Warsaw to Krakow 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

criss-crossing 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!

Stoke up what is possibly the last steam-powered commuter train.

Done a bit of this in England.

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

Rumble through the streets Soviet-style

in a 1960s motoring icon.

In case of accident, I hope you just bounce back from other cars.

-Let's hope so!

-Jump in, it's open.

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 "Holy-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.

After a shaky movie debut,

I'm leaving Lodz where young people are now more likely to make

films than fabrics, and following my guide across the old border

to Poznan for my first taste of Polish lands

ruled by the German empire.

Bradshaw's Guide 1913 contained a railway map of Europe

and a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say. Here we are.

This is Russian Poland and it appears as a white blank

on the map because the Russians had built very few railways.

By contrast, here in German Poland, well, it's absolutely black

with railway lines, running in all directions.

For my next destination, I have to move away from

the Russian section in Bradshaw's to the German section.

More precisely, "The German empire or Deutsches Reich, consists of

"the following 25 States in order of magnitude," and then Prussia

is listed first. In those days,

Prussia included Posen, or Polish Poznan.

"It's the oldest of Polish towns and a strong fortified place."

Well, of course it was. It was very strategically important.

It was on the eastern frontier of Germany

and I'm going there to find out how, to shore up German power,

the Polish territory was Germanified.

I'm travelling 130 miles northwest

to Poznan Glowny station, built in 1879

in what was the heart of German Poland.

I'll leave it to the morning to tour this fortress city.

Poznan is a good place to start my exploration

of the German partition.

It's one of the oldest cities in Poland

with roots in the early Middle Ages.

My guidebook tells me that there's a particularly noble building here,

dating from the 15th century.

The Rathaus referred to in my Bradshaw's guide

turns out to be a glorious Renaissance town hall

and there's a legend that many, many years ago,

a couple of goats escaped the cooking pot

and ran up to the top of the tower to avoid being eaten.

So, they've now become the symbol of the city.

-And, at noon every day...

-CLOCK CHIMES THE HOUR

..a couple of goats appear above this clock.

A mechanism that was restored in 1913,

the year of my Bradshaw's guide,

so it turns out to be not so much a Rathaus as a "goat house".

I want to find out more about what life was like here

in the early 20th century,

so I'm meeting British-born historian Hubert Zawadzki

at the Prussian Imperial Palace, completed in 1910,

and referred to in my guidebook as,

"The Royal Palace, a new Romanesque building."

Though new in 1913,

the architectural inspiration is medieval

and peppered with images from German folklore.

This isn't a lesson in German architecture, is it?

This is cultural and political.

Very much so. A powerful symbol of Prussian-German domination

in this part of Prussian Poland where there was quite a struggle

between the Poles and the Germans.

Poznan was of strategic significance, as well.

It was important in terms of the eastern approach to Berlin.

So, it was essential as a defensive position.

Following the unification of Germany in 1871,

Prussia's Chancellor Otto von Bismarck

wanted to ensure the loyalty of its subjects.

One tool he used was the so-called "Kulturkampf" -

a campaign to curb the power of the Catholic Church.

What was the attitude of the German authorities, particularly

of the very powerful Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, to the Poles?

The important thing, from his point of view,

was to reduce the influence of the Polish nobility, the landed class,

and the Polish Catholic Church,

which were seen as the carriers of the Polish national ideal.

Hand in hand with this struggle

went a campaign to "Germanise" this part of Poland.

German replaced Polish as the official language

of local government and in schools.

In 1888, a new Kaiser, Wilhelm II, came to the throne.

Bismarck resigned soon after

but German repression of Poland continued.

The Kaiser's balcony!

Indeed! What a view!

The building over there was the seat of the Ansiedlungskommission,

which was to encourage German land-ownership

in this part of Prussian Poland.

-Encourage?

-Initially, government funds were provided

for the purchase of Polish landed estates

which could then be redistributed amongst German settlers.

Gradually from the mid-1890s, this policy hardens, and by 1908,

a bill is passed in the Reichstag

which provides for the compulsory purchase

of Polish landed estates.

These policies provoked a strong reaction both at home and abroad,

but Kaiser Wilhelm was impervious to criticism.

He visited the palace only twice,

but for those occasions, he insisted on a throne of suitable grandeur.

Well, Hubert, is this not the most extraordinary

-piece of megalomania you have ever seen?

-Indeed.

It reminds you of the glories of the medieval German Empire.

How successful in the end,

from the Prussian and German point of view,

was this repression of the Polish people?

This repression would have been more successful

had the German rule continued.

But, of course, it ended with the First World War.

-Would you say, in the end, it was counter-productive?

-Very much so.

It strengthens the link between the average Pole

and the Roman Catholic Church.

Well, it's quite a thought that within a few years

of this castle being built, of this throne being created,

Germany has lost the First World War,

the Poles become self-governing,

the Kaiser has escaped into exile.

-The glories of this world are transitory, aren't they!

-Indeed.

And in 1919, these lands were transferred

to the newly restored state of Poland

under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles.

German architecture and railway lines survive here.

This is one of the last places where steam engines

haul regular train services on the main line.

Howard Jones is so passionate

about this extraordinary railway heritage

that 17 years ago, he left behind his life as a travel agent

in Britain to dedicate himself to its preservation.

-Hello, Howard! Good to meet you!

-Nice to meet you.

Wonderful great locomotive!

How is it that so many steam locomotives survived

through the Communist period?

Well, Poland had a lot of coal,

so therefore, it was easier to run on non-electrified lines,

steam and diesel, which meant importing oil.

Wolsztyn as a depot, carried on till 1997, being the last working depot,

and I moved out here to help persuade the authorities

to keep it running as it's unique in the world

and it is now, by a long way, unique in the world.

Howard took over running of this line in the 1990s,

operating ordinary commuter services as well as heritage tours.

Today, he's invited me to travel on a special train.

This locomotive is enormous.

I don't think I've ever been on the footplate of anything

as big in Britain. Is it Polish or Russian?

It's a Polish design, built after the war.

They're more designed for comfort.

Particularly here, remember, you have temperatures going minus 20,

minus 25 in the winter, so they're enclosed cabs so they're warmer.

Thank you very much.

If you finish oiling up there, we'll be away, I think!

-OK, then.

-Thank you.

What always amazes me about these locomotives

is the connection between man and machine.

Apparently, these two guys have only ever driven

steam locomotives throughout their careers,

so you can imagine how they feel every vibration

in the machine and respond to it.

I wish I could convey to you the smell! It's really pungent.

WHISTLE BLOWS

If you're used to heritage railways in Britain,

the great surprise is how fast this thing goes.

But as railway buffs say, the difference between a steam engine on a heritage line

and a steam engine on a main line

is the difference between an animal in a zoo

and an animal wild in Africa.

And this beast is uncaged!

I've been invited with hand signals

to put some coal on the fire.

I've done a bit of this in England.

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

There's no sign from the stoker

that he wants me to stop, so on I go!

A sign to stop thank God.

Oh, looks as if I've been sacked!

Bradshaw's tells me that my next stop

had four railway stations and was known as Breslau,

"one of the most important centres of industry and commerce in Germany,

"with engineering being especially prosperous."

In fact, it was driven particularly by the manufacture of locomotives,

part of Germany's early 20th century phenomenal industrial boom.

My journey is taking me south to a city now known as Wroclaw.

A new day dawns on my journey through Poland,

and I'm in another picturesque city.

It's packed with wonderful Baroque architecture

that would have delighted a tourist following my 1913 guidebook.

Also, I can't help noticing some enchanting little characters

who curiously fail to appear in my Bradshaw's.

Everywhere I go here in Wroclaw,

I find these little bearded leprechauns with pointed hats.

What can the meaning be? I've "gnome" idea.

-Excuse me, do you speak English?

-No...

-No.

-Do you speak English?

-No.

-Excuse me, do you speak English?

-Just a little.

These little men, these bearded men with the pointy hats,

who are they? Why are they there?

This is the person in Wroclaw.

It is a symbol of Orange Alternative.

These are called krasnale in Polish,

they're like little dwarves and they're a symbol of the city.

It was the way of fighting with Communism.

They help people.

They were putting those dwarves as some kind of protest.

-How do they help people?

-Some of them make you happy.

And now we have, I think, over 120 of them.

And you have to just touch it and dreaming,

and there's dream come true.

How can gnomes, dwarves be anything to do with a revolution?

It was the only way to be against the government,

so this is why the put the dwarves to remind people to smile,

and people like them and I think it's really cool.

Thank you, I think I really understand now.

A traveller following my guidebook would have known that this city

was a German industrial powerhouse and I see

that train-manufacturing giant Bombardier continues the tradition.

'Krzysztof Gablanowski, site manager in the transportation division,

'has agreed to show me around.'

A most impressive and enormous factory.

When did any sort of production begin here?

What is sure is the year - 1838,

but we are not sure whether it started with the wheelbarrows

or with the wagons!

But we are sure about the year.

'By 1913, this factory had grown

'into one of the largest manufacturers of rolling stock

'in Europe, producing its thousandth locomotive that year.'

After that, it grow even faster, because in 1920,

-it was 2,000 locomotives produced.

-Heavens.

-So, the rate of production had become enormous!

-Right.

'Soon after, the factory was also Europe's largest manufacturer

'of railway carriages.'

What do you do today?

We keep continuing over 100 years' tradition.

So, we produce car bodies for all the types of Bombardier locomotives.

-Would I see any of your products in Britain?

-Yes, indeed.

We have produced, in the past, a big batch of bogie frames

for a London Underground project.

And today, we are producing bogie frames for Manchester trams.

-Wroclaw to Manchester!

-Right.

'Krzysztof is taking me to see how these chassis frames,

'known as "bogies", are produced.'

Here, we can see the welding process.

By using this kind of jig,

we ensure the quality and ergonomy of the process as much as we can.

When do you think that will be running

on the streets of Manchester?

In one year from now, there should be some delivered to the city.

'And for my final stop on the tour, some on-the-job training.'

I feel like something out of Star Wars!

WELDING TORCH BUZZES

'Under heat, the metal pieces melt

'and fuse together to form a strong, clean joint.'

That's very beautiful!

So, how did you hold it?

Like that? You happy?

WELDING TORCH BUZZES

BUZZING AND CRACKLING

Hmmm.

-A little bit messy!

-Wow!

'Well, I hope that doesn't end up under a Manchester tram!'

As I leave this city with its impressive industry,

whimsical architecture, and quirky protest movement,

I'm pleased to see that its station

expresses the city's defiance of convention.

Wroclaw Station must rank

as one of the most delightfully over-the-top that I have ever seen.

There have been lines and platforms here since the 1850s,

but this extraordinary castellated facade

was added between 1899 and 1907.

So, it was new at the time of my Bradshaw's guide

and fully restored in 2012.

I'm embarking on the final leg of my journey to the city of Krakow

which my guidebook tells me was the ancient capital of Poland.

In doing so, I will be crossing the last of the old imperial

boundaries into Austria-Hungary.

Austria and Hungary says Bradshaw's are "independent states

"ruled by Francis Joseph I,

Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary. Heir Presumptive,

"it's Archduke Franz Ferdinand, nephew of the Emperor and King."

Within a year of my guide book being published,

he had been assassinated at Sarajevo plunging Europe into war

and bringing about the dissolution

of the three empires that occupied Poland.

My journey takes me 160 miles south east,

running close to the border with the Czech Republic

towards my final destination.

For Krakow, which is the grand finale of my Polish journey,

Bradshaw's mentions the Grand Hotel!

I discover that the Polish-born writer Joseph Conrad

frequented the Grand Hotel.

At school, I studied his novel about a journey

into the African interior

to discover a white man enjoying absolute power

and seduced into total depravity.

The Heart Of Darkness

was then made into a horrifying Hollywood movie

starring Marlon Brando - the 1979 epic, Apocalypse Now.

Conrad stayed here just a few weeks before the outbreak of the First World War

and was determined to show his young family the city he loved so much.

As the Austro-Hungarian Empire crumbled,

its grip loosened and this area began to enjoy

greater political and religious freedom.

It became known as the cultural capital of Poland.

I'm heading into the old town to see whether I can find any trace

of the third empire, which dominated this part of Poland in 1913.

Once again, the architecture changes markedly.

Russian and German influences are behind me.

This is so very Austrian!

That's particularly evident in this glorious square.

Four of the cities on this Polish journey

have been characterised by magnificent public squares.

Maybe this one in Krakow is the best of all.

One of the things I love about them is the chaotic juxtaposition

of different architectural styles.

The buildings are higgledy-piggledy and yet, somehow, it works.

And within them, a vast space for people to be boisterous and free.

In this Austro-Hungarian partition of Poland,

that sense of freedom extended to the Polish religion, Catholicism.

Krakow's most famous cleric, the recently sainted

Karol Jozef Wojtyla, was elected Pope John Paul II in 1978.

A year later, he visited his native Poland

still embedded in the Soviet Empire.

Millions flocked to see him.

His election as Pope and return to Poland helped to fire up

the workers' protest movement called Solidarity.

Apparently, when you're in Krakow you must eat a pretzel.

Thank you.

Thank you.

It seems that they are a left-over from the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Personally, I can't stand them.

But I take my duties as a tourist seriously!

Hmm.

That's not going to satisfy my hunger.

I've been told that there are canteens known as "milk bars"

to be found where they serve good, cheap food.

Mushroom soup? Any stuffed cabbage?

Ooh! Stuffed cabbage, yeah.

'Around since the time of my guidebook,

'these canteens still offer

'substantial portions to workers today.'

Ooh, that looks pretty good. that mushroom soup.

'Their heyday was in the second half of the 20th century,

'while Poland lived under Soviet-imposed Communism.'

Thank you very much. Wow!

I don't think I'm going to go hungry with that!

14.20.

So, actually, that's not quite £3.

Thank you very much.

So, this very basic food and these very unfussy,

plain surroundings are about the only souvenir

that I've found in Poland of the old Communist era

which lasted from 1945 to 1989

and at the time, must have seemed endless!

At the time of my Bradshaw's,

Poland was partitioned between three empires.

Travellers could hardly have guessed that each of them

would collapse, giving rise to a moment of Polish freedom.

But the empires returned, first Nazi then Soviet.

I'm off to visit Nowa Huta, a gift to Krakow

from the grimmest Soviet dictator, Joseph Stalin.

My guide is Maciek Nyzio, and my ride, a Soviet-era Trabant.

-Hello, Maciek! How are you?

-Good to see you. How are you?

-I hope your Trabant hasn't broken down!

-Everything is fine.

I was just checking it.

There's not much to check, because this is the whole engine.

It's engine more like for a motorbike or a chain saw.

26 horsepower engine!

Battery next to fuel tank!

The car is very elastic, too. Look!

In case of an accident,

I hope it will just bounce back from other car.

-Let's hope so!

-Jump in, it's open!

Made in East Germany,

the Trabant was the iconic car of the Communist era.

Painfully backward by comparison with vehicles

beyond the Iron Curtain.

I think this car is a good example of what real Communism was.

It's supposed to be very cheap car for the whole family, easy to get.

Finally, tiny car was designed and they were extremely expensive!

Maciek, which part of the city are we in, now?

We're in the oldest part of Nowa Huta, this perfect Communistic city.

Nowadays, it's one of the districts of Krakow.

It was built after Second World War as a separated city.

A gift from Joseph Stalin.

Construction of Nowa Huta began in 1949.

Stalin's aim was to showcase the industrial might of Communism

and to crush the middle classes by creating a uniform,

working-class centre, populated by industrial workers.

It was supposed to be a city to show the power of this new system

to convince people to this new ideology,

a symbol of Polish Soviet friendship.

They wanted to provide as many apartments as possible,

and to give people jobs, work at the factory.

That's the main entrance to the factory in front of us.

-What was it called?

-Up until 1990,it was Lenin Steelworks.

A vast, labyrinthine plant

with nearly 300km of railway tracks inside it,

the Lenin Works provided employment for the proletariat.

But by the 1980s, it had become a hotbed

of the anti-Soviet Solidarity movement.

This is Central Square.

Some time ago, our authorities added a name.

So, it's the Central Square of Ronald Reagan!

-Ronald Reagan?

-Yes, we like famous actors in Poland.

Ronald Reagan helped to donate a lot of money

to our opposition, to Solidarity.

He was friend of Lech Walesa,

our first democratically elected president after the war.

Under the leadership of Lech Walesa,

the Solidarity movement won the fight

for the first partially independent elections in 1989.

Poland became the first country in the Soviet Empire

to abandon Communism.

Leaving Ronald Reagan Square behind us,

Maciek and I are reconvening in a Communist-era bar.

Welcome to stylish restaurant!

Mmm, it has quite an old-fashioned feel to it!

It's one of the few places left in Communistic style here in Nowa Huta.

GLASSES TINKLE

I really enjoyed our ride in the Trabant.

Our ride through recent Polish history!

-Na zdrowie! To Poland!

-To Poland, of course!

A visitor to Krakow in 1913 might have guessed

that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was crumbling,

but not that it would shortly be joined in the dustbin of history

by the German and Russian Empires, too.

When Nazi Germany invaded Poland in 1939,

that was the start of the Second World War,

and after its end, there followed 45 years of Soviet domination.

Polish nationalism revived when Karol Jozef Wojtyla became Pope.

Poland became free in 1989.

During the course of this journey,

I've discovered that the Poles have often been oppressed,

but their spirit is irrepressible.

'Next time, I find my sea legs off Spain's Atlantic coast.'

Isn't that a beautiful beast? Isn't that fantastic?

'Sample a favourite British tipple in Oporto.'

It's a Martinez 1953, a very rare wine.

It's glorious!

'And in Lisbon, investigate an assassination.'

They're a group of armed Republicans, in five minutes,

they almost wiped out the entire royal family.

So, this square was the scene of appalling horror.