Warsaw

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We finally arrived at our beautiful old town hotel 24 hours after we planned thanks to 2 flight cancellations from LOT airlines resulting in an unscheduled night in Antwerp.

So now we only had one afternoon and evening to enjoy in Warsaw, and it coincided with the exact timing that the President of the USA, Barack Obama, was in Warsaw.

This meant that there was a massive police presence, the main thoroughfares, known as the Royal Way, were completely closed to traffic and the area around the presidential palace, where he was staying, was a media circus and difficult to get to.

Our hotel was next to the Royal Castle, and the Castle Inn contained interesting decor. We stayed in the cartoon room, which was full of interesting artwork. Unfortunately the Royal Castle was closed due to an official function involving the president.

After checking into our hotel, we didn't waste any time and headed down the Royal Way, admiring the many beautiful churches and monuments including the Salonik Chopinow where Chopin's heart is kept. A couple of kilometres down the road is the massive Lazienkowski Park, which is like a mystical forest in parts and in the centre is a lake with the huge Palace Wypsie built over it which is picture perfect. We walked back up towards the old town, stopping at the Saxon Gardens where the ruins of the Saxon Palace, that was destroyed by the Nazi's, and a tomb of the unknown soldier is. Obama was scheduled to lay a wreath there at 6pm so we hung around and waited to see him. We were surprised how close we got and how few locals were interested but the 40 security cars and hundreds of police meant that we were given an impressive insight into his security and only caught a fleeting glimpse of the man himself. However his car drove right past us on the way out and he waved directly to us.

After that we walked around the amazing old town, which is very small but has a great square with colourful matching six-storey houses around it and outdoor restaurants in the middle. We chose to go just outside the castle walls to a very authentic Polish restaurant which was a cheaper option to eating in the old town square.

The next morning we battled our way to the station as the road closures and police presence was still everywhere and managed to get on a train to Krakow.

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