Warsaw, Day 4

It didn't storm today after all, but I decided that Em had enough sad, and that she didn't have to go see the rest of the sad things. She understood enough, I think. So, today it was off to Lazienki Park and the Botanical Gardens.

It was about a 20 minute walk from our hotel to Lazienki Park, where the gardens are located. Lazienki park is huge. We were confused at first, because we walked into a park and found a fence. It was a small park. I looked at the map and figured out that this park was a small park across the street from the big one. So, we carried on. We found the gardens no problem. The ticket lady didn't speak English, but we worked it out. She didn't like my 20, though, so she ended up taking all of my change. Dangit.

The gardens were very pretty, and made for a lovely strolling morning.

There was a whole floral art display in front of the gardens

The EuroCup logo in flowers

Flower dress

We never figured out what these signs meant

I love pretty gates

It was cool in there, too, which was a nice change

Pond covered in teeny leaves

The tiniest snail in the universe

I thought this one looked like the lion flower in "Alice in Wonderland"

These had grown together. They looked like metal

Then, we went down to Lazienki Park proper. We saw the Chopin monument

We strolled down to the "Palace on the Water," a palace that was built in the middle of the lake. It's connected with bridges that just look like extensions of the patio area, but it's still pretty.

We saw a squirrel with an acorn

And ducks lining the lake

And a tree wearing a gas mask

We saw a bus stop with a bus that would go to our hotel, but we decided to get ice cream and walk home, instead. (You can't eat ice cream on the bus) Then, we rested for a couple of hours.

A bit later, Max & I went out to Pawiak Prison. It's over an hour walk, so we took a taxi. Pawiak was built in the late 1800s, but it was taken over by the Nazis during the war. About 100,000 people passed through here during the war - about 10% of the population of Warsaw. They were either killed here or sent on to concentration camps elsewhere, many to Treblinka.

The prison was blown up by the Nazis after the war, but a bit of basement survived. That's where the museum is located today.

This room was meant for up to 3 prisoners. When the Nazis were in power, up to 20 people would be in this room

Out in front, there is a tree. It used to be a real tree, but it has since been replaced with a bronze replica. On the tree are plaques representing some of the people who died here.

There also remains a small piece of gate.

Pawiak is not near any other touristy sorts of things, so there were no taxis. So, we started walking towards Old Town, where we'd be able to find a taxi. We passed a metro station, and figured that the metro would at least get us closer to our destination, and we could walk from there. But, the ticket machine wouldn't accept our bills for some reason, and the woman from that morning had taken all of our change. So, we continued walking. It was a really long way. We did make it to Old Town about 45 minutes later, and we did find a taxi.

Then, though, it was time for dinner. We first needed to go out and get some liquor to bring home to Max's bar, and it seemed like all the liquor stores closed at 6 last night. So, we wanted to do that first. We headed back towards where we had gotten dinner last night, and we found a liquor store. It also had stuff to make sandwiches, so we just bought our dinner there and took it back to the hotel. We had Buffy and sandwiches. It was lovely.

Emma says - The gardens & stuff were really pretty, and I had a good time. The ice cream was soooo good. I loved having some resting time at the hotel.