After our intense touring day we needed something more relaxed, so decided to simply stroll a bit and allow Helga and Doris to do a bit of souvenir shopping.
We planned our route around Helga’s request to visit the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier near the former site of the Saxon Palace (destroyed not in WWII but by the Swedish in a much earlier conflict) which is currently in the early stages of reconstruction.
When Ted and I were here a couple of days ago, there were no floral tributes, but yesterday was VE Day (Victory in Europe May 8 1945) so today the memorial was full of fresh flowers and wreaths.
We were fortuitously just in time for the noon changing of the guard ceremony.
From Saxon Park we walked to the enormous Palace of Culture where, after cake and coffee, we took Warsaw’s fastest elevator to the 30th floor viewing terrace.
Just 20 seconds to rise 30 storeys!
The view from the 30th floor in all four directions was quite amazing, and contrasted the old and new construction that makes Warsaw so interesting.
The rest of the photos show Old Town (and “New Town”), most,y identifiable by the red roofs.
The Palace of Culture was completed in 1955, completed in just 3 years during the Communist era as a “gift” from the Soviet Union to the people of Warsaw. That the Varsovians were ungrateful and unimpressed may have been at least partially due to the fact that the building’s magnificent portico was used as the reviewing platform for the annual Soviet military parades.
Because we can’t ever resist a church, we peeked into St. Anthony’s, in which there is a reliquary containing what is purported to be a fragment of bone from St. Francis of Assisi. The church offered – for a voluntary donation – medallions “blessed” by having been rubbed against the relic.
The pipe organ, backed by a stained glass window, was bathed in coloured light.
There were relics from two more recently beatified martyrs as well. Two of the ornate Stations of the Cross are in the gilt oval frames on either side of relics from St Hanna Chrzanowska, who died in 1973 and was beatified in 2018 by Pope Francis is recognition of her sacrifices as a nurse caring for refugees and the poor.
Somewhere in the centre of the reliquary below are the relics of St. Francis.
As is the case in every church in Warsaw, there is a memorial wall with the names of those killed in the two World Wars. This one lists ages and place of death.
By the time we got within a couple of blocks of our apartment, we had exhausted Ted – or at least exhausted his ears. He headed “home” and we three headed to Pod Samsonem for Polish brandy spritzes.
Left to our own devices, we detoured into the main garrison church of Warsaw, but since Ted and I planned to return for a more in-depth visit the next day, I didn’t take many photos. The one below of the main altar is a teaser.
We also detoured to a restaurant to make dinner reservations. As I was standing in line using the translate app on my phone to get ready to make my request, a helpful local Pole explained in halting English that he could help me do it on the Polish restaurant app rather than me waiting for ages. Mission accomplished with the help of a stranger.
When we arrived at Pod Samsonem the servers remembered us from our spritz drinking two nights prior and treated us like old friends.
We settled into a corner table and ordered plum and raspberry brandy spritzes.
Unlike Aperol spritzes, when the drinks are made with Polish fruit brandy there is no measuring involved; a very generous pour of brandy is simply topped up with Prosecco and a bit of ice until the glass is just short of overflowing.
Saturday is family celebration day in Poland, and every restaurant we’d passed on our walk was filled with families dressed in their finest, often bearing flower bouquets for whoever was being celebrated. Pod Samsonem was no exception.
When the large family in the room next to us sang their celebratory toasts, we applauded (despite not understanding any of the words to the songs). Apparently applause made us “family”, because the patriarch came over to us to introduce himself, in hesitant English, shake hands, and add a generous splash of vodka to our not-quite-half finished drinks, basically topping them back up to full glasses. Na Zdrowie!
Doris then decided (probably under the influence of that vodka) the all three of us needed a second round of spritzes.
We were all quite wobbly when we climbed upstairs to retrieve Ted to go for dinner. Quick catnaps ensued, and then off we went, this time to Kompania Piwna (which translates to “beer company”).
The license plate on the vintage automobile outside the restaurant translates to “pork knuckle”, which is what Ted ordered for his dinner.
Dinner was delicious, and the portions incredibly generous. Our young waiter was absolutely charming, as every Pole we’ve met has been,
Helga and Doris both had Bigos Staropolski Podawany w Chlebie (traditional Polish sauerkraut and meat stew served in a bread bowl) as their main course.
I ordered Wiener schnitzel, which overflowed my dinner plate, and came with a lemon wedge, cranberry sauce, a green salad, and fries. Ted ordered the signature pork knuckle which came with freshly grated horseradish, and two kinds of mustard.
The fries went untouched, and half of both the schnitzel and the pork knuckle came home with us for our next night’s dinner
Part way through dinner we began to think we hadn’t actually paid for our afternoon drinks. I definitely had not. Helga had not. Doris had insisted at the time that it was her treat, but couldn’t remember paying. Blame it (and everything else) on that shot of vodka. We began to be convinced that we had skipped out on our bill. So, after dinner we sheepishly headed back to Pod Samsonem and searched out our server, full of apologies.
When we arrived at the restaurant and began to tender our apologies, our server laughed, pointed at Doris, and said “she paid” – and found the whole thing so amusing that she poured out four shots of raspberry brandy for a toast. Na Zdrowie!
And with that you’d have thought we’d have headed back to our apartment and straight to bed, but we were determined to take in the 9:30 p.m. sound and light show, appropriately themed “Open Hearts”, in Warsaw’s Multimedia Fountain Park alongside the river.
The show lasted for 30 minutes and, in my opinion, was far more impressive and musically enjoyable than the water and light show we experienced at the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, despite that being the far more heavily publicized event.
Ted’s video below is 11 minutes of excerpts.
That was our last event together before Helga and Doris needed to return to Germany. Despite (or maybe because of) the fact that we always seem to misbehave a bit when we’re together, I’m going to miss them a lot.
We’re already thinking about a potential reunion next June in Dresden.
Rose and Ted’s Excellent Adventure 