Warsaw

We had planned to go from Prague to Krakow on an overnight train, and had reservations for an apartment there the next day. However, when E went to Zurich last week to reserve our couchettes he was told that we would have to change trains at 3 a.m. So we had to change the plan quickly - and find a way to Krakow in time for the apartment which wouldn't have us sitting on the train all day. The only option was Warsaw. We took an overnight train there instead, spent most of Friday looking around, and took a three hour long train from there to Krakow in the evening. Here we are on the way to Warsaw.
This train had higher ceilings than the first, which was more comfortable. But the bunks wouldn't fold up in the morning.

I'd never really wanted to go to Warsaw since I figured it had all been destroyed in the war, but I liked it very much and am glad we went.

They've done a good job of making the repaired and rebuilt buildings look old.

There was a lot of confusion at first. We knew we wanted to go to old town because so many sights are in one place and we had limited time. But we couldn't quite figure out how to get there. We had a map and knew our metro stop, but we couldn't find the metro and we weren't able to ask directions. Finally we decided to take a tram, which was not easy. There are tons of trams and buses coming often and going everywhere, but no maps at all - just a list of some of the stops. Once we figured that out we realized we were at the wrong stop. That would have been okay, because we could see our stop, but in that part of Warsaw the streets are incredibly wide and we had to walk the equivalent of several blocks just to go around the corner. And so it went. We got off the tram too early because what looked like a city block on the map was more like a mile. Luckily, we decided to hop on a bus with our now expired tickets and we eventually made it to Old Town.

The first thing we did was go to a cafe to warm up. The forecast had been for 65 degrees or so, but it felt like 50. I have a picture of the kids looking freezing cold that I will put on facebook.  It was a nice cafe. Fresh squeezed juices and fun juice flavors seem to be very popular in Eastern Europe, so E and the kids have been taking advantage of that. R had some very good yogurt and granola, too.

That was sort of the turning point in the day. After that everything went smoothly. We went to a tourist info center, got a walking map, and just followed it. Old Town is incredibly interesting because it was almost completely rebuilt after WWII. You would never know it had been leveled. It's an UNESCO site for that reason. We saw churches, statues and fountains, the city walls, the market square, the palace, and the Marie Curie museum, which is in her old home. We were even lucky with the weather. For the most part it only rained when we were inside.

Outside the Marie Curie Museum

When they asked if we wanted to see the movie, this isn't what we expected.

R and S really liked looking at Marie Curie's personal things 

like her purse and an elephant figurine from Pres. Harding.

You might not be able to guess the kids' absolute, no contest, favorite part of the day (other than R's favorite, the Marie Curie museum). In the market square there was an elderly man with a garbage bag full of pigeon food. He was sharing it with all the children and letting them feed the pigeons. The pigeons were eating out of the kids' hands - though not T and L's hands because there were frightened and would drop the feed. Some pigeons decided to land on L anyway. "Maybe because her hair looks like a bird's nest," said R. The pigeons were the biggest I've even seen. About the size of bowling balls. The man seemed to especially like T. He kept him constantly supplied with feed, even after T said thank you and we were trying to leave. We felt a little bad, but by then some new children had arrived, which made him happy.

I am creeped out by pigeons.  I think they are dirty. But I let the kids have their fun and just doused them with purell afterwards.

It was a little hard to visit the churches. Lots of them had plexiglass and iron gates in front of the doors so you could only look in. That's fine. But about 80 percent of the time there would be someone kneeling on the cold stones in front of the gate praying even though they couldn't get in and we would have to leave.

By the time we'd done the map circuit we were chilly again. Since we had some time we went to a cafe where S and T had desserts that tasted like snickers pie but even better. That was a hit. We gave ourselves some time getting back to the station and at first thought maybe we had been silly to do so. We knew our way now and had seen a metro station on the way to old town, so we figured we could take that and save time. Then we learned why we hadn't been able to find the metro station from the train station. The metro station, which is very obviously meant to be the stop for the train station, is quite a far walk from the train station. We couldn't believe it. Communist area transportation often has nice features like cool buildings or a clock telling how long it has been since the last train. And here there had been a chance to build transportation pretty much from scratch and someone had decided the metro and the train didn't have to be at all integrated. I feel bad for anyone making the trip on an icy winter day with luggage! Of course, it is very possible that we messed up and there is an easier way, but I doubt it. E has impressed us all with his ability to understand written Polish. He would have found it!

Warsaw around the train station.

Looking back toward the metro and toward the station.