Moscow to the Hudson: Warsaw

I took the train from Vilnius to Kaunas on Thursday afternoon. The trains were fairly new & it only took 1.5 hours. Kaunas is not a big tourist destination, but it was an opportunity to see another town in Lithuana plus I had a free hotel night to use for a Park Inn. The hotel was in the center of town & just off the main pedestrian street that was a mile long. I went out for a walk, had a nice dinner, & just took it easy. Here are a few photos of Kaunas.

The next morning I had to catch the bus to Warsaw. Unfortunately there are no trains that go there or cheap flights, so I had a 6 hour bus ride to Warsaw. The bus had a video screen on the back of the seat, so I was able to watch 2 long movies to pass the time. The bus pulled into Warsaw 30 minutes late due to traffic. I booked a hotel (Novotel) right in the center of town. The hotel is huge (31 stories) & the lobby was somewhat chaotic at checkin with 20 guys in a bachelor party just ahead of me. After waiting 20 minutes, I got checked in & dropped off my bags in the room. The room was really nice & had a good view of the city.

Main train station & also the main bus station of Warsaw.

View from my room.

This one is from the top floor of the hotel.

Warsaw is the capital of Poland & has a population of 1.7 million people. 85% of the town was destroyed during World War 2, so there are a large number of skyscrapers in the center of town. The "old town" & most of other historical buildings are just copies of the original structures. I did walk of the old town the first day. The next day, I did a 3 hour bike tour of the city, it was a good way to see a lot of the city & some it's parks.

Old town

Bike tour group

Tomb of the unknown soldier.

I really like Polish food & had perogies my first two nights there. On my last day in Warsaw, I went to the Warsaw Uprising Museum. It was a good museum with the story of what happened in Warsaw in during World War 2. The uprising was the people of Warsaw fighting back against the Nazis in 1944 after 5 years of occupation. Unfortunately about 200,000 people lost their lives (90% civilians) in this fight. I went to a German themed restaurant for dinner & then went down to the river to take some photos with the bridges light up at night. I have a separate post with my photos of Warsaw at night.

Uprising monument

Warsaw doesn't have many famous tourist spots to see, but is a nice place to spend a few days. I was also able to get in 6 runs this week. Both Vilnius & Warsaw had some nice parks for running along with some paths along the rivers of both towns. My next stop is Gdansk, Poland which is a 4 hour train ride from Warsaw. Here are a few more photos from my visit.