Warsaw

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Geo: 52.2319, 21.0108

The overnight sleeper from Cologne to Warsaw would have been OK if we could get some sleep. In theory it is good value both in time and money as you get a "free" hotel room and clock up the miles during the night. That's the theory however the train seemed to stop at every tin pot station so just as you are getting used to the rhythm of the train it changes. There was no restaurant car so we brought with us cakes and orange juice for breakfast and the train attendant brought us coffee. By first light we were trundling through the flat Polish countryside but still stopping every 20 minutes or so.

The sun shone in the city when we arrived so we walked round the "Old Town" admiring all the lovely buildings. I put the "" round the old as whilst it looks medieval it was completely reconstructed after the war as the bombing by first the Germans and then the Russians completely flattened it.

I used to visit Warsaw regularly in the late 1990's and always tried to stay in a grand old hotel called The Bristol. We decided to push the boat out and stay there on this trip but I was a little apprehensive as the place has been modernised. I needn't have worried, it has been modernised but I am pleased to say it still has the same grand feeling to it, the rooms are large and the bathrooms are still covered in marble.

Tomorrow we catch another sleeper, this time to Moscow via Belarus who insisted on selling us visas just to pass through their country without stopping, I will shine my touch out of the window to try and get my £80's worth.

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