A City Tour of Warsaw!

Today was our first full day of planned activities.  After a really great breakfast we set off for the entire day to explore the city of Warsaw.  Thankfully we were on and off of the bus a lot, which was very nice because we walked a TON yesterday.

We started our bus tour and drove to a very large park that has palaces and is really a beautiful place to visit.  I'm sure it's much prettier in the summer!  We weren't able to see all of the park, but did go to this monument for the pianist Chopin.  I'm not much of a music person... but he must be important to the people of Warsaw because you see his name everywhere!  Here is the group at the statue, it's a very different statue!

After we got back on the bus we passed by the American Embassy!  Here it is below, you can see the American flag!

We also went by many Catholic Churches.  Poland is a very religious country, and today is Palm Sunday so many people were out buying these colorful palms.  I want to buy one but don't think I'll be able to get it home in one piece.  Here is outside just one church:

Here's something funny we've discovered about Warsaw... cars can park half on the sidewalk!  It's kind of silly and we've all taken a few pictures of this.  This would never happen back at home!

Our next stop was the Warsaw Ghetto Museum.  The museum followed the history of the Ghetto that was created in Warsaw.  The Warsaw Ghetto was created in 1940 and at one point there were 500,000 people living there!  That’s a lot of people in a very small area.  Because there were so many people living in such tight quarters many people got sick and died from disease.  During April of 1943 the Nazi’s started to empty out the Ghetto and send those living there to concentration camps.  The Jews, who really hadn’t been able to fight back, finally tried to fight back.  For 63 days brave Jews fought back against the Nazi’s.  Even some of the people of Warsaw joined the fight.  When you think about what they did, it’s pretty amazing.  Here they were, regular old people with no weapons or anything to really fight with trying to stand up to the Nazi’s.  They had nothing to lose, so they went for it.  Unfortunately, they were not strong enough and there weren’t enough of the Jews to continue to fight.  The Nazi’s destroyed almost all of the buildings in the Ghetto by burning them down and blew up the Synagogue.  After the Uprising was squashed by the Nazi’s, anyone that was left in the Ghetto was sent to concentration camps.   Here are a few pictures inside the museum...

After we left the museum we drove to the edge of where the wall used to be.  Since most of the city was destroyed there is only 2 small sections still standing today.  Here I am standing... one foot would have been in the ghetto, the other foot would have been out...

And here is a map of where the Ghetto was in the city.

It says "Ghetto Wall 1940-1943

I new coming here that the entire ghetto had been destroyed, so I knew there wouldn't really be anything to see.  But it was still disappointing being "inside" where the ghetto was, and looking around at all the apartment buildings from the Soviet Era (they alllll look the same and are UGLY!)  I knew there wouldn't be anything there, but I was still disappointed.  I am glad that they had the markings in the ground, though.

After we left where the wall used to stand, we went to a small monument to the Ghetto Uprising.  This is the exact spot that the bunker was...

And a little ways away is this monument...

Here is the whole group in front of the memorial...

Finally, we went to a piece of the wall stat is still standing today.  So below you will see the wall that was built all around a very large section of the city.  It looked SO tall standing right next to it and it's really hard to believe that this was built around the city to keep the Jews in a specific part of the city.

Here I am standing at the bottom looking up...

And here I am touching the wall.  I didn't feel right to smile for this picture.

A little ways away there is another small section of the wall.  In this section the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. took a cast of the bricks and it's on display there... this is that section.

After we left the wall our tour ended with us being dropped off at the hotel.  We had the rest of the day free, and we had a lot that we wanted to accomplish!  Our first thing... go to the top of the tower we couldn't yesterday!  It wasn't best view, but I'm glad we did it.

After that we were walking towards the tomb of the unknow soldier.  My sunglasses fell off by head, and broke into 2 when they hit the ground.  This made me very sad and I need to find glasses tomorrow!

We made it to the tomb of the unknown soldier.  There are 2 guards that are standing guard there at all times.

After that we walked through the park and finally decided to get a treat that we had seen everwhere... waffles with whip cream and chocolate!  It was so yummy and now I know why I see the Poles walking around with it all the time!

Now this I was all excited for.  This is a monument to Tadeusz Kosciuszko and from what I am told he is one the Allies that came to help during the American Revolution!  I was so excited to learn that and knew we had to go check it out.  I guess he came to America and helped us fight the British and when he went back to Poalnd he was a hero!  So they have a monument to him.  I am going to do some more research on him when I get home!

After we left the monument we took a very long walk to the other side of the city to go to the Warsaw Uprising Museum.  It was a very cool museum and we enjoyed it.  When we left we were too tired to walk back, so we got a cab!  And it only cost about $3 each!  Here is Jen and I in the back of the cab.

We needed a snack and small this hole in the wall selling what looked like donuts.  It reminded me of a jelly donut, with frosting and orange peel on top.  It was SO yummy!!!  We actually only took a bite and then saved the rest for later... off to dinner!

I had chicken in "tradtional Polish spices" and "baked potatoes" for dinner.  It was yummy!

Walking back to the hotel was a very pretty with everything lit up.  It's our last night in Warsaw.  Tomorrow at 8:15 the bus is leaving and we are taking a long ride to Kielece and then on the Krakow.  I'm looking forward to a nice NAP on the bus!  We did TONS of walking today and I cannot WAIT to go to bed! 

That's what we did today!  It was a VERY busy day!!!