Detailed review by dangaroo
dangaroo
Warszawa, Poland95%
I've been aware of The Museum of Transportation in Budapest and Prague's various car related museums (The Skoda Museum, Sports Car Museum and Technical Museum), Berlin has it's fair share too but it's something that I always thought Warsaw was lacking, I even considered setting up my own at one point. Then suddenly, I came across a museum that fitted the bill, somehow it had passed me by all the years that I'd lived in Warsaw and many locals seem unaware too.
Getting There:
One of the reasons for the lack of knowledge about its existence might be that it's based in a small town called Otrebusy which is 22km from the centre of Warsaw. If you're travelling by car then follow the 719 road towards Zyrardow and you will come across the museum on the left hand-side. Another alternative is to take a local train from Warszawa Zachodnia (West), this takes about 35 minutes and costs about 8zl. The train station is a small walk from the museum.
The Museum:
The first thing to welcome you is a courtyard where several classic cars and London buses are parked up. You can have a nosy at these without paying anything. Entrance to the museum costs 10zl and 7zl for concessions. Tickets, memorobillia and pamphlets can be bought at the small ticket office near the entrance.
Once you've entered through the gates, you find yourself amongst a rather random collection of motors, when I visited it included a sports car, half an aeroplane, a tank and a van called Joshua that Baroness of Warsaw Sue Ryder used to transport aid in to Eastern Bloc countries, there's a detailed account of their trips and photos of her brave solo journeys along basic roads in poor winter conditions in a very basic Austin.
It's very much a private museum and you can see the evident lack of funding, the place has the feeling of a junk shop or an eccentric's private collection, that's not to say the cars in the museum are junk, there's some great pieces on show but some of them are a little damaged and the higgledy-piggledy order of cars, motorbikes, gramophones, televisions, radios and other technical items. The sheer volume of the non automobile items is pretty impressive.
There's a lot of swanky motors that were used by the Nazis during the war and an SS van used to store gold, a ZIS 110B that Stalin drove and the so called Popemobile that he used to greet crowds in Warsaw are perhaps the most unique cars in the collection. The museum seems to rely on donations of cars to some extent but to maintain the cars and the museum, they have a small side business renting out some of the older cars with a chauffeur for weddings and private events and for this reason you are more likely to see a full repertoire of the cars on offer on a day that is not a Saturday.
Eastern Europe has had some great little cars over the years, whether it be Poland's own Syrena or Warszawa brands, Russia's stylish Volgas and their big powerful truck/tank like motors that are designed for travelling in Siberia or Ukraine's tiny Zaporozec - whilst some of these are cars are on show at the museum, there is not a specific section dedicated to regional cars and this is something that would really appeal to foreign visitors.
The people that work at the Museum are able to tell you lots of things about individual cars but in Polish and there's not much in the way of information in English, it's basically up to you to explore and discover and for 10zl, it's definitely worth the visit.
Motorisation Museum9
