5/12 – One day in Warsaw (morning)

The sun is actually shining when we wake up. What? Really? Cool!

The forecast called for rain all day – so we are super excited that it doesn’t look that bad right now, so we jump in the shower and head to breakfast. Wow – breakfast. Buffet on steroids - you name it – it’s down here – from omelets to scrambled eggs to waffles to yogurt – well – you name it. Lovely. We get our protein going and then head out into Warsaw for our one day, whirl wind tour.

I’ve mapped out this whole circuit of sites, but I’m worried I’ve been a little bit aggressive in the planning. Especially with the weather forecast. But – heck – we’ve got one day – and we’ve got umbrellas – and the fall back will be taxis – so we are off!

9:10 – out the door – and because the weather is good – we head to the Royal Way and Old Town. Originally I wanted to do this last, so we would end up in Old Town around lunch – but we flip the plans so we know we will be outside in the good weather – and end up in the museums when it looks like rain. We head down Aleja Jerozolimskie – which actually translates to Jerusalem Avenue but please don’t ask me to pronounce any of these names – I’ll give you the nick-names we call them – but other than that….fuggetaboutit! We walk the two long blocks to the beginning of Nowy Swiat and the silly fake Palm tree. The story goes that when a local artist visited the real Jerusalem, she was amazed at all the palm trees there and thought that it was appropriate that a palm tree should be here in Warsaw’s “Jerusalem” - thus – the bizarre plastic palm in the middle of a not so palm-temperate place.

Nowy Swiat is a long boulevard filled with cafes, shops and restaurants. It is a lovely little street with old world charm – of course – it isn’t really old world. None of this city could be considered old. Hitler saw to that by bombing it to smithereens in the 1945. Nothing from the town is original, it has all been rebuilt in the late 1950’s to replicate what the War annihilated. It is still charming, but to some, in a Disney sort of way.

We enjoy the stroll down the street – looking at all the buildings and the great old photos of what the town looked like originally, and what was reconstructed.

Oh, and there is that darn Copernicus! His statue just lords over us – yeah – we know – we could have won that stupid ARE if we had only read our Warsaw guide sooner. Darn.

We happen upon one of the Rick Steve’s recommended pubs- Browarmia. Looks like a possibility if we end up here at some lunch or dinner time. Love the sign in the window –hmmm….our Polish is rusty but we think it is saying we get a ½ litre of beer free if we take some drugs? Maybe that’s why it’s recommended. LOL.

Continuing up the Royal Way – we pass churches and the tomb of the unknown soldier – as well as the current “Polish White House”, Radziwell Palace. This is where the Warsaw Pact was signed in 1955 and, where judging from the guards, the current President is in residence.

Next is the statue of Adam Mickiewicz, Poland’s national poet. A beautiful setting, and one where Polish students come after their prom, and hop around the statue on one foot for good luck on their final exams.

Finally we end up at Castle Square – the entrance to the old Town. A wonderful pillar with one of the Polish Kings adorns the entrance to the square.

But the most interesting things are the original pillars, laying in pieces on the side of the castle. The original pillar from 1644 was falling apart and had to be replaced in the 1800s. Then the replacement granite pillar was destroyed by a Nazi tank, and is laid out in 4 piece, pocked with bullet holes, next to the original pillar. A poignant reminder of the occupation that so laid to waste this city during the war.

The skies are darkening as we wander further into the old town. We walk down “beer” street – well that’s what Rick Steve calls it – but that’s now how you spell beer – it is Piwo, not Piwna. Still a nice picture!

It is early – and it is Sunday – so we can’t really visit any of the churches we want to see – they all have services. We take a few pictures of exteriors – and one interior through a vestibule window –

Then head to market square. The ubiquitous square – it is like most others in Europe- except that it is all made to look original but not actually original. It is lovely – with lots of great architectural detail, but because we know the story – it does seem a bit overdone. Makes for nice photos though!

Next we move through the square to the Barbican and the old Town walls.

We reconnoiter here to decide our next move. We can go up through the New Town – or head across town (just a 10 minute walk) to the new Jewish Museum and the Path of Remembrance. Because the skies are darkening, we decide to take our chances across town and head for the path.

A nice 10 (well actually 15 because we stopped a couple times for photos) minute walk brings us to the ghetto walls and the depiction of where the ghetto was located.

The monument to the Ghetto Uprising Heroes is only a few blocks away. Made of black marble, it commemorates those who fought and died trying to end the oppression of the Polish Jews in the Ghetto. It graces the park outside the Museum of History of Polish Jews, which has been getting rave reviews in the press and all the tourist guides. We decide to wander in – and because it is Sunday – the entrance fee is waived (as all museum fees are waived in Warsaw on Sunday).

The museum is very well done, depicting the life of Jews in Warsaw from Middle Ages until today. The exhibition is still in the temporary stages – the permanent exhibit not yet finalized –but it is still an excellent history of how Poland was home to the world’s largest Jewish community until WWII. There were 3.3 million Jews living here before the war, and the museum is a walk through history and the legacy of the Jews who settled here. During the war, more than 90% of the Jews perished, and survivors fled so that only a small number of Jews remained here (now the population is less than 100,000). The displays are incredibly symbolic and give a good historical perspective on the active Jewish community that used to exist here in Poland.

After perusing the displays, and the beautiful architecture (more beautiful on the inside than the outside)

We venture back outside (into the cloudy, yet not rainy day) and head down the Path of Remembrance. We follow the black marble monuments

that recount events of the uprising. Sadly, though, the narrative on the stones are only in Polish and Hebrew, neither of which we can read. Oh well – we get the idea, so we just follow the path markers, coming upon the bunker where organizers of the uprising hid and later committed suicide when the Nazis discovered them.

We continue to follow the path until we get to the Umschlagplatz monument – which is a marble or granite walled monument shaped vaguely like a cattle car. This is the place where the Jews were brought to be “transferred” to Treblinka or Auschwitz. Sobering. The whole path is sobering – but also very hard to comprehend as you are walking down a very contemporary sidewalk past soviet era apartment buildings in a lovely, green part of town – all the time trying to remember that 70 years ago, this was the ghetto where Jews were segregated and walked to their eventual death down this path. It is – well – hard to absorb and comprehend.

At this juncture, we are the very top of the walking circuit. We have 2 options – to taxi down to the Warsaw Uprising Museum – or walk the 2KM there. It’s still not raining – so we decide to take the chance and hoof it. We are definitely getting our exercise today. We’ve not sat down once yet since leaving the hotel a little after 9:00. But we’re not tired yet – so onward ho!