The Anonymous Widower

Gluten-Free Sweets In Warsaw

I found this shop close to the Old Town Square in Warsaw.

It was selling gluten-free sweets.

What attracted me was the gluten-free sign on the door. It looks like someone is doing their best to promote the concept of gluten-free food.

On searching the Internet I found this Polish site.

One thing I notice in the site is that the Polish Coeliac Society was only founded in 2006. So things must have improved in recent years.

We need a few more gluten-free sweet shops!

April 29, 2014 Posted by | Food, World | , , , | Leave a comment

Walking Around Warsaw

I spent most of the day wandering around Warsaw.

It is substantially flat and as I had a bus ticket for the day, I could sometimes cheat.

April 29, 2014 Posted by | World | , | 3 Comments

Four Memorials In Warsaw

Warsaw has a sorry history in the last hundred years. I took the tram to slightly outside the city centre to visit these four.

Sadly the Museum of the History of Polish Jews was closed as it was Tuesday.

The links to the appropriate Wikipedia pages follow.

1. Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East

2. Monument to the Ghetto Heroes

3. Umschlagplatz

4. Willy Brandt Monument

 

 

 

April 29, 2014 Posted by | World | , , , , | Leave a comment

Smoking In Restaurants In Poland

The weather in Poland was so good that I ate outside in a couple of places.

But unlike the UK, where people tend not to smoke where food is served, you sometimes get smokers in the areas outside restaurants.

April 28, 2014 Posted by | Health, World | , , | Leave a comment

One Good Feature Of My Hotel

My room in the hotel did have one good feature; a good view of the Palace of Culture and Science.

 

Note the night time picture.  Why was just one light on?

Thinking about it though, was it a good feature, as although Joseph Stalin might have liked this sort of architecture, we can certainly do better today. Unless it comes to The Shard.

April 28, 2014 Posted by | World | , , , , | Leave a comment

Music While You Walk

Several of the pedestrian crossings in Warsaw weren’t zebras but keyboards.

Music While You Walk

Music While You Walk

Incidentally, it would appear from my experience of Poland, that Polish drivers tend to stop for someone on the crossing.

April 28, 2014 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

The Beach At Sodot

It surprised me that the sea-front at Sodot had such an amazing beach.

C would have loved to go swimming there. The sea must have been a bit cold, as I didn’t see one hardy soul venturing in.

April 27, 2014 Posted by | World | , , | Leave a comment

The Gdansk Shipyard

You can’t avoid the shipyard in Gdansk, as the cranes are a massive presence over the city, which I had seen as I took the train in from Sodot. After walking the city centre, I took a tram to see the memorial at the shipyard to 42 or more workers killed in 1970.

Everybody should visit the birthplace of Solidarity and one of those iconic places that mark the start of the downfall of the First Soviet Empire. It might make us more wary about what is happening on Russia’s borders today.

April 27, 2014 Posted by | World | , , , , | Leave a comment

Walking Back To Gdansk Station

After lunch at Kubicki and seeing the monument to the defence of the Post Office, I meandered back to the station.

I probably spent about four hours walking in a circle and in the wonderful weather, it was one of the best city walks I’ve had for some time.

As the pictures show, it wasn’t exactly busy and that’s the way most of us like it.

April 27, 2014 Posted by | World | , | Leave a comment

The Defence Of The Polish Post Office In Gdansk

Like most from Britain, my knowledge of the incidents at the start of the Second World War is limited.

I’d never heard the story of the Defence of the Polish Post Office in Gdansk.

The story and the defenders are commemorated with this monument. It reportedly shows the last defender handing his rifle to Nike; the goddess of victory.

April 27, 2014 Posted by | World | , , , | 1 Comment