Traces of the infrastructure of last night’s Bieg Powstania Warszawkiego have all but disappeared by this morning. Quite impressive since they had only started to put them in place the afternoon before.
Warsaw does a fine line in monuments which make you stop and think. The Monument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East, outside the hotel, stops you in your tracks. It was erected to honour the Poles killed and murdered in the East, in particular those deported to labour camps in Siberia, after the Soviet invasion of Poland.
As we walked around the new “old City” the boards tell the tales. The Nazi plan was to demolish Warsaw, reduce its population to 100000 (from 1million) and create a German town. The City has been rebuilt as it was, from 1947 onwards – and continuing. A lot was paid for by public donations. Stunning work, especially when you see the pictures of the rubble which was left.
We’ve only scratched the [tourist] surface of this City. What is noticeable is the housing (6ish storey flats) in the Centre. Go 500m off the main routes and it’s quiet residential. It’s easy to get around by foot – for further afield there’s a vast array of transport choices: trams, trolley buses, normal (electric) buses, scooters.
Warsaw celebrates its famous exports well. Particularly Marie Curie (who discovered and named Polonium after her home country); Chopin; and Copernicus – he of the planets revolve around the sun not the earth heresy. I’m still reeling from learning it’s not a flat earth, so I can understand why his thoughts were so heretical at the time.
It also has a fine range of scale models dotted around the place. Very effective once you’ve pin pointed where you are.
We dodged the showers today. Tomorrow they lie in wait as we head south….
Travelling reflections 