Warsaw!

Posted byolePosted inWarsaw 22

Well, no matter where you find yourself, there you are, and I find myself in Warsaw. Yay.

It began by spending a week in line at passport control. Well okay, maybe it was only an hour, but it felt longer. There was one rather slow agent checking passports for a whole 787 full of passengers. Welcome to Eastern Europe. But I made it through – fortunately my bag made it too – now to find…

… my hotel – beautiful – right here in Chopin airport.

I check in, change, and now I’m off to see the city!

I had made a reservation at a restaurant downtown, and took a taxi. Lukasz my driver pointed out the sites along the way and generally acted as a tour guide. Hmmm.

The Stalin-era capital building

I mentioned wanting to “eat Polish”, and so he redirected me to Mokotowska 69. It was excellent. And it occurred to me, Lukasz would be great for a “hey taxi driver, show me your city” tour. So I engaged him to meet me after dinner…

Mokowska 69 – lots of plants and great ambiance
Beautiful!
Crawfish – unbelievably delicious
Well, yeah, of course 🙂

And so it was on to see the sights of Warsaw! Wow … so cool …

Many people out and about on a Friday night
The famous “three cross” square
Warsaw University
The Bristol Hotel
Polish Parliament
Amazing churches everywhere here
Predominantly Catholic but many other religions represented
Boulevard into the Old Town
Surrounded by walls and a moat

The Old Town doesn’t allow cars – so we parked and walked in …

Yes, that is a clock
Central square in the Old Town

And can we just pause for a moment to appreciate my iPhone 12 Pro’s camera? It was dark and rainyish and honestly the colors and lighting are more vivid in these pics than it was in person. Okay, let’s resume …

Incredible
A cool old tower / guardhouse built on a bridge over the moat
And inside the guardhouse, beautiful music!
Another view of the battlements surrounding the Old Town
(quite proud of this one)

Now on to see other sights … many monuments for WWII and the resistance to the German occupation …

“The Uprising”
huge and emotional
“The child soldier”
small and equally emotional

Other monuments date back to the Soviet Era, and then the escape from Communism…

Memorial for those sent to the work camps in Siberia
The tomb of the unknown soldier
lit fires adorn the memorial and live soldiers guard it 24×7
… opposite a huge public square

Even today war and occupation are very much a part of Warsaw; the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had a profound effect, and yellow and blue lights representing the Ukrainian flag are everywhere.

The National Theater, lit up

An interesting side effect of the Russian war has been a strong shift to electric cars. My taxi was one, almost without comment – well of course I did comment on it – and they were everywhere, as were chargers for them.

Steeped in history as it is, Warsaw is also a vibrant modern city, and some of the sights are more contemporary.

Well, of course
The ultimate crystal skull =O
Buses, trolleys, skyscrapers, and American brands everywhere

So be it – a great whirlwind tour – thank you Lukasz! And so now to sleep, and then up at oh-dark for a flight to Nice. Please stay tuned!