Warsaw, ‘a great city to visit’

My husband, Mike, and I began our May 17-June 2, 2015, trip to Europe with a visit to Warsaw, Poland, a city we had long wanted to visit because of its history in World War II and the Communist aftermath. 

Using the Internet and Rick Steves’ guidebook “Snapshot – Kraków, Warsaw and Gdansk” (2015, Avalon Travel Publishing — $13.99), we planned our 3-night stay at Mamaison Hotel Le Regina Warsaw (Koscielna 12, 00-218 Warsaw, Poland; phone +48 22 531 60 00, www.mamaison.com/warsaw-leregina-hotel.html), emailing the hotel.

Situated at the quiet end of town north of New Town, the hotel and its location were perfect — easy walking distance from the center of Warsaw. Our ground-floor, deluxe king room with a private garden patio was delightful. We paid €226 (near $254) per night. Breakfast cost €30 per person, and it was a great start to the day.

While in Warsaw, we did just about everything we had planned, including walking along the river via the reconstructed defensive rampart walls, which once surrounded the entire Old Town.

We strolled down the Royal Way, starting at the giant artificial palm tree, and took in the sights. We visited the National Museum in Warsaw, the Holy Cross Church, the Royal Castle (including the Kubicki Arcades) and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. 

Most of the third day was given to visiting the Warsaw Rising Museum (ul Grzybowska 79; phone +48 22 539 7905, www.1944.pl [click on “English”]), which opened in 2004. As Rick Steves says, “For history buffs, it’s Warsaw’s single best museum.” We agree, but it was crowded with Polish student groups. Finding our way around was confusing but well worth the effort.

Warsaw is a great city to visit. We got to most of our planned sites, had dinner in three wonderful restaurants, people-watched in the town square and shopped at market stalls, all without hordes of tourists. Rick Steves’ book was the only one I could find concerning Warsaw, and if you follow his advice you can’t go wrong. 

(We were reminded of the numbers of visitors later when we got to Prague in Czech Republic. Since our last visit there 10 years earlier, Prague had become a mecca for tourists, and all the little stores and shops had become tourist trade points.)

We encountered only one problem in Warsaw. On our second day, we caught a taxi in the city’s main square and asked to go to the Warsaw Rising Museum. When I asked the driver if the museum was open, he laughed and said, “Of course.”

When we got to the museum entrance, however, a guard stepped forward and talked to the driver in Polish, after which the driver said that the museum was closed for a special group tour. At that point, we directed the driver to take us to another destination we planned to visit. 

Later, I checked our guidebook and discovered that the museum is always closed on Tuesdays (and we decided that, in their lengthy exchange, the guard had been berating the driver). I should have checked beforehand. 

We visited the museum the next day.

JOCELYN MILLER

Mercer Island, WA