Today Eddie and I made our way to the ski slope from Gruszowiec, retracing our steps from yesterday. The hoar-frost made the forest on the south of Śnieżnica astoundingly beautiful. Above: our way up in the morning, below, our way back down in the afternoon. Again, skiing meant that the pocketable Nokia N95 was the day's camera of choice. It's now two years and four months old, and still performing perfectly. Not many mobile phones even today have a 5MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens.
The Polish school holidays have been cleverly staggered so that the ski slopes aren't all overcrowded in a two-week burst. The sixteen Polish voivodships (provinces) have different breaks between 18 Jan and 28 Feb. Polish schools have two semesters (rather than three trimesters as in the UK). There are short breaks for Christmas and Easter, but the main holiday of the school year is in midwinter - so that winter sports can be enjoyed. This week, neither Małopolska or any of its neighbouring provinces are on holiday - an ideal time for winter holiday makers from Warsaw. Eddie is very happy with the conditions today, although it was cold (-8C) enough to numb my heavily-gloved fingers as we ascended on the chairlift.
To get to the bus stop, we had to choose between a long detour by road, or a short cut through a snowy field. The snow is knee-deep; the effort required to make it across this field turned out far greater than the long way round would have been - but as the bus arrived at the bus stop two minutes after us, this way worked best. All today's pics taken on my Nokia N95, I didn't fancy taking the Nikon D80 skiing with me.
Up from Dobra winds the line, climbing westwards towards Skrzydlna, the highest point on Polish railway. The snow has totally covered the track, making it much harder to walk.
Above: The streams that criss-cross under the line are all hidden under deep drifts. Here, higher up, the trees are covered in szadź, the hoar-frost or rime brought about by freezing fog. Numerous tracks of wild animals can be seen among the trees, mainly hare.
Above: What's round the corner? Beyond Szkrzydlna, the track dips down towards Kasina Wielka. Below: The approaches to Kasina Wielka station, abandoned signal box in the distance. At the station is the ski-slope, which today was packed solid with skiers from Kraków, Wieliczka and Wadowice. We wait with our skiing until tomorrow.
If only all journeys could be so civilised! Below: We return to Dobra (my fifth time, Eddie's fourth). Good to be back - we love this place! It's somewhere that people return time and time again; most of the guests have been here many more times than us - a family staying here this week has been coming to Dobra for 13 years.
Straight after a hearty lunch, we set off to Jurków. Below: Łopień's forested slopes on the horizon. Snow here in the lower altitudes of the Beskid Wyspowy is not as deep as it is in Warsaw - a very unusual state of affairs!
Right: Chapel on the way to Jurków. The white outline to the left side of the chapel roof is caused by the sun glinting off the newly-restored lead roof. The skies are expected to cloud over tomorrow, so we made the most of the sunshine today. It was quite wonderful clambering over the wintery fields, brilliantly white snow under an azure sky.
On a day as beautiful as today, it makes sense to leave home a few minutes earlier than usual and walk the longer, prettier way to the station. Above: Across the road from our house. Views that spark atavistic resurgence, a return to the once-was which my consciousness merges with my own memory as part of my sense of self. Looking at both the left part, with the telegraph poles rising a slight, snowy slope, and the right part, the trees, beneath them snow-covered roofs, trigger that old feeling of anomalous familiarity. This is not Hanwell, London W7, yet I feel this scene is familiar as my own childhood.
Above: The field next door to our house. Animal tracks (probably cat) leading to an abandoned barn. In early August, this field will sport a waist-high crop of oats.
Two views down ul. Nawłocka - above: from ul. Trombity, under the snows, a field usually used for growing potatoes. Let's hope this year's harvest is better than last year's. Below: nearer ul. Achillesa. The track through the snow is too narrow for a car to pass a pedestrian.
Below: On the platform, W-wa Jeziorki station. Note the snow on the centre of the platform neither cleared nor trampled, nor drifted by the wind; it is over a foot (30cm) deep. Now imagine that over the entire city - and then imagine what would happen if that were all to melt during the course of a few warm and rainy days.
On my way to the office I took a 100m detour down ul. Myśliwiecka with the intent of capturing the atmosphere of ul. Profesorska, one of Warsaw's shortest and steepest streets, on a sunny winter's day. Above: Looking down Myśliwiecka. The red flag on the left belongs to the Tunisian consulate.
Right: Here we are then - the top of ul. Profesorska; pedestrians only. Steep steps (take care: slippery when covered in snow) lead down to ul. Hoene-Wrońskiego.
Any Warsaw street that's both short and steep is likely to be one that runs down the Vistula escarpment towards the river. This topographic feature gives the city, otherwise quite devoid of contours, some welcome hilliness. There's no comparable escarpment on the Praga side of the river, however. Left: All the buildings along both sides of this street are zabytki - listed heritage sites.
Quite atypically Warsaw. A wonderful little excursion adding just a few minutes to my journey time brought me so much aesthetic pleasure. Below: Looking up ul. Profesorska. The bottom end is accessible to residents' cars.
Below: Villa on the corner of Profesorska and ul. Hoene-Wrońskiego. Note the pre-war style street lamps, the so-called 'pastorałka' or shepherd's crook. It would be an improvement to the look of ul. Myśliwiecka if the modern lamps were replaced by pastorałki too.
Doesn't it make you cross to see public money being wasted? Last summer saw the makeover of Al. Ujazdowskie, with new pavements, cycle path and greenery. At night, the trees are lit up by uplighters mounted beneath the lawn. But what have we here? We've had snow on the ground (with a brief respite over Christmas) since mid-December, and yet these lights are still switched on every night - despite being covered by ten inches of snow! Why?
The stretch of Al. Ujazdowskie is over half a kilometre long,with more than fifty trees along it, each with four lights underneath it. Switched on for 16 hours a day. Gauge the power output (heat and light)of each lightbulb from the close-up below.
"I kto za to płaci? Pani płaci, Pan płaci. Społeczeństwo."
There's so much of it about, and it will get warmer. One day, the weather will turn; temperatures will return above zero, rain will fall... and these minature icebergs will melt. Waders will be necessary to get around. Just look at those cubic metres of water waiting to be released back into the liquid state. Above: outside my office, ul. Fabryczna; below: Al. KEN, Ursynów. Tomorrow we can expect a brief thaw, snow, then snow and rain - a foretaste of the meltdown to come. Temperatures are forecast to fall to -6C tomorrow night. So it will hold on for a bit longer.
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