Since we enjoyed our walking tours of Gdansk so much we decided to do the same in Warsaw as well in the morning.

As this is the birthplace of Chopin, there are daily concerts of his music and we planned to attend one at 5PM, we chose a 10:30 tour of Old Town Warsaw tour which was fascinating. It was an easy bus ride from our lodging to the starting point at the historical Zygmunt Column in Castle Square which was dedicated to King Zygmunt III Waza who moved Poland’s capitol from Krakow to Warsaw. The column was first built in 1644. It was replaced with a granite column between 1885 and 1887. In 1944, the Germans destroyed the column and badly damaged the bronze statue after suppressing the Warsaw uprising. The column was replaced in 1949. Zygmunt Column is in the Royal Palace courtyard in front of the Royal Palace. Construction on the Royal Palace was begun near the end of the 16th century by the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth. Over time, it was added to as new kings/rulers came into power.

Over the course of it’s history the castle has been attacked, plundered and rebuilt. It has been government offices and home to kings and officials from the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, Russia, Germany and finally Poland. Most of the Palace and 80% of Old Town was destroyed in 1944. Following the war, the castle was rebuilt. In 1980, the combined area of Old Town and the Royal Castle were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Also visible from the Royal Courtyard is the Church of St. Anne which avoided destruction by the Nazis simply because they ran out of time for the explosives to properly detonate.

After the castle, the tour took us up Piwa (pronounce peeva) St. which historically had been occupied by numerous breweries. Unfortunately, the breweries have been replaced with small boutique shops. Later on during the tour, we were informed that immediately after the Constitution was written in 1791, the participants headed directly for the cathedral to have it legitimized by the church which I thought they should have gone to the breweries instead.

An amusing thing we discovered along the walk was that real estate was taxed on the basis of the width of the house and the number of windows it had on its front. We stopped at one house that was just one meter wide with one window but when we went around to the back, it was the widest house on the block with many windows, all having beautiful view of the Vistula River and the Praga district on the other side. (Obviously, this guy knew how to work the system.)
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Along the walk we observed an announcement for an organ concert at the Archcathedral of St. John the Baptist, that was scheduled for 2PM that afternoon. Immediately after our walking tour, we stopped for huge, delicious lunch consisting of potato pancakes, rolled cabbage, tartare with quail egg and sauerkraut. Following that we headed for the cathedral. We arrived just in time to listen to the most beautiful organ concert I have ever heard. There is nothing quite like the sound of a great organ in a large cathedral. The church dates back to the 14th century and has been demolished and rebuilt several times. After its near destruction in WWII, it was rebuilt in its original gothic style.

Following the organ recital we visited the Warsaw Archdiocese Museum and then left for a coffee house that featured a pianist and violinist playing the music of Chopin and other classical music composers. It was a beautiful concert in a small, intimate venue that was truly delightful.

Following the concert, we walked back to the bus stop and boarded our bus home. By the time we arrived back home, we decided to pack it in as it had been a full day and we were scheduled to leave for Krakow the next morning.