Warsaw

Warsaw happened only because the second reason to visit Poland was most easily accessible from here. Well, Gdansk more so, but we didn’t fancy a seaside town in winter and the logistics were easier. Wroclaw to Warsaw is a 4 hr + journey by train.

Where to stay in Warsaw

For a change, we stayed at an Accor hotel. The best thing about the Mercure Warszawa Centrum is that it is located very near to the central railway station, and a mall, which turned out to be very useful, because the sole of D’s winter shoe departed!

What to see/do in Warsaw

Another thing that is right next door is this Solidarity mural – a symbol of the Polish-Czech cooperation during their struggle for freedom, that ultimately led to the collapse of communism.

If there is a metro in a former-Communist state, I have to take it. That escalator, just like in Georgia and Armenia, is quite a ride in itself.

The Nicolaus Copernicus Statue was supposed to be the meeting point for our Old Town & Royal Route Walking tour was supposed to be here, but they had cancelled it. So we walked and toured ourselves.

Warsaw was all foggy for us, and quite ethereal. This is the Basilica of the Holy Cross. 

And this is the main gate of the University of Warsaw

The Church of St. Joseph of the Visitationists looked quite dignified.

The Raffles Europejski Warsaw hotel looked majestic enough for us not to venture in!

The Christmas decorations were quite unlike what we had seen in Krakow and Wroclaw

This one reminded me of the Ambassador car in India.

This is the Prince Józef Poniatowski Monument located in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace

Like I said, a completely different style of Christmas decorations

Warszawa indeed.

This is one view of the Royal Castle.

No, this is not a royal carriage, but it was very pretty.

Yay! Another Christmas market, though Wroclaw easily won that competition.

And what might have been an LGBTQ Christmas tree?

We did visit another market that was closer to our hotel. That was supposed to be the best one, but we couldn’t get Wroclaw out of our mind.

Come to think of it, it wasn’t really large either!

Finally, the reason for Warsaw in the trip – Wolfsschanze aka Wolf’s Lair. A 4 our trip one way from Warsaw. Hitler’s home for over 800 days and the first Nazi Eastern Front military headquarters, from where he oversaw Operation Barbarossa, the Russian invasion. And also the location of the 20 July plot, probably more famous as Tom Cruise’ Valkyrie. If you haven’t already, you should read up about it. An absolute thriller.

The place was vast roughly 2.5 square kilometers with over 80 structures, and it housed around 2000-5000 people

And #3 was the scene of the plot. The actual structure has collapsed but they have recreated the room in another location.

You are allowed to walk into some partial structures.

This is one of the more intact ones.

The Germans tried to destroy the place when they evacuated. This is the result of a wall collapsing because of a bomb.

The other important building – #13 Hitler’s bunker. He apparently tried to socialise with others in the mess hall, but the ‘boys’ didn’t really like his company because he didn’t drink, was vegetarian and spoke a lot!

I could have taken this photo a few centuries ago and this would have been the same!

Where to eat, and what

Since we had had our fill with Polish dishes, we took the opportunity to try Ukrainian at U sióstr.

The Meat Solyanka soup was a good and hearty start. Meat, pickled cucumbers, potatoes, olives, served with cream and lemon.

The chicken and mushroom pancake was proof that the flavours were even more subtle.

And this is the Kiev cutlet – chicken cutlet with butter and dill, served with mashed potatoes

To get off subtle, we decided to go Italian with Ciao Napoli. That didn’t work either, beginning with the mulled beer that I had been meaning to try for a while.

We had never tried a piadina, and I don’t think we will try it again.

Given all this, we had hot chocolate whenever we could. This was at the sole restaurant in Wolf’s Lair.

This savoury pancake we got there wasn’t bad either. We figured D in her previous birth was involved in the July 20 plot because this was where the aforementioned sole departed.

To get a taste of the local craft, check out the Jabeerwocky Craft Beer Pub

The beer wasn’t bad at all – some super interesting flavours.

But I guess even pizza isn’t a thing to order in breweries!

We thought we could get a consolation prize with this XL Bagel at Luca, but there was only nutella, not even chocolate.

We dropped in at Warsaw primarily for Wolf’s Lair and that was quite an experience. We had been spoiled by Krakow’s food and Wroclaw’s Christmas Market, so Warsaw was just another city. We only had a couple of days so we really didn’t have the time to explore.