Berlin to Warsaw

It was the US President Ronald Reagan who remarked that:

Poland is not East or West. Poland is at the center of European civilization. It has contributed mightily to that civilization. It is doing so today by being magnificently unreconciled to oppression.

So, today we both travel to Poland for the first time. Though technically I've been in Polish territory having changed planes at Warsaw airport on a work trip to Grodno, Belarus - I've never been out of the transfer terminal. 

But before we discuss Poland, time for a summary of our journey there. 

Early Morning

I awoke at 3am, given it was 10.30pm before we went to bed, this isn't a lot of sleep, but I have loads of photos to edit and others to load onto Flickr and after the last two days we have a lot more. So, I felt happy about the early rise as it meant I could get them done. In fact I felt amazingly awake and fresh, which was helpful in getting them done.

Breakfast

Drew woke at 6.30am and with no coffee making facilities in this room I carried on with what I was doing while he did his ablutions, and I did mine. We went down to breakfast at 7.30am and enjoyed the selection they offer here for our third day.

Drew's Breakfast Dessert (after the first two course)

Blogging and photo loading

I went back to the room and began on a blog post - the one about Cologne - while Drew went out for a walk and took some photos - a co-pilot's note will appear shortly.

I'm glad to say that the list of all the places I wanted to see in Berlin has been completed and so this morning is a relax time, which makes a pleasant relief after some busy days.

[Co-pilot's Morning Report:

On our arrival in the fair city of Berlin, I spotted a rather dapper looking gent, wearing a very fetching hat and made an internal promise to investigate said fellow at the first opportunity.

As our valiant blogging hero (aka Mr B) was hard at work ripping stuff off Wikipedia on the morning of our departure [Pilot's note: lies, upon deceit, upon lies - I go to better sources than that!] I decided this would be the perfect time. So I left the hotel, walking purposely up to our hatted friend, crossed halfway and talk a couple of artistic shots of the fine fellow. I suspect said images will appear below. 

I then crossed the other half of the road (I felt only crossing halfway across a road would be seen as 'inefficient') and dear readers, it was a jolly good thing I did - as when reaching the other side, I discovered a modern art gallery. And so took some more images. 

I then walked down the side of the canal, coming across the centre for social sciences before about turning and making my walk back up the other side of the canal. I then remembered that just around the corner would be a giant giraffe made out of Lego, so decided to head off down that way to talk more images. Midway to said giraffe I came across an interestingly located statue, not entirely out of place but it quirked my interest somewhat. I had not expected to come across a statue of Latin American independence fighter Simon Bolivar in Berlin but I did, and so took some images of him.

The other chap [Pilot's note: he means José de San Martín] was a little further up. 

There was also one of the Berlin Bears here as well

so snip-snap and away we go onto the giant giraffe. I arrived there and took some pictures 

and then made my way back to the hotel. 

The End]

Going to the Station

The hotel has a very generous check out time of Midday, so we used this opportunity to good effect for the first time I can remember.

Having checked out we caught the 12.01am M85 Bus to Berlin Hauptbahnhof arriving at 12.11am - yes I know Lloyd, way too early for risk takers - but we aren't.  

We went into a coffee shop called Dean and David and had an amusing conversation:

H - Kaffe und cappuccino, bitte 

Young Lady serving - With the cappuccino do you want oats milk or go old school with cow!  

I decided Drew is an old school type of guy! 

Train from Berlin to Warsaw

The train arrived on time at 1.51pm

It was a Polish train, older than the German trains we had travelled on, but still very comfortable. 

Again we had chosen to upgrade our seat to first, which isn't very expensive and gives an additional amount of space and access to chargers for the PC/Phones. 

The last German station was Frankfurt an der Oder and we crossed the River Oder and the border between Germany and Poland at 2.54pm. 

The wifi to date has only been when in stations and once we are in Poland there is no wifi - so I felt vindicated further in spending so much time when I had hyperfast access this morning.

Poland

The journey was very smooth and comfortable, stoppedped at a few Polish towns and saw a lots of cars stopped at level crossings along the way. 

We arrived at Warsaw Gdaska station right on time at 7:39pm.

[Co-pilot's note: We had an 'event of note', dear readers, upon our arrival at Warsaw. Our valiant blogging hero often takes the approach of 'google knows all'. I on the other hand take a slightly different approach that, maybe, just maybe the locals know best. I am aware that this can, if care is not taken, lead to some interesting problems, as in the case in Atlanta where we nearly ended up in an American Football game, or perhaps more extremely seen in the case of lemmings. Oh No!. But in general principle, such as leaving a train station seems sound. So here, dear readers, our different approaches were found to be in conflict. There were around 260 people on our train when it arrived in Warsaw. I felt 'happier' following the 252 who were all going one way. Mr B felt a better, more logical approach would be to follow the 6 who were going in the direct opposite direction [Pilot's note - it very clearly said exit, I know the Polish word from the church in Gabalfa!! - Yes, I know the question might have been was it the 'right' exit!]. I shall end this note here, dear readers, and allow you to interpret my feelings as you best see fit. [Pilot's note: Feel very grateful for this, dear readers, I didn't hear the end of it for another four days! - apparently it was a "teachable moment"]] 

Following Drew's directions, we got to the Metro station 

and caught the M1 metro, changing at Świętokrzyska and catching the M2 to Rondo ONZ and walked the 500 meters to the Holiday Inn.

Dinner

We had an easy check in and warm welcome at the Holiday Inn. The receptionist told us of a dinner offer where we could select from a set menu for a competitive price. We should have realised there was a problem with the menu in that two of the three options had starter, main and dessert, but one, the Polish one, had first starter, second starter and main. Unusual, we thought, but as it was late in the evening and we didn't know the city it seemed to make sense to use the offer.

We went up to the Room 1507 settled in and went down for dinner. 

The Polish menu (the one without dessert) appealed to both of us, rather than the Mediterranean or Vegan versions. So, we went to the restaurant and asked for it. Here began a whole series of conversations, as it turned out that it wasn't possible to pay for the special menu in the restaurant, you had to go back to reception, pay for it there and then go to the restaurant with a ticket. This complexity seems rather bureaucratic, but would have been fine if we had known about it. However, the staff member who didn't serve us, didn't explain the process either, just said we couldn't have it!! Luckily a conversation with the receptionist clarified things and we had our dinner.

However, our first course - Smoked Mackerel, that epitome of polish cuisine - wasn't available our alternative was to have the starters from one or other of the special menus - we ended up with Hummus. Perfectly tasty, but more for a Greek than a Polish holiday!!

The second course sounded exciting a Beef and Poultry Broth with Lovage and Noodles. Unfortunatly it had almost no flavour! It had noodles but I couldn't sense the flavour of lovage or indeed meat in it - not a success.

Finally, the main was Pan Fried Breaded Pork Chops with Sauteed Potatoes and Cucumber with Sour Cream and dill. It was a nice piece of breadcrumbed Pork, but it wasn't something I'd not experienced before. Clearly, we would need to go elsewhere to get a real flavour of Poland - little did we know!!

We managed to pay, only for the drink of course, as we had already paid for the food 😕 and got to bed at 11pm!