Walking Warsaw

Today we walked Warsaw. we first had breakfast with 3 Canadians. One was a teacher who was returning to north american after years of teaching in china, and touring russia; the other 2 were a married couple who were on a three week holiday. we then walked to the warsaw ghetto - where the famous uprising took place in 1944.

we started off on Pope John Paul II street, and headed to the Pawiak prison 1835 - 1944. This prison was originally built for common criminals in 1830's, however it was taken over by the gestapo in the 1930's, and became infamous. 10% of Warsaw's population was imprisoned here. noted for americans, they used interrogation devises such as waterboarding and dogs. what we do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat. some of the waterboards were preserved, such as rubber tubing... asso to be noted was an elm tree, now encompased with bronze. in 1944 the nazi's bombed warsaw and the elm survived and is now a monument to those who died in the prison.

we then walked the warsaw ghetto. those who have seen roman polanski's film "the pianist" will be familiar with the recreation of these streets. of coarse the buildings were all razed by bombs, so now the ghetto is marked by stone tablets. we passed many hebrew tour groups on the path. a new historical museum is in the process of being built in this area.

we ended the day walking tthe old town, were we stopped for lunch on teh street Madam Curie was born. I are pig knuckle and wodka, pete had duck mmmmmmm.

we watched break dancers in the main square, and passed the dedication to copurnacus. we finished the day going to an old car show, with citrions from the 1930- present.

tomorrow we leave for krakow!!!