Old Warsaw

There is a part of Warsaw called Old Town, which is the oldest part of the city, dating back to the 1300s. During WWII, much of Warsaw was obliterated, and most of Old Town was deliberately destroyed. After the war it was reconstructed, brick by brick, utilizing every available surviving bit, with individual pieces being put in their original locations. It is strikingly beautiful with a surprising amount of decorative detail.



Town Hall:



This mermaid statue is the symbol of Warsaw.



A large church that looks almost like a State building.



Django in the square.






Simon doing double duty.



O.k., so we had to have perogies. This restaurant was dedicated to perogies. Order at the counter, and make sure to tell them in your best Polish not to put the sauce made with lard on if you're a vegetarian. Oh, and good luck with that. If you're thinking of perogies as dumplings filled with a potato and cheese filling (like I did) you are thinking of the Russian variety. Polish perogies come with numerous, probably endless variety of fillings. A couple popular, and non-meat versions were cabbage and mushrooms, and spinach and cheese. We did try to avert the lard sauce, but it came with it anyway. Sorry to be the ugly (but friendly) Americans, but we sent them back. We received the same perogies, apparently rinsed off. Well, they were pretty good anyway.

(and no, Simon is not actually American)



mmmmm...



Django enjoyed them too. He was in a mood at the moment and not sure if he would eat something new, we just said 'PASTA'! That seemed to work.



We went to a really cool little gallery with lots of functional art and some completely useless stuff too. Part of the gallery was in a basement that felt like a cave. Very cool.



The PEOPLE

The Polish people were so interesting looking, I kept wanted to snap pictures. Mostly I resisted the urge out of a desire not to impose too much. I tried to use my reasonably good zoom lense to capture a few folks without them noticing.



Well, she noticed.
I think many ladies with money in Poland have fur coats. I saw several of them.



Love these shots:





The BUILDINGS

Looking into the square:



The rest of the pictures speak for themselves. I love the details.














This church had an odd incongruous design.









still to come... Krakow!