Warsaw

Warsaw suffered quite a bit during the communist era. It was virtually flattened during the war and the Soviets wouldn't pay for repairs, so other towns in Poland would donate money and building supplies to have it rebuilt.

This is rather evident in Old Town, which is completely rebuilt. They did not have any detailed plans of the place, so it was rebuilt according to some huge paintings that were made in the late 19th century. Its well done, but just doesn't have that same feel to it that somewhere like Prague has and I think it suffers a bit from that.

As you walk around, there are snippets and hints of what happened. The cathedral has a section of tank track bricked into the wall. During the war people holed themselves up in the cathedral, the German's couldn't get in, so instead they packed a tank full of explosives and drove it in. When it was in far enough they detonated it, destroying the cathedral and killing the people inside. When it was being rebuilt, they found the section of track and built it into the wall.

It does have some nice gardens though, we visited Lazienki Park and saw the Chopin statue, which apparently is the thing for tourists to do. We visited the memorial to the Warsaw Getto, they're building a museum there now, I would not mind reading up on that some more, its something I had very little understanding of just how bad it was.

Overlooking most of the city is the Palace of Culture and Science - a massive building built by the Soviets as a "gift" to the city. It was put up during the Cold War to basically show if the Americans could do something, so could the Soviets. Its big, ugly and very dominating, and now, rather ironically I think, houses a casino.

Out last stop was Vilanov Palace on the outskirts of town. An interesting place, a packed museum, well worth a visit if you're in that direction