Warsaw

May 22nd - May 25th 2015

Friday 22nd May 2015 

Home to Braintree

Day off for me so a quiet start to the day. Nikki had a dentist appointment followed by some patients so a less quiet one for her. She came back at lunchtime by which time I’d done pretty much nothing - but she brought back some crusty rolls. It was then more patients while I stirred myself into mowing the lawn.

Nikki got back around 17.00 so we sat in the conservatory watching the birds before some last minute packing and we hit the road to Braintree around 19.00.

Thought it would be manic on the roads as it was the end of term and also the Bank Holiday weekend but we sailed clear all the way to Braintree.

Checked in to the Holiday Inn Express. Had asked for 117 which is the hotel’s quietest room and is on the first floor but the lift was broken. Decided we’d go for it anyway so I dropped off the bags before we went over the road for a Toby.

Back to the hotel around 21.40 and we pretty much hit the sack straight away.

Sunday 24th May 2015

Warsaw

Well the day started a lot earlier than we’d planned. Nikki’s cold got considerably worse - so by 04.00 we were both up and sat in the lounge wondering what to do! Nikki made a nest on the couch and decided to stay put and I went back to bed for a bit. Both totally wiped out.

Woke up again around 07.30 and felt a little better - though not much. We had oodles of coffee and lounged around until around 09.00 when thoughts turned to breakfast.

Ate in the downstairs restaurant. Excellent spread complete with a harpist playing things like The Pink Panther theme!

Lingered over breakfast and more coffee until we were half-human again but by the time we got back to the room, Nikki was flagging so she decided to stay put. We sent off some clothes to be washed and she took to her bed to try and recover some of the lost sleep from last night.

Meanwhile me and Stuart headed out to find the open top bus tour. After a couple of false starts we managed to track down the bus stop. We were a good 45 minutes early so we went into the Marriott to see what their rooms were like. As we were waiting for the duty manager to come I noticed a group of girls sat in the lobby. I noticed one of them was incredibly tall and pretty and then noticed her 6 friends were exactly the same. Appears we’d stumbled on Poland’s Next Top Model. As we waited what was obviously the TV crew arrived!

We were shown around one of the suites in the Marriott. Up on the 40th floor, the bathroom has floor to ceiling windows so a great view of Warsaw while you’re in the bath. Went back and had a look at their Club Lounge and helped ourselves to a coffee while we were at it!

Returned to the bus stop and waited for about 20 minutes for the Midday bus which turned up at 12.20. Quite crowded but we got seats at the back on the upstairs deck. Mildly interesting tour of Warsaw. I guess because so much of the city is post-1945 there aren’t the heritage sites of say a Rome or a Paris - but nevertheless very interesting.

Texted Nikki to say we were coming back and we turned up with a Starbucks which we had before going up to the Club Lounge.

The suite we’re in has an adjoining door so I wondered how much it would be to book that room as well so Nikki had a room to cough and splutter in without worrying about trying not to be too noisy. Turns out the answer was around £50 so we booked that. It meant we had to move from 2418 to 3018 and 3017 but we got what we wanted!

We munched through some things in the Club Lounge and then I moved our stuff to the new room(s). Very straight-forward and thankfully I remembered everything.

Then, as Nikki hadn’t been out all day, we decided on a trip to the Old Town district. Caught a cab from outside the hotel which took about 10 minutes to get there. Walked around admiring the buildings. Very much like a lot of old Central European style capitals. Lots of squares with restaurants. Nice atmosphere. We stopped for an ice-cream before heading back to the hotel for a lie-down.

We went out for dinner at 20.00 - back to Ti Amo for the second night. The food was just as good. It was bruschetta all round again while I went for a pizza and Nikki for an eggplant. All getting tired by this point so back to the rooms by 21.30.

Nikki got tucked up in her new adjoining room while I caught up on the blog before turning in just after 22.00.

Monday 25th May 2015

Warsaw to Home

Well I had a pretty decent night’s sleep - sadly not the case for Nikki. I woke up around 07.00 and made some coffee in the lounge. All was quiet from the adjoining room so I decided to let sleeping Nikki’s lie.

Did some picture updating and then took the patient a coffee around 08.00. She’d had a rough night so we didn’t rush off anywhere. Met Stuart for breakfast around 09.15 - very leisurely. Lots of fruit and coffee followed by some eggs, bread and cake.

We then decided we’d walk across to the Ecco shoe shop that me and Stuart had seen from the bus yesterday. It was a decent walk there and involved going up and down some subways to cross the busy roads - but in Warsaw all the subways seem to be fitted with wheelchair lifts!

Found the shop and bought some new shoes for Nikki - £52 compared to the nearly £100 in the UK so well worth it. We then walked back to the hotel and decided we’d try out the swimming pool on the 43rd floor. Amazing. Had a swim for a bit and then retired to the jacuzzi which looks out over Warsaw. Very odd experience swimming and being sat in a hot-tub that high up in the sky.

Back to the room for some shower and packing activity and we met up in the Club Lounge around 12.40. I checked out and settled our bill and we had some nibbles before heading down to the car.

Driver drove like a maniac but did get us to Modlin airport in good time for our flight. Not much to say about Modlin - it’s basically an airport just for Ryanair and is a new shed. We had a coffee after clearing security and waited for our flight. Special Assistance boarded us at the back of the plane, along with another chap in a chair. Problem was he was in row 37 and we were in row 9 - so we had a long trek down to our seats. One of the crew told us we’d need to swap with the lady in the window seat as they couldn’t have Nikki blocking her exit. Nobody was impressed by that so I said we’d need to speak to the Cabin Services Manager - funny how quickly the problem evaporated at that point.

Flight wasn’t too bad generally - but Nikki was really suffering with the changes in the air pressure. We were glad when we landed at Stansted.

The SA service at Stansted was shambolic. We ended up mixing with departing passengers and one of our helpers just disappeared! Got our bags and called the parking people who brought the car back within about 10 minutes.

We stopped off at BP for some bread and a coffee for Nikki before a very quick journey back home - did it in less than an hour and a half.

Not the most restful of trips but Warsaw was a real eye-opener - a great city with the best of old and new. We’ll be back.