Warsaw, Poland (4/22/17 – 4/27/17)

April 22/23: After arriving at the British Airways Lounge at Heathrow Terminal 3 we had to take the bus over from Terminal 5. What a ride! The driver stuffed us in like sardines. I had to look out the window to avoid crowd anxiety. Just as we arrived at the B.A. Club they started putting out lunch. We had just been served breakfast on the flight over. Lunch includes three decadent looking cakes, one of which is a gluten free chocolate variety. I was tempted, but I’m also trying to be good. Its a position I find myself in quite a bit. Hence, the extra weight I always carry. The flight itself was uneventful. In fact, its the first time we’ve flown international that I didn’t eat everything offered. I had only a couple of chocolates and a glass of red wine before I laid my chair into its bed position and fell asleep. It wasn’t restful, of course, but I do remember a couple of the dreams I had. One was that Meggie came to see me. I was still at Brown, but in a different position. When she saw me she gave me a big hug then lifted me off the ground. When she tried to talk to me I couldn’t hear her. I forgot I had headphones on, but when I took them off she still sounded muffled. The next dream I remember was that as we were disembarking the plane my purse spilled Rather than block everyone else getting off the plane I stepped back into my seat to gather my things back up. By the time I got off the plane Lou was nowhere to be seen. I expected he would be waiting for me at the exit. He wasn’t. Then I expected to see him outside of security. I didn’t. As I was walking up a steep incline to leave the airport there was a small zoo with strange looking animals in cages. As I was passing a bird-like creature it tapped its cage-mate on the shoulder, pointed at me, and said “That’s a cat. I’m pretty sure that’s a cat.” It took me by surprise because I never realized other species couldn’t identify humans just as humans can’t identify all animals.

There was a group of rowdy business men in our section of the Lounge who were all drinking wine. When I first saw a couple people drinking wine I thought, “Wow. They start drinking early here.” I had forgotten that its not 6:30am, but 11:30am. We had another hour and a half before our connecting flight, so I joined in with a glass of white.

When we landed at the Warsaw airport we noted that its very linear and well organized. We were out of it in about 15 minutes, including going through immigration and getting our luggage and exchanging money.

Check in at the Hilton was a breeze. We were whizzing our way to the 20th floor within 10 minutes of walking through the door. It’s not the most plush executive room we’ve ever stayed in, but clean. I like the short wall that divides the “work” area from the sleep/lounge area. I also like the window into the tub room, letting in more light. Our room faced west, which meant we got to see the sun set over an expansive view through the gigantic ceiling to floor windows.

April 24: Warsaw in a Nutshell Walking Tour. Our guide met us at our hotel and walked us to the subway, which we rode to the outskirts of Old Town. The tour was supposed to take up to three hours, but she spent a little more time with us since it was just the two of us that day. Being the nerd that I am, I recorded our journey on my Garmin 920xt. Unfortunately I forgot to turn it on right away. We actually started at the red marker (see photo below), and not at the green one, making our trip closer to 4 miles than to 3.5 miles. After the tour we elected to have lunch at one of the places our guide recommended and burn it off by walking the 2.12 miles back to our hotel.

April 25: Between yesterday’s walk and having still not caught up on sleep from our flight, we elected to sleep in. We slept so late we missed breakfast so Lou fetched us a brunch from the hotel coffee bar. We spent the rest of the rainy, cold day catching up on work, touching up the photos from yesterday, and exercising until it was time to meet the other speakers at the hosted dinner. One of our table mates, upon learning that I do triathlons and Lou doesn’t, asked Lou if he was ashamed that he couldn’t keep up with me. Lou simply shrugged and said that he was proud of me and supported me in whatever I wanted to do. We ran into him again the next night and he asked if I was going to go running the next day. I said that I had a long run on my agenda and he asked if he could go with me. I was hesitant to say yes because I’m not comfortable running with people I don’t know. After talking with him a little longer I learned that he’s estranged from his wife, who’s living in another country, and he wanted to get in shape for their rendezvous in Paris next month. I agreed to meet him in the lobby at 8:00. He hasn’t run in 10 years, and I planned to go easy on him so that 10 years from now he’s still running and married to the woman he’s working hard to keep. As it turned out, he cancelled, which was OK with me because the weather was nasty and I enjoyed my treadmill run way more than running outside that day.

April 26/27: Lou was in meetings most of these days, which I spent as usual: in the gym, reading, catching up on emails, and touching up photographs. When he left the meeting on the 27th we walked over to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. The first thing you notice past the ticket office besides the gloomy lighting, is the sound of the heart beat all around you. The scenes were all carefully arranged for maximum impact, from the photo essays and video segments, to the bullet holes in the walls and the recreation of crumbling and bombed out buildings. They tried really hard to make it an immersive experience, and it worked. They held nothing back. Not even photos and videos of the most horrific scenes, including the mass killings of hospital staff, people lying dead in the streets, and dead bodies being tossed onto piles of the dead waiting for burial. They did put the worst of the photos on a screen which was visible only by looking down a well which was too high for the smaller children to look into without an assist. It was while looking into one of these wells that it first occurred to me that as distressed as this made me feel, white supremacists would swell up with pride at these very same images. Its distressing to think that there are still people in this world who would actively encourage and participate in making this happen again. The Museum stands as a beacon of hope against those very people. Before leaving, we spent a few minutes of silence in the chapel honoring the victims and survivors.

: Our half day journey into Warsaw’s past.

: The first of many Chopin’s benches. They show where you are and its importance in Chopin’s life.

: Chopin’s heart (preserved in cognac) is buried in the column to the left at Holy Cross Church.

: The cross marks the spot in Piłsudski Square where Pope Paul II stood to address his followers during his first visit after becoming Pope.

: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

: The Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is guarded 24-7.

: The changing of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

: A memorial to the 96 Poles who perished in a plane crash in Russia in 2010. The majority of the deceased were members of government, including the President and his wife. They were ironically going to Russia to commemorate the Soviet-ordered massacre of thousands of Poles in 1940.

: The city restored as much as they could find in-tact to its rightful place.

: Much of the restoration work was done by studying the paintings of Bernardo Bellotto (Canaletto), who was commissioned in the mid 1700’s to paint scenes of Warsaw.

: The first lab in which Marie Curie worked when she was attending the Floating University.

: Castle Square. Note Sigismund’s Column on the left, which was erected in 1644. A new column was made for it after it was destroyed in WWII. Pieces of the original column are lying next to the Royal Castle.

: The obligatory picture of Ginger at the top of Taras widokowy, the observation deck of St. Anne’s Church.

: Bullet holes can be seen in buildings all over Old Town.

: At the top of “Shit Hill.” So named because that’s where bathroom waste landed when people would throw it out their windows back when there was no indoor plumbing.

: The weather’s been tough on street performers.

: A row of what used to be 11 townhouses has been re-purposed into a museum on Market Square. It opens late May 2017.

: Beer taps on the OUTSIDE of the building? Genius!

: The walls of the Barbican (semicircular fortified outpost), which used to encircle Warsaw in the 16th Century.

: Exiting the Barbican and entering into “New Town.”

: A Lada Riva 2107. Built by Russia in the 1980’s.

: Marking where the Ghetto Wall once stood.

: The Polish Supreme Court Building was my favorite of the structures built in the late 90’s. These bronze figures placed in water are personifications of the three theological virtues: faith, hope and love, and hold up part of the building.

: Warsaw Uprising Monument. on Krasiński Square. This section represents a group of insurgents engaged in combat.

: Warsaw Uprising Monument. on Krasiński Square. This section represents insurgents moving through the sewer systems as their primary means of evacuation from Old Town to the City Centre.