Blogs from Masovia, Poland, Europe

After arriving the previous evening, I was ready to head out and explore Warsaw. I had booked two free walking tours for today. The first one started at 10 am and was a walking tour around the Jewish part of Warsaw. The starting point was about a 20 minute walk from where I was staying. I enjoyed the walk there taking in all the new sights around me. The Palace of Science and Culture loomed over the city. I really like the building. It's just so huge and very different to the modern skyscrapers that around the city. The tour met in front of All Saints Church, which is a Roman Catholic church that was completed in 1883. There were about ten or fifteen people on the tour, so not too big a group. Our first ... read more

Today was a long 14 hr travel day firstly with a 2 hr return journey to Vilnius by private bus before changing to an inter city bus & a 600 km drive for a 2 night stop at the Hit Hotel in Warsaw. Not such a big hit! After check-in we pretty much went straight to bed. Next day was forecast to be 33 deg. so commenced an early orientation walk with a local guide to see Warsaw’s “old town”. The use of this term is somewhat of a misnomer as despite appearances the old town is very new. As retribution for the Poles resistance to the Germans in WW2 they set about systematically destroying all of Warsaw. The commencement to rebuild the old town to original 18th century architectural drawings only commenced in the 1980’s ... read more

The road to Warsaw is indeed mostly road (I had expected motorway but there are only chunks of motorway appearing randomly along the way). Hence the 184 mile journey takes over 5 hours. It’s not very scenic and I’ve finished my book, so it’s a long 5 hours. We stop briefly in a Lidl to buy brunch and get attacked by old ladies brandishing shopping trolleys like lethal weapons. By the time we reach Warsaw, it’s mid afternoon and raining and the city is masked by a cloud of smog. It takes another hour to fight our way into town (I can understand now why we had to pay an excess to bring the car here – the drivers are batshit crazy) and find our way to the hotel car park, which is in a courtyard ... read more

Today was a free day in Warsaw before the tour officially began. Susan and I planned to explore the old town and visit Warsaw Castle. While the tour would later make a stop there, ti would not go inside the castle as we planned to do. As is typical of European hotels, breakfast was a wide-ranging buffet mean to suit every taste and breakfast tradition. A difference in in Poland was all the delicious breads that were provided. Also, there were unique Polish breakfast items such as Salceson, head cheese, Smalec, a lard spread and Synka Mysliwska, slices of smoked ham. We took a taxi to the Old Town, Stare Miasto. The cab left us off at Midowa and Krakowskie Przedmieście at the foot of old town square. Old town square is a pedestrian precinct. The ... read more

Bonjour à tous, Encore une journée à 0 km pour la voiture, mais 13.1 pour moi. Je ne serais pas loin de 15 apres le repas de ce soir. Ce matin la douleur musculaire qui me gênait depuis 2 jours à pratiquement disparu. Je ne voulais pas marcher autant aujourd’hui mais de fil en aiguille, une bâtisse un monument en appelant un autre, et c’est encore une belle journé, à Warszawa, avec une beau temps et 28ºcet après-midi. Varsovie, capitale de la Pologne 1 730 000 habitants, agglomération 3 340 000. Surnommée la ville Phénix, pour avoir réussie à renaître de ces cendres. 84% de la ville ayant été détruit pendant la seconde guerre mondiale. Elle regroupe toute une gamme d’industries et 70% des établissements supérieurs de la Pologne. La ville continue sont développement économique avec ... read more