A free walking tour of Warsaw.

I decide to take a free walking tour on my second day in Warsaw.

Ever since my cousin’s positive experience taking a free walking tour of the Bo Kaap neighborhood in Cape Town, I’ve been more receptive to the overview that a tour provides. And so I get up and get dressed before the city wakes up and make my way to the meeting point in the main square.

The tour is set to meet at the base of Sigismund's Column in the plac Zamkowy. I’m the second one there, but I don’t realize that a woman hovering is also there for the tour. People slowly amass and soon the guide appears carrying an orange umbrella. It’s a warm sunny day and he tells us we can wait in the shade on the steps across from the square to be more comfortable.

After giving us a thumbnail sketch of Warsaw our guide leads us to The Royal Castle, walking along the outside of the castle before entering the main courtyard. The current building is a reconstruction, built between 1971 and 1984; the original building was destroyed by Nazis during the Second World War.

From the castle we walk along the outside of the city walls, past a statue of Jan Zachwatowicz, the Polish architect who led the effort to reconstruct Warsaw after World War II, and a statue of Jan Kiliński, a Polish patriot and national hero.

Designed by Stanisław Jackowski, the latter statue honors a cobbler who became the leader of the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising against the Russian influence on the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Unfortunately, the attempt failed and Kiliński was arrested and imprisoned in the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg. Relesed in 1796, he was then again arrested for conspiracy against the tsarist authorities and resettled in Russia. Upon his return, he settled in Warsaw where he died in 1819.

Our guide leads us into the city and past the Pelican House, named after the sculpture affixed above the door. The sculpture is associted with the story of Kazimiera Majchrzak, who spent his money feeding the local pigeons. After her home was destroyed during the Second World War, she remained in the basement, continuing to feed the birds, an ct tht resonated with residents returning to rebuild after the war.

Our guide leads us around the streets and through an alley to get a view of the Archcathedral Basilica of St. John the Baptist, a brick Gothic church that serves as the mother church of the Archdiocese of Warsaw.

Originally built in the 14th century, the church was rebuilt a number of times, most notbly in the 19th century after which it was preserved as an example of English Gothic Revival until World War II.

Then, during the Warsaw uprising in 1944 the Germans managed to drive a tank loaded with explosives into the church, destroying a large part of the building. After the collapse of the uprising, they all but finished the job, drilling holes into the walls and loading them with explosives.

After the war the cathedral was rebuilt, based on a 17th-century Frans Hogenberg illustration of what it looked like in the 14th century.

Our guide leads us out and back into the street to a 17th-century bell standing on a slab in the middle of a square. It’s said that if you make a wish touching the bell while circumambulating it three times the wish will come true.

A legend also surrounds the bell having to do with a love rivalry between young bellmakers and a bellmaker’s daughter that devolved into the murder of one of the suitors by poison.

Reaching the central market square our guide tells us that Picasso was a fan of the mermaid statue in the center. Designed by Konstanty Hegel it’s become a symbol of Warsaw, appearing on the city’s coat of arms.

He holds up a picture of Picasso’s interpretation, pointong out that the mermaid’s sword has been replaced with a hammer a symbolic homage to the working-class people rebuilding the city. He drew the sketch in 1948 on the wall of one of the unfinished apartments, but it was painted over in 1953 by the tenants who were sick of the attention it received.

Our tour wraps up in the new town as our guide walks us out of the Old Town by way of the city gates, past St. Hyacinth's Church (used as a field hospital for Polish insurgents during the Warsaw Uprising) to the new town market square, presided over by St. Casimir's Church, once the residence of a court officer until it was purchased by Queen Marie Casimire in 1688 to be used as a church to serve the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration of the Most Holy Sacrament,

Walking back to the Old Town after the tour I pass a restaurant/cafe and stop in for a snack. I have reservations at hub.praga later, and don’t want to spoil my dinner.

A woman sits in a window wrapping dumplings like the women wrapping xiao long bao in Asia and in Chinatowns all over the world. I order a plate of duck dumplings to try. They’re delicious.

I walk back to the Old Town through Warsaw Barbican, one of the few remaining fragments of the defensive walls that once circled the city. While it, too, was severely damaged in World War II, it was reconstructed using salvaged original bricks and serves to divide the Old and New Town districts.

In the Central Market Square filming is underway at the makeshift McDonald’s I had seen being dressed the night before. I am somewhat curious but not enough to walk over to see what they might be filming, though had I known that there might be the opportunity to see Shah Rukh Khan, I definitely would have lingered.

In the evening to walk to dinner, passing through the main plaza and then walking along the river that divides the city to a new pedestrian bridge connecting the Old Town to Praga, an up-and-coming neighborhood categorized as ‘artsy’ and ‘bohemian.’

Restaurants and bars line one side of the bridge and I think that had I another week in the city I might come here one night to read and watch the sunset over a glass of wine and a basket of fries.

In the late afternoon light the structure assumes and orange glow, putting me in the mind of the Golden Gate in San Francisco. Ample seating is offered on one side facing the setting sun, and some people relax and read by the light of the fading day.

I am the second table to be seated. A couple sat before me has already begun their meal. I opt for the big tasting so that I won’t have to make any decisions along the way.

The water asks if I’d like an apertif. I tell him I’ll be doing the wine pairing and the apertif would probably be one glass too many (as it is I rarely am able to finish a full pairing). As the waiter takes his leave he tells me the centerpiece is edible, consisting of thin breadsticks.

Hub.praga prides itself on its commitment to local and sustainable produce, and each course comes with a square card that lists the provenance of the key ingredients. It’s great reading about the various farms and fishermen responsible for food set before me.

At the end of the meal Chef Iwanski comes by to say hello. He asks me how the meal was and I tell him how fantastic it is, thank him for the food. He smiles and then turns to say goodbye to a couple who are leaving at the same time.

As I leave a plain brown envelope is pressed into my hands, a signed menu inside.

A little lazy and a little tipsy, I hail an Uber to take me back to the Old Town. The market square is quiet, and I appreciate the relative quiet, the orange light of streetlights casting a glow upon the cobblestones like the fire from a warm hearth. 🇵🇱