Warsaw 5

Parks

After the tour of the Palace, we saw a bit of the city on our way to a Royal park. Several royal parks.

Unfortunately, I only got this hazy photo of the center piece of this first park, but it is The Thing to See, so here you have it. It is the Poles being proud of their native son, Chopin. 


From there we walked through large, lovely (and refreshing) trees on that hot day to an adjacent park. 

Each time a new Royal family came along, they expanded or added to the parks. Nobody wanted to live in the city, so they built summer houses in these parks to get away from the urban noise, smells, and riffraff. 


Here is a quite small pavilion of two rooms on each floor. 

At one point it housed a fleeing French Royal family, even though it was entirely unfurnished at the time. That’s roughing it. 

We weren’t allowed to go in.


Then we came to yet another park, that seemed to be quite popular with the locals. 

It too was beautifully laid out, maintained, and flower-bedecked.


It too had a summer palace, this one considerably larger. 

This faces the view of the picture above.


It gave itself an island feel with water channels around it and pretty bridges to the “mainland.” The cute conceits of wealth. 



Further walking, among twisty trees……


Another Summer Palace that was for a large family. 

Beyond this was another building, about this size, white, several stories, expansive, but not ornate, and these were the Royal Kitchens. Quite huge.

I have no idea why I didn’t get a picture.  You see a glimpse of it in the far left of the twisty tree. The palace on the above picture is the building on the far right of the twisty tree.

From there it was time to go into the city proper, via our luxurious little transport bus.

Below is a median, memorializing something, but I don’t recall what. All the tour explanations were in Polish-accented German, so I had to pay close attention to get the gist. And I wasn’t taking notes, as I usually do on tours.


I did note, though no one mentioned it, and it is supposed to be inconspicuous (!!!), this palm tree in the center of Warsaw. 

Of course one would think a solitary palm tree in urban Warsaw is unremarkable. 

It wasn’t real.

It was one of those fake palms hiding a 5G tower, blasting everything around it, as people tap away obliviously on their screens, absorbing it all. 


Next up, dinner in a fine place.