A cafe with a a difference

While hiking in Warsaw, you need a coffee break. I recommend with my whole heart to look for local cafes, which will be one of a kind experience.
However if you insist on an internarionally known chainstore, why not choose a cafe with a difference?
There is a S*******s cafe on the corner of Plac Trzech Krzyży. When you enter and decide to have a coffee there, you can admire some historical graffiiti from the 1950s.

The cafe was a part of the landscape since the latter part of 19th century, but its heyday falls on the 50s, when the place became a centre of literary and artisitc life of those times: poets, painters, scenograpgers, sculpturers...

Some of them started to decorate the interiors with pictures presenting the guests of the cafe, their caricatures, cartoons...

After a time, though, the place was changed into a restaurant then into a boutique... The graffiti were covered under new layers of paint and they fell into oblivion.
...almost. A few years ago when the afore-mentioned chainstore decided to set up a branch here, they also decided to recover the forgotten paintings and renovate them. (I suppose it's a rare instance of a situation when  an international corpo takes care of the local heritage... here at least).

Fancy a coffee?

autumn in Warsaw

 The best moment to visit - when the leaves turn red, gold and brown and all the parks and gardens become a magnificent colourful view.

 Here - a  glimpse of the Łazienki Royal Park.

August 1st -- there is a city...

the Castle - Upper Garden

Seen from afar, but hardly ever visited. I didn't see crowds of tourists strolling in the garden - I blame too little publicity about the availibilty of the gardens (both of them).
What a pity! both are definitely worth visiting, especially the upper part, which is arranged in a more detailed style, reminescent of baroque style geometrcial French gardens.

The visit is also a great opportunity to have a close look at the monumental 18th century facade.

The location also allows to overlook the other side of the river and the river itself, preferably while drinking a cup ofcoffee in the Zamek Cafe.

To sum up, definitely worth visiting and looking both at the town and the castle form a different angle.

winter!

Winter has finally come!

Even though we experienced severe cold at the turn of the year, I didn't count that as true winter. It has snowed now and then this season, but it has never been lingered for more than half a day.
And today - almost a snow storm! Enchanting.
Today it's been quite a warm day of around 0'C; the forecasts say it will lucikly fall below zero, which means that it will not hopefully turn into slush.

~~graffiti~~

While walking in the Łazienki Royal Park you can drop by at an open-air art gallery.

Christmas is coming...

The commercial aspect of the festive time has been here for about a month already: decorations in streets and shopping malls, Xmas discounts, foreign carols in shops, the hectic atmopshere of preparations...

Still a week before Christmas proper. Still no sign of winter. There were a few feeble attempts on the part of snow to leave a lasting impression... but no, temperatures continue to keep above zero, the aura reminds of November from my childhood.

Therefore the right conclusion, that the photos below weren't taken this year - too much snow!
This is how the Łazienki Royal Park presented itself last year (the days right after Christmas - and the first lasting snow of that year... - a little late though).
It's the last year's idea to install this illumination and thus mix these time travellers with the 21st century strollers...

A really good impression at night, especially if the lights are reflected in the snow.
This year the illumination is there again, inviting for a stroll in the Royal Park.