Tom`s travels: Warsaw (10-11/03/2018)

Ania and I decided to head to Warsaw to meet up with our friend Gina from Indianapolis who had come to visit us in Poland. We took a train from Krakow and reached the capital in about two and a half hours. Our friend would land later that night so we decided to visit a little before her arrival. My plan was to see the National Museum, so we headed there and found out the entrance was free on that day. Unfortunately, the famous Faras Gallery, Europe's largest collection of Nubian Christian art was under restoration and thus closed. Nonetheless, the visit was great, starting with the collection of medieval art which included objects coming from different regions of Poland and with some other examples from outside the country. There were several interesting wooden painted altarpieces coming mostly from the south and southwest. After that, we walked through the Gallery of Polish Paintings, the Gallery of 19th-century paintings and the part with European paintings and decorative arts. Among the many beautiful ones I particularly liked one of Poland's largest paintings by Jan Matejko and depicting the Battle of Grunwald, the two Canaletto showing Warsaw, and also managed to spot a few paintings depicting Venice. As it was closing time, and I had been taken by such a large collection, I did not manage to see a small part of paintings, particularly those of the Early Masters. This means I will eventually have to come back and finish my visit. After the museum, it was time to go pick up our friend from the airport. So after taking a train we headed out of the city, waited for her arrival and then headed back into town to check in our accommodation. We had booked an Airbnb, right between the Palac Kultur i Nauki and the National Museum. The following morning after waking up, we headed to a nearby cafe to have breakfast and then went out to explore. We passed by the iconic Palace of Culture and Science and then headed towards the old town along the famous Krakowskie Przedmiescie. We took a side street and admired the copy of the statue to Bartolomeo Colleoni set in front of the Czapski Palace. After that we continued on, reached the large Castle Square with the castle on one side and the Zygmunt column at its center, we then crossed through the old town showing our friend the places we had seen before. We also stopped to get a tasty gofry or waffle to go. Once we had reached the northern end of the old town we retraced back our steps and went inside the castle to visit it. The visit was free on that day and thus meant a large crowd of people inside. As the castle was nearly completely destroyed during WWII most of its interior was reconstructed. We toured the rooms which presented nice paintings and decorations coming from other locations of Warsaw and Poland, including some nice paintings by Matejko. We went through several rooms including the Throne Room, Knight's Room, Old Audience Chamber, Senatorial Hall and so forth. My favorite was though the Canaletto Room which contained beautiful landscapes of the city by the famous artist. After touring the interior we decided to have lunch at a typical polish restaurant called Gosciniec where I had a really tasty soup in bread. After that, we headed back to our accommodation, took our bags and took the next train to Krakow.