London, weekend

Back from my first-ever (surprised) foray to an English-speaking country. I flew there for 3 days during the past weekend, to visit my girlfriend’s friends and… make the most of the presence there sight-seeing wise.

The plane tickets (British Airways) were the most expensive out of all I have purchased in my lifetime. A return ticket without checked luggage set me back almost PLN 900 (had we not been forced to conform to our hosts’ availability, I could have saved some PLN 200, let’s face it, flying has to be expensive, to discourage some people from frequent air travels or to make people pay for their carbon footprint.

As mentioned, we did not have to pay for the accommodation directly, however at the expense of enduring my girlfriend’s friends’ numerous attempts to kill us with kindness and withstanding the central heating turned on when temperature outside was +20C.

We got around the city mostly on foot, as short-distance public transport rides are a bit of pricey (although the GBP 2.70 per single ride within Zone 1 did not seem a fortune). We also experienced the longest queuing in our lifetimes – almost two hours of wait to behold the jewels exhibition in the Tower of London.

The weather was more than fine, given we popped in to the UK’s capital. Not a single raindrop has fallen during our stay, and most of the time skies were clear. Temperature topped close to +20C on each day. To the right – a view from the Tower Bridge walkway on Thames and Canary Wharf in the distance.

The Mall between the Trafalgar Square and the Buckingham Palace resemble Parisian Champs-Elysees, except for they are shorter and… closed for traffic, a big upside of the venue. When it comes to traffic, its density in the central London zone, with entry conditioned upon paying a GBP 15 congestion charge has taken me aback.

A wall past the boulevard opposite to the Houses of Parliament commemorates the UK citizen whose life have been taken away by COVID-19, a symbolic spot Poland still lacks. The death toll of 226,196 is quite up-to-date, since the last update on Covid Worldometer gives the figure of 225,324 as of 23 March 2023.

The Trafalgar Square was the noisiest venue in the entire city, with droves of protesters screaming out what they hold out for through megaphones. We got away from there possibly quickly. Due to time scarcity, we also did not pay a visit to the National Gallery visible in the distance.

The swathes of green areas open to everyone are one of few upsides of the central London. The Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens through which I strolled on Sunday morning are a beautiful area central Warsaw sadly lacks (although Pole Mokotowskie and Park Skaryszewski are splendid anyway).

The Shard, completed in 2012, to my surprise is exactly as tall as Varso Tower in central Warsaw (both have a height of 310 metres). The skyscraper overlooks the morose City of London. Back in pre-COVID times, when Michael visited London regularly, he aptly described the city as “drab”. I find this epithet profoundly accurate; a pity the Polish language lacks a word conveying exactly the same meaning.

London is also the most expensive city I have ever visited. The entry prices to sights other than museums seemed justified by the heritage of past centuries and costs their upkeep and as a sightseeing freak I have made a deliberate choice to fork out money. But the stomach-filling bills in anything, but fancy bars / pubs in central London were paid through the nose.

While confronted with the prices, I was curious to compare them against earnings in the capital of the UK. I learnt an average (or median, if my memory does not serve me right) after-tax salary in London is GBP 30,000 yearly (or GBP 2,500 per month). Unless prices of basic goods are lower in the suburbs than in central London, this allows to eke out a living, but is definitely insufficient to lead a comfortable life.

Two full days were far too short for a proper sightseeing, yet given the fact I cannot be sure I ever return there, I decided to make the most of the trip. Needless to say, I spent Monday working from home, just ticking over, to have a bit of rest after the intensive weekend.

Off to Wisła and then to Bieszczady around the middle of the coming week, so the next write-up is due in three weeks.

S7 expressway – section between Lesznowola and Tarczyn opened

Each time when a new section of an expressway was opened for traffic in the vicinity of Warsaw, I celebrated it by driving the car to a newly opened piece of infrastructure. With the section B of S7 expressway, since 27 April 2023 accessible to motorists as “passable” with a delay of some 18 months (finishing works will continue for a year or so), I refrained from such indulgence. Sooner or later I am going to use it, but I will not take any trouble to accelerate that moment.

If I avoid unnecessary journeys by car, that one definitely ranks among them. I take pleasure in driving a vehicle (unless it comes with automatic transmission or no gearbox at all), but I realise this is not an environmentally acceptable activity, hence I hold my horses, falling back on public transport, my bicycle and my feet whenever possible. Such approach benefits not only the planet, but also my fitness and my wallet.

While spending over a week in Wisła recently, the car was parked for this entire period in the garage. We moved about to shops, to the town centre or took trips by bicycle and got on with it, despite the undulating terrain. You could say to do this we had to drive almost 400 kilometres by car and then cover the same distance on our way back to Warsaw. I refute the argument by saying if you take a dog, two bicycles, suitcases, food stocks and computers, it is a bit of nuisance to travel by train (or actually to the station, by train to Bielsko-Biała and then to Wisła).

My girlfriend thought we would need a bigger car to carry all stuff. In fact, with smart packing my Megane hatchback can carry two adults, two bicycles, two suitcases, a few smaller bags and a dog which has 1 sqm area it the boot for itself. Now try to convince me there is any practicable justification to buy a hefty SUV, if a compact car is so capacious (if you need even more space, buy an estate compact car). With respect to the environmental impact, I set tempomat at 100 kmph and my excellently reliable, 12-year-old car consumes mere six and a half litres of petrol per 100 kilometres. Not little, but given its age and kilograms on board, I believe the fuel consumption is superb anyway.

Off to London for the first time in my life next weekend. Expect a coverage in two weeks!