Good day. This is Warsaw and I've only been here a day and already I rate it as one of my top three European cities. It's safe.
It's clean. It's certainly pretty. It almost has a fairy tale feel about it.
So, let me show you around one of Europe's safest cities. I've just come from Barcelona and I can tell you I'd not be wearing a Rolex in Barcelona. I would not be having this slung over my shoulder.
Why? because I know stuff gets stolen there and it is a real problem for cities like Barasa. But from what I've read, what I've seen on social media and what I'm experiencing today, that's not an issue here.
To give you an idea about how safe things are, see through this window here, except it's not a window. Look, I could pick that up. I'm on the street.
I could grab that and take off. This wouldn't happen in certain cities around Europe. In fact, I'm not even sure this would happen in many Australian cities, but here they're comfortable with that sort of thing.
This is what's left of the fortifications that originally surrounded the city of Warsaw. And if you're hoping to find a whole lot of trinket sellers like you'd experience at Paris's Eiffel Tower, forget it. They're not here.
Walking the cobblestone streets of the old city is a joy. Outdoor dining absolutely huge here. Every street, lots of options.
And the food, well, it's a variety. We rolled up for lunch to Dare Elephant, and inside is a beautiful fit out. We picked this restaurant from an app called Places, which really should be sponsoring me because I use this app to find good quality restaurants when I travel.
I've ordered a salad to start, but I'm still unsure about main course. We'll let you know in a second. Took the easy option, a burger.
The old town after war was completely devastated. There was almost 90% of Warso was destroyed to the ground. The looks of the Warso now I think it's amazing.
Yeah, we try to to be clean city because all the Lithering costing money to clean it up. So why should we spend money? Just don't be a pig.
>> So we decided to stay here at Hotel Verde because it is actually a couple of old palaces. Very elegant, beautiful downstairs area with the gym. Great rooms except the air conditioning is not super fantastic.
So if you like a cold room, might not be the hotel for you. But tonight, I thought I'd show you around the old part of the city. It's a beautiful and picturesque place.
One thing I noticed, and I've only been here a day, is that there are no scammers, which is good news. But just the buzz here today, it's quite relaxed. It's not overrun with tourists.
It's not Prague. I've been there during busy times, and it's quite uncomfortable. That is so lovely.
It reminds me a bit of Austria. But even though this country is part of the EU, they don't have the euro as their currency. They use the what I thought was the zlotty cuz that's how it's spelled but it's actually the zoate.
And about 500 meters from my hotel is the old town marketplace which is a lovely square. Must be at least 15 restaurants spread around here. The buildings perfect condition look great and pigeons if you like them.
It's just a real lovely social atmosphere. As I mentioned earlier, this part of the city was raised going back to the Second World War. But today, they still remember those times with memorials like this, which is indeed impressive.
I can't imagine how much work goes into something like that. Well, this one just down here. We spent about an hour walking around Warsaw's Uprising Museum, which was intriguing.
And if you go on a Thursday, it's free entry. There are 15 benches like this situated around the city. What makes them remarkable is when you hit this button, >> they play Shopan because this city remembers the legendary 19th century composer with this sort of thing.
And also they've named their airport out here after him. Of course, if you have plenty of spare time, you can challenge yourself to find all 15 of them. Tonight we're eating at this suburban restaurant with a young lady that I met 11 years ago and actually did a photo shoot with her in England, London to be exact.
>> Hello. Hello. >> Hello.
>> Great to see you. So long. We started with traditional cold meats and then half a chicken for main course which was splendid and then pavlova for dessert and a local aerif to finish.
We've ended up here at Bar Rascal, a casual wine bar with a leafy garden. And I ordered tomatoes and anchovies on some lovely bread. I'm a big fan of that.
It was a very good meal. 78 US got us all of this food. Two glasses of wine, a lovely atmosphere, and lovely service.
And there's no tip shaming at the end. I love it. I found Warsaw to be a colorful and classy city.
It's a nice buzz at night here. Got the paved streets, which I like. And at the moment, I'm just seeing people wandering around enjoying an ice cream, having had a meal, perhaps a drink.
Very nice vibe. Having spent four relaxing days and nights in Warsaw. It was time to head to Crackow, or Crackoff as it's called here.
And the train was by far the best option for the 300 km trip. Well, comfortable train. There is a tray table here, rubbish bin down here, footrest for each passenger, armrests go up and down, and there is good luggage storage space at the front of carriage 1.
Now, we paid about $71 for this 2hour 40minute trip from Warsaw to Crackow in first class where it's two seats and then one seat either side of the aisle. Air conditioning could be better. It's typically European where it's never cool.
It just is tethered and not much air flow. Does this have inseat power? It certainly does.
And they have a magazine which is in all Polish. This is the economy carriage. Two seats either side of the aisle.
There's a bar car just behind there which is quite nice. Has a range of snacks and drinks. Toilets are big.
Certainly bigger than what you get on an aircraft. There's luggage storage above as well as the one behind here. Very good trip, very good value.
Now we're going to make a short journey to a very nice hotel. Our taxi trip was about 30 minutes to Stratam House in the center of the city. The interior decor was classy, check-in thorough, and English wasn't a problem, and if you go, have a drink in their bar.
It's in a 14th century church. Room 209 was typical of all the rooms in this upmarket hotel with calm pastel colors, beautiful linen, high ceilings, a desk, mini bar with a variety of food and drinks, a large bathroom with quality fittings, soaps and shampoo, and soft large towels, something the hotel Verie had skimped on. And bedside, there was a jewelry box and a radio speaker.
So, I've been told that at the very minimum, you have to see two things when in crack. One is this castle behind me, uh, which I'll show you in a second, and the other thing is a dragon that breathes fire every 15 minutes. We're on our way to see that.
But we've now come across this lovely little market. Well, you got to have your wits about you to get that because it's not every 15 minutes as far as I can work out and it only runs for a few seconds. Anyway, we got a little bit of it.
We have the legend that many years ago in WIL in the castle called Will lived a dragon. >> This is certainly a lot busier than Warsaw was, but of course this is a Saturday night here. Lovely atmosphere, no breeze, warm, great river.
This is the Vistula. Forgive me if I've pronounced that wrongly. And there were little boats running up and down there with very happy people on board.
We have a holiday first day of summer. Uh it's Kawi and this uh I don't know how to call it this flower ring. >> Yes.
>> Uh it's for virgin lady for young human. Uh they want to have a husband. So we will put this uh ring to the water.
for successful marriage. >> Well, I imagine there are probably 10,000 odd people down here. There's a music festival here.
And this behind me is the old part of town, which looks pretty impressive. What is the most popular beer I hear you cry in this country? It is tisky.
Just shy of two US for a can of that. Crackoff is a great stag location, but actually I'm also off to Alchevitz tomorrow. And that's two very weird things to do together.
But like I'm excited. >> I'm impressed with the way they upkeep these buildings both here and in Warsaw. And the reason I've come to Crackkow is because I want to go and have a look at Awitz.
I've read so much about it over my life and I thought this might be a great opportunity. It's about a 70 kilometer drive and tomorrow we'll go and see that. This is the northern hemisphere summer solstice.
So the sun will set very late and rise early, but it never gets completely dark in the sky. The other night in Warsaw, I opened the curtains at 1:00 a. m.
and I was seeing this blue hue in the sky. And I've never been this far north to see that. Well, it's Sunday morning.
We're about halfway to Awitz. However, we've just realized after some research they don't sell tickets on the day. We're just doing some research now to see whether any tour groups might have some last minute cancellations or vacancies.
Anyway, um all will be revealed shortly. I've never seen anything quite like this. Paying homage to motorbikes of all sorts.
Ah, that's that's phenomenal. You can see it from the road. 50s lotty for parking.
So, it's about 6 US to come up on the viewing platform. It's taken me 65 years to get to Awitz. Well, actually, Burk canal, which is one of two camps here.
It's quite a bizarre feeling standing out in front of something that I've seen so often in pictures and in movies, and I would have liked to have shown you inside. However, um I haven't been successful, though. There is a tour group over there.
I might try one thing. Well, I managed to score a ticket, so I'm inside the gates. Don't ask me how, but um it is very somber, very quiet.
Not many people here, thankfully. And behind me is one of the rail carriages. I'm standing on the side of where the furnace and the crerematorium was here at Burkanau.
When the camp authorities realized that it was the end, they demolished most of this. And what wasn't demolished by them was demolished by the troops who came to liberate this camp. And this is what is left today.
2 km away from Burkanau is Awitz one. I don't have a ticket for this one either, but it's a much more developed site with modern buildings. And that is the entrance to this camp.
But I was unable to get in to that camp. So it was back to crack off. >> Pretty serious weather now.
Wasn't like this when we arrived at Awitz. It was 28 and sunny. It's really coming down.
So this is a local hot dog. It comes in this bizarre looking >> cylinder. Hot dog in Poland.
>> Is it best hot dog in Poland? My friend says here >> the best one. >> Okay.
Sausage, mustard. M. That's pretty good.
It would be better if it had melted cheese, but I'm not unhappy with this. I'm not going to eat much more than that. It's just for the video.
But yeah, I recommend this. I love both Warsaw and Kov. I'm so pleased I chose to come here on my week off.
This country certainly appears to be doing a lot of things right. I actually flew their national carry a lot from Barcelona to Warsaw. Come join me on that flight.
Check-in opened 2 hours before the flight and when we got here, there was at least 70 people waiting to get on. Um there was a separate business class check-in line which was pretty quick. And now we're off to the lounge.
As business class, you get fast track and it was indeed fast and pleasant. This is the VIP sailor lounge power castile. We've got front row seats overlooking the comingings and goings of passengers downstairs heading to and from their gates.
Food-wise, there's a reasonable selection up here. It's a little messy, but there's a heck of a lot of people going through here, but it's not boiling hot. There is at least a little bit of cool air flowing through here.
And in general, I like this lounge. On closer inspection, the food is fantastic. Although, I thought I'd try a hot dog because you don't often get hot dogs in an airport lounge.
It's uh >> One bite. One bite. >> Sauce.
>> Sauce, mustard, and ketchup. Do it >> in one bite. Oh, yeah.
Well, the whole lot. >> Yeah, the whole lot. >> I'm not doing it all in one bite.
>> It's good. Need some cheese and the buns need to be heated. But otherwise, where do you get hot dogs in an airport lounge?
Unheard of. Well, we're safely on board lot Polish Airlines flight 438 to Warsaw from Barcelona on a 737 Max 8. There's 189 seats in economy and they block out the middle seat for business.
But I can tell you and I've flown a lot of airlines. This is the tightest leg room of any business class I've flown on ever. So this is a first.
At the moment there are five rows of business, four seats in each row cuz this middle seat is taken out. But I think what they do is they continue to sell business class seats until they have no more room because some flights might have five rows of business and others might have 10. So this is lunch over here.
We have three prawns on rice with a sauce. The appetizer was some sliced chicken on a sauce of some sort. And dessert was a tiramisu from Dough and Co.
They do a lot of the catering at Formula 1 races. The other option was soft spinach ravioli with cream sauce, which my son was going hammer and tongs at. And the standout probably the tiramisu.
In general, the meal was okay and the service good. Thanks a lot. We were lucky no one was sitting in row two, the front row, which has far better leg room than most other rows.
That was a good flight. Lovely staff. Not great leg room and probably not great value.
I think that was about €650 for that 2 and 1/2 hour flight. But we're now in Warsaw and it is cool. I'd read plenty online, seen plenty of videos about Poland and how safe it was and in particular Warsaw.
And I'm so happy that I decided to come and have a look. Before you go, could you please hit the like button? And for those unsubscribed, please hit this button as well so you don't miss out on future travel content.
Thanks for watching >> and stay passionate. >> Now, we've wound it up here. No.
Oh, nice.
