Poland: Warsaw rose brilliantly from the destruction of WWII!

Warsaw, the capital and most populous city of Poland, feels darker and grittier than Kraków because World War II flattened over 85% of the city destroying its historic center.

Warsaw also carries the heavy trauma of the Warsaw Uprising, the 1944 World War II operation by the Polish Home Army to free Warsaw from German rule.

But the city was meticulously rebuilt by its citizens into an exact replica of its past with stark socialist-realist architecture and modern skyscrapers, contrasting with Kraków’s untouched Gothic and Renaissance charm. Today, it stands as a triumph of historic reconstruction and, like Kraków, is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

So, that’s just a little bit about Warsaw.

Here’s how my day got started. We thankfully arrived at the Kraków Glomy train station early because it took time to find the correct tracks for our more than two hour direct train ride to the Warsaw Central train station.

Once we arrived at the Warsaw Central train station, we followed the taxi signs. It was a cool, gray, rainy day and we all, Alice, Rosie, John and myself, had no intentions of walking to our hotels which were about a 30 minute walk away or a less than 10 minute taxi ride.

What we did not know at the time was that the taxis parked at the Warsaw Central train station were bogus. Since we were all staying at different hotels, we went in separate bogus taxis. And, even though they had taxi roof signs, once I got in, I knew something was wrong because he did not have a meter. He pretty much took me as close as he could to my hotel, but when he told me it was 98 PLN, $26 USD, I bitched. Then when I gave him a 100 PLN bill, he thought it would be okay to keep my change. I told him to give me my change. I’m not really sure who I was most pissed at, him for being such a cheater or me for choosing better. Live and learn. It could have been so much worse.

We all got stung with these high cost taxis. So, our first taste of Warsaw was unfortunately not a pleasant one.

It was just a short walk to my room at the centrally located Pokoje Gościnne Dom Literatury guesthouse in the historical center of Warsaw. The building originally dates back to the 1650s but was completely rebuilt after being destroyed in 1944. If nothing else, the location was definitely worth it but I did enjoy the homely character of the place.

Here’s to just getting started in Warsaw.

The plan for this morning was a “Discover Warsaw: Essential Tour” which we started but cut short when the heavy rains hit. So we bid goodbye to our guide and the few tour members present and ducked into a nearby restaurant to get something to eat and wait out the storm.

The heavy rain did eventually stop but it was still a chilly early evening with light rain for our Warsaw Foodie Tour.

Come walk and eat some delicious Polish food with Alice, Rosie, John and myself in Warsaw.

While getting my clothes together to head to the laundromat, I was notified by a man calling me on the odd sounding telephone in my guestroom at the Pokoje Gościnne Dom Literatury, and quite out of the blue at around 10:30 this morning, that I have to change rooms. What the fuck! Oh, yes, because the room belongs to someone else. Really? Because I’m the one in it. So, in the two days I’ve been in the room, not one person mentioned to me that I would need to change rooms. But all of this goes well with the oddity of staying here at the Pokoje Gościnne Dom Literatury.

The male receptionist, who was very apologetic, came up to my room and showed me the new room which was just outside the hall with similar views of Old Town Warsaw and about the same size as the one I was in. It didn’t really take me long to pack up because I had most of my clothes in my trusty foldable tote so I could get them washed. So, I quickly moved to my new room and then met John to head to the laundromat to finally get my clothes cleaned. Rosie was good with clean clothes and Alice was still not feeling well.

After a nice restful afternoon, in a new room and clean clothes, I met Rosie and John for dinner (Alice was still not feeling well) before heading to the Fryderyk Concert Hall in Old Town for a piano concert recital.

Here’s to another slow, yet productive day in Warsaw.

With the weather varying throughout the day, we really packed in a full day just enjoying what the Old Town of Warsaw has to offer. And, that began in the morning when Rosie, John and myself visited the Royal Castle, the historic residence of Polish monarchs. Although it was blown up by the Nazi German forces in 1944, it was meticulously rebuilt from 1971 to 1984 using public funds. Today, it functions as a national museum showcasing lavish royal apartments and fine art.

With more than an hour to relax after touring the Royal Castle, we all met up again in the afternoon, as the day turned a little gray and chilly, for our free “Warsaw Old Town & Royal Route: Historic Center Walking Tour.” We walked the Royal Route along Krakowskie Przedmieście starting by the Copernicus Monument and covering some historic churches, the University of Warsaw, Presidential Palace, Royal Castle, and the Old Town Market Square, all rebuilt after the near-total destruction during World War II.

After the walking tour and with the skies clearing up, I decided to explore the city walls of Warsaw originally raised between the 13th and 16th centuries, then rebuilt from 1950 to 1963.

It was nice to spend the day really getting to know Old Town Warsaw. Come check it out with me.

In Kraków, we took a walking tour of the historic Jewish quarter of Kazimierz and the Jewish Ghetto of Podgórze while also stepping foot onto the reality of the Holocaust at the the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum, the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp, where at least 1.1 million people—mostly Jews—were murdered during World War II.

Poland experienced the greatest absolute loss of its Jewish population during World War II. Approximately 3 million Polish Jews were murdered by the Nazi regime, accounting for roughly 90% of Poland’s pre-war Jewish community and half of the total six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. And, Warsaw experienced the greatest loss of its Jewish population during World War II. Before the war, it was home to roughly 375,000 to 450,000 Jewish residents—the largest urban Jewish community in Europe. By the end of the war, an estimated 90% to 99% of them had been murdered through starvation, disease in the Warsaw Ghetto and mass deportations to the Treblinka extermination camp.

So for today, in Warsaw, we visited the the glass-walled building of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, an incredible world-class cultural and educational center sharing and preserving a 1,000-year history of Jews in Poland. The museum sits in Muranów, on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto, right across from the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. There’s so much history to take in on how Polish Jews lived, thrived and built culture that I can’t possibly do it just in this post. Visiting the museum is the best way to take in all this history.

And after the museum visit, I went on my own in search of at least one of the three remaining walls of the Jewish Ghetto and while I did find it, I also came across a beautiful little mezuzah museum before taking an Uber to the Warsaw Uprising Monument and walking back to my guesthouse in Old Town.

Ended my day with a delicious dinner of Pork Knuckle at the Stars Kamienica Restaurant & Bar with Alice, Rosie and John and afterwards we were able to get a group photo at the colorful and bright display spelling out “WARSZAWA” (Warsaw in Polish), in view of my guest room at the  Pokoje Gościnne Dom Literatury guesthouse in the historical center of Warsaw.

Here’s to a thoughtful, educational day in Warsaw.

At dawn, on 19 April 1943, the Germans entered the ghetto. They were surprised by the gunfire. The uprising had begun. About 500 fighters of the Jewish Fighting Organisation (ZOB) and about 260 fighters of the Jewish Military Union (ZZW) faced 2,000 German soldiers.

After a few days of fighting, the Germans systematically set fire to the buildings. As the ghetto burned, civilians and fighters retreated into the bunkers. On 8 May, when the Germans discovered the bunker at 18 Miła Street, where Mordechai Anielewicz and the ZOB command were hiding, the Jewish leadership committed collective suicide.

The fighters knew that the uprising was doomed to failure. It was an act of heroism, desperation, and reprisal – and a protest against the world’s indifference.

Jews were forced to live in isolated quarters called ghettoes. They were imprisoned there, often driven out of their own apartments, deprived of any sense of safety, pre-war living conditions and status, money and health. Struggling to survive became a daily reality. Despite the feelings of alienation, disorientation, despair, fear of death, hunger and suffering, every day life went on. Caring for the near and dear ones, worries big and small, longing for normalcy as well as love, friendship, dreams and hopes were still present in people’s lives.

In the light rain and for John’s last day with us, we (Alice, whose feeling a little better, Rosie and myself) walked down the Royal Route of Krakowskie Przedmieście from our hotels in Old Town Warsaw to begin our church visits. We began at the Holy Cross Church, then moved on to the Church of St. Joseph of the Visitationists and finished with the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph, commonly called the Carmelite Church in Warsaw.

All three churches have a connection to the Polish composer and virtuoso pianist, Frédéric François Chopin (1810-1849). A child prodigy, he grew up in Warsaw completing his musical education and even composing his early works before leaving Poland at age 20, settling in Paris at age 21.

Although Chopin’s embalmed heart, at his request was laid to rest at the Church of the Holy Cross,  he is known to have played the organ at the Visitationists and the Carmelite churches.

After our morning church visits, we ate a delicious lunch at Nem Asian Fusion Restaurant and bid farewell to John.

With a clear early evening, Rosie and I took a walk to the Gardens of the Royal Palace which covers about 5 acres or over 2 hectares and consists of the Upper Garden, located closer to the residence on the roof of Kubicki Arcades and Lower Garden located below the castle slope, on the foreland of the Vistula River. A nice way to end an early evening in Warsaw.

We spent part of our last full day in Warsaw at the Warsaw Uprising Museum dedicated to honoring those who fought and died for an independent Poland during the 1944  Warsaw Uprising .

After nearly five years of Nazi occupation, the Polish underground resistance undertook a major operation to liberate Warsaw from German occupation during World War II, through August and September of 1944.

The museum, which tells the story of the Polish underground 63-day resistance, opened on July 31, 2004 marking the 60th anniversary of the uprising.

After the museum, we headed back to our hotels/guest rooms to pack and rest before dinner at a Thai restaurant, something very different for our last meal in Warsaw.

Next stop, Gdansk.