We celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary in Warsaw, Poland! We took a city bus/van and toured the city for 3-4 hours. We saw numerous sites, parks, landmarks and monuments. We saw only the "tip of the iceberg" but it was a great tour and a beginning to all of the learning soon to come.
Birthplace and Home of Madame Curie...
We are between the Old and New Towns...Old Town was about 600 years old and New Town was 200...all pretty much destroyed during WWII but they have done a good job in trying to recreate what these areas were like before their destruction.
This is the area I want to return to on my birthday in a few weeks. We only had time to walk quickly through the area...there were flowers, places to eat, things to buy...it will be fun to return to and really spend time here.
We ate at a wonderful Polish restaurant that Mark had been to before on business. The food was delicious and we loved eating outdoors on a June afternoon.
Mark ate boar and I had pork loin and vegetables. I recognized the names of most items on my
choice of selection...Mark was more creative with his selection. All were good! Love the Apple Cake...you can tell from the picture below that Mark enjoys the cake too.
This is the President of Poland's residence...the Presidential Palace. This is where he and his wife live. Much like the White House but he only lives here and works in another location. There was a ceremony taking place while we were here...honoring "presidential guards" in training. Unlike the U.S. we did not see the media anywhere.
The arena in the background is for the 2012 Euro Cup. Poland is hosting this event next year...a very big deal to soccer fans.
A monument honoring thousands of Poles who were relocated and killed by the Stalin regime after WW II. Poland has a lot of tragedy in her history...it will be good to learn and understand in order to better understand the people.
A statue honoring Chopin...he was born and lived in Poland but also lived away for 20+ years before he died at 39 years. Every 5 years the Chopin Music Festival takes place here and it is a big deal...the Polish are very proud of their native musician... Frederic Chopin. (there were many field trips taking place...much like in the U.S.)
During our tour lots and lots of teenagers and children in and around the parks... end of the year activities as school ends next week here in Poland.
Our anniversary adventure in and around the city was great! Loved being together and learning so much about Warsaw and Poland!
No comments:
Post a Comment