8/19/2025 - 8/22/2025

We took the train about 3 hours from Gdansk to Warsaw which is in the central part of the country and is the capital. We spent 2.5 days here.

I am not sure we really have much to say about Warsaw. It’s a big city that was destroyed in WWII. There are areas that were well reconstructed and are very nice (such as the town square and “old town”) and there are areas that are mostly big square buildings from the communist era. We enjoyed our couple of days here, but we wouldn’t say it is a must-see city. We did a bike tour, a walking tour, visited one museum, and walked around a huge park that is home to several small palaces that were really pretty. Oh… and we visited 7 (yes SEVEN!) wine bars! 😊 Warsaw did have a nice selection of good wine bars! But even at that, we wouldn’t consider it a must-see city.

We saw the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier which was pretty cool. It was erected in November 1925 and houses the unidentified body of a young soldier who fell during WWI. Earth from various battlefields where Polish soldiers have fought have been added to the urns housed in the pillars. The monument was part of a huge palace (Saxon Palace) which was destroyed in WWII. The tomb of the unknown soldier was the only part of the entire complex to survive! It is constantly lit by an external flame and the changing of the guard takes place on the hour every day of the year.

Lazienki park is a 76 hectacres palace complex used by monarchy and military since the 16th century. The largest renovations were in the 18th century by Stanislaus II Augustus who ruled as the last King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania. In 1795, Poland ceased to exist and was divided between Austria, Russia, and Prussia (Germany). This section of Poland was ruled by Russia and the park was used by the Russian Tzars until the end of WWI when Poland became a country once again.

We also visited the POLIN Museum which covers about 1000 years of history of the Jewish people in Poland. It was interesting, but we were admittedly not that into it. We visited after a bike tour and a couple glasses of wine with lunch, so absorbing 1000 years of history just wasn’t in the cards that day! We tried.

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