Rooftop Gardens

Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2014--Warsaw

This has been our last full day together as travellers and our last day to explore Warsaw.  Wes will leave tomorrow morning VERY early (5:40) for Berlin and I will leave at 10:15 for Krakow. 

It was business first today.  I bought my train ticket for tomorrow and communicated with the owner of the apartment I have rented in Krakow.  Then we headed to the Museum of Modern Art which is near the train station.  Unfortunately, it wasn't open yet.  It doesn't open until noon, and it was only 10:30 when we were there.  We scratched that off our list and headed to our next destination which proved to be a highlight of our visit here.

The library at the university here in Warsaw is a new building that is quite unique in design.  It was built to have gardens on top of the building and angling all the way down to the ground level on one side.  We entered the gardens via a side gate and began to climb stairs.  Eventually we were on top and could look through porthole windows to the floor of the library about 3 stories below where people were walking, others were on computers, etc.  The gardens included flowers, small trees, bushes, etc.  As with most special garden places, a bride and groom were there having portraits made.  But many people were there enjoying the sunny day, the unique atmosphere, and the nice views over the city.

Back downstairs, we looked at the interesting panels on the outside walls of the library.  One had a piece of music.  Another had math/science formulas and computer programming.  The others were texts in various languages--Hebrew, Greek, Arabic, Russian, and Polish. 

Around the corner and down the street is another new building--the Copernicus Science Center.  It is massive, and it had long lines of young people waiting to enter.  I didn't find the exterior of the building to be very special.  It, too, has some small roof gardens which we could see from the top of the library--probably demonstrating different types of landscaping such as xeriscapes vs. the usual green gardens, etc.

From there, we headed over the bridge crossing the Vistula River to the Praga district of Warsaw.  It has been somewhat isolated from the rest of the city, and it probably looks more like Warsaw did during communist times than other parts of the city do today.  It still has large outdoor markets with people selling whatever they have available that might make them some money.  It still has buildings that are not just dull and dreary but are also crumbling.  However, things are changing.  There is a new metro line being built to there, so it will probably redevelop/develop fast due to its closeness to the center of the city once the convenience of taking the metro becomes available.

In the mid-afternoon, we finished walking the Royal Way.  Then we stopped at a milk bar around 16:30 for dinner.  We shared two dishes--roast pork in a mushroom sauce with potatoes and a plate of meat (chicken) pierogi (dumplings) served with chives and chunks of cracklings.  Both were delicious.

Tonight we are dealing with business matters.  Copying our photos from my camera memory to Wes' memory stick, updating our spending records, deciding who takes the Euros (Wes)/who takes the Zlotys (me), etc.