Here we are: the two young families, a friend who is almost family, and me, in Warsaw. Who would have thought, when I left Poland at the age of 19, that I would be back in this way, with the people I love so much!
And what a day it was! A few choice words to describe it (in case you do not want to scroll through 50 photos -- a record for an Ocean post!): breakfast enthusiasm, cousins beyond just five, pivot to Saxony Park, walk walk walk with the royals, paczki, communism, great grandparents married here, park with babbling brook, Chopin, Orangerie meal of all meals, it was once bath house, rain!, bus, rain! home at last, electricity and food, how did the Wisla turn into the Vistula?, such a narrow street, home at last once more.
Through it all the kids were magnificent, BFFs, energetic, happy. The grownups? Somewhat calmer but still magnificent, BFFs, slightly less energetic, happy.
I'll show you! In pictures.
1. START THE DAY WITH BREAKFAST!
There is a bread and pastry bar at the hotel.
The chosen bread product:
Healthy eating!
2. COUSINS plus ONE MORE: TO THE PARK!
Rosie, her dad, Artist, and my sister come to the hotel once again. So it's the five cousins plus one more!
We were going to head straight to Park Ujazdowski along the Royal Way, but Rosie and her dad must catch a noon train and so we pivot and turn to the Saxony Gardens first. It's a great place to set the kids free to do their thing.
(all of them, by the lake and the water tower)
(A small Juniper by the very large fountain)
(there, it's better with all six!)
(the grownups lag behind)
(the park has a playground!)
(And it has flowers: English daisies and pansies for that meadow look)
(out of the park now, waiting for the grownups)
3. ON THE ROYAL WAY
(by the University of Warsaw and the Polish Academy of Science)
(they do and do not want to see Chopin's embalmed heart in the Church of the Holy Cross: thsi was not to be; there was a service taking place, and besides, you can't really see the heart. Just know that it's there!)
(the Nowy Swiat: nicely quiet without cars)
We go to Blikle for paczki (and babeczki and jagodzianki). You can argue all you want about which bakery makes the best paczki, but Blikle has been around the longest and theirs have consistently been made to the highest standard. We choose the ones with rose jam.
And now it's time to say good-bye to Rosie and Organics. Group hug!
4. STILL ON THE ROYAL WAY BUT WITH (ONCE) COMMUNIST OVERTONES
(why photograph just the men in front of the former headquarters of the Polish Communist Party? Well, it was once the dominion of men -- I suppose this is to me a view of the generations of men that came after, ones who never flexed their muscle with a need to control and oppress and exclude and expel. My father, a realist in the extreme, worked in that building for a handful of years. He couldn't wait to leave, and when he did leave, he never went back anywhere near it)
6. THE LOVELIEST PARKS
In the Ujazdowski Park, I once picked fallen chestnuts. And now, here I walk my kids, my grandkids -- along the Avenue of the Chestnuts.
(Yes, I used to cross the brook on these stones too...)
(Smell those blooming linden trees!)
In Lazienki Park: Chopin's Monument was rebuilt (after WWII) and recast and finally reopened in 1958. I was in the audience for the great unveiling of it. I was five, the age of Sandpiper.
(oh-oh! here comes the rain!)
7. BRUNCH
We eat brunch at the Belvedere Restaurant in the New Orangerie, where the Russian Tsar kept his precious orange trees.
It's a delicious buffet that has every imaginable item -- Polish foods of course, but with little detours into other favorites. The kids were thrilled and behaved splendidly, despite the rather serious atmosphere.
8. TO KEEP AS A MEMORY
And now for the iconic photo -- across the lake, with a view toward the Lazienki Palace. My beloved five.
(And here we are, all of us. I can hardly take it in...)
(here comes the rain again!)
(we take the bus back to the hotel)
9. TIME FOR SUPPER
(waiting for two UBERs)
We eat supper at the Food Courts, located in the ELEKTROWNIA POWISLE.
(creative!)
(always room for ice cream)
10. THE WISLA RIVER
It's late. We should get the kids to bed. We have an early day tomorrow. And still, we are so close to the river... Let's go for a stroll along its banks.
It's the Wisla River; the Anglicized Latin version turned it into the Vistula.
(the new pedestrian bridge to the front)
(trampolines)
(he so wanted to cross the pedestrian bridge!)
(the all made it halfway, then we insisted that it's time to turn back...)
(walking up the narrowest street in Warsaw)
And now we're back, on the Krakowskie Przedmiscie Street, the Royal Way, where we ended the day yesterday and started the day this morning.
So many beautiful memories, made in one day...
with so much love...
