Picketts in Poland: September 2012

I love the fall season! I love the colored falling leaves, the crisp cool breezes, wearing sweatshirts and sweaters and feeling cozy inside our home. I love pumpkins, homemade soups and the smells of autumn. I think I came to enjoy the fall season after living in Houston…knowing with the coming of the fall season there would surely be fewer hot and humid days.

In Warsaw the fall season comes much earlier than we experienced in Texas, or growing up in southern California. Our lows are in the 30s and 40s now and highs 50-60's. Cool breezes are abundant…and wearing layers and sweaters is a must! It does get dark around 6:30 pm, and will get dark earlier each day…that is probably my least favorite part of the fall season.

On Saturday, the first day of Fall came to Warsaw with grey skies, rain, and very cool breezes. We were hoping to do something outside on this first day of Fall but we decided we could skip our weekly date and opt to be warmer inside.

We were doing some errands in and around Mark's office in the Centrum area of Warsaw. After a couple of hours, we noticed that the clouds had started to break up, and we could see blue skies and sun. We decided to explore a new Warsaw site for us…the rooftop garden on the University of Warsaw Library!

We have a brochure from the Warsaw Tourist Information office that lists the rooftop garden as one of the top 10 must-see sites in Warsaw. So we thought, why not check it out...and took a bus to ul. Dobra where we easily found the green and pink building just ahead of us...the University of Warsaw Biblioteka (Library).

This is an ultra modern library…built at this location in the late 1990's. We have not figured out the significance of the colors or the purpose of this pink structure at the entrance.

Tourists and the general public are invited to the first floor and to the rooftop gardens which is the library's biggest attraction.

The rooftop garden is one of the largest and most beautiful in all of Europe.

While walking around one can actually forget that she/he is walking on top of a roof! The gardens are filled with an abundance of plant life, pathways, small bridges, and streams.

We could definitely see signs of fall here as the plants were dying back and some changing colors. We were wearing jackets as the temp was just in the high 40s…even though the sun was out and there were blue skies for a little while.

There are two parts to the gardens…lower and upper. I mentioned that I would enjoy seeing this area during each of the different seasons, but I also read the upper part of the rooftop is closed from Nov. 1-March 1…so seeing it during the winter is not a possibility.

The library rooftop was opened in 2002….so it is a fairly new attraction in Warsaw.

As we walked around we were able to see parts of Warsaw that we have come to know…below we are facing The Royal Palace and the backside of the Stary Miasto (Old Town).

Below we face east across the Vistula River, and see the new National Stadium and parts of the Swięntokryzski Bridge in the background.

In the upper garden area there are four sections with plants of various colors in each section. There is a golden, silver, green and purple garden. This is the golden garden, facing north...

Here is part of the purple garden...

Most of our pictures did not capture the blue sky…and in the hour we were outside the clouds rolled in quickly…but the picture below proves that we did have a blue sky for a few minutes on this first day of fall!

This is one of my favorite pictures…the lighting was much better and we could see the river, the city and green all around us.

This is an interesting building just to the side of the gardens…it looks like a church with a glass steeple but we could not get near enough to find out if it really is a church.

While we were on the rooftop there were a number of other visitors and small tour groups. But as we left….lots and lots of people were coming up the stairs for a view of the city. We figured that like us, they must have decided to come outside once they saw the sun.

Here we walk through what looks like a small street inside the library. This is the passageway in the library that leads to and from the rooftop gardens.

The Polish word for "library" is "biblioteka" - the same as in Spanish, except the Spanish word has a "c" instead of a "k")

Our first day of fall mini-adventure only lasted an hour, including the bus rides…but it was enough for us to see a new part of Warsaw, to be outside, and take a break from our to-do list.

We would enjoy returning to the rooftop in the spring and summer when we are sure the colors would be quite vibrant and flowers more plentiful. We had a nice view of Warsaw…and an hour well spent together!

Goodbye summer days…and hello to days of fall...

Poland's most famous "son" is Chopin....Frederyk Chopin. On Saturday (Sept. 16) we spent a few hours learning a little more about him in our city of Warsaw.

In Warsaw, we have seen a monument built to honor Chopin,

a museum about him....

....and his music,

and even Warsaw's airport is named after this hometown, world-renowned musician.

There are also 15 different black marble benches in and around Warsaw's Old Town that are dedicated to Chopin....near places where he lived or that were significant in his life.

We went looking for some of these benches and actually found 9 of the 15.

I convinced Mark not to drive our car but to take a Metro....and then walk a few blocks to where the benches are. En route to our first stop we saw a Euro-Cup display still growing in a hillside garden.

We also walked past this famous statue…Nike, the Greek Goddess of Victory. This statue actually is a monument to the Heroes of Warsaw....honoring the thousands of citizens who fought against and died under the Nazi rule from 1939 to 1945.

The first Chopin site we found was a little restaurant named "Honoratka". Chopin frequented this place with other Polish young adults...and it is still in use today. This little restaurant was not open at the time we saw it...but we would enjoy returning to it one day.

We found our first Chopin bench on The Royal Route...the street ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście (a name that I am still trying to pronounce correctly). The Royal Palace is in the background. As we followed our maps, we walked on roads new to us...but we arrived to an area that we were familiar with...the entrance to "Stare Miasto", or Old Town.

Each bench has a map engraved with the location of all of the benches, and explanations in both English and Polish of the significance of each site in Chopin's life. There is also a button that will activate a recording of a snippet of Chopin's music. This bench was very close to the Music Conservatory that Chopin attended.

Our next stop did not have a Chopin bench, but it was a building significant to Chopin. Here he performed a number of concerts in 1823. One newspaper wrote of Chopin….

"....we can no longer be jealous of Vienna for having J.P. Liszt; our capital has someone equal to him, and perhaps even more perfect."

I loved this quiet little street…Kozia….

….a little side street that Chopin would travel down in order to get to the main street Miodowa.

And we found another Chopin bench close by! It was one of my favorite Chopin benches on our Saturday visit.

As we walked down this narrow street, we noticed the stucco peeling away from the brick on some of the buildings. We wondered how old these buildings were...knowing that so much of Warsaw was destroyed during WWII….but these bricks looking possibly older.

Here we found a small memorial to fallen citizens at the hands of Nazi Germany.

We had a map and a list of the benches...but the benches were not always easy to find. Sometimes we had to look around for a while in order to find the benches. Here we found a bench and the Nike statue is in the background. So we actually passed within a short block of this bench when we first started walking and hadn't even realized it!

Chopin frequented cafes and shops in all of the areas we saw, and he even bought sheet music at small music stores close by.

The grey building in the two photos below used to be the Royal Polish Post Office and later a train station. It is said that this is the place where Chopin departed from Warsaw on his way to Vienna....never to return to his homeland.

After Vienna, Chopin moved to Paris and lived the remainder of his life until he died at the young age of 39.

Distraction #1....while looking for the Chopin benches we kept hearing very loud engine noises...as if cars were street racing close by. We found out that Warsaw was indeed hosting a street car race....and we even stopped by to take a look.

The cars were loud and noisy....and sped by quickly....we think they were just have practice runs when we stopped to have a look.

A lot of streets were closed off….

….but the closures didn't affect our search for Chopin benches.

This is the Church of the Visitation. When Chopin was a teenager, weekly masses for his age group were held at this church, and Chopin played the organ at the masses.

This church received very little damage during the war and….

….the organ still has some of the original pipes that were on the organ when Chopin played it.

This is the Presidential Palace, where the President of Poland works. We have seen this building many times, but we did not realize there was a Chopin connection to this site.

Here is where Fryderyk Chopin first appeared in public at a concert….when he was only 8 years old.

I loved the last quote on this bench as it shows the true character of an 8 year old...and not the music prodigy that he was. "...dressed in a velvet suit with white embroidered edging, he boasted to his mother after the concert...'Everyone admired my beautiful collar' ".

Four lions guard the entry to the courtyard of the Presidential Palace....just as in the days when Chopin performed here.

Distraction #2....as we walked down ul. Krakowskie Przedmieście in search of the Chopin benches....we started seeing a continual stream, and then a river of people walking past us, going the opposite direction.

We soon learned it was the middle of a Warsaw Walk-a-thon. What a great day to be out walking....

We found the entrance to Warsaw University's main campus, and walked through the grounds until we found....Kazimierzowski Palace, currently the administration building of Warsaw University.

In 1817 the Chopin family consisted of six members…Frederyk, his parents, and three sisters. They moved to a larger apartment....directly across the path from this palace. It was here that the elder Chopin taught French Literature to high school students.

It was so quiet here....Mark pushed the button to play the music and I could hear it clearly on the other end of this building! It probably does not get as much use as the benches directly on the main street. (What's that street's name again? Krakowskie Przedmieście - say it fast five times!)

This is where the Chopin family lived....their second residence in Warsaw.

In addition to teaching French, Chopin's parents also ran a boarding school for boys from wealthy landowning families.

Chopin and his family lived here from 1817-1827 (Chopin was 7-17 years of age).

Below is the Czapski Palce...the 3rd residence for the Chopin Family. They lived here in 1827. Freyderyk had his own apartment upstairs.

Here many of Chopin's friends, artists and other young people visited Chopin and listened to him practice and play his beautiful music.

Distraction #3….19th-century bicycles, as part of the Walk-a-thon. We both enjoy riding our bikes here in Warsaw....especially Mark. I found it most interesting how these young bicyclists hardly held onto to anything….

….in fact they were holding a flag and moving their hands most of the time. We think they were advertising the walkathon...interesting they were not walking...but they sure had people's attention!

The Church of the Holy Cross

Chopin lived the last 19 years of his life in Paris. When he died, the ruling Russian Tsarists refused to allow his body to be returned to Warsaw. So his sister, "….according to Chopin's expressed desire to have his heart laid to rest in a free Poland..." brought his heart to Warsaw.

Today the urn containing Chopin's heart rests inside one of the pillars of the Church of the Holy Cross. We have been in other cities where a notable person's heart is entombed in a church, so it may have been common in European history. The inscription on the urn reads: "Where your treasure is found, there is also your heart".