The Royal Castle - Days 30, 31

Sunday (Day 29) was pretty quiet.  We went to church and stopped at a huge mall nearby afterward, just to walk around in some air conditioning for a while.  There is a Burger King there,  so we stopped to eat too. :-)

Businesses and home in Old Town

 Monday, we went back to Old Town.  It took us      twice as long as it should have to get there because the GPS kept trying to take us to some unkknown location that was not where we were trying to go.  It was extremely frustrating - in fact, driving in Warsaw is an adventure.  Roads are often blocked or closed down for construction and the GPS tries to send us down streets that are clearly marked as one way. To get to many places you have to go in a very (seemingly - perhaps unfamiliarity with the area contributes to this?) roundabout way (ha ha...no pun intended, though they are everywhere here too) instead of just driving there directly.  There are limited bridges to cross the Wisła (pronounced Vees-lu in Poland) River, making where you want to go more challenging to get to.  Anyway, I digress.

Businesses and Homes in Old Town

We did get to Old Town and really enjoyed walking the area again.  It was cooler than last week and all the tall buildings in that area block the sun in the afternoon and evening hours.  We toured the Royal Castle which the three older kiddos thought was very cool. Everything is written in Polish and English, so though we opted to not have a guided tour, we could read about the room we were in and what was around us.  We could easily have taken a couple hours in there, but we squeezed it into one hour. :D  The youngest child had little patience for not being allowed to just run around and touch everything, and of course, this is very much a "look, don't touch" place.  I am pretty sure that damage to anything on that property would cost waaaaayyyyy more than I will see in this lifetime. It was definitely worth seeing and many of the rooms were amazing, boasting original artwork from a long gone era.  One can almost picture what it was like back then...except for the air conditioning, which was awesome! 

Using a flash was not allowed in the castle, but we took a 

few pictures in between keeping up with kiddos. :-)

The Castle Courtyard

The Castle Courtyard

Ceiling Art

Sitting in front of the throne

From inside the Castle

Can you imagine the cost if this was knocked over?
(insert shudder)

 I think this is a government building.
 I took the photo from the van and forgot the name of it. :(

The Palace of Culture and Science

A random photo outside a souvenir shop :)