Warsaw, Day 2 for Everyone!

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... 

 

Warsaw, Day 1 for Everyone!

This is big. Really big. For some, it's huge. I belong to that subset, for whom this is huge. The great meetup of my American family with my Polish family, in Warsaw, Poland. Perhaps you'll think I have imbued this with too much meaning. I mean, family reunions can be a mixed bag of emotions, where some don't care, some don't want to be there, some just want a quick handshake and be done with it. But I can assure you -- in my family meetup, in bringing my kids and spouses and grandkids to Poland, I am confident, indeed positive that everyone really wants to be here. And it's not really a reunion, because this is a first face-to-face for many. Only my two daughters have met my sister and her sons. None of us have met her granddaughter (my grand-niece), and my sons-in-law and grandkids have met no one at all from the Polish bunch. So, now that you know how significant this all is for me, let me give a few details, but realize, please, that I have very little time for writing and photo editing. You'll get the basics though. If it kills me, you'll get the basics.

First, a quiet breakfast, same as yesterday (it's so good!), although I upped the protein a bit! 

Then the messages come flying. From my sister. From my daughter in Krakow. From my daughter who just landed in Copenhagen. We are coordinating in real-time. How did all this happen before phones and messaging platforms? For those innocents born too late to know or remember -- years ago, we functioned in an aura of mystery, supplemented by a rare phone communication (remember when it was SO EXPENSIVE to call long distance?).  

I have an hour before my sister comes up to the hotel to leave some stuff for transport to the country later in the week. She and my nephew will be part of the meetup crew today. [This would be the nephew who lives in Warsaw -- you can call him Artist, because he is that; there is another, older nephew who splits his time between England and Poland -- you can call him Organics, because he's into that, and then there's his daughter, let's give her a flower -- how about Rosie, because I am meeting her in June and everyone knows June is the month of roses.] Organics and Rosie are coming to Warsaw by train today, just for a very short time, as he has to return to England for work purposes Sunday eve, and she needs to return home to her mom who lives in the south of Poland. Are you lost yet? Don't be. I do not come from a large family. These are all the kinfolk that matter to me. There is no one else.

In my one free hour, I have errands to run. I need an ATM, a chocolate bar to keep me going into the night for Ocean writing, a bag for Rosie's gifts. It's raining this morning but who cares.

 

 

 

(on the way: it's strawberry season!)

(on the way: a good bakery with strawberry pastries, and of course, jagodzianki -- blueberry rolls)

 

(on the way: Warsaw has adopted the meadow look in city spaces; no lawns, no flowers needing water and care, just variety -- the stuff you'd find in a Polish meadow perhaps)

 

 

And then my sister arrives and we take the metro to meet and greet two separately arriving branches of our small family: my nephew Organics and his daughter first.

(on the way to the train station: the meadow look)

(Artist meeting Organics and Rosie)

And then my daughter and her friend arrive, coming in by train from Krakow.

 (the friend is pushing a heavy suitcase and is not in the picture)

 

 

Here he is! Later, in the hotel. With Artist.

 

 

 

Here's what you should know about today, in Poland: it's Gay Pride day. And Warsaw goes all in on the celebration.

 

 

 

There is a massive parade, starting in the center of town at 2 p.m. and winding its way up toward our hotel, going around in a circle, so that we are inside a very long snake of people, all draped in flags and colorful markers of their various identities. Given this, we decide to take the metro from the train station. Moving around by taxi would be... difficult.

But riding the metro poses its own challenges. Not every up and down has elevators/escalators. And there are suitcases. And there is a little girl who is not yet 6. Lucky break: the subway is not crowded. We get off at a stop just a few minutes' walk to our hotel.

Since we pass the strawberries, I cannot resist -- I purchase a small basket of them. And Rosie gets what she's craving: Polish gooseberries.

 

And since we pass the bakery, I am thrilled to buy some yeasty rolls, a jagodzianka, and paczki for the soon to arrive little ones.

And of course, my younger daughter and her family, coming in by car from the airport, are trapped outside of the circle of paraders. No way can the driver negotiate permission to get through. He drops them off a few blocks away. They walk over, tired but joyful!

 

 

 

And now at least two of the grandkids can meet their Polish second cousin...

And my sister and nephews can meet at least some of my American family.

 

 

Checked in, we eat our snacks, enjoy the antics of the youngest, then let the one family who has just been through many hours of airports and flights, retreat to refresh for a bit and we say good bye for today to the nephews, to Rosie, to my sister.. 

Just before dinner (which today is to be at the pierogi place -- Zapiecek) the girls come knocking on my door.

(predinner artwork, using a gift from Rosie)

 

 

We all walk together to Krakowskie Przedmiescie -- the Royal Way, linking the Old Town with the grand parks of Warsaw.

At the restaurant, we are so lucky to get a large table! We order a lot of Polish food. Rosol (chicken noodle soup -- probably Poland's most widely eaten dish) for the girls, beet broth for some of us older types. 

 

 

Pierogi of course: with cheese and potato, with cabbage and mushroom, meats, with strawberries -- because it's the season. Kopytka (Polish gnocchi), potato pancakes -- all of it. 

Toward the end of the meal we got a text that my daughter's husband and their three kids have arrived at the hotel. I was done with my pierogi, so I went up to the hotel (a ten minute walk) to get them. 

 

The restaurant was by now very crowded. A long line had formed to get in. But, our luck held: we all fit in at the table...

(thanks, Carey, for taking this! there is a Juniper in there, but with a group this size, taken after a trip that long, you take the photo and just let them be, even if not everyone is looking at the camera...)

Once the earlier arrivals leave to get some much needed sleep, the Madison arrivals order their pierogi. 

It was a joyous evening, a joyous day, every bit of it. And of course, I kept thinking -- really? I'm here, in Warsaw, with my whole American family? Incredible... 

The walk back is past a candy shop. The kids are set loose to pick their favorites. I do think some of them seized the moment and filled their sacs nearly to capacity. And once you put in something and mix it with the rest, you can hardly put it back... 

Oh, but it's their first night, and they traveled far, and they never once complained about anything. Only at the very end, when a sudden rainbow showed up...

... then disappeared, did Sandpiper cry -- I dont want the rainbow to go away! 

I feel that it hasn't. It's with us on this trip.

with so much love...