The guidebooks say Warsaw is not pedestrian friendly. Sites of interest are too far apart and public transportation system is confusing. Before we left the US, David bought a voucher for the commercial "hop-on, hop-off" double-decker narrated sightseeing bus.
After breakfast, we take the #4 tram to the Palace of Culture and Science, the starting point for the tour bus. Two points before the tour. First, we knew our tram tickets were good for unlimited rides for an entire day, but we later figured out by watching that the tickets for the tram need to be validated by putting them into a small device on the tram. We did not do this yesterday--we held the tickets but did not validate them. We were never checked by an agent. So today we validate our tickets on the way to our destination. We want to be legal.
Secondly, a bit about this Palace of Culture and Science building. This huge 60-story structure was built in the 1950s and is shaped like a giant wedding cake. It was a "gift" to the Polish people by Stalin. As a symbol of the city's subjugation, it was then and still is resented by the Poles. But what to do with this monstrosity is a subject of debate. Should it be demoslished or rehabbed into a real house of culture? So far, the latter plan seems to be prevailing.
We arrive at the bus stop early and since we are just across the street from the central train station, we decide to go over and check it out. It is a huge structure, full of people, with lines at ticket counters and display boards of departure information. We go down to the platform level. All seems to be fairly reasonable--but our train tickets from Warsaw actually depart from the Warsaw West station.
We use the stairs and tunnel under the street to walk back to the bus stop and wait a few minutes. When the bus arrives, the driver is puzzled by the advance tickets David brought with us, but he takes them and gives us our passes for the day. We go to the upper deck and speak with a couple from Australia. The tour will take us by the ten major stops in Warsaw. We have decided to stay on the bus through the entire tour to get the layout of the city and to choose what we want to do. The narration portion of the audio guide was poor quality--we could get some information, but not nearly as much as we had hoped for. We especially enjoyed driving through Old Town, because from the height of the upper deck on the bus, we had a totally different perspective. The Royal Castle and Old Town were places we saw when we left the hotel yesterday. The last stop was the Lazienski Palace and Botanical gardens and park. This really appealed to us, so we rode to the end of the tour, then got off to take the tram back to the park. Unfortunately, we were not sure which stop to use and got off too soon. We knew the direction to walk. but not how far. We asked a young couple for help and in broken English tried to tell us "around the corner". We did finally get into the park and immediately sensed its cool and calming depths. What gorgeous grounds.This is one of the most beautiful palace/gardens complexes in Europe. At one time, this densely wooded area was a place where the kings would hunt. The last Polish king decided to create the largest and most beautiful garden in Warsaw on this spot. There are many historic buildings in the park.We saw several of them, including the Summer Palace. We walked for several hours, taking photos and marvelling at the surroundings and finally wound up at the Chopin Monument--which we had not even known was there.It is one of the most recognizable monuments in Warsaw. It is a beautiful sculpture to honor the city's native son.
We stopped to buy ice cream. I opted for popcorn, but David ordered a cone. The clerk barely put any ice cream in the cone. David asked her to fill the cone, but she acted as though she did not understand. A Polish couple standing behind him, spoke up for him, but the clerk did not respond. So the couple asked to see a supervisor, whom they spoke to about the poor treatment David received. What kindness from strangers. We thanked them and chatted with them for a while. David told them how much we enjoyed their beautiful Warsaw park. They apologized for the poor treatment David received from this woman.
Now our challenge is finding our way back to the hotel. We used a couple of maps we had, and we knew the tram ran nearby, so we walked around the corner from the park and down the block to the next main street and eureka! the tram was there. We got on and rode back to the hotel.
We rested a while, then went to the U Szwejke restaurant for dinner. We ordered a chese and fruit plate appetizer. when it arrived it was huge-decadent-such a large variety of cheeses and apple slices and grapes. We could not begin to eat it all so asked for a doggie bag. We will take this with us on the train tomorrow for lunch. I had Polish pierogies again (Thanks to my friend Bea ,that I even know about these delacacies!) and David had a gouda cheese and ham sandwich with fries--the first fries since we started this trip. We topped this all off by splitting a piece of chocolate cake with whipped cream. Great food at a great restaurant. Tomorrow we are off for Krakow!
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