A Birthday Celebration

A Saturday birthday celebration can always be fun...but being in a new country made this birthday quite memorable...and being with Mark the whole day was wonderful!

Happy Birthday to Me...this is a view from our backyard and after a rain shower.

We walked from the Metro line towards Old Town, en route we passed this monument...it is one of many honoring those who died during the Warsaw Uprising.

We approach Old Town and once again see St. Ann's Church. We climbed the tower to the left of the church and had a great view of Old Town, surrounding areas and modern Warsaw as well.

We climbed 148 steps to get to the top.

We were treated with a great view of the city. Behind Mark is the Vistula River (longest river in Poland) it is facing the north east direction.

It's a bit windy up here...but what a great view of Old Town (the historical center of Warsaw), The Royal Castle (behind me to the right) and a view of one of the oldest areas in Poland.

WWII and 1944 brought unbelievable destruction. Hitler was outraged at the fighting during the Warsaw Uprising and the "Polish peoples will to survive"... so he decided to punish the city by wiping it off the map of Europe. 90% of the city was in ruins.

Eisenhower commented and was visibly moved on seeing the city, " I have seen many towns destroyed, but nowhere have I been faced with such destruction." The reconstruction took many years, but it is a tribute to the Polish people and their spirit.

Starting to descend the 148 steps...and the climb down was much easier compared to going up!

We took a self-guided tour of The Royal Castle (large building at right with a tower clock)... it originated during the 14th century...and "blossomed" during the late 1700's with the Polish monarch, King Stanislaw August Poniatowski...(try saying that name quickly!).

The building and interior items have seen a lot of destruction over the years, and once again the donations of Poles throughout the country recreated and reconstructed this important part of their history. The reconstruction work only ended in 2009.

We found another Polish restaurant...we didn't eat outside .....it was starting to rain again. Our waiter wanted us to try an appetizer (so we consented)...he recommended "pickled cucumbers". I was thinking of sliced cucumbers in a dressing of some kind...what he brought out were a container of "pickles"! I am not a fan of pickles but I was in Poland...so I tried them...they tasted like American pickles to me... BUT the bread was fabulous!

I found out that I actually ordered for lunch a traditional Polish meal: breaded pork chops and herbed mash potatoes! Mark once again ordered something more exotic...

...Polish sausage filled with plums...he also had mashed potatoes and cole slaw. We thought the meal was great...though service quite slow. We didn't realize that the wait staff would not call our main order in until we finished the appetizer (breads, pickles, etc). We would have stopped eating long before if we had only known.

We asked where the restrooms were...this is what I found when I went downstairs... two doors one with a triangle and the other a circle. I was to figure out which was the male and female doors! Are you kidding me? I opened the door with the circle and found rolls of toilet paper in a basket each one with a colored ribbon tied around it... I figured that must be the female room. I'm not sure what I would have found if I had opened the other door!

Mark bought me a bouquet of flowers from someone at the steps of the Metro...they are still just as beautiful 2 days later.

We had a great Saturday birthday on the streets of Warsaw...a day to remember for the Picketts in Poland!