Advertisement
Published: August 9th 2011
Edit Blog Post
The perfect weather we have had in Warsaw so far had a little hiccup this morning before we headed off for the bus trip into the city. While we had a late breakfast there was a brief drop of light rain. The cabbages in the field next to the hotel are fermenting nicely after weeks of rain. Our back pack was filled with all the necessary protection - sun screen, insect repellent, sun hat, rain coats and umbrellas – and off we went.
We wandered through part of Warsaw that still has pre-WWII buildings standing. The area known as Praga has many old buildings that have been renovated and are now used as art studios, galleries and clubs. One street we walked down looked as though nothing had changed. The brick buildings were in a bad state of repair and walking into the courtyard through the archway you could be back in the 1940s.
Crossing the Wisla River we found our way into the Old Town in front of the Royal Palace, where there was a lot of activity. This was the anniversary of the start of the Home Army Uprising in Warsaw in 1944, so there were many static displays.
As part of the anniversary activities there was a group of children dressed in period costume wearing tin hats. They were being led by a man, also in costume, across the square trying to avoid being “shot”.
The day was quite warm and humid and as we walked through Ogrod Saski, site of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, we saw families enjoy the sunny day in the park and its surroundings. The fountain was a great attraction for the young.
To conclude our visit to Warsaw we stopped off at the Warsaw Rising Museum. Our knowledge of what happened in Warsaw during the 1940s has always been rather incomplete. The information we gathered from this museum certainly filled some missing gaps. Something we clarified was that there were two Uprisings, the first by the Ghetto Jews in 1943 and the second by the Home Army in 1944. The museum exhibition highlighted the deprivation and suffering the people of Warsaw went through during WWII. Part of the exhibition illustrated the extent to which the city was destroyed.
As we left the museum having seen so much misery we were greeted by torrential rain and the sound of thunder. We have
not seen so much rain fall as we have in a Polish thunder storm. Thankfully the rain had stopped by the time we got back to the hotel, which is on a busy road into the city. The bus stops some distance from the hotel entrance so a walk is necessary after alighting. Because there is no footpath the walk is on the narrow shoulder between the road and the ditch. It would have been most unpleasant walking in the rain with trucks thundering past only a metre or so away. A dive into the ditch is always an option. If our children had witnessed our walk they would have had a fit. Now it is their turn to worry about what their parents get up to.
Tomorrow we head north towards Malbork with an overnight stay at Kwidzyn.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.317s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 46; dbt: 0.117s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb