The March of Time -- Returns and Introductions to Poland: Seeing Warsaw as a Tourist

We all felt pretty adjusted to the time change by the time we had our breakfast and met up with our group for one full day in Warsaw. We met our driver Wojtiek, who would be with us all week, and we had a local guide with us all day, in addition to Joanna. We hit all of the major sights during the morning, which included the famous statue of Polish native son Frédéric Chopin, which is located in the famous Lazienki (waw-shen-ki) Park, close to which I used to live. A lot of people don't realize that Chopin was Polish, or at least that his mother was from Warsaw. Much of that has to do with the fact that Poland didn't exist as a stand-alone country from 1795 until 1918, when the Treaty of Versailles reinstated modern Poland, under the watch of Marshall Jozef Pilsudski. We heard the story of how the historic capital of Poland was moved to Warsaw from Kraków by King Sigismund III Vasa in 1596. Poland was unified with Lithuania at the time, and Warsaw was chosen for its central location between Kraków and Vilnius. Sigismund to this day is disparaged in Kraków for making the move, and he is the only Polish king to not be buried there, on Wawel Hill. Of course we also heard all about the Warsaw Uprising of late 1944, when Polish partisans rose up against the occupying Nazi forces, as Soviet troops neared the city. Their goal had been to secure the city before the Soviets arrived, in a vain hope of securing Polish independence after the war. In retaliation, Himmler ordered the city to be leveled and all its citizens killed. Soviet troops did arrive, but they famously camped out on the eastern shores of the Vistula River and essentially watched as the destruction took place. German bombarded the city non-stop, day and night, for 63 days and deported over 650,000 remaining citizens to concentration camps and military gulags. As the Soviets waited, they ensured that any independent-minded leaders were killed, and allowed them to walk into the destroyed city once the Germans ultimately retreated. We saw a picture later of General Eisenhower visiting the city as Allied Military commander in 1945, where he remarked that it was the greatest devastation he had seen at any time during the entire war.

The U.S. Embassy Warsaw -- the One Thing That Didn't Change

Marshall Jozef Pilsudski, father of "reborn" Poland in 1918.

Chopin Memorial in Lazenski Park

We continued on to the area of town which used to be the infamous Warsaw Jewish ghetto, which was completely destroyed during both World War II uprisings. We saw the Umschalag Platz memorial, which marks where the old train depot used to sit, from which Jews were sent to death camps. We also visited the formal ghetto memorial, which went up way back in 1948 to mark the 1943 ghetto uprising. It was partially built with material Hilter's architect Albert Speer had sent to the city earlier for unbuilt Nazi memorials. Behind it is the new Museum of History of Polish Jews, which opened in 2014. We only visited the atrium, but it tracks the 1,000-year history of Jewish life in Poland, spanning from 1098, when King Bolesław III invited Jews to settle there. From that time they thrived in Poland and grew into the largest concentration of Jewish people anywhere in the world. Today, there are fewer than 2,000 Jews in all of Poland, and there were an estimated 3.3 million before WWII. It was, of course, a sobering visit.

Palace of Culture and Science, Next to Tallest Apartment Building in Europe, and our Hotel (far Right)

Memorial to the Smolensk Plane Tragedy of 2010, Which Killed the President and Many Senior Officials

Umschlagplatz in Former Ghetto, From Where Jews Were Deported by Train

POLIN -- Museum of the History of Polish Jews

Inside POLIN

Memorial to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943

Material Shipped to Warsaw by Albert Speer for Nazi Memorials Was Used To Construct This

Memorial to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944

We ended the morning tour back at the Old Town, and heard details of the meticulous restoration work that took place from the 1950's until the 1970's. The city was reconstructed to exactly match -- at least the facades -- how it looked in 1939. It was a very warm Saturday and there were a lot of people in the old town area. We had lunch at a very nice traditional restaurant, off the Market Square, and enjoyed the first of several meals with so-called Ukrainian dumplings. I distinctly remember Pierogi Russkie from before, and sure enough, it was confirmed that these cheese-laden dumplings have been commonly renamed Ukrainian vice Russian Pierogi, since the 2022 invasion.

Speaking of Ukraine, it was a very frequent topic of conversation during our trip, for a variety of reasons. Ukrainian flags were, literally, everywhere. We all saw the images of Ukrainian refugees pouring into Poland after the Russian invasion, and I know some people worried about what we might see on our tour. Our guide Joanna, who speaks Ukrainian, was a volunteer at the beginning of the way, and continues to help as she can. She explained that there were already 1 Million Ukrainian "economic refugees" before the war, who came over for work. After the Russian invasion, a further 2 Million women and children crossed over. Many settled with Ukrainians already in Poland, while the others were hosted on peoples' homes. Joanna explained that she hears Ukrainian more often than Polish on the streets on Warsaw, as there are so many refugees. That said, they are settled and integrating, and they are allowed to work. Poland needs the labor, so they have been welcome. She also cited the historic ties between Ukraine and Poland, which have made integration and hosting easier.

On Our Way into the Old City

Part of the Rebuilt Old City of Warsaw

St. Anne's Church

Central Market Square

Our Lunch Joint

General Eisenhower Viewed Destroyed Warsaw. He Said It Was the Worst Destruction He Saw Anywhere During the War.

For the afternoon, we took an optional tour to the famed Wilanów Palace, at the southern end of Warsaw. It is a former royal palace built in the late 1600's for King John III Sobieski. Wilanów Palace survived all of Poland's partitions and both World Wars undamaged and is one of the best examples of Baroque architecture in the country. It has been a museum since the early 19th Century and ranks as one of the most visited palaces in the world, which surprised me.

While we were inside the building on our tour, a thunder storm rolled through, which caught us all off guard. We all got a little wet on the walk back to the bus, but at least the rain cooled everything off.

Willanow Palace

Statue to Jan Sobieski, the Hero of the Battle of Vienna

The Battle of Vienna, Against the Turks

Willanow Gardens

This was to be our last dinner in Warsaw, so we tried to choose our restaurant carefully, so as to not waste an opportunity. We almost returned to our Michelin place from our first night, but instead opted for a new place, based on on-line recommendations. The rain was long gone and had left the air nice and cool, so it was a pleasant walk to the restaurant. We walked through neighborhoods that I would never have considered even parking my car in before, all of which had been transformed. That pleasantness aside, our meal was average at best, and we collectively wished we'd played it safe and returned to the other restaurant. Oh well -- nothing ventured, nothing gained.