Lodz in a day
This week we went on a day trip to Lodz, one of my favourites cities in Poland. Its bigger than Wellington roughly a city of 650K. It was once the former textile manufacturing capital of Europe. After WWII it also became the temporary capital of Poland while Warszawa was being rebuilt. What I love about this city is that many of the buildings and churches are original, this city managed to escape the destruction by the German army during the war so you get a glimpse into Poland’s past and see for yourself the original architecture and layout of the city. It also has the longest street in Europe Pietrkowska Street which can I say, on a hot day was extremely long around 5 kilometres but was once upon a time the place to be seen. This street once housed the homes of Lodz’s elite, but now it has been transformed into chic apartments and restaurants. I did notice that Covid had taken a toll but like most cities things are getting back to normal. Sitting beside these are the four story red brick buildings of the mills, and then further behind these buildings were the grey concrete tenement houses of the workers. The red brick buildings are impressive, many have been renovated in recent years as part of the revitalisation project run by local authorities here in Lodz. An example of this is the Manufactura complex which can I say is very impressive, once a cotton mill dating back to the 19th century it now houses a vast shopping mall, restaurants, hotels, multiplex museums and exhibition centre. This gives you an idea of what scale I am talking about as this is one of many red brick buildings scattered around the centre of Lodz. Did I mention that Lodz is also the film capital and also the cultural and arts hub in Poland, so if you are into these you might need more than a day.
We took the train down from Warszawa to Lodz leaving around 9.30am and arriving in Lodz around 11.00am, our first stop was to OFF Pietrkowska Street for breakfast which was delicious and a great price at $12.50 and that included my flat white. A quick look at a few shops we headed for the Textile Museum, lucky for us Wednesday was free. First stop was a small street with four houses on it each depicting various eras during the history of the mills. With each house a story of what life would have been like for many families. From the 19th century, pre war, post war and what life was like under soviet communism. It all began in the 18th century when the industrial revolution arrived and people were released from working on farms as serfs given their freedom they fled to Lodz in their thousands from various parts of Europe to work in the mills . This carried through until 1989 , then the mills floundered after the soviets left and Poland regained its independence and the notably the increase in the use of synthetic yarn.
Lodz has a new train station and unlike others its large and open and quite a relaxing space. However, we caught the slow train home instead of our fast train, the conductor was very accepting of our mistake and let us stay on board one thing to remember always check everything twice, who knew two trains were leaving for Warszawa at the same time!on Wednesday.
Next trip is Gdansk .