Patching up the holes

There are a few bits of our road that have become utterly despicable; pock-marked and shell-holed as though they've come under sustained bombardment from the mortar fire. Below: the lowest-lying stretch of ul. Trombity, susceptible to flooding whenever the rainfall's heavy. Then come the frosts; the ice expands in the cracks; the asphalt breaks up, holes appear and the whole thing gets worse and worse.

I was delighted to see as I returned home on Friday evening that a road repair crew was busy on ul. Trombity, patching up the worst of the winter's damage to the surface. I was even more delighted to see them still at it on Saturday (below).

Below: by Monday morning, commuters will be in for a treat! No more worries about suspension and scraped bottoms. How long will this last? Not long. The underlying problem has not been fixed - namely running surface water off the road and into the nearby pond. There is no guttering along ul. Trombity, neither are there any storm drains. So water will continue to gather here, freezing in winter, cracking the surface, creating ever-deeper pot-holes.

We have just been informed (in a long-winded and none-too-clear way) that the local property tax will go up. Good. It's laughably low (the equivalent of around £30 a year, compared with London rates of £120 a month). I'd happily pay more local tax in exchange for proper infrastructure - properly maintained asphalted roads, drains and sewerage.

This time two years ago:
In search of the Sublime Aesthetic

This time three years ago:
Flying in from the Faroes

Double-headed rail action, Jeziorki

While out and about with camera today, I chanced upon three double-headed trains. Below: the classic Jeziorki coal train shot, a pair of TEM-2 Tamaras hauling wagons to Siekierki power station via the sidings at Konstancin-Jeziorna, as they approach W-wa Jeziorki station.

Below: I've not seen this configuration before; a Czech class 181-050 electric engine double-heading with a diesel 311-D loco, bringing laden coal wagons to the Okęcie sidings along the electrified main line from the south. The diesel engine was doing its bit too, lots of black smoke billowing forth from it.

Below: a pair of Koleje Mazowieckie class EU-07 engines running light from Warsaw towards Radom (one has obviously broken down). Note the tracks on the right that run into undergrowth; these were the tracks to the aggregate loading ramp, ripped out three years ago by developers for a housing estate that was not to be.

By 'old school' I mean pre-war

Yesterday on Marszałkowska (the stretch between Pl. Zbawiciela and Pl. Konstytucji) I chanced upon this tempting display of shoe polish tins in a display cabinet built into a gateway. Five upturned tins, a faded photo of men's shoes. (Click to enlarge)

On the other side of the entrance, a more appealing display - some decent-looking footwear, perhaps the answer to what's lacking in this department here in Warsaw (see post about my shoes). Worth paying Pan Wielądek a visit to see what he can cobble together...

Good to see craft skills hanging on in spite of price competition from the Far East. Here and there, one can still find retailing that pre-dates communist state-owned shops and today's chain stores. Two doors further up Puławska, this tempting display (below). The word dziewiarstwo (męskie and damskie) was new to me; PWN Oxford defines it as 'knitwear'. So now you know!

Seeing these unremonted façades puts me in mind of Cuba; I've got Buena Vista Social Club music going around my head as I process these photos. Unusual association for Warsaw.

This time last year:
Britain chooses a coalition government

This time two years ago:
Landing over Ursynów

This time three years ago:
On being assertive in Poland

Men at work

Men at work, on ul. Puławska, erecting scaffolding. A sight so stirring in its majesty that I jumped off the tram to get some shots. The geometric composition, the colours, the action (things were moving quickly - something you can't see on still images). But wait a minute - not a single hard hat? Instead, the ubiquitous baseball cap.

Pedestrian access has not been cordoned off (imagine that plank slipping as a person walked underneath). At least there are guard rails on the scaffolding, but generally I feel that health and safety at work is nowhere as rigorous as in the UK. Which explains why construction industry fatalities in Poland are proportionately five times higher than in the UK.

Functionalism in Warsaw

One of the most well-thumbed books on Warsaw is Architektura w Warszawie by Marta Leśniakowska (I have the 1998 edition; the book was updated in 2005). En route from a lunch meeting to an interview with Polish Radio (Trójka), I passed the post and telecommunications building on ul. Nowogrodzka 45, an excellent example of pre-war Functionalism.

Turning to my trusty tome, I discover that this was Poland's first steel-framed building, completed in 1934. I am particularly struck by the Polish eagle, rendered in functionalist style, and the wording: "Interurban telephone - telegraph - radiotelegraph". Imagine coming here in the mid-'30s to phone your relatives in Kraków or to reach a crew member on board the transatlantic liner, the MS Batory.

While considering pre-war functionalism, it's worth taking a peek at this building on Al. Na Skarpie, overlooking the Vistula escarpment. Completed in 1935, this was the villa of architect Bohdan Pniewski, a complete functionalist remodelling of what had been a masonic temple from the late 18th C. The use of stone cladding was quite revolutionary at the time (in Britain today it's associated with right-to-buy council houses trying to distinguish themselves from their neighbours).

Above: the coded inscription, which according to Ms Leśniakowska, says something like "Raising ahead he rebuilt the masonic temple and lived in it". Below: I mentioned this before, but I feel it would be worth placing the station signage at W-wa Włochy into the context of pre-war functionalism.

This time last year:
What's the Polish for 'to bully'?

This time two years ago:
Making plans

This time three years ago:
The setting sun stirs my soul

This time four years ago:
Rain ends the drought

Just for the record...

Not pictures of great artistic merit, but just to record the fact that on Wednesday, 4 May 2011, there was a dusting of snow on the ground; the air temperature recorded in the meteorology department of Warsaw Polytechnic was +0.6C.

Overnight the clouds scudded by, the sky cleared and the previous evening's snow was preserved by the ground frost. I got back on my bike and cycled to work, spattered with mud (today I wore waterproof over-trousers).

I'm worried about the effect this unseasonable cold will have on crops and on the subsequent effect on food prices, which in any case have been rising very quickly. Nature is fragile at this time of year, tender green shoots can have the life frozen out of them. I pray for warmth.

This time four years ago:
This is not America, no?

Evil of a snowflake in May

Cycling when it's cold is OK - you dress up warm, especially hands and feet, and krentch that little bit harder. Cycling when it's wet is OK when you're dressed in waterproofs and your bike's equipped with full-length mudguards. But cycling on a very cold and very wet day is none too wise. And yet the day looked reasonable when I woke up; chilly (+4C) though dry. The Las Kabacki was as full of joggers, Nordic walkers and cyclists as I could imagine on a public holiday.

Above: the Vistula, Wyspy Zawadowskie, a nature reserve midstream, just outside Warsaw's city limits, by a village called Kępa Oborska. Below: for the first time I catch the coal train in motion between Konstancin-Jeziorna sidings and the Siekierki power station.

Below: the power station chimneys in the background, to the right, the flood defence wall. Last year's floods did not breach this wall but left it compromised; the water level was two metres higher on the river side, the earth dyke dangerously sodden. Had the wall burst here, it would have made it impossible to deliver coal to the power station by rail. See how high the water was in late May last year.

Around 2pm it started to rain, lightly at first, and home was still a long way off. The rain got steadily heavier, the temperature started falling. It was absolutely miserable. My skiing gloves were sodden, as were my feet (there are holes where the pedal cleats are fitted to my otherwise solid cycling boots). And as the bus finally took me homewards, it started snowing - intensively. Large wet flakes of snow. The last kilometre of my journey, into the wind and sleet, saw me covered in white.

Above: home and dry, but look outside. It's gone eight o'clock, still light outside, and yet snow has settled on the lawn. I have never witnessed snow in Warsaw in May (previous last-snow records were 13 April in 1997 and 9 April in 2001). This is bizarre. And Manchester has just had a fortnight of unbroken sunshine and +25C heat... Climate change is happening, anomalous weather events are occurring ever more often.

This time last year:
Two Polands

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

This time three years ago:
Greatest shock in six years of living in Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Flag day

Guide's guide to Warsaw

Central European capital city of two million people - what's to show your visitors? My cousin Teresa (mother's sister's daughter) and her husband Peter have just been over from London (Ontario, that is). Now, Teresa has not been to Poland since 1976, while for Peter, it was his first visit. So - for the well-travelled visitor, what are the must-sees in Warsaw?

What makes Warsaw Warsaw is its history - from monarchy, via Russian occupation, a brief interlude of independence, Nazi occupation and Soviet occupation to free-market democracy. So much poignancy, tragedy and yet hope; as I've written before, Warsaw is today more peaceful and prosperous than ever before, but tensions remain.

So what to see? Our itinerary: New Town, Old Town, Krakowskie Przedmieście (and assorted folk remonstrating with the town guard by the former site of the Smolensk Cross); Plac Piłsudskiego - being prepared for the John Paul II's beatification; the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier; Ogród Saski, the old PAST building; ul. Próżna (the only street of the Jewish Ghetto left standing); the Palace of Culture (30th floor viewing gallery, then the Museum of Technology); a gig with Orkiestra z Chmielniej for a spirited rendition of Czerwone maki na Monte Cassino and Warszawskie dzieci; lunch at Szwejk (pork knuckle washed down with one-litre steins of Pilsner Urquell); bus to the royal palace at Wilanów; brief repose at Kuźnia Królewska, then bus to Łazienki Park and long walk through the park via the Parliament building (Sejm), Plac Trzech Krzyży, up Nowy Świat and Krakowskie Przedmieście, Old Town, New Town and a wonderful dinner at Galeria Freta.

Above: Wilanów palace - nice place, but still a work-in-progress; last time I was here was probably 2007 or 2008 and the gardens were being dug up and partially closed off, as they were today. Millions of euros of EU and Polish public money are being spent on doing it up; when ready it will be quite something, but until then, Łazienki offers a similar tourist experience without having to get across the far suburbs. Until Wilanów is finally ready, I'd recommend giving it a miss.

Day Two started off with the Warsaw Uprising Museum (above), which I've now visited four times, and each time it gets better. This must be one of the best historical museums on earth. Incredibly good - each time I visit, it's packed. An absolute must-see. Lunch at W Komitecie, the communist-themed restaurant on the ground floor of the former party HQ (very apt, as it was 1 May). Sledż, washed down with vodka, pork, cabbage, beetroot. Then - disappointment. The National Museum and the Polish Army Museum were both closed (again, very apt; unlike the Uprising museum, these places are rather unreconstructed and show their communist-era roots).

After a visit to Jeziorki and a drive around the countryside to the south and south-east of Warsaw, we returned to the Old Town (left) and dinner at Świętoszek, in an atmospheric cellar tucked into a side street just off the market square (barszcz, duck).

This morning I drove Teresa and Peter to the airport, which again, is something else that Warsaw can be proud of. Memories of the ghastly Etiuda terminal are still fresh in my mind; it's good that the new airport building is finally world-class.

Warsaw is well worth a visit if you've not been (or not been recently); it will surprise very positively.

This time last year:
Bike ride across rural Poland
Night Train, Carry Me Home

This time three years ago:
Warsaw's museum museum

This time four years ago:
On the Polish-Czech border