What's Old Is New Again

We all surprisingly slept pretty well this first night, despite the time change.  There were very strong thunderstorms that rolled through during the night, which woke us all up at various times, as the lightning flashed through the drapes and the thunder rolled.  I remember worrying that the rain would persist and ruin our upcoming "free" day in Warsaw, but by morning everything had passed.  In fact, we were in for one of our warmest days of the trip.  We had inadvertently arrived at the beginning of a short heat wave in Poland, and temps would reach into the high 80's with no clouds for relief.  Coming from Washington this actually felt okay, but we were outside much of the day, and it did zap a lot of our energy.

Our tour did not official begin until this night and we had the day on our own.  I booked us a "Communist Warsaw" tour, which was given in a vintage Nysa 522 van.  The Nysa was a clear East Bloc ripoff of the VW bus, and it was produced in Poland almost unchanged from 1959 into the early 90's.  The bus which picked us up from the hotel was built in 1973.  There were seven of us on the tour, which was to show us the "highlights" of Communist Warsaw.  I was surprised by the sheer number and variety of day tours now available in Warsaw, as this certainly wasn't the case when I lived there.  We ended up choosing between a World War II and Communist tour, and you have already read which one won out.  We toured various sights associated with the communist era, beginning at the already mentioned and mutually disdained Palace of Culture and Science.  It was a "gift" from Josef Stalin after the war and supposed to reflect the might and architectural achievements of the USSR.  The debate which was ongoing back in the early 90's, as to whether the building should be demolished, is evidently still raging.  Some folks want to blow it up, others want it to remain unchanged, and others want to renovate it and remove the communist imagery that still surrounds the building.  Probably by sheer inertia, the building remains pretty much unchanged, and the statues surrounding the building, idolizing images of proletariat idealism, now serve pretty much as an open air museum.  I recall it being commonly referred to as "the Wedding Cake," whereas our guide said it was more often than not called "Stalin's Penis."  Names aside, as it sits unchanged, the skyline of Warsaw has literally grown up around it, and the building is now dwarfed by taller buildings, which accentuate its ugliness.

We continued on to visit several large political buildings built in an idealized, brutalist style, to include the former Communist Party headquarters, which now ironically houses the Warsaw stock exchange and a huge disco.  As almost 90 percent of Warsaw was completely destroyed during World War II -- mostly at the end of the war, when Polish partisans were fighting to secure the city from the Germans as Soviet troops approached -- most of the city was rebuilt with bland concrete-block heavy buildings, aside from the historic Old Town, which was rebuilt to match it's pre-war glory.  Anyway, we visited a small section of the city which survived the war, and we were able to see some surviving older architecture, which we really wouldn't see again until we reached Kraków more than a week later, as it escaped heavy damage during the war.  We ended at Constitution Square, which is where the old May Day parades would be held, with all the pomp and ceremony.  On the square, we visited the small but very interesting Museum of Life Under Communism. I think Anna found this particularly interesting, given that the Cold War ended almost a decade before she was born.

Former Communist Party Headquarters -- Now the Warsaw Stock Exchange

Polish Parliament

Poland Has a Large Arms Industry, and Sends A Lot to Ukraine

Inside the Museum of Life Under Communism

Famous picture from 1981, right after Marshall Law was declared.  Poland allowed "Apocalypse Now" to be screened, as it showed the US in a poor light.   This picture, though, of Polish tanks in the street created quite the juxtaposition. 

So-Called Maly Fiat (or Tiny Fiat).  These Were Everywhere When I Liver Here...Now They're In a Museum

We quickly cooled off back at the hotel, retrieved our rental car from the garage, and headed down to the Old Town which, as I mentioned, was meticulously rebuilt to exactly resemble its pre-war state.  I have fond memories of the Old Town and remain impressed that the former regime devoted the resources for the reconstruction.  Of course, much of the funding came from donations from Polish-Americans.  We would be visiting here again the next day, with our tour, but we decided to visit a Milk Bar for lunch and get a preview of the area.  Milk Bars started back in the 50's and remain a staple of Polish life.  They are essentially cafeterias which during the communist era provided government-subsidized traditional Polish cuisine at a low cost.  The name comes from the cheese cutlets that were often served, as meat was scarce. The menus have since grown, but the food is still basic, very fresh, vegetarian heavy, and relatively cheap.  We had our first meal of many this day which included the ubiquitous pierogi.  

View From Hotel, Toward Old Town in Distance

Cold Beet Soup From our Milk Bar Lunch

We spent another hour or so exploring the old city before we fetched the car and return to our hotel.  We were, luckily, able to return the car at our hotel, which saved me a trip back to the airport.  That left us with just enough time to wash up ahead of the welcome meeting and dinner with our tour director and fellow travelers, there in the hotel.

Amber, and More Amber

Old Town Square

Tomb of Stanisław August Poniatowski, the Only Polish King Not Buried on Wawel Hill in Kraków. He Moved the Capital From Kraków to Warsaw and Was Duly Snubbed.

Cathedral of St. John. Oldest church in Warsaw, with foundations back to 1390.  Rebuilt, of course, after the war.

Our Little Rental Car for the Day

Our guide was a lovely young woman, Joanna, who is in her late 30's.  A former school teacher, she has been working as a guide for the past 15 years or so.  We liked her immediately.  We learned that we were to be a group of 33 people in total, which was among the largest we're had on any of our Gate1 tours. Given that it was August, I shouldn't have been surprised, but I nonetheless was.  There were only about 20 people in the conference room when we entered, and we soon learned that quite of few of our group had missed connections or had delayed flights.  Hearing that made me all the happier that we had built in our extra day at the beginning.  We did our obligatory introductions and went over the itinerary, before going up to the restaurant for a pleasant welcome meal.  We were pleasantly surprised to meet a fellow traveler from Sterling, who lives very close to our old house in Cascades.  We hit it off with her immediately and enjoyed her company.

Many people at dinner, who had only arrived that day, were very tired by the time we finished, and  were happy to break and head up to our respective rooms for welcome rest -- ourselves included.