Day 89 - Wednesday 31 July - Warsaw local

Wednesday 31 July

On our way into the apartment building yesterday, the handle of D's suitcase broke. We have nothing pre-booked here, so used the morning to do this job. We found a small hardware shop in the basement of a building in a locked courtyard where the lady spoke no English, and poked around here and there, spending 51zloty on screws and a driver, pilers, metal brackets, poly string, even a dog collar.

 

While we were out, we called by a couple of local places I had found. There is a 1905 camera obscura, an original machine that shows 3D photos to viewers who watch through lenses while the pictures rotate inside the machine. It shows views of Warsaw from 1935 to 1945, with information above each picture. It takes about 15mins to see all the pictures. They have a separate slide show in another room, and some wall posters.
 

The photographer was a scout leader, and during the war they used the boys, and girls, as BP did, as non-combatants for deliveries of newspapers, and mail services.


In the same courtyard is the Gingerbread Man, but you'll have to wait until Christmas. We got our next train tickets at the station, then found another shop I didn't know about, and bought there too.

It was lunchtime, so we did mundane supermarket shopping, came home, and stayed in all afternoon while D fixed the bag with very little of what he'd bought, then we sat and/or lay about.

After dinner we went to find another musical fountain show. We caught the Metro,  (having found out that old people can use all public transport with a free ticket)  then went walking, when we came across police and crowds, and reporters. We didn't know until now that tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising against the nazis. It lasted 63 days, and so was the biggest European resistance effort of WW2. Between 150-200,000 were killed in those 2mths.
 

 There had just been a commemoration mass in The Field Cathedral of the Polish Army, which is opposite the Uprising Memorial.
 

The Krasinski Palace
 

We found out from these scouts, who were dressed in WW2 costumes, what was going on, and then googled when we got home.  So there were lots of people around, and it still wasn't quite dark.
 

We did find the fountains, and they were well into their program.

 The mermaid is the symbol of the city,from a folk tale from centuries ago.

 They projected images onto the mist of the spray.

 

When it was over, we made our way to the tramway, and got a tram home.