In the present day I need to share my Poland itinerary for 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz. I’m discovering them on a visit with the Polish Nationwide Vacationer Workplace, and I hope this promoting function convinces you that these underrated cities are value a go to.
4 Days in Warsaw and Lodz
I’ve been to Krakow and Zakopane on earlier journeys to Poland, however Warsaw and Lodz are new to me. I’m wanting ahead to spending 2 days in every metropolis to absorb the highlights and get a really feel for what they’ve to supply.
Day 1: Warsaw
My 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz begin as I fly from London to Warsaw on an early flight. I arrive at 11:30am wanting ahead to exploring a metropolis I haven’t heard a lot about.
A driver picks me up from the airport and 20 minutes later I’m getting settled in on the hip H15 Boutique Hotel. My room is spacious and trendy, and I really like the balcony that appears out onto lovely historic buildings throughout the road.
Quickly I’m off to satisfy my tour information, Iza, who takes me to lunch a couple of doorways down at Tel Aviv City Meals. It’s one in every of many hip cafes and bars within the space, and a colourful meal of Center Japanese mezze and falafel wraps goes down a deal with.
Warsaw Outdated City
Fueled, we head out to discover the Polish capital. Our first cease is the place most journeys to town start: the Warsaw Outdated City.
Superbly reconstructed after being destroyed in World Struggle II, its pastel facades and cobblestone streets are full of church buildings, palaces, and open-air cafes. It’s a dream.
We duck into a couple of church buildings, together with the Holy Cross Church the place well-known Nineteenth-century composer Frederic Chopin’s coronary heart is buried.
We stroll by means of squares with mermaid statues that symbolize town and into the historic courtyard of the royal citadel.
Warsaw New City
Quickly we discover ourselves within the Warsaw New City, which regardless of the identify is definitely virtually as previous because the Outdated City. It too is filled with heritage buildings.
We come throughout all the pieces from the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum (Marie Curie Museum) to the Warsaw Rebellion Monument that commemorates the Polish revolt towards Nazi occupation in 1944.
Lazienki Park
From the New City my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with a visit to a spot that reveals a totally totally different facet of Warsaw.
Lazienki Park (Royal Baths Park) is a former royal looking floor that’s filled with wooded areas and water options. It has all the pieces from a statue of Frederic Chopin to a Chinese language Backyard and a historic orangery.
Suffering from palaces belonging to royals of previous, Lazienki Park in Warsaw contains a vary of architectural types. The Palace on the Isle is especially putting with its columns over the lake.
We stroll alongside the paths and watch the boats go by, taking within the scene and having fun with the sunshine because the afternoon involves a detailed.
Dinner in Warsaw
Dinner that night is at a restaurant referred to as ELIXIR by Dom Wodki. I settle right into a desk in one in every of a collection of intimate eating rooms, and my server brings out all the pieces from beetroot soup to Polish dumplings.
The restaurant is understood for its vodka pairings, and I strive a honey-flavored one with my fundamental course. It’s an important match.
Dessert is a contemporary berry tart. It rounds out the meal and completes an important first day in Poland.
Day 2: Warsaw
The subsequent morning my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with one other full-day metropolis tour. My information first takes me to Muranow, the historic Jewish space of Warsaw.
Town was house to a big Jewish inhabitants earlier than World Struggle II. Nearly all of them had been tragically murdered by the Nazis.
Muranow
We begin on the POLIN Museum of the Historical past of Polish Jews. It has putting up to date structure and presents 1,000 years of Jewish life within the Polish lands.
In entrance of the museum, the shifting Ghetto Heroes Monument honors those that died through the Warsaw Ghetto Rebellion in 1943.
From POLIN we stroll by means of the neighborhood to see among the road artwork that has been popping up lately. The Zamenhof Mural is a very well-known one, and it options well-known figures and quotes.
Named after Ludwik Zamenhof, creator of the Esperanto language, it’s an important hidden gem within the metropolis. From Yoda to Shrek, Charlie Chaplin to Marie Antoinette, it spans generations and genres alike.
Elsewhere within the metropolis middle, we uncover extra of Warsaw’s Jewish heritage. There are lovely restored buildings on Prozna Avenue that had been as soon as owned by Jewish individuals, and there’s the Nozyk Synagogue the place among the metropolis’s Orthodox Jews congregate at this time.
Palace of Tradition and Science
My 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with a few of Warsaw’s architectural options.
We cease on the iconic Palace of Tradition and Science, an enormous communist-era constructing from the Fifties. It has a viewing platform with panoramas over town, and it’s nice to absorb the skyline from it.
Powisle, Warsaw
Over in Powisle, we discover a few of Warsaw’s up to date structure.
We begin on the College of Warsaw Library roof backyard, which opened in 2002. It has views over the river, and we spot all the pieces from bridges to stadiums as we stroll by means of the cutting-edge inexperienced area.
Down the road, we discover ourselves in a former energy plant referred to as Elektrownia Powisle. It’s been transformed right into a cool retail and eating complicated with a number of flooring of outlets and eating places.
It has a futuristic really feel however nonetheless maintains numerous options of the previous industrial area it as soon as was.
A brief stroll away, we discover ourselves on the Vistula Boulevards, Warsaw’s riverfront promenade. There’s all the pieces from road artwork to bars on boats right here, and we spot kayakers on the water as we stroll alongside.
Praga, Warsaw
Our final cease in Warsaw is an area one. We head throughout the Vistula River to Praga, a district with a few regenerated manufacturing unit complexes which are value particular journeys.
The primary is Koneser, which options eating places, artwork galleries, and the Polish Vodka Museum.
I tour the museum to study concerning the historical past and manufacturing of Polish vodka, then get pleasure from a tasting of rye, potato, and wheat vodkas on the finish.
It’s a enjoyable method to study one in every of Poland’s most well-known drinks, though I discover among the museum tour information’s remarks disappointingly sexist.
Not far-off, I go to the Soho Manufacturing facility complicated. This hip space is house to the Neon Museum, which is filled with iconic indicators from Warsaw’s communist interval.
It’s enjoyable to see them mild up and to study concerning the position neon performed within the metropolis’s tradition earlier than the Iron Curtain fell.
Dinner in Warsaw
I wrap up my second day in Warsaw with dinner at N31, a fine-dining restaurant close to the Palace of Tradition and Science.
A tasting menu options all the pieces from mushroom soup with black truffles to sea bass with black lentils, and each course impresses. It’s so good that I might fly again to Warsaw simply to eat right here once more.
Day 3: Lodz
The subsequent morning my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with a 1.5-hour practice journey from Warsaw’s central practice station to Lodz’s gorgeous up to date Fabryczna station.
I don’t know what to anticipate from this former industrial metropolis, and I’m wanting ahead to exploring a spot I’ve no preconceived notions about.
I’m picked up on the station by Tomasz, the CEO of the Lodz Tourism Group. He whisks me off to the smooth PURO Hotel Lodz, the place my room has floor-to-ceiling views of one of many metropolis’s historic palaces. It units an important tone for my keep.
Manufaktura Lodz
After a espresso on the lodge’s out of doors terrace (there’s an important rooftop bar right here, too), I meet my tour information, Krzysztof, who takes me throughout the road to Manufaktura.
This former textile manufacturing unit with outlets, cinemas, eating places, and museums sits on the coronary heart of Lodz’s renaissance.
As we stroll by means of it, I study that Lodz was as soon as recognized for its textile trade, which flourished within the Nineteenth century however disappeared on the finish of the twentieth.
As soon as a melting pot of Polish, Jewish, German, and Russian cultures, Lodz has spent the final 20 years reinventing itself.
In the present day Lodz is an ever-evolving metropolis of contrasts with a creative coronary heart. Manufaktura reveals that in all the pieces from its restored brick buildings to the city seashore in its courtyard.
Outdated City Park
Simply throughout the road, we go to Outdated City Park, one of many metropolis’s many inexperienced areas. It sits on the stays of the Outdated City, which was the one a part of Lodz that was destroyed throughout World Struggle II.
Krzysztof takes me by means of the park, stating the spot the place a river runs underground and exhibiting me historic buildings with lovely architectural particulars.
As we go, he tells me that locals name this place the Herring Park as a result of its historic market. It sits on the previous Jewish ghetto, and there’s even a statue of Moses right here.
Piotrkowska Avenue
We cease for a fast espresso at a classy cafe referred to as Szykier earlier than my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed on Piotrkowska Avenue.
It’s the longest pedestrian road in Poland (and Europe, for that matter), and it’s lined by lovely heritage buildings, open-air cafes, and artistic road artwork.
It additionally has a number of secret passages and courtyards coming off it. First we discover the Rose Passage, during which all of the buildings are coated in a large mirror mosaic.
Then we come to The Start of the Day, a courtyard with large murals by Wojciech Siudmak that replicate Lodz’s anything-is-possible spirit.
Subsequent come passages with colourful umbrellas hanging the other way up over them, eating places filling their streets, and murals overlaying their partitions. They’re enjoyable to find as we make our approach down Piotrkowska Avenue.
We cease for lunch at Spoldzielnia, a restaurant with out of doors tables in a hip courtyard complicated filled with cafes and bars. The mushroom flatbread starter isn’t my favourite, however the salmon fundamental course and challah bread cake that observe it are nice.
Priest’s Mill and Monopolis
After lunch, my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with visits to 2 extra of town’s restored manufacturing unit complexes. Priest’s Mill has all the pieces from hip flats in purple brick buildings to a Nineteenth-century English backyard with a bandstand and roses.
A brief stroll away, the previous manufacturing unit buildings at Monopolis have been renovated to deal with cool cafes, a number of inexperienced areas, and a energetic ambiance. I really like the way in which the place has been restored.
Beer Tasting and Dinner
From Monopolis we head again to Piotrkowska Avenue for a beer tasting and dinner on one of many facet streets. We begin at Piwoteka Narodowa, the place we pattern a spread of native beers with names that play on Lodz’s id.
From there we transfer throughout the road to Anatewka, a Jewish restaurant the place we eat heaping bowls of vegan cholent stew for dinner.
Day 4: Lodz
The subsequent morning my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz proceed with a visit to a different restored industrial complicated. This one is known as EC1, the place the Heart for Science and Know-how is housed in a former energy plant.
It’s spectacular to see the restoration and I like how the plant’s historic options are built-in into the museum’s interactive reveals. The views from the platform on the prime are nice, too.
From the museum we head again in direction of Piotrkowska Avenue for ice cream at Lodziarnia and occasional across the nook at Owoce i Warzywa.
Between them is a big road artwork mural of Polish classical pianist Arthur Rubinstein, who was born in Lodz.
Jewish Cemetery in Lodz
The final cease on my Poland itinerary is the Nineteenth-century Jewish Cemetery in Lodz. One of many greatest Jewish cemeteries in Europe, it covers a big space on the outskirts of town.
Whereas we stroll by means of, I study that Lodz’s Jewish inhabitants was almost utterly eradicated by the Nazis. This cemetery and a close-by Survivors’ Park devoted to people who survived the Holocaust are shifting tributes to their reminiscence.
Rows of gravestones are overgrown with greenery and spectacular mausoleums dot the grounds. It’s lovely, and it jogs my memory of London’s Highgate and Nunhead cemeteries.
Lodz to Warsaw
After the go to we head again to town middle for a farewell lunch of conventional dumplings at Cud Miod earlier than strolling over to the practice station for my journey again to Warsaw (there’s an airport in Lodz with direct flights to London, too).
4 Days in Warsaw and Lodz
As I go away Poland, I’m amazed at how a lot I’ve seen and performed in my 4 days in Warsaw and Lodz. Warsaw impressed me with its historical past and monumentality, and Lodz received me over with its unbiased spirit and mixture of previous and new.
I hope to go to Poland once more sometime to see extra of those cities and different elements of the nation. Should you get an opportunity, I’m certain you’ll get pleasure from them as a lot as I did.
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