I was in Wroclaw (Poland) over the weekend and for some unknown reason, I took off my wedding ring going through the security scanners (which I never ever have done before) and then forgot it was in the tray. So I waltzed off, had a drink before our flight, got on the plane, and only as the plane lifted its nose to take off, did I realise my ring was missing. A 2 hour flight with a sobbing upset wife when all you can see is a dark night outside isn't a good way to end a city break, and knowing it's your own stupid fault doesn't help either! The stewardess (Ryanair) was unsympathetic and suggested I call the airport directly when I landed. Ryanair customer service at Stansted was a mixture of uncaring and unhelpful, eventually printing off contact details for what turned out to be the wrong airport! So late at night when I got home, I sent an e-mail to the general enquiries at Wroclaw airport and hoped it might have been found. Yesterday, I finally got through to the lost and found department after being bounced around quite a while and finding someone who spoke good English to describe the situation. Thankfully, someone had found it and handed it in, but the airport policy was it had to be collected in person. I spoke with a number of couriers, and without a label being printed and placed on it, they couldn't collect it. While the airport said they wouldn't package it or send it on. And I know nobody in Poland. It was then that I contacted the Mercure centrum hotel we stayed in and lucked out when Basia was the person answering. I told her what had happened, and over 10-15 minutes when we'd exhausted quite a few options, she decided the only thing she could do was personally go to the airport, collect the ring, and have it couriered over to me. https://youtu.be/9VEn48lE4eM I must admit, I've encountered a number of fantastic service examples of people going above and beyond, but never have I come across an individual who had nothing to do with an incident, who would go out of their way at personal cost to do something for someone like this. I haven't got her full name (polish is very hard to spell from phonetics!), but I'll certainly be finding a way to thank her for such a selfless kind generous act for a complete stranger that they'd never met before who just so happened to have spent 2 nights in a hotel where she was employed. Just thought I'd share.
Nice story although at first glance at the title of the post I thought it might be about last night's referee being kind to Sunderland in awarding a 'non' penalty
Its a lovely place. Not sure what your likes are, but there are some stunning buildings, a small medieval centre with lots of moats and the river, a huge square and the Christmas markets are on with plenty to see and browse. The Wroclaw Gluhwein has a nice rum kick to it! There are a few up and coming microbrewery kind of bars, not the best i've ever been in, but certainly not just pilsner galore. The food portions are enormous if you go traditional polish, my favourite of the 3 places we ate was pod fredra (we'd booked for a Saturday night at 7:30pm but it wasn't full, so might be able to get in without reservation). That's just off the main square and we were worried it might be a bit touristy, but really wasn't. I had rabbit and the missus had pork neck. Really good. They have these little gnome dwarf creature bronze sculptures around the city (around 300-400 of them) and you can get a map from tourist info which has the locations (loosely) of 100 of them. That can be good entertainment. The Jesuit old Uni church is the most impressive (we always seek out any church with the IHS emblem on, pretty much always the most impressive internally), though externally, there are loads of big churches and many have viewing points. Some decent shopping places if that's your thing. We went to a model railway at an old disused train station which was only about £4 and worth an hour to wander round. In the old medieval part, they supposedly have an old traditional lamplighter, though sadly we neither saw him, or even the lamps that were still gas. Theres a market at Targowa which is pretty outside, but ok but not amazing inside, though there is a craft beer place where we had lunch on the final day. Huge portions and pretty decent if you like 17 new potatoes, half a plate of coleslaw and a schnitzel bigger than your head (had worse mind you)! Ale Browar and Kontynuacja were good, 4 Hops, Spiz (under the town hall) get honourable mentions too, but check out inyourpocket.com/Wroclaw. We got most of our info from there. I'd give BierHalle a miss, german themed and slightly more expensive (if you can call £3 expensive) but the beers weren't as good as elsewhere. Certainly enough to occupy you for a few days and a pleasant environment with English widely spoken. Feel free to message if you've any particular questions or looking for something specific, always happy to help.
Absolutely, and that's the minimum we'll be doing. Not sure what else yet, but I've got the details of the Accor European CEO on twitter, so I suspect he'll be getting a copy of the video posted at the very least!
Give me the full address of the Hotel and we will try and drop some flowers or chocolates off for her next week!
You absolutely don't have to, but of course if you wish to, you're absolutely more than welcome. We'll be doing something too, trying to find out what she likes from other staff members so we can tailor something and then see what awards external, internal and what higher level contacts at Accor we can get hold of. There is a flower market in plac solny, just off one of the corners to the main Rynek. Its usually a 24hr flower market, but there were plenty of Christmas stalls in there too. Alternatively, there were a few flower stalls in the Targowa market, but they looked huge displays, but may do smaller ones. The hotel was; Hotel Mercure Wroclaw Centrum pl. Dominikanski 1 50-159 WROCLAW Its bolted on to a big shopping centre and its very close to the WRO airport bus drop off and pick up points (though the way back we waited 20 minutes longer than advertised for the bus and we ended up getting a taxi which was only around 38zl, so less than a tenner for both of us. the bus was just 10zl each and journey took about 30 minutes in none too busy traffic late morning.) And the womans name is Basia (I think her second name is Jozek, but I've only had that verbally and not in writing so i'm not 100% sure it is her name, spoke with her boss this morning and he's sending me details once the ring is collected for delivery in an hour or two). As I say, don't feel obliged to. Poor lady won't realise what she's done with all the adulation, thanks and returns of goodwill. Hope you have a fantastic time, and if you need anything, just shout.
Just had a confirmation from the hotel that the ring has been sent and should arrive tomorrow. The womans full name is Barbara Jozek, and her name to friends is Basia, and she likes sweet things apparently... so if you do get anything, something chocolate, sweet or cookie related may be better than flower related. Thanks if you do something, but again, no pressure or expectation that you have to.
Ryanair 0% Mercure Hotels 100% The moral of the story is Ryanair should employ Poles which would up their Customer Service by about 1000% There is a Polish girl who comes to our Italian/English conversation group on Tuesday evenings fortnightly. Her Italian is already well on the way, her English pretty good and better than my Italian (which isn't hard), and obviously fluent in Polish. She came to Italy a year ago, having already gained her degree, as part of a multicultural/multinational group of young people on a funded work experience scheme involved in renovating and restoring cultural heritage sites here in Italy and has now got a permanent job/boyfriend here. There are quite a few Polish here, all really great people, honest and hardworking,( some of whom, unfortunately, tend to be exploited by the Italian builders as low paid labourers even though many of them are experienced tradesmen plumbers, electricians, bricklayers etc). There is a lot of rebuilding work starting now the insurance assessors/authorities have finally got their act together going after the Earthquakes 2 years ago. As you say, great people (at least all the ones we have encountered) Not sure I can say the same about some of the Albanians though.
