So I must make this blog entry short, too, as I have a very early day tomorrow to take a tour to Krakow and Auschwitz. A long day, leaving the hotel at 6:00 (ugh!) and returning around 10:00 pm, but I believe it will be well worth it!

But as for today, a great first day around Warsaw. I started off with the Warsaw Uprising Museum, roughly a 20 minute walk from my hotel. A very cool museum – built in an old converted tram station (I believe) with lots of exposed brick and stone pathways inside, tons of exhibits ( most in Polish and English), a lot of great takeaway material (at least half in English) and several films, lots of film clips and one 3-D movie, digitally recreated, of a simulated flight over the utter ruins of Warsaw after the Uprising. The devastation is unbelievable and I’m reminded again how lucky I am as a modern-day American who has never experienced the degradation of a war fought on my home turf. I spent several hours here and took some photos which I’ll post when I have more time. Oh, there was also a big Liberator aircraft hanging from the ceiling and lots of great sound effects. A really well thought out museum for a really important period in Polish history.

After, I walked through town to the area of the former Jewish ghetto after stopping for lunch at a sidewalk cafe / restaurant I passed. (Pictures and a few more details of that are om FB.) I was disappointed that the big new Jewish history museum which was supposed to open in 2012 won’t open until 2013 so I will have to come back to see that. It was rather warm and my feet hurt but as much as I wanted to indulge in a bit of internal whining about that, I really couldn’t because I kept thinking of the horrors the ghetto dwellers faced and, subsequently, my minor issues weren’t worth a thought.

Saw lots of Warsovians walking dogs today, of all varieties. There was also a well-behaved German Shepherd two tables away at lunch, who I hardly knew was there and who had very unique coloring.

When I got back to the hotel I took a nap (still pretty tired – think I probably will be all week at this rate) and then went to check out the shiny (relatively) new mall convenientlylocated about 25 steps from my hotel. It’s very nice and would hold up to most American’s expectations for a mall – lots of high end and big name brands. I ate supper at the Ice Cream Cafe and had a nice salad and great Strawberry Shortcake dessert. I really wanted a Summer Fruits dish for dessert, but the waitress told me “no, that’s too big for one person.” I’m going to have that dessert before I leave, too big for one person or not! It’s fruit, for goodness sake!

After dinner, I went back to the lobby and watched the evening matches in the lobby with other hotel guests. Now it’s off to bed – 5:15 will be here before I know it.