Warsaw Day 1

Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is celebrating the 200^th anniversary of Polish composer Chopin’s birth.

Chopin Memorial

On our guided city tour we saw the Chopin Memorial in 17^th century Lazienki Park, St. John’s Cathedral and the memorial to the Warsaw uprising. 

Hitler’s enraged retribution against the underground insurgency was swift and brutal with orders to wipe Warsaw off the face of the map. Anything of cultural importance was blown up and whole districts were set on fire. When it was over, 90% of the city lay in total ruin, a pile of rubble. Warsaw was faithfully rebuilt after the devastation. 

Warsaw 1945

We walked in the reconstructed Old Town to the Market Square where we visited the Warsaw Historical Museum to view a moving film about the doomed rebellion against the Nazis and the subsequent rebuilding of the city. Although the Nazis flattened the Jewish Ghetto, we saw the area where it had once been. Today only a few bombed-out, bullet-riddled reminders are left.

Walled-in Jewish Ghetto

A remnant to remember

Speaking of the pianist Chopin, after his death his heart was removed and preserved in cognac to be returned to his homeland, as he’d requested in his last wishes. His sister later took the heart in an urn to Warsaw, where it was sealed within a pillar of the Holy Cross Church. Too bizarre.

Chopin 1810-1849

Heart Preservative

Heart entombed

This evening we attended a final group dinner at the hotel, where our Tour Director, Elena Tinton and our coach driver, Udo, thanked us for joining the tour and we thanked them for their services, and filled out a questionnaire about the tour, they gave us leather luggage tags and pins for being repeat customers with their tour company, photos of tour members were taken and email addresses were exchanged. This is the end of the organized portion of our tour. 

Elena and Udo

We four are on our own again for a couple more days.

Diane, Linda, Jerry, Ron