100th parkrun location

Exciting day today as I completed my 100th parkrun location. It's only taken 13 years and 316 events, but got there in the end.

Here we are at Pole Mokotowskie parkrun, which is on the outskirts of Warsaw. It's a really beautiful park with a lake and lots of picnic spaces. Everyone was so friendly and it was a shame that we had to rush off back to the hotel, but their breakfast was so great that we didn't want to miss it.

In the afternoon we caught a tram across the river Vistula that runs through the centre of the city and found a vodka tasting centre.

Luck was not on our side as there wasn't an English speaking tour for about two hours, so we sat in the sun outside instead and toasted my achievement.

It was a lovely and lively area, so we people watched for a while before heading back towards the river.

On the way we reached a big statue of a band and Darren posed with them. 

An interesting fact is that the Polish flag is a white horizontal stripe with a red stripe underneath, and the Warsaw local flag is yellow with red underneath.

Darren's outfit is therefore upside down, so I asked him to do a handstand to correct the picture.

He refused, but said that although he had never actually done a handstand he thought that he would be very good at it, although he wasn't going to test that theory today.  So you will just have to imagine it.

There is an almost brand new pedestrian bridge across the river and it was extremely busy today with walkers and cyclists.

At the other end was a statue of a mermaid.

This is a famous symbol of Warsaw, and apparently hundreds of years ago she swam up the river from the Baltic Sea and has stayed ever since to protect the city.

Exploring Warsaw

We arrived yesterday in Warsaw, and set off for a sightseeing day today.

First was the huge Palace of Culture and Science, although it looked to us just like Batman's house. (The first one, not Wollaton Hall.)

It was built on the orders of Stalin after the Russian invasion, so although it is a beautiful building, many people do not like it because of the memories that it brings back.

Darren designed a walking tour of the city and we were very impressed that so much of the city is pedestrianised and very attractive.

The composer Frederick Chopin was born in Warsaw in 1810, and I was very keen to find his benches which were scattered around the city. 

The idea was that you sat on the bench, pressed a button and the bench would play 30 seconds of a Chopin concerto.

We found about 12 of them, one of which was next to a large church. Chopin died in Paris in 1849 and most of his body is buried there, but he wanted his heart to be in Warsaw, so his sister brought it back and it is in an urn in the church.

Quite an  unusual idea I think, and we went inside to try and find it. Unfortunately a service was in progress so we had to abandon that plan, so no photo.

On to the old town that was almost totally destroyed by the Nazis in 1944. It has been rebuilt with a very impressive city wall.

We wandered through the town and out the other side, just in time to hear a bugler playing from high up in a tower.

All we could see was the end of the silver instrument, but after it finished the lady bugler looked out and waved to everyone.

We found the gorgeous Royal Palace gardens and a sign told us to relax on the soft and beautiful green grass, so I did that for a couple of minutes before catching up with Daz.

Finally, we spent some time looking for a statue of Chopin, couldn't find it, but did find a complicated mural.

Lastly a drink at a bar to finish off a good day.

⁹