Warsaw to Krakow - Part 1 Great Continental Railway Journeys

I'm embarking on a new railway adventure

that will take me across the heart of Europe.

I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide,

dated 1913, which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel

for the British tourist.

It told travellers where to go, what to see,

and how to navigate the thousands of miles of tracks

crisscrossing the continent.

Now, a century later,

I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy

where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing.

I want to rediscover that lost Europe

that in 1913 couldn't know that its way of life

would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.

On this journey, I'm venturing deep into central Europe,

to a country carved up by three great empires,

a place where East meets West.

Poland has been colonised and partitioned,

its people repressed and even slaughtered

by three great empires of Russia, Austria-Hungary,

and Germany,

and then later by the Nazi Third Reich and the Soviet Union.

Today, it's the economic success story of the former Eastern Bloc

but it's had a long struggle to get here.

At the time of my Bradshaw's, Poland wasn't even on the map.

I want to study how this nation was first subjugated,

and then more recently reborn, as I travel Poland's historic tracks.

My Polish adventure begins in the capital, Warsaw,

which, in my 1913 Bradshaw's,

appears under the heading "Russia in Europe (Including Poland)".

I'll continue on to the city of Lodz,

before entering former German territory

to explore Poznan and Wroclaw,

and end on what was then Austrian soil,

at the southern city of Krakow.

On today's journey, I discover how not to do a Polonaise.

Don't know what happened there!

And land my acting debut in Poland's respected film industry.

-WHISPERING:

-This could be my big breakthrough.

First stop, Warsaw. Bradshaw's comments:

"Once the capital of Poland,

"now capital of the Russian Province of Warsaw."

The British tourist in 1913

could have no idea that Russia would shortly be humiliated,

its Tsar murdered and its empire overthrown.

Edwardian travellers to Warsaw

could have arrived at one of three main stations,

but this city's history is such that each has been destroyed.

Now only Warsawa Centralna remains,

rebuilt during the communist era in a brutalist style.

I'm not expecting much of the Warsaw described in my 1913 guidebook

to have survived the ravages of the Nazi occupation and communist era.

But my guidebook has led me to an avenue described as

"the most important and interesting thoroughfare,

"Krakowskie Predmeestie".

Here is a painting of the same avenue nearly three centuries old

and, of course, it's absolutely recognisable.

Here is the church on the left.

And this is somewhat puzzling

because Warsaw was famously razed to the ground during World War II,

so I don't quite follow how it can be so beautifully preserved here.

To help me answer that question,

Karolina Paczynska has offered to take me on a tour

of this grand old avenue in a 1913 carriage.

Karolina!

Hello! How nice to see you in Warsaw!

What a delightful way to travel!

Yes, it is!

Karolina, Bradshaw's devotes a whole page

to the architectural wonders of Warsaw.

It looks wonderful today.

I don't understand, how was this not destroyed in World War II?

The city of Warsaw was almost completely devastated

on Hitler's orders.

House by house in two or three months,

it was transformed into a real desert,

but it was reconstructed by the people who came back to the city

after the Second World War.

They found nothing.

There were no houses, no homes, no electricity,

no running water, nothing,

and with their own hands they rebuilt it all.

It was a real miracle,

the reconstruction of the city of Warsaw.

-Real heroism.

-Yes, it was.

And that's what makes us very proud.

I was looking at the reproduction of the painting by Bellotto.

Was that used as a model for the reconstruction?

Yes, but what is interesting, he also made some improvements.

It's funny because during the reconstruction of the city

after the Second World War, they recreated the improvements as well.

That's a very nice story.

But I'm quite surprised that the communists allowed

the reconstruction of this bourgeois architecture.

Well, they allowed it, but in very limited scale.

I have a huge admiration for the determination of the Polish people

to rebuild their city, a phoenix risen from the ashes of 1945.

My last visit to Warsaw was a long time ago,

just after the Communist era,

and my memories of the place were that it was very partially restored

and it was kind of Stalinist and grim.

Well, it gives a very different impression today.

The restoration is now very thorough

and the city is as full of history as it is of fun.

The revitalised fabric and glittering facades

are architectural echoes of 1913 Warsaw

a place that boasted a rich tapestry of different peoples and cultures.

But, during the Second World War the Nazis made it their mission

to annihilate the Jews in Warsaw.

I want to find out how the Jewish community fares today.

I'm turning to my 1913 guidebook to locate Warsaw's Jewish quarter.

Bradshaw's comments that "Warsaw is a busy place.

"But the general elegance is often marred by the untidy appearance

"of the Jews".

And then again, "North of the cathedral is the old town

"with the unattractive Jewish quarter a little further North".

We all know, alas, what was the fate of Warsaw's Jewish population

during World War II, but to find such casual, unselfconscious anti-Semitism

in a British publication of the 20th century is really a shock.

This quarter doesn't look unattractive today.

At a cosy Jewish cafe I've arranged a lunch

with lawyer Kryzsztof Izdebski.

Here we are at the Tel Aviv cafe, which serves Israeli food

and it seems really rather chic!

Yes, it's rather chic and it's quite popular.

The people think that to be a Jew is cool.

It's kind of an exotic thing.

My guidebook has some quite sort of casual anti-Semitic remarks.

What were conditions like for Jews in Warsaw

at the beginning of the 20th century?

-Were they barred from certain professions?

-Yep.

It was very hard to get to the university, first of all,

then you couldn't for example be a fully-qualified lawyer.

The guidebook refers to the Jewish district

being unattractive and untidy.

Is that because the Jews here were very poor at the time?

Yes. The people were poor, but generally the people

wore traditional clothes with black, moustaches, hats...

I can imagine it looked odd.

From a population of around 300,000 in 1913,

today's Jewish community officially numbers under 1,000.

After the Second World War,

survivors of the Holocaust returned to Poland,

but persecution continued and hundreds of thousands of Jews fled.

The situation between Poles and Jews was pretty tense.

So a lot of people decided to assimilate,

and assimilate in a society meant changing names,

forgetting about the past.

Some of my friends discovered that they are Jewish when they were 25.

Where the grandfather or grandmother dying

and they wanted to say this, "I'm Jewish.".

Once they had to conceal their identity and were in mortal danger.

Their history could not be darker.

Today's tiny Warsaw community of Jews has no need to hide.

My Bradshaw's has led me

to this pleasant park in the south of the city where it tells me

I'll find the imperial Warsaw residence of the Russian czar.

This is the delightful Lazienki park, home to two palaces -

the Lazienki palace and the Belvedere -

and on a spring day like this,

it's a pleasant place for Varsovians to take a stroll.

But, in the 19th century, this was the playground for the Russian

ruling class, the hated oppressors of Poland.

The people of Warsaw had lived under the Russian yoke since 1815.

The official language was Russian,

and Poles weren't allowed to hold public office.

Treated as second class citizens in their own land,

how did the Polish people maintain their cultural identity?

I'm meeting Varsovian born and bred Wojciech Bakowski.

The Lazienki park has a lot of connections with the Russian

occupation of the 19th century.

How was the Polish spirit kept alive during that period?

It was kept alive, notably, with the art and literature,

and the national movement actually used poets like Mickiewicz, and

composers like Chopin as prophets and vehicles for the national cause.

Composer and virtuoso pianist Frederic Chopin was born in 1810

in a village outside Warsaw to a Polish mother and a French father.

He left Poland as a teenager just before the 1830 Polish uprising

and spent most of his life in Paris.

His music reflected the melancholy of his Polish motherland,

and, so, despite being absent, he was adopted as a Polish icon.

He was the most famous Polish artist that we had in the 19th century,

so he became an instrument for the national movement to build

a Polish identity around those cultural values.

For example, he used Polish national dances such as the Polonaise

and the Mazurka as piano genres.

MUSIC: "Polonaise" by Chopin

Designed in 1910,

this monument to Chopin commemorates his adoption to the national cause.

The Nazis blew up the original statue in 1940

because Chopin's music had become a potent symbol of Polish nationalism.

To play it in Nazi-occupied Poland was considered subversion

punishable by death.

And what is that's sweeping above Chopin's head?

That's a willow.

That is the quintessential Polish tree,

that expresses the melancholy and nostalgia of Chopin's music.

The Polonaise is a traditional Polish dance

elevated by Chopin to an art form.

Wojciech is taking me to the beautiful Lazienki Palace

to see how the tradition continues to this day.

It's a stately, processional dance

in which couples walk, circle each other and bow.

THEY APPLAUD

This is very, very charming. Why are the young people doing the Polonaise?

Now, this is a traditional second high school ball that we call

the "studniowka" which occurs 100 days before their A-levels,

and the crucial part of that ball is dancing the Polonaise.

-Everyone has to do this? Did you do this?

-I did.

Now, why don't you have a go?

I'd rather not.

And one, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three.

One, two, three. One, two, three.

SHE GIGGLES

Nie porozumielismy sie.

I don't know what happened there, it seemed all right to me.

I'm sure that dancing's not my forte

but if at first you don't succeed...

MUSIC STARTS

SHE GIGGLES

Once again.

Once again.

Come on.

SHE GIGGLES

That WAS a surprise!

SHE GIGGLES

APPLAUSE

Very good.

I think I'll be sticking strictly to my Bradshaw's!

After prancing, I'm ready for a proper Polish supper

and I'm returning to the Old Town.

Celebrity chef Magda Gessler's Fukier restaurant would have been

a fashionable eatery for tourists in 1913.

-Good evening.

-Good evening, how are you?

-I'm Michael.

You must be the famous Magda!

-You remember me!

-And you're Lara.

-My name's Lara.

-How lovely to see you.

-Hello, Michael.

-Good evening!

Originally a wine shop, this historic building now

prides itself on offering the best in traditional Polish fare.

My passion is old Polish cuisine.

And so you have resurrected the old Polish cuisine?

I am like the archaeologic in the Polish cuisine!

Magda, I arrived here with my old book, but I see

that you have an old book, too. What is that?

This is a very old book that me,

my mum, her mum have been inspirated by this.

That's a book by Lucyna Cwierczakiewiczowa.

It's like a guide book for what you should eat

during the year for your own family budget.

So would it be possible this evening to try some recipes

-that are recommended in your book?

-Of course!

This looks delicious.

It's perfect steak tartare. It's appetiser which in Poland

is amazing, and this place is very special.

Pate venison and herring,

Very special herring in sherry.

Herring in sherry?

Yes. You'll like this one it's very Polish.

And, Magda, what should we drink with these little appetisers?

Bison vodka. It's very special cold vodka.

-Oh, it's amazing. Try this one.

-Thank you very much.

-So, herring with sherry washed down with vodka.

-First, vodka.

Mm.

So smooth, isn't it?

One, two.

Mm, that's lovely.

I thought it would be very, very strong and fishy, but it's not.

It's perfect old herring.

There's more to Polish cuisine than herring and dumplings.

This delicious tripe soup with ginger, cinnamon

and cardamom is a culinary blend of the empires that once ruled Poland.

The Polish people, who were under foreign occupation

more or less continuously

for two centuries from 1795, have recently experienced a rebirth.

And that is accompanied by a renaissance in Polish cuisine.

After my tasty supper, I'm ready to turn in for the night.

My guidebook recommends the Hotel Bristol

named after the celebrated British traveller, the 4th Earl of Bristol.

The name became a byword for luxury across the continent.

Shipshape and Bristol fashion.

A new day in Warsaw. I'm leaving this vibrant capital

of today's independent Poland to head into its industrial heartland.

My next destination is a city synonymous with the Industrial Revolution -

the Manchester of Poland.

-Can you help me with my Polish pronunciation?

-Of course we can.

I'm on my way to L-O-D-Z.

-How do you pronounce that?

-It's "woodj."

-"Woodj?"

-"Woodj."

But it begins with an L. How do you get a "w" sound?

It's two different letters. It's "l" and "w" in Polish alphabet.

"L" and "w." Right, so L with a line makes it a W.

-What about at the end? You said "woodj."

-"Woodj."

Yes, because it's not D-Z, it's like Z with a line.

-Z with a line?

-Yes.

-It's Z but with the D it's pronounced "dj".

What else should I look out for in Polish?

Well, you have different kinds of "oo" as well.

-So, in Lodz, the L has a line...

-Yes.

-..the O has a line...

-Yes.

-..and the Z has a line?

-Yes.

-You chose a very difficult city to go to!

Well, my goodness your English is beautiful!

Where did you both learn your English?

-In high school.

-Really?

-Yes.

We were in the same class in high school.

-To that standard in high school?

-Yes.

We are so bad at languages. I am humbled.

Thank you. That's nice.

"I'm continuing my journey across 1913 Russian Poland

"in a south-westerly direction towards the city of Lodz.

"A population of 408,000 says Bradshaw's,

"the chief town of the district

"and the most important centre of the textile industry in Poland."

A material fact, for whilst Britain had her dark Satanic mills

in places like Manchester, Russia had hers in cities like Lodz.

I'm leaving the train to discover what remains

of that industrial heritage.

A century ago,

these immense factories supplied the vast Russian Empire.

The Industrial Revolution brought phenomenal population growth

to Lodz from about 800 people to about 400,000 in the 80 years

before my Bradshaw's guide.

Now the textile mills have been converted into a shopping centre.

I'm meeting my guide, Jacek Paczesny,

at a perfect city vantage point.

These buildings are magnificent.

Why was Lodz chosen for industrialization?

Generally, it was a good location for a city which made

the authorities grant the city the title of factory settlement.

It was something like a special economic zone.

And I suppose the railways must have made a difference, too?

Yes. The railways definitely were essential.

The first big date is 1848 when the Vienna Warsaw railway

was opened and it passed just 30km to the Eastern border of Lodz.

By the time of my 1913 guide, Lodz had been transformed.

It was a city of great contrast.

Between cultures, it was a bustling multicultural city,

people of four different regions,

Polish, Jewish, Russian, German living together.

Second, contrast between wealth and poverty.

A lot of people lived in wooden houses,

the sewage was flowing through the streets.

On the other hand, there was these marvellous palaces,

privately owned green spaces with a fee entrance that exceeded

the salary of the worker.

Andrej Wajda's 1975 epic film The Promised Land

was based on Wladyslaw Reymont's novel,

a mordant critique of capitalism.

It depicted life in Lodz as a vicious rat race.

In the 19th century, Lodz gave Manchester a run for its money.

But today the city prefers to compare itself to Los Angeles.

What happens to a manufacturing city in the post-industrial age?

In Lodz, part of the answer has been to create a film school,

some of whose graduates are directors of international fame.

And now they've created a walkway of the stars.

Not for nothing is this place now known as "Holly-woodj."

Andrej Wajda studied at a film school here in Lodz.

In fact, many of Poland's most celebrated directors

cut their teeth here.

I've arranged to meet Piotr Sitarski, Professor of Film Studies,

to ask him about the history of cinema in this old industrial town.

When did the cinema first come to Lodz?

Very early.

1896. You know, this was a centre of textile industry

with a huge number of proletarian workers.

Most of them were Poles but you also had Jews and Germans

and visual entertainment was ideal for them. You know, silent movies.

And, of course, being silent they didn't have to understand

-any of the language.

-Exactly!

After the Second World War, a film school was founded

in Lodz because it was a place where cinema was popular.

A film school in the 1950s within the Soviet empire sounds

is that a bit subversive, a bit liberal?

Yes, it is. Ironically because it was designed as a place where

propagandists were to be trained.

Instead, it turned out that it really offered a lot of freedom

for the students and for the teachers,

and a good example are the films the students could watch,

films from around the world.

So this was really a liberal place.

I'm no De Niro

but as this film school maintains a very high reputation,

maybe I can pick up some tips from Poland's finest fledgling movie-makers?

Hello. I hope I'm not interrupting. I'm Michael.

-Of course not. I'm Adam.

-So what are you doing here?

I'm shooting this scene right here. I'm shooting in a hospital.

We have a girl who's going to be playing a schizophrenic

and we are going to have you play as a doctor.

-OK. Psychiatric doctor.

-Of course.

-Let me just psych myself up for that one.

-Sure.

One of the oldest film schools in the world,

Lodz prides itself on a hands-on approach,

teaching its students the practical skills needed to make a movie.

All right, so when you're walking in, when you move from here,

go here, here, here, here,

and then you place it down and then you look at her.

We're going to have this shot right here of you confronting her.

-WHISPERS:

-This could be my big breakthrough!

-Kamera. Poszla.

-Ton 16ty.

Action.

SHE MUMBLES IN POLISH

All right, perfect.

Super. Nie bierz tabletki!

LAUGHTER

-Jeszcze raz?

-Nie, spoko.

-Brilliant, thank you so much.

-Thanks so much.

-Thank you.

Great.

On the second part of my journey through Poland,

I'll stoke up what is possibly the last steam-powered commuter train...

Done a bit of this in England.

I don't remember it being quite as hot as this!

..and rumble through the streets, Soviet-style, in a motoring icon.

Car is very elastic, too. Look!

MICHAEL LAUGHS

In case of the next accident

I hope it will just bounce back from other car.

-Let's hope so.

-Jump in, it's open.