Walk in the Park

The Mrs and I popped into the Stefan Starzynskiego forest just south of our apartment block this afternoon - via a detour to the Real King Cross shopping centre. (On the subject of incongruous English place names, I noticed there is a building called Holland Park just off Ul. Ksiazeca in the centre of Warsaw. I walked past it yesterday but didn't notice anything remotely Holland Park-ish about it).

One of the interesting things I find in Poland is that agriculture is still a really big part of the economy, employing roughly 25% of the population. Private allotments like the one above, abound. I'm not sure what you plant at this time of year but I'll keep an eye on this chap's output.

Ever wondered how the Wehrmacht had such difficulty in ops against partisan groups during WW2? The forest above is only medium density compared to some I've seen.

In the middle of the forest we come to a military installation with this memorial outside, commemorating the three Polish cryptologists who first decrypted the Enigma code (I think at this particular site). History lives very visibly in Poland, from the obvious destruction of Warsaw, to the concentration camps and so on. Small reminders like this are unexpectedly powerful.