Warszawa (Warsaw)

This city is nothing like I had imagined although visiting the city of Posnan had opened my eyes a little. What a fantastic city!

Poles are vey proud of their city and there is much rivalry between this city and Cracow (Krakow). King Sigmund lll moved his Royal Court from Cracow in the 1500s to be more central to the former commonwealth of Poland and Lithuania (Poland being much bigger then and encompassing Belarus and Ukraine).

In a nutshell however, the empires of Russia, Austria and Prussia set about partitioning up this commonwealth and Poland ceased to exist as a country. At the end of WWl Poland was reborn and in WWll was pretty much annihilated by the Nazis and Russians. Warsaw and the country are still recovering emotionally (in my opinion) from the suffering experienced during the war and then the communist regime following.

The war devastation was greater than Berlin or Dresden and the old town has been completely rebuilt in authentic styles, superbly well.

Some sculptures depicting the Warsaw Uprising are some of the most powerful images I have ever seen. The lines of the wartime Jewish ghetto walls are recorded for posterity.

Copernicus, Chopin, Madame Curie and many more of Polish origin are celebrated here.

Sandra and I have experienced a couple of days in a remarkable city.