Chasing Summer –

Warsaw, Poland

There are so many churches, monuments, and “important” buildings that it feels like every two steps, I need to take a picture of something.

One thing that I love is that even though I’ve spent weeks visiting old towns across Europe, each one is slightly different arctitecturally or has a different feel. They all seem to have similar stories and layouts. They are all old, have medieval sections, tonnes of churches and cathedrals, and amazing town squares. But even with all their similarities, they are unique.

I arrived on my birthday, and it was a heat wave for the next few days. Luckily, I typically go exploring in the morning and hide in the hot afternoons, and type up this blog. My hotel is the Staysafe Warsaw. It is right in the thick of the old town, and I have the only balcony on the entire building.

Happily, there were some rain showers in the evening to cool things off since my room had a balcony but no AC or fan.

I slathered on the sunscreen and began my first mornings adventure visiting old town.

My day two in Warsaw didn’t work out as planned. There is a historic park that has several churches, monuments, and palaces that I planned to visit. In fact, I made the hour walk there only to find it closed.

There were several disappointed families and tourists outside the gates. All the other parks near it were open, so I’m not sure why they closed on a sunny Saturday.

This meant a bit of improvisiation. I did try walking around a bit of the outside of the park and got to see a couple of things but not the main stuff.

Oh, well. Instead, I visited the Warsaw University Botanical Gardens and walked the Royal Route back to my hotel district.

The Royal route runs through Old Town from Castle Square to King Jan III Sobieski’s residence in the closed park. Along the route are many government buildings, embassies, and other historical structures.