Travel diary

On the train, which is almost full - it is very luxurious - waiting to leave Przemysl for Lviv. Better than any train in England, an Englishman just said to me. He has visited Kiev throughout the war once a month 'to see friends'. All is perfectly safe. I am impatient to be in beautiful, beautiful Lviv. After Rome, Venice and Oxford (except Oxford isn't in Europe), Lviv is my favourite European city.

In Warsaw I stayed almost unintentionally in a very grand hotel in the business area and I find that sort of hotel terribly depressing. Luxury requires an aristocratic setting (Santayana). Instead it has executives. On my first visit to Warsaw in 1994 the old town seemed like toytown. On the second it seemed lively and had aged well. This time it smelt of the dead of the Second World War, followed by soulless Communism and now by soulless big business.

Przemysl is an adorable city, a poor man's Lviv, but 90 minutes is enough.