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...
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...
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