Would I Go Back To Warsaw Again?
Most certainly! But I’d certainly stay in a different hotel.
I’d also plan it better, as there is lots to see that I didn’t!
Warsaw To Berlin By Train
I did well to have a good breakfast in Warsaw before I left, as the train journey took six hours and the only complimentary food was one cup of coffee. I did have a good supply of EatNakd bars, which because of the general availability of good gluten-free food, I hadn’t been using as food.
So Warsaw to Berlin could best be described as a two EatNakd bar journey.
I took these pictures en route.
It is meaningful to compare the Berlin to Warsaw route with the line from Kings Cross to Edinburgh. The Polish route is 575 km long and makes the journey in 5 hr 24 mins at an average speed of 106 kph, as against 632 km in 4 hr 22 mins at 144 kph.
But the biggest difference is in capacity. The Polish route has four trains each way of just six coaches each day, whereas East Coast run upwards of twenty much larger trains.
Both lines are electrified and the Polish line appears to be a lot straighter, as it was generally built later than the East Coast Main Line.
Plans are afoot in Poland to improve the speed and service. This will improve the time from Warsaw to Berlin.
The cost of the ticket was €80 in First Class, which is probably probably more than you’d pay on East Coast with a prudent booking in the same class.
Breakfast By A Hard Rock Cafe
As the hotel food was so unobtainable and about as likely to be as gluten-free as a lorry load of freshly harvested wheat, I decided to get my breakfast on the walk to the station, where I would get my train to Berlin.
I had an excellent omelette with a wide range of identifiable fillings, a proper cup of tea and a large glass of orange juice, served by a charming waitress, whose English was better than wot mine is in a small cafe next to the Hard Rock one.
Breakfast By A Hard Rock Cafe
It’s underneath the white umbrellas in the picture.
Back To La Cantina For A Pizza
I was hungry and as I couldn’t get hold of decent computer to search for another restaurant, I went back to La Cantina for a pizza.
Back To La Cantina For A Pizza
It was a pretty good gluten-free pizza too!
It does seem that the art ofd cooking gluten-free pizza is spreading around Europe.
I’ve had them in several Pizza Expresses, a couple of independents in the UK, Munich, Naples and now Warsaw.
Watch this blog for another one soon!
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!
Gluten Free Snack – Polish Style
This was a snack I had for lunch.
Gluten Free Snack – Polish Style
It was billed as potato crumpets topped with smoked salmon.
It did give me a reaction though – I felt it was absolutely delicious.
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.
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
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.
Supper In Warsaw
I went to La Cantina in Warsaw for supper, as it came recommended on the Internet.
It was all very good and the gluten-free burger was .
Note the gluten-free flags! What a good and simple idea!
The Anonymous Widower 