paces in by walking from the office to W-wa Ochota station, along ulica Świętokrzyska, then under Rondo ONZ, along ul. Pańska, then south-west along ul. Twarda, then finally south along ul. Miedziana to the station.

Below: surviving prewar architecture sandwiched between Warsaw Trade Center and Rondo ONZ 1, the old social health insurance building on ul. Mariańska. The mural on the side facing Świętokrzyska says 'Revolution begins on the street' - let's hope not.

Below: entrance to Metro Rondo ONZ on Line 2 of the Warsaw Metro. Note the cranes on the skyline, beyond the next stop on the Metro, Rondo Daszyńskiego.

Below: view along ul. Prosta; Wola is ascending.

Below: I reach my destination, W-wa Ochota, its pavilion designed by Arseniusz Romanowicz and Piotr Szymaniak, completed in 1963.

The short (three carriages, loco-hauled) passing on the long-distance line in the foreground is the Warsaw to Lublin service.

Daytime high today was 14.1C, very warm for mid-February. One thing that's immutable is the lengthening day - the sun set at 16:51. Nearly an hour and half after the earliest sunset (15-21 December).

Bonus photo: the following day, a brief burst of sunlight just before nightfall... view from our office window, overlooking three building sites.

This time last year:
Skierniewice-Łuków line modernisation announced

This two years ago:
Entropy and anti-entropy in a constant-ruled universe

This time three years ago:
Truth, spin, bullshit and lies

This time four year:
How much spirituality do we need?

This time seven years ago:
The Chosen Ones

This time eight years ago:
Fixies in the snow

This time 11 years ago:
Just the ticket

Warsaw's Christmas lights, 2019-20

The gloomiest time of year made bright; the Christmas illuminations were switched on at the weekend and will be lighting Warsaw, making a difference to our samopoczucie. The 'Royal route' (Trakt krolewski) along Nowy Świat and Krakowskie Przedmieście to the Old Town, is traffic-free every weekend; with the crowds of sightseers strolling up and down, there's the feeling of this is what cities could look like if only they got rid of cars (and kept the buses to the main thoroughfares). It was a lovely feeling walking in the middle of the road!

Below: looking south from the junction of Nowy Świat and ulica Świętokrzyska

Below: from the steps of Świętego Krzyża (Holy Cross) church - where Chopin's heart is interred - looking towards the statue of Copernicus. It was from here, on 2 December 1943, that my father witnessed the Germans machine-gunning to death 34 Polish prisoners taken out of the back of a truck on Nowy Świat.

Unlike the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square, a gift to the people of Britain from the people of Oslo as a token of gratitude for British support to Norway in WW2, which is a real tree some 20 metres high, the 27m-tall one (below) on Plac Zamkowy is artificial, still it draws the crowds.

Below: a favourite with the children - the train followed by wagons of presents. There are two of these. One, on Pl. Herberta Hoovera, and one here, in Mariensztat. Tip for parents - this one is far less overrun, no queues to get on it.

Below: on the corner of ul. Piękna and Al. Ujazdowskie, stands this peacock, a reference to the ornately plumaged denizens of nearby Łazienki park.

Below: my personal favourite is back - a Jelcz 272 'Ogórek' ('gherkin'), as used by Warsaw's public transport in the 1960s and '70s.

Below: outside the premier's offices, Al. Ujazdowskie opposite Łazienki park looking south.

Below: outside my offices, ul. Świętokrzyska looking west.

The Christmas lights will be with us until early February.

Warsaw Christmas lights 2017-18

Warsaw Christmas lights 2016-17

Warsaw Christmas lights 2008-09

This time last year:
Pawlikowski's Cold War

This time four years ago:
"Extreme weather events are now a feature of the British climate"

This time six years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time seven years ago:
Swans on ice

This time eight years ago:
Cars 

This time nine years ago:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 10 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 12 years ago:
A day in Poznań

Night time's the right time for snapping Warsaw in late autumn

Above: Rondo ONZ One, as seen from ulica Emilii Plater, looking down ul. Pańska, which runs all the way west to ul. Towarowa, and is truncated by the building you see in front of you. Incidentally, rare is the Polish street name that always uses first name and surname; it's usually surname only.

Below: The Palace of the Youth, on the north side of Stalin's Palace of Culture, facing ul. Świętokrzyska.

Below: my favourite stretch of Świętokrzyska, where the two competing shops, both selling kitchenware, compete for the same clients. If one hasn't got exactly what you're looking for, the other one well may have. And note the trees that now line the street; they were planted last autumn. Can you spot Ziggy Stardust? He's in several of my photos of this street...

I quite often see film shoots happening in central Warsaw; here's one on the corner of Świętokrzyska and Emilii Plater.

Left: lovely neon, marking the current location of the museum of modern art (Muzeum Sztuki Współczesnej). To the left, a sheet-metal fence marks the site of the old Emilia building, former home of the museum and before that the location of Stołeczne Przedsiębiorstwo Handlu Wewnętrznego 'Meble Emilia' (The Capital City Enterprise of Internal Trade 'Furniture Emilia')


Below: down underground, looking into the transversal railway tunnel. This is the main line tracks running east from Warsaw Central station (W-wa Centralna). In the distance an InterCity Pendolino train crosses over the points.

Below: also looking east along the transversal railway tunnel, but this is the suburban line. The long-distance tracks lie beyond the wall to the left. Photo taken from the end of platform 3, W-wa Śródmieście station.

Two London Stock Exchange FTSE 250-listed companies are present in the new Sezam building (opened June 2018). They are recruitment firm Hays, and Spaces, part of IWG (International Workplace Group, better known under its old brand, Regus). Between the footpath (foreground) and ul. Marszalkowska (beyond which is Sezam), there will soon appear a new 20-story office building, Central Point, right outside my office window (to the left of this frame). Fitting, as I spent years working at Centre Point in London.

If you think Warsaw looks good now - wait until the Christmas lights come on later this week!

Bonus shot: Three generations of Warsaw architecture

This time last year:
Autumnal travel woes

This time four years ago:
Thoughts on Polish hypochondria

This time seven years ago:
Blogging resumes as Orange gets its act together

This time eight years ago:
The meaning of Clarkson 

This time nine years ago: 
A bad day on the railway

This time ten years ago:
In which I walk to work

This time 12 years ago:
Act 1, Scene 1, a blasted heath

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

Working week in town in photos

A very reasonable week weather-wise for the time of year. Below: looking up ul. Emilii Plater towards the Cosmopolitan building, with the InterContinental hotel and Warsaw Financial Centre to the left. Trees now fully in leaf.

Below: many people's first view of Warsaw, emerging from the W-wa Centralna station, the Lumen building to the left, Palace of Culture looming across from the right.

Below: a pair of 1960s Jelcz 043 ogórki ('gherkins'), classic buses from the 1960s with period backdrop.

Below: here's a find - parked (abandoned?) outside the Teatr Polski on ul. Karasia - a 1960 Hillman Minx Series III. Theatrical prop or what? The car has remnants of 'CS' plate, suggesting that it spent its useful life in Czechoslovakia..

Old cars can live again... I snapped this restored and repainted body of a Porsche 356 of similar vintage (below) on ul. Świętokrzyska. The economics of doing up classic cars are simple; it costs just as much to do a bare-metal restoration of a Hillman Minx (if not more, it has four doors) as it does to work on the Porsche. Yet the Porsche will command a price ten times higher than a Minx restored to the same condition; €100,000 or thereabouts. So Minxes rot and die, Porsches live again.

Vistula sunset yeah!

This time two years ago:
Brexit: head vs heart, migration vs economy

This time three years ago:
Golf course update

This time six years ago:
The Shard changes London's skyline

This time seven years ago:
In praise of Warsaw's trams

This time eight years ago:
Plans for the railway line to Radom