Concerto

Ah...I will try. There is quite a lot to post, actually, and it begins with rolling in the streets again after trying too many different craft beers. Maybe the chapter on culture (museums and churches) will be of more interest to you, though. I'll see if I can upload the next chapter (the beer one) tomorrow between exam sessions. Then, I will try and get the culture chapter up on Friday. Would that work for you in terms of timing? When are you leaving? Is it tomorrow or Friday?

fransknorge

This is nice, thank you.
I am leaving Friday.

Concerto

I was just looking at the planned chapter sequence, and it goes as follows:

6. Wroclaw: On All Fours Again
7. Review of ibis Styles Wroclaw Centrum
8. Wroclaw: Culture, history and current impressions

followed by a review of the other hotel I stayed at while there. I will simply reverse the order of chapters 7 and 8 and post both hotel reviews after. That way I will get the culture chapter up by Friday, hopefully. The whole thing is already written, but it still is quite time consuming doing it, because I have to choose pictures and deal with formatting issues. Looking for the first time at previous chapters on the desktop computer, a lot of those photos seem too big, especially the ones which are vertical rather than horizontal.

hugolover

DT was very good in WRO pre-pandemic, with a good breakfast, lounge, upgrades and service. Unfortunately it rather declined since then. I can see the lounge is still shut and replaced at the bar.

hugolover

DT was very good in WRO pre-pandemic, with a good breakfast, lounge, upgrades and service. Unfortunately it rather declined since then. I can see the lounge is still shut and replaced at the bar.

FYI be aware, there's no masks in PL and vaccine rates are rather low. It's not without risks.

Concerto

Yes, I was a bit like a solitary spaceman with my mask, which I wore much of the time I was in Wroclaw. During visits to a couple of bars I threw caution to the wind, but I didn't catch anything. Nobody seems to care there, but nobody cares here in Switzerland either.

By DT you mean the Doubletree Hotel (part of Hilton group), right?

Concerto

Poland seems to be a mecca for craft beers and most of what I had on tap and in a bottle was good quality. However, beginning in the Arztat bar, I started off with Primator, a Czech beer that was amazingly bad, in fact so much so that I wondered if the grinning Gartenzwerg proprietor had put water in it. I had a couple of bottles of Profesja beers, called Rockman and Cosplayer, which were good if slightly lacking in body. Back at the bar in the crazymary restaurant in the ibis Styles hotel I tried a couple of IPA type beers from Browar Prost (Browar being the Polish word for brewery) which were excellent and had the consistency, body and sharp taste that I like. I crawled up to my surprisingly nice room in the Styles almost on my ear, as we used to say in Scotland.


Brewery Profesja, a nice session IPA called Cosplayer


And the Rockman, a Polish IPA from the same brewery


Selection from the Prost brewery


And Jungle IPA, definitely a good beer

Earlier, I had visited a Georgian restaurant (Chinkalnia) which was excellent, trying the hot and spicy beef soup and a sizzling dish of pork, bell peppers and onions. I didn't want to leave without trying out some of the dumplings Chinkalnia is famous for, which you have to hold upside down to eat, so I had three of them instead of a dessert.


Restaurant Chinkalnia in central Wroclaw


Hot, spicy Georgian soup


Excellent main course, which arrived sizzling


The dumplings that Chinkalnia is famed for

The next evening I went sausage hunting in Wroclaw, for my pal back in Germany but also out of curiosity, and at the counter in Carrefour I asked an old lady who didn't speak a word of English which were the best ones. She excitedly indicated some humble looking sausages, which turned out to be excellent, a bit like Mettwurst in Germany. I also managed to procure a few Krakauer sausages, that were really like a small ham, in the Feniks supermarket which stayed open until 10pm (and having now gobbled them, I can say they were excellent, being closer to a ham rather than having sausage meat inside them).

This is closest to the sausages that I found, but I nicked the photo from the internet


My brain wasn't really focused on sausage photography, so this is a borrowed photo too

I then bounced into Szklarnia, a trendy cocktail bar, with sausages sticking out of every pocket of my coat, provoking a great deal of amusement. This is the sort of place that morphs into a club after a certain hour on a Saturday night, and before long I was surrounded by an awful lot of very young pretty somethings. The lonely, needy guy sitting at the bar near me ended up being joined by a bunch of other guys who were very jolly and lightened the conversation. By that time I had tried a number of very good microbrews, including an excellent Pilsner and a tasty Jungle IPA.


Szklarnia pub, while it was still calm


Things start warming up...or cooling down

Before long, the vodka shots began and... well, I tried to get sloshed as slowly as possible, but after the ninth shot I managed to tear myself away. The vodka was excellent quality, really not the sort of fuel that goes into LOT Polish Airlines aircraft, and it had a floral aroma... I can't remember what exactly. Don't really remember lumbering back to the hotel, but I ended up sleeping sideways across the double bed. I DID NOT have a loud conversation with God down a very large, white telephone, I am really proud that I was able to manage my intake and pull back when necessary!


Main square in Wroclaw


Town hall by the main central square


Back streets of Wroclaw

Concerto

Wroclaw was a new adventure, a place I had never been to and I was unfamiliar with. But immediately, on exiting WRO airport, I felt that easy going nature that Poland seems to have (although nobody seems to care about Corona and there is very little adherence to mask wearing). That new airport terminal, by the way, is nicely designed and makes great use of natural light. The bus 106 into central Wroclaw (45 minutes) was so easy to use, with a ticketless contact reader to which you held your credit card. A one way trip with no transfers was PLN4.60. Ticket control, which I did not experience, would involve holding your credit card to the inspector's handheld device (not quite sure how that works, exactly). Watch out, because the bus times were nonsensical again (especially on Sunday) and bore no relation to what was shown on Google maps (like in Krakow). An Uber taxi ride would cost in the region of PLN40.


Wroclaw railway station, an impressive castle like building


The interior has a vaguely middle Eastern feel to it


Nice airy public areas with lots of light

I had completed check-in at the ibis Styles by 14h and was ready to explore the old town, a 22 minute walk away. The weather was damp and cold, with a chill wind. But it meant that I could wander around and see everything in peace (the next day it was sunny again, so there were quite a few characters hassling the tourists for money in the main square, quite aggressively). Visibly, the city had been heavily restored after the war and it reminded me of the restoration work in some east German cities. I had a look at the Old Town Hall, the small Hansel and Gretel houses on the edge of the big square and the whimsical bronze statues of dwarves nearby. The gothic basilica of St Elizabeth is well worth a visit, if nothing else just to see the organ currently in the process of being restored. The Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene was outstanding, with its Romanesque door on the exterior south wall. The highlight was climbing up the 72m high tower and crossing the Bridge of Penitents, which has a legend attached to it concerning a lazy girl who was condemned to sweeping the bridge for eternity, only to be released by a witch and a wizard. It was really jammed with people up there. The church doesn't seem to care if there are loads of people in a confined space, they just want the not insignificant 10 Zloty that everyone has to pay for the privilege.


It was a bit wet on my first day


The Hansel and Gretel houses


Some of the little dwarves with my iPad in the foreground to give a sense of scale


Basilica of St Elizabeth


The spacious main square, not quite as large as that in Krakow, on the sunnier second day


Some of the facades are amazing


Traces of the past everywhere


Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene - the Bridge of Penitents is visible between the towers


More dwarves recounting the legend of the Bridge of Penitents


The bridge is quite scary


Amazing view over Wroclaw from the Bridge of Penitents

The other cultural overdose that I had was in the National Museum, which happened to be free on Saturday, saving me 20 Zloty. There I wandered for two hours through medieval sculptures, the highlights being a Romanesque tympanum along with 14th century sarcophagi, and then through a huge collection of medieval art and altarpieces from Silesia, along with ceramics and European painting, terminating with a Kandinsky, which stood out among other contemporary works. Polish romantic painters were well represented too.
There are also numerous theaters in Wroclaw, which I wandered past, along with an opera house.


Impressive tympanum on display


The collection of sarcophagi is noteworthy


Many fine altarpieces in excellent condition


A painting of the Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene, with the Bridge of Penitents clearly visible


Out in the street, The Anonymous Pedestrians by Jerzy Kalina, to mark the anniversary of the declaration of martial law


One of Wroclaw's many theaters

fransknorge

Thanks for posting this. I arrived there and did a walk in Old Town under moody skies. Lovely city and already saw 6 of the dwarves.
Bus schedule seems to be indeed a pure fantasy but they are regulars, even today in Good Friday. Google Maps local transport plans are useless here though, which made going to the hotel a bit of a challenge (I am at the MGallery, requiring a change of bus from the airport).

Concerto

I hope it's been going well over there. Did you try any decent restaurants and bars? I meant to send you a reminder about some of the museums being free on Sunday, but I forgot! Yesterday, I was flying with a pilot in a Piper 42C between two small airports in Germany and back. I will write this amazing Wingly private plane sharing experience up in my report for the 2nd quarter of this year.

fransknorge

Thanks, it went well. I actually just arrived at the lounge of Wrocław airport to fly back to FRA. As expected busses were unreliable (specially in town, the 106 service to the airport seemed to be running on schedule) but I made it using FreeNow.
I loved the city, very nice. Restaurants wise I had some nice Pierogi Saturday and some Georgian food yesterday (choice were very limited due to Easter, even on the main square where I would had expected more choices, 80% of the restaurants were closed and the few opened one were heaving). And as for bars, I do not drink alcohol. Museum were closed over Easter so did not visit any but the good weather compensated. I strolled around the old town, went all the way to the centennial Hall, hunted dwarves, roam around looking for soviet architecture. Very pleasant city.
The hotel i chooses, MGallery the Bridge, was very good, full review to come in the Accor forum.

Concerto

The ibis Styles in downtown Wroclaw is a new building constructed on a site very near the railway station. The ultra modern glass and steel building houses other businesses as well and, while not unattractive, is quite cold and forbidding. The hotel occupies the first five out of twelve floors (although it's hard to make sense of that if you are looking at the building from the outside). Inside, the reception and entire ground floor area give the impression of being a mixture of Hotel Indigo and a new Holiday Inn Express property. This is a hotel for young people run by young people and I was relieved to see some older people staying as guests too. Not saying that I am old myself, but time is continually moving on!


Exterior of ibis Styles Wroclaw


View from the hotel onto the busy street below with the yellow castle like railway station in the background

The ground floor consists of an open reception area with a dispenser of free coffee for the guests (which was very good quality). The usual Corona protection items were present, such as hand sanitizer and protective plastic screens at the check-in desk. A small children's play area is situated next to the bright and airy restaurant and bar. Judging by the number of Gault Millau stickers on the door, the restaurant looked like it served decent comfort food. There was an excellent selection of Prost craft beers from Wroclaw, which were better than the Browar Profesja ones that I tried in a bar (Arztat) in the old town. Directly opposite the reception desk is another bar, with the name of Blackboard, which is currently closed due to Corona cutbacks. Staff think that it is unlikely it will ever reopen.


Reception area of the ibis Styles Wroclaw
​​​​

Good quality coffee offered for free in the lobby of the hotel


The restaurant and bar

The bedroom was very pleasantly appointed, with an unusual colour scheme of grey white, yellow bed covers and an indigo wall painting along with indigo armchairs in a modern style. Windows don't open here and the air conditioning appeared not to work, so I resigned myself to having an awful night which wasn't going to be helped by the number of craft beers I had consumed. But the room turned out to be sufficiently aired and wasn't too hot. Thanks to excellent sound proofing there was little traffic noise from the busy street outside, on the other side of which is Wroclaw's castle like railway station. In addition, the bed was surprisingly comfortable and not too hot, along with surprisingly decent pillows - I mention that, because the pillows are usually the key issue with getting a good night's sleep in these hotels. The bathroom and shower was good enough, a notch more decent than Holiday Inn Express in terms of space and fittings, but with the usual soap and shower gel dispensers.


The corridor to the room bordered an interior courtyard


The bedroom really was quite comfortable, a much higher quality than the usual standard of ibis


The bathroom and shower

Breakfast, which appears to be included in the room rate, consisted of an extensive buffet in a large, bright and airy room on the 1st floor (2nd for Americans). I am no fan of buffets and I was hoping that the disappearance of buffet style eating would be a permanent casualty of the Corona period. But there was no need to worry here, everything was hygienically prepared and the young staff kept watch on everything. The buffet was excellent with good quality products on offer, including mackerel, salads, mixed cheeses, meats, hot items including Polish sausages (ha!) and even a honeycomb!


Modern seating area for breakfast


An excellent selection of food for breakfast

I have been no fan of Accor in the past and still am not, although I feel ibis hotels are just about tolerable for a single night's stay and are useful for reactivating my ALL points for another 12 months. Sometimes ibis is really useful when I need a cheap room on the road. Apart from that, this was my first ibis Styles stay and the brand won me over. My stay was excellent and I would happily come back here as well as try other Styles properties.

fransknorge

Styles property are a mixed bunch, but the idea of the brand is exactly as you described. The ones I have done which are old building renovated are usually poor, the ones which are new building are good or even very good (I stayed in one which even had a suite). The breakfast can indeed be surprising, like in your case, although usually it is not that good.

Concerto

For me, it was a very positive first impression. There was an ibis Styles in front of Geneva's main Cornavin station until recently, but at some point it was deflagged. By comparison, I think I stayed in a total of four Mercure properties and each one was awful in various degrees. I don't know why I kept giving it another chance, but something told me that Mercure must be a quality brand. But it's not.

My next review will be that of an non chain affiliated hotel in Wroclaw, although it and several other hotels in the train station area belong to the same holding company. I turned up, reservation in hand, to find out that the hotel in question was boarded and shuttered during Corona. A signpost directed me to a hotel a couple of hundred metres away and it turned out to be fine.

fransknorge

Mercure is not a quality brand, it is very variable too. Recently build one can be very good though, Mercure Stare Miasto at Krakow for exemple. But most are weird hotel which are neither Novotel nor Ibis.