Sat23Jul16: "Hotel Ibis Warsaw", Warsaw, Poland (rest day)

Roommate hit me last night!  Well, I guess it was going to happen eventually, because before we started this ride I said to him "If I snore during the night, just give me a push".  So, after three weeks together, he physically struck me.  Well, at least he said it was because I was snoring, although how the heck would I know - after all, I was asleep at the time!  Afterwards I analysed my face down position on the pillow, noted that my arms and legs were extended and relaxed, noted that my breathing wasn't laboured.  So, why the heck would I be snoring?  Oh well ... Next time I'll call the police and maybe he'll give them a better explanation.

Today was exploration day through the city of Warsaw.  Our Hotel Ibis is at the northern end of the city so the natural direction to travel was southward.  Directly in front of our hotel is a monument to the Polish Holocaust, noting the number of Christian souls who took the trains to their death...






a monument to Madame Sklodowska-Curie (who discovered the phenomena of atomic radiation and died doing her work)...

reconstructed barbican and walls of the Old City...









a mermaid statue in the Old Town Market...

some idiot joining street buskers in the Old City streets...

...slipped inside the Royal Palace to see how Polish royalty lived back in the 18th centry...

...attended a baroque organ recital by Przemislaw Kapitula....

...watched Polish folk dancing in the 'free concert' area...

...checked out the Holy Cross Church where the heart of Chopin is emtombed in a support column...

....guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Saski Park, finishing with a tram homeward in the mid-afternoon to sort and edit all my photographs.

This evening there's a 10km run being held to commemorate the 72nd Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (which actually began 26 July 1944, but let's not quibble over a couple of days).  Volunteers at the barricades have donned WW2-era military uniforms and are allowing all sorts of riff-raff to be photographed holding German submachine pistols or automatic rifles.  Which reminds me, tonight I've got to remember not to snore...