This is an old water pump in Szczecin. There are a few of these scattered around. I gather that these were still used until only a few years ago, but now are only used for ornaments. I have been to Warsaw and Poznań, which are much touristed, but I think by and large Szczecin is a prettier city. What the city lacks is the old downtown square, which was rebuilt in the other cities after the war but in Szczecin. Thus the beauty is more scattered about in Szczecin.
I took this picture at an intersection in Warsaw just because it was so typical. Nice old buildings mixed with new, interesting lamps, various states of repairs, some graffiti.
This is one of the big, probably German-made old mangles for ironing cloths. I would like to have one of these, and actually saw a nice smaller one in a shop in Poznań at a fantastic price, but of course getting one of these things home would be quite the task…
This is a display of old irons that I found in a museum in Warsaw. I collect old irons, so had to take a picture, even if the display is nothing special.
While in Warsaw this car was parked at my hotel. Obviously had gone places. Signatures on the car are, as best as I can tell, from Mongolia, Russia, Kazachstan, south and eastern Europe and some Arabic. I waited around to see if I might meet these travelers but ran out of time.
This is a more-or-less typical piece of old German architecture facing one of the squares. I say typical, because there are many, some much more fancy than this, around Szczecin, often intermixed with newer structures.
There used to be a lot of small little grocery-convenience stores, often privately owned and run by some old couple. I would usually buy from these little shops on previous visits, but larger and more commercial groceries have now opened up and the smaller ones such as this one have closed.
The Poles love flowers, and there are flower shops everywhere.
These are the bathroom doors for the ladies (circle) and mens (triangle) rooms. Newer building now often use the traditional lady-in-a-dress, men-in-pants symbols. In commercial areas, the signs for the bathrooms read WC, for water closet, a widely used symbol in Europe that comes from the UK.
This is the coffee pot in our lunch area. European coffee pots make very good – fresh ground – coffee, but are also very complicated. I helped clean the pot yesterday, a very big job. I much prefer the American drip coffee makers.