nothing much in Zyrardow
 

I followed your advice today & was disappointed. Have you been?

For starters, Zyrardow fits the bill......43 km from Warsaw, 25 min by train from Warsaw Central. There are lots of brick and mason stone (row) houses. The architecture is uninspired and the only lofts I saw had hair & nail salons. I did find a nice outdoor mkt. and the cathedral (Matki Bozej) was packed with parishioners. Lots of drunk young Polish men (endemic in rural areas?).

Much more interesting was GROZWA Madwicka. A bit closer to WAW, nice shops, central square and rests amd some interesting HISTORY!

Buying the train tix was an adventure. 9.50 Zloty one way, 11.03 rtn. Why the difference? The answer (so it seems) is their are 2 companies on the same route! Who knew? Sounds like Great Britain after Maggie Thatcher.

Thank you very much for your feed-back.

I still think I'll visit Zyrardow - I find its history interesting and I don't expect fancy buildings or anything; after all they were built for factory workers.

What is a mkt? (market?)

Grozwa Madwicka - I assume you mean Grodzisk Mazowiecki :
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grodzisk_Mazowiecki

Looks like a nice small town and it is on the train line between Zyrardow and Warsaw if I take the slow train, so I could easily stop there on the way back to Warsaw - thank you for the suggestion.

A link to a page explaining the different aspects of public transport in Warsaw:
http://www.ztm.waw.pl/?c=126&l=2

And a link to Wikiroutes which I recently stumbled upon - I have so far found it quite useful (assumning it is reliable...):
http://wikiroutes.info/en/warszawa/catalog


Falenica/Josefow/Otwock/Karczew:

Falenica and Josefow are villages situated a few km before Otwock.
Falenica seems to have had a fairly big Jewish population and there was a ghetto there during the war.
Josefow was a summer resort and now boasts of having some nature reserves and nature trails.
http://www.sztetl.org.pl/en/article/jozefow/5,history/
They can be reached with the S1 train - Falenica is in zone 1 and Josefow in zone 2.

Karczew is next to/part of Otwock.
I found a site with some information about the Swidermajer style houses in Otwock:
http://culture.pl/en/article/a-guide...llas-of-otwock

Otwock can be reached with the S1 train and is also in zone 2. It is the end stop of the S1.
If anyone is going there from the Doubletree hotel, it is easier to take bus no. 702.


Kampinoski Park Narodowy can, according to their website, be reached with bus no. 708.

First a link to ZTM (public transport company in Warsaw).
This page shows all public transport lines. If you click on a number, it'll show you all the stops and if you click on a stop, it'll show you the timetable for that particular stop.
I am very impressed and it has been a very useful tool for me.
http://www.ztm.waw.pl/rozklad_nowy.php?c=182&l=2

Radom:
100 km from Warsaw.
KM train from Warsaw Srodm, 2:30 hours.
Very frequent Polski Busses, 1:40.
Host to the bi-annual Radom air show in August

Lublin:
I have always wanted to go to Lublin, so I checked this out as well.
TLK/IC trains from Warszawa Centralna, 2:30 hours.
The trains also stops in Warszawa Wschodnia station which makes the
trip 10-20 minutes faster and this station is more convenient coming
from the Doubletree hotel.

Pultusk:
Very frequent busses from Warszawa Zachodnia Bus station, 1 1/2
hours.

So it is certainly possible to do day trips to either of these cities/towns.
It is a little too much transport time for me personally, I would prefer to stay a night there.
So this time I probably won't be going to either place.
For my next visit to Warsaw I can plan accordingly.

For those of you familiar with Isaac Bashevis Singer: he lived in Ul. Krochmalna 10+12 for most of his childhood.