First We Take Warsaw

We had an early evening, 18:25 train departure from Passau to Vienna arriving at 20:40. We traveled on a German made ICE-T train. Capable of up to 230 kilometres an hour, It was why we were able to travel from Passau to Vienna, a distance of 310 kilometres in 2 hours and 15 minutes. 

In Vienna, we were catching an overnight train to Warsaw departing at 22:20.  

Photo: www.seat61.com

Normally we would have allowed for a much earlier arrival to ensure we had plenty of time to make our connection in Vienna. However, our “on-time” experience with European train systems has given us the confidence to reduce our lay over times. Rather have the extra time to explore Passau than sit in a train station.

We were traveling to Warsaw on  a sleeper train called the Chopin. (Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era)  Advertised as a modern Polish sleeper, our car had seen a lot of use. Everything about it screamed the 90’s. We had booked the deluxe sleeper that provided a washroom with shower and included breakfast. The breakfast was a plastic wrapped slice of bread and pastry, a small container of juice, and some mystery meat. A very small hot coffee was delivered by the car attendant. 

The shower was more of a dribbler than a shower.  Full on, the stream of tepid water barely flowed down the wall of the shower stall. You had to rub your body along the wall to get enough water to wash. Eeeewww! 

Verdict? Should have stayed overnight in Vienna and caught an early train to Warsaw.









Warsaw had not been on our radar for a visit. We were drawn there by the chance to visit with some of our extended Chinese family. They had us quickly up and touring, with no learning curve. Meeting us at the train station then showing us the ropes on navigating Warsaw’s excellent public transportation system.

For our stay in Warsaw, we had booked a small apartment through a Polish accommodation company. Not something we normally do but the low cost was irresistible. . Their on line presence seemed legitimate and they were listed on several of the larger e-rental company sites.  The apartment was exactly as the picture on their website so a shout out to P  & O Apartment Group.

Our front door opened onto  Old Town Market Square, the geographic centre of Old Town Warsaw, hence the name

The 2^nd World War and the decades that followed were not kind to Warsaw nor kind to Poland.

The Old town had been almost completely razed by the Nazis as they retreated from the Russian advance. Rebuilding began all most immediately after the war and continued through to the mid-1960's

This is a picture of the Old Town Market Square after the Germans got through with it.

Photo: Wikipedia.com

Much of the tourist industry is driven by those years.  Bus tours to take you to the concentration camps that surround Warsaw. Many walking tours describing what life was like through the 2nd World War and Communist years.

We took three tours. The historical tour was interesting as much of Old Town had been destroyed during the war so the age of the buildings for most of the buildings were only 50 or 60 years.  We were patiently guided to those few buildings that existed before the war. There were not many.

 A shout out to freewalkingtour.com/warsaw/ for their excellent guides. Tipping is encouraged.

The Warsaw Uprising was our next tour. The uprising began as the Germans were in retreat from the Russian army advance. The intent was for the Poles to drive the Germans out of Warsaw and free Poland’s capital after five years of German occupation. As the Russians arrived on the outskirts of Warsaw they halted their advance leaving the Germans lots of time to regroup, defeat the Polish resistance and raze the capital in reprisal.

Warsaw Uprising Memorial.



This ploy allowed the Russians to easily occupy Warsaw and Poland for the next 40 years.

Our final walking tour involved one of the most infamously remembered atrocities of World War II. The  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began in 1939, when the Nazis who had occupied Poland a few months earlier, forced 300,000-400,000 Jews into a 3.3 km area in central Warsaw. Here, thousands of Jews perished due to starvation and disease.

In 1942, the Nazis began mass deportations of the Jews disguising it as a “resettlement to the East”. In the short period of only two months over 250,000 to 300,000 Jews were removed from the Warsaw ghetto and exterminated at the Treblinka concentration camp. 

Photo: fcut.usf.edu

Near the end of 1942, the Jewish resistance movement learned that the deportations were part of an extermination process and took up armed resistance against further deportations. On April 19, 1943, when the Nazis and SS entered the ghetto for the final removal of Jews, they were ambushed by the Resistance. 4 weeks later the last of the Jewish holdouts were killed.   (Wikipedia)


The Nożyk Synagogue is the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland. It was completed in 1902 and restored after World War II.

I would recommend reading the book Mila 18 by Leon Uris, a fictional story of the Warsaw Ghetto.  Mila 18 was the address of a bunker that was the final headquarters of the Jewish resistance and on May 8 the bunker was found, attacked and destroyed by the Germans. Resistance members trapped in the bunker committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner. 

There is a stone monument situated on the site at Mila 18. The bodies of those who died in the bunker were not exhumed and remain there today. The rock sits on a rubble mound made from the houses of Mila St.   

It might seem to those reading this blog, that Warsaw could be a bit of a depressing place, but that is far from the reality. During the day, tourists from around the world filled the streets and out in the evenings with our friends, we found the city full of young vibrant Poles, most of whom were born long after the war had ended. The city is well worth a visit and it doesn't hurt to be reminded of our past as we are sadly doomed to repeat it.