Evening in Warsaw

Emma has been napping ... Let's hope this is the most time I have to post pictures during the entire trip!

Some pictures of Warsaw's "Old Town" in the evening.  It was demolished in WWII and rebuilt brick by brick.  Let's hope they gave themselves some modern plumbing and closets.

(My camera seems to have a "magically pretty" setting for city nighttime lighting, so it was hard to resist shooting the same pictures I'd already taking during the day.)

Warsaw, old town

Warsaw, Royal Castle

Statue of King Sigismund, overlooking the Castle Square, Warsaw

Fire twirler on Castle Square, Warsaw

Central Square of the "Old" Town, Warsaw

Central Square, "Old" Town, Warsaw

Morning in Warsaw

Today is a holiday in Poland, so we decided to take a walk.  We passed through the old city and stopped to find the statue of Syrenka, the mermaid who is the emblem of both Warsaw and Emma's school.

reconstructed wall of the old city

Syrenka, the mermaid

Emma by her school's mascot

In front of the Royal Palace

Buildings on Palace Square

We walked through what used to be the Jewish ghetto and now is mostly modern apartment buildings and high-rises.  The area was pretty much razed after the 1943 ghetto uprising.  We saw a few monuments to the heroes and victims of that battle, along with some graffiti that tells the same story.

Memorial to the Heroes of the Ghetto

Memorial to Leaders of the Ghetto Uprising

We're here!

We're here in Warsaw, safe and sound.

The flights were all unremarkable--which is a good thing.  We were on the "upper deck" of our first flight, from Boston to Paris ... which felt special even though it was probably exactly the same as the lower deck.

At the last minute while packing, I couldn't find my Polish phrase book.  AAARGH!  But I've already successfully left the hotel, found a shop (1.5 blocks away) and purchased a new one.

We're staying right in the "old town"--there are cobblestones on our street.  There are just a few more minutes of sunlight, so I want to take a walk around.  Emma's sleeping, but I think I'll go poke her and see if she wants to come.

It's the start of a wonderful 3 weeks!

What have I forgotten?

I guess it's time to send folks this URL and explain what it's for.

This blog is my new attempt to stay in touch with dear ones while on the road--namely, during Emma's and my upcoming trip to Poland.  I'll try to post new pictures every couple of days and let you know what we've been up to.  I hope you write back by posting comments.  But e-mail works, too!

And if anyone wants to take a guess in the next 24 hours at what I've forgotten to pack (because there's always one thing, no matter what) I'd be most appreciative if you'd post a comment and let me know.

Thanks!

Gotta pack ...

I can hardly believe that we're almost ready to go.  I've been looking forward to this trip for so long--and now it's almost here.  And all too soon, it will be over.

So much has happened.  Emma's grandmother, Dorit Brennan, one of the main architects and sponsors of this trip, passed away a few weeks ago.  I'm glad that we'll be able to visit some of the places she wanted to take Emma:  Gdansk, Sopot, Krakow.  And the National Library, to see the Codex Suprasliensis.

Now, I'm testing out my technology.  I need camera, blog, computer, etc. to all be happily playing together.  Well, maybe not "need."  I need plane tickets, train tickets, hotels, and passports.  The rest is gravy.

Gotta go pack!

How do these things begin?

I'm planning a trip to Poland with my daughter, to see the country where some of my family and some her father's family have come from.  It's a big country, and we hail from all over--from the seaport of Gdansk to the mountain village of Czarny Dunajec.  And then there are the wonders of the Masurian Lake District and Krakow ... and we want to hop over to Germany to see a match in the Women's World Soccer championship!   How can we ever fit it all in?

We're in the "anything is a possibility" stage right now, leafing through tour books and scanning Web pages.  We're making lists and noting dates, and the more we research, the more things we fall in love with--and of course, the more things we know we'll eventually have to renounce.

But whatever happens, it will be wonderful.