Day 70 31 May 2015 Warsaw

Day 70 31 May 2015 Warsaw

Warsaw is quite interesting, there are few very tall buildings, frequent green areas and The Old Town was rebuilt not by the Soviets but by the Polish people themselves.  Most of the city was totally destroyed during WW 2 so the Soviets could completely redesign the city. The Soviet style of architecture is not unlike that of the Nazis.

This morning we had a bus tour which took us to the Royal Garden park that has a statue of Marshall Pidulski who in 1920, despite being heavily outnumbered by the invading Soviet Bolshevik forces, led attacks on their logistical rear causing them to withdraw rapidly.  It was called the “Miracle of the Vistula”. From the Polish perspective of the Soviet occupation of East Germany in 1945 was that this victory actually delayed Communism by 20 years.  They had his car in the park and people seem fascinated with it so I took a photo of people taking a photo of his car.

In the park also was a statue of Frederick Chopin.  The monument has a willow tree (the national tree of Poland) with five branches that represents a hand playing a piano.  They also have a bench explaining his life and music and you can press a button a listen to his music.  We had a group photo taken by a very entertaining photographer.

One of the most powerful monuments we have seen so far is the Polish memorial, remembering the Polish Uprising in August 1945. Quiet.  For two months they fought the Germans with little or no support from the allied powers. Our tour guide told us about how the Poles were forced to fight and travel in the sewers. Inn his family his grandmother, mother (aged 3) and uncle (age 1) were travelling in the sewers and they had to be absolutely quiet otherwise the Germans would drop gas on them and they would all be killed.  His uncle only a baby started crying and there were instances when mothers were forced to killed their babies, otherwise they all could have been killed.  Hus grandmother was clever and gave him alcohol to keep him quiet. The good news is that he went to sleep, they all survived and his uncle is not an alcoholic. The memorial was only done was only done in 1989 as for the Soviets it was a sore point.

There was a quite dramatic monument to the Soviet deportations of Polish citizens during the Communist era.

We visited the Old Town of Warsaw and with perfect weather it was quite attractive place to go, lots of ice cream on sale, for the locals it must have felt like summer.  We saw the rebuilt building where Marie Curie (a Polish woman who married a Frenchman) worked. A tour of the Royal castle showed us some nice royal apartments, portraits of all the Polish kings and two Rembrandts that had x-ray images.

Our tour guide told us that that Poland is being punished by Putin so they can’t export their apples to Russia.  Apparently the farmers needs every person in Poland needs to eat 1.5 kg of apples every day.

This afternoon we go to a country estate for a Chopin concert and a meal. We were greeted on country estate by a gregarious local who gave us elderberry wine that after the initial shock, it could still double as paint stripper.

Now fully tanked we enjoyed a Chopin concert. The pianist was very good and performed some nocturnes Chopin’s famous waltz, etudes and finished with a dramatic spaghetti Polonaise. The etudes were quite dramatic and difficult pieces to do. Usually I zone out a bit in classical concerts but this was very good.

Dinner was parsnip soup (yummy), veal, some sort of kabana, carrot, dumpling and gnocchi.  Desert was pavlova with fresh cream and strawberries.  Who would have thought we would go half way around to the world to eat that.  Plenty of beer, wine, vodka, another drink with gold flakes. 

After the dinner all the ladies were given a lovely rose and a big kiss (and in some cases two).  I got a handshake.

The bus trip home had a quite chirpy (alcohol induced) audience and a 60s mixed CD allowed people to sing along that made the trip of 1½ hours seem shorter.

We were able to use the internet and catch up on the blog by posting the last three days so no we are up to date.  Tomorrow is Auschwitz and we arrive in Krakow.  A pony anyone?