Sightseeing in Warsaw

After a simple breakfast of cereal and tea in bed, we spoke to Kim’s mother who rang from New Zealand.

We bought a travel pass each which gave us access to the tram, metro and bus so we could explore Warsaw.  Hopping on the tram southbound into town, we didn’t know where to get off.  It all worked out well when we hopped out near the Palace of Culture, a Soviet-era high-rise.  It was near the city centre where there were malls and tall buildings.

The area around the railway station had lots of underground shops including cafes and snackeries.  Eating was plentiful and cheap.  We found an old cinema where you can peer into a circular lit box but it wasn’t open today.  There were many stalls selling fruit, especially cherries.

Continuing our walk northbound on “The Royal Way” to find the old town, we spotted a Vietnamese café Co Tu in a courtyard off the street.  We filled up with a chilli shrimp (small shrimps) dish and a chicken dish plus rice.

The Royal Way is a 4km long road that goes from the The Royal Castle at Old Town to the Wilanow Palace in the south.  As we walk this route in reverse saw a few of the city’s historical landmarks.  Many, including the Royal Castle, have only been rebuilt in recent times as parts of Warsaw was badly damaged during the war.

We explored the old town including St John’s Cathedral.  There were many lovely cafes in the square but we had eaten.  Kim fell into a grumpy mood as he didn’t want to enter the church and felt that I had manipulated him into going!

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After a brief visit to the internet café, we did quick visits to the Army Cathedral and the Monument to the Warsaw Uprising.  The latter commemorates the systematic destruction of the city by Nazi Germany from during a couple of months in 1944.

After a rest and some reading in Krazinski Park to choose our remaining explorations, we continued to the Jewish History Museum.  The weather felt like it was going to rain, with the clouds and high wind.

We took the tram back to the hotel, with an interchange on the way.  We bought some fruit and rested in our room till the evening.

In the evening, we took the tram along Jana Pawla II Ave.  There were many eateries there interspersed with sex video and sex toy shops.  We had read that Poland is the most homogenous country in Europe primarily comprised of a Polish and nominally Catholic majority with very few minorities.

We had Vietnamese chicken and squid with rice and a cabbage/carrot salad similar to sauerkraut.  It appears that there are no/few Chinese people around.  The east Asian takeaways are all Vietnamese.

To make the most of our travel pass, we rode Tram 19 to the end of its route, then returned on Tram 33 to look around town.  Most of what we saw were post-war drab apartment blocks interspersed with tall beautiful office towers.  Warsaw has quite a fair bit of graffiti but nowhere as much as Milan.

As we approached our hotel, the sky turned black and it started spitting and blowing.  It turned cool rather quickly too.  Once settled back into our apartment, we were pleased to have once again dodged the weather.

Our apartment had a novel feature.  We had never seen it before!  Our large window (and seemingly doors in some other apartments) open in two ways.  Turn the handle half-way, it swings out fully along a vertical hinge.  Turn the handlfully, the pane falls inwards hinging at the bottom to create a vent at the top.  Wow!  [Edit:  In later years, I realised these are quite common in Europe.]