Warsaw - Walking Tour

Warsaw - Walking Tour, a set on Flickr.

Winter midterm break has seen us drive 8 hours to the capital of Poland, Warsaw. Taylor has stayed in Prague with friends this holiday so she can go to a concert and study (we’ll see about the study). It’s cold but not snowing and we are happy and ready to sight see once again.
Today we started with a visit to the Geological Museum; we thought Corban and Leo would enjoy looking at the dinosaur fossils and interesting rocks. We also wanted to do something that was inside knowing that the afternoon would be a few hours on a walking tour in the cold.
Like usual Leo slept through the walking tour and Corban harassed the tour guide, she was pretty happy when she got to hold the flag! Like most of Europe Poland’s history is amazing but most of what happened pre WWII is over shadowed by the war. We discovered some interesting Kings who ruled in Poland and how they came to power. Warsaw city is an interesting place as 90% of Warsaw was destroyed during WWII with buildings being left less that 2m high. Many of the new buildings have been built to look old and there are many new building around the city. We saw the remembrance strip in the path where the wall around the Jewish Ghetto was erected. The tour guide told stories and gave information about the Jewish Ghetto uprising and also the Warsaw uprising, she painted a bleak picture of Polish life under the occupation of Germany and Russia and how helpless they were. She also told as folk stories about Mermaids, which was a little different, the Polish love Mermaids and have lots of statues throughout Warsaw city. Not the kind of Mermaid I think of, these ones have shields and swords and are like warriors.
Alongside learning this we also learnt about Marie Sktodowska the Scientist who discovered Polonium and Radium (cancer treatment) and about Chopin composing In Poland when it was illegal before moving to France to continue his work.