Warsaw

This morning we left Krakow at about 9:30 for the drive back to Warsaw.

This time, instead of staying in an airport hotel, we were going to spend the night in an apartment rented via AirBnB. It was located centrally, fairly close to the 'old' town. I say old because only about 12% of buildings in Warsaw were left intact at the end of the war and the rest had to be re-built.

After we arrived, managed to park, locate the apartment and owner and get settled in. It was just around the corner from Senatorska street on which many grand buildings are located, including (extras) the national theatre, lit up at night and the presidential palace where there was a tribute to those who died in the dreadful Smolensk air disaster. The 94 high ranking potiticians, clergy and relatives of victims of the Katyn massacre who died had been travelling to a memorial service for the approximately 22,000 poles murdered in that massacre by the soviets.

Also in the extras is a barbican (presumably largely reconstructed) at the perimeter of the old town.

I also took a snap of the photo hung on the wall in the apartment. "Womens Car Rally 1936". Life looks so normal in that photo. Little could they have imagined the terror to be unleashed on Poland from east and west just a few short years later. I hadn't even realised until reading about Katyn that the soviets carried out a purge of ethnic Poles in Russia as soon as 1937-38, the Polish Operation of the NKVD, in which in excess of 100,000 were murdered.

After visiting the old town we headed of to go to the viewing platform of the Palace of Culture (main picture), a 'gift' to Poland from Joseph Stalin.

Then it was back towards the old town to find someting to eat, by way of the tomb of the unknown soldier.

In the evening we had a nice meal at a Zapiecek restaurant. A chain of restaurants I think, with several in central Warsaw. They specialise in traditional Polish food.

Then it was to bed, ready for an early start. We planned to leave by about 9 am to visit the award winning 'Polin' museum of Polish-Jewish history, before heading off to the airport for the return flight to Santander.