Warsaw, Poland

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

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This is a symbolic monument to the nameless heroes who have fallen in fight for Poland’s freedom. The monument contains urns of earth from all the 20th century battlefields on which Poles have fought and died.

Fountain

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There is this beautiful fountain and park directly behind the tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Great place to soak up the sun and people watch.

List of those killed

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Along the exterior walls of a church near the Warsaw University there was this wall with the names and ages of those killed during the Nazi Occupation. This is only a small portion of all the names.

Monument ot the Ghetto Heroes

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This monument attempts to express the fight and ultimate tragedy of the Ghetto and those heroes who tried to fight off the Nazi atrocities. The stone encasing the monument was originally ordered for a monument to the victory of the Third Reich.

The Little Insurgent

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This monument commemorates the children in the Warsaw Uprising who the participated as scouts, messengers, and even fighters.

WWII Military Cemetary

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I stopped by the military cemetery in Warsaw. I was amazed by not only the number of military graves but by how young many of the soldiers were buried there from both WWI & WWII.

Warsaw Uprising Monument

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This is a memorial to Warsaw's most infamous attempt to fight back against the Nazi's deadly & vicious occupation. It is broken into two separate segments: fighting and escape.

Uprising memorial - Fighting

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The fighting section of the memorial

Uprising Memorial - The Escape

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Although it is difficult to see with the flowers around the soldier. It depicts him entering the sewers to escape. Behind him are another soldier, a mother with her baby, and behind them a priest. 5000 people escaped the Warsaw uprising through the sewers.

Palace on the Water

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Lazienki Park is a very beautiful park and a very large park in that it has more than one palace. I believe there are two other palaces on the 74 hectacer park. Probably the most famous & popular is the Palace on the Water. It was build for the king Stanislaw August, the last king to rule Poland before it was parted by Russia, Prussia and Austria. At first it was his little palace in the countryside. It was to be his bathing place (that's where the name comes from- lazienka in Polish is a bathroom, "Lazienki"- bathrooms!), but soon it became a little residence where he invited the best of Polish poets and writers for the Thursday Dinners, during which art, poetry and politics were discussed.

Palace Portico

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Connecting the Palace on the Water are these beautiful porticos.

Palace Statute

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On each side of the large patio on the Palace on the Water that overlooks the water are what appear to be two Roman athletes.

Theater on the Water

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With the background of the beautiful of the palace, this open air theater, designed in 1786, is also on an island of its own. The audience are seated across the water in an amphitheater type seating.

Palace of Culture & Science

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It is a gift for Warsaw from Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union at the time. He decided to build nine such palaces - 8 in Moscow and one in Warsaw. By mistake, the plans of the highest of them all went to Warsaw instead of staying in the capital of USSR and that’s how Warsaw got the tallest building in Europe until the 70s. It is also called Stalin's penis by the old people who lived under the soviet regime.

The Ten Year Stadium

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The stadium was built in 1954-1955 on a heap of rubble. Except for the field, the stadium reminds me of a Roman stadium. All the seats have been removed and only the concrete supports are still there. The weeds and trash only add to this perception.

Stadium Statues

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Just outside the Ten Year Stadium stand these statues of athletes. Unfortunately, like the stadium they have fallen on hard times and it appears that the stone they were carved or formed out of is slowly deteriorating.

Flea market Dresses

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The Warsaw flea market is supposedly the largest in Europe. We were worn out walking around and never did see it all. the flea market surrounds a good portion of the Ten Year Stadium.

Flea market Dress Stall

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I've never seen a flea market/bazaar that had such fine evening clothes.

Desert

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A huge thin pancake (crepe), filled with a sweet creamy cottage cheese, covered with chocolate & rum sauce and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Definitely not found on a Weight Watcher diet.

Oven Baked Perogis

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An alternate method of making pierogies is by baking them. Kate enjoyed the baked one while I enjoyed the traditional boiled with pan fried onions and of course, great Polish beer.