Where have you been?

After a few days of rest to get over what little jet lag our guest had, we set out to Sopot/Gdańsk via Toruń. Toruń is another Polish UNESCO World Heritage site and is said to have not changed for the past 700 years.


The old city was absolutely amazing. Cobble stone streets. Small alleyways. Large Market squares. Toruń is the archetypical medieval European city.


It is also the birth place of Nicolaus Copernicus who as you all know was the modern astronomer who postulated the heliocentric nature of our universe. This scientifically-based epiphany is credited with sparking the modern Scientific Revolution.

Hum, where to start on this one? After looking at the trees, bushes, and well, basically everything, we still had one and a half hours to wait until our tickets were valid. We decided to grab a bit to eat at what looked to be a posh restaurant just outside the Palace.


We figure one and a half hours is a bit long to waste eating but we have nothing else to do so why not. After finding a table and setting down we waited about fifteen minutes to order drinks. Another twenty minutes and they finally came. We complained and ordered right then and there.


Another half an hour wait and finally our food came. It as okay except the pork I ordered was raw. Not undercooked. Just raw. We only had a few minutes to wait so after yelling at the guy again he "rushed" my pig and I was able to eat most of it before we had to run. Naturally there was no tip...

The overall problem with the Palace was that it is simply not finished. The main building looks good, as does the inside which you actually can't take photos of, but the grounds are generally left "wild". Only immediately behind the Palace has any effort been put into the outside areas. Much of the outside is "in progress" but I would say it will not be completed until perhaps 2011 or later.


In the top photo you can see a nice garden while below we get a closer view of some of the flowers.

The "backyard" is quite large complete with a small lake as mentioned before. It is somewhat picturesque but not that much. I was lucky to get a few good pictures especially because the weather was hit and miss.


There are a number of animals on the property including this little red squirrel.


This is by far my favorite photos from the day.

Here is a nice family portrait in front of one of the many statues on the property.


What Palace is complete without its own boat house? The lake is small and not connected to any river but that's not the point now is it. You simply can't have a Palace without a boat house, period.

Like all good Palaces Wilanów has its share of statues. Here we can see two of them.


The are located along the front walls of the palace in small alcoves. You can notice them is the panoramic pictures already posted.

The building itself was pretty interesting. The color was nice (IMHO) and I was drawn to the spire.


As you can see there is nothing special about it. I just liked it!

The main activity for the day was to see Palace Wilanów. We were able to see everything, including the somewhat boring inside, but it ended up taking all day!


You see, we went on Sunday when the tickets to the inside are free. The trick is that each ticket has an entrance time. We arrived at 11AM but our entrance time was not until 4PM! After wandering around the front of the Palace (the photos here) we paid to walk through the gardens.


The gardens were okay, as you will see in future posts, but not enough to kill five hours. We decided to eat lunch as well and that was quite an experience. But you will have to wait for those pictures to hear the story.

After a good night sleep we attacked Day Three. There were plans to visit multiple sites around Warsaw but things don't always work out as planned.


On our way to site number one we ran across this church and tomb. The tomb houses a old Polish Duke (I think).

Naturally no trip to Poland would be complete with out a huge dinner at the family-in-laws' house so after wandering the streets of Old Town Warsaw we headed to Bemowo to eat. It was the standard Polish fare complete with vodka and lots of family. My mother-in-law is a fantastic cook so naturally everything was delicious.


It was a very enjoyable afternoon as everyone got to know everyone else. The conversation was fun and exciting but rather slow as everything had to be translated by either my wife (at a normal pace) or by myself (at a snail's pace)! In the end my mom and nephew were sort of surprised that Polish people know so much about American politics - many questions were focused on the Presidential campaign which was in full swing at the time.