I think it is about fifteen years since my first visit to Wolsztyn in Poland with friends and looking back some things have certainly changed and others are reassuringly familiar. On my first visit I picked up the dinner tab at the Europa Restaurant in town for three of us as it came to less than a round of drinks at home. The restaurant is still trading today, serving great food but even today the three course dinner for two with a bottle of wine came to just 133 Zloty or about £28.00. Still very reasonable.

The initial draw of the town was however the last working steam locomotive shed in the world that was used for the daily timetabled passenger services which you could, for a fee, actually drive or travel on the footplate - something myself and Heather have previously done. It is a shame that this is now pretty much consigned to history and steam is used on an infrequent basis on what seems to be 'charter' type services just a couple of times a month at most. The steam shed is still here and locomotives are kept serviced for these trains but it is not quite the same as what was a regular event only a few years ago. This is after all progress!

Wolsztyn is however a pleasant little town with a number of nice restaurants, bars, coffee shops and bakers plus some reasonable hotels and for somewhere pretty much in the middle of nowhere a chance of getting an English menu to help you with your dining choices - but keep a phrase book handy just in case (we needed it at a new pizza restaurant in town). How much of this growth was driven by the steam locomotives rather than natural growth since Poland joined the EU is hard to say but it is certainly a factor.

Our one full day did enable us to see most of the town, grab a light lunch with a beer, have a stroll around the lake and also have a coffee and cake. We also visited the loco shed and museum although given the next steam hauled service is in late March there was no smell of coal smoke drifting through the air at the roundhouse.

My first visit to Wolsztyn all those years ago saw us stopping at the Kaukaska, a simple but clean hotel about ten minutes walk from the station. On this trip we chose to stay there again for just £30.00 a night including a simple continental breakfast. Not a huge amout has changed either other than the breakfast which was, especially on the first visit, a challenge to get anything other than a boiled, fried or scrambled egg. At least today you can ask for these rather than have to act out the cooking method you would like!

Hopefully the next visit to Wolsztyn will coincide with the operation of a steam service but if not it will still be a nice place to spend a couple of nights and it will still feel rather familiar and comfortable just like a second home.