tim's experiment

Away again, hence the absence of posts. My technical enthuisiasm does not run as far as uploading things here from distant hotels.  This trip was a piping for charity thing in Poznan. Poznan is the city in Poland which historians will remember as Posen, which is still its German name. Whatever you call it, Poznan is worth a visit if you are passing that way. It has everything you hope to find in an East European city: cobbled streets, historic buildings, big parks, pavement cafes and cheap booze. The old part of the town has a huge pedestrianised central square – so big that the town hall, an elegant antique with a performing clock – is actually in the middle of it, with a few other buildings. Round the outside are restaurants which all extend onto the pavement. Either there is no Food and Environmental Health Department in Poland or the local version suffers from common sense.

The interesting thing about Poznan is that this is not an ancient city preserved from warfare by luck and from developers by the accident of communism. This place has always been a fortified city. At the end of World War II the Germans and Russians had an extended slugfest which left the place thoroughly chewed up. But at this point the inhabitants did not call in the local counterpart of Norman Foster. Nor did they invite some real estate shark to treat them to the latest in modern malls. They decided to put everything back the way it was. In fact I’m told that during this process sundry previous “improvements” were quietly reversed, so that things were actually for the most part put back where they were in 1800. And the result is very beautiful. Much more beautiful than anything in Hong Kong, to be brutal about it. Which leads to a rather depressing conclusion: if the Red Army flattens your neighbourhood you can fix it, if you wish to. But once our property Panzers have given you a going over, there is no going back. Shame.