WARSAW, POLAND
Thanks to the lie-flat seats we arrived in Warsaw refreshed and ready to go at 8:00AM. Immigration was painless and after a quick Uber ride to our hotel, Hotel Bristol, we dropped our bags and began walking towards Łazienki Królewskie. The Hotel Bristol is in a pretty nice location that is a short walk from most of the tourist sights. 45 minutes later after a nice relaxing walk through the surprisingly empty streets of Warsaw we arrived at the park.





Łazienki Park is very large and you could easily spend 3 or 4 hours there just walking around and looking at the various buildings and monuments. However, a common theme for this report is a general lack of time so we decided not to enter any buildings here (there is a fee) and instead simply look in from the outside. Even without entering anything the park is absolutely worth it. If you visit make sure you see the Palace on the Isle (Pałac na Wyspie)--it's hard to miss being located in the center of the park.


Pałac na Wyspie

Ujazdów Castle


Pomnik Fryderyka Chopina Monument

John III Sobieski Monument

Amphitheater

The Royal Theatre and Old Orangery

Following that we got an Uber back to our hotel, checked in, and had lunch. The Hotel Bristol is apart of AMEX's Fine Hotels and Resorts (FHR) program and we had opted to book through them. FHR includes a few benefits such as 4pm late checkout, room upgrades if availability permits, breakfast, and a property specific benefit. In this case the property specific benefit was a US$100 credit to be used at the property. We ended up getting a suite upgrade which was certainly a welcome surprise. However, I will say the layout is a bit odd with the bedroom being directly off the anteroom and a living room space being attached to the other side of the bedroom. The couch can also fold out into a bed and come later in the evening they were quick to make it up for me.

Hotel Bristol Lobby




With no real idea on how to spend the US$100 credit we decided to have lunch at one of the hotel's three restaurants--Cafe Bristol. For a "free" lunch it wasn't too bad, but I cannot recommend anyone visit if they have to pay out of pocket. The food was fine, but tasted quite bland and was quite expensive for what you get as far as food in Warsaw goes. The drinks were a bit better, but were not exactly noteworthy. They do have a nice patio, but after being swarmed by 6 or 7 wasps we decided to move inside.



Buratta? The "buratta" was more solid than I'm used to. It wasn't exactly bad per say, but I wouldn't call it buratta.



Following our disappointing lunch we decided to visit the Old Town and Royal Castle. The Old Town was only about a 5-10 minute walk north from our hotel past the Presidential Palace.


Presidential Palace / Monument of Józef Poniatowski


Monument of Adam Mickiewicz

Old Town


There are lots of shops and cafes that fill the squares in the Old Town. A very nice place to walk around.


The Royal Castle is worth seeing if you are in Warsaw, but it did not strike me as particularly unique when compared to other European palaces from its time. It, like all of the Old Town, has been completely reconstructed following WWII.






Despite our best efforts to stay awake we began fading around this point and opted to return to our hotel for some rest. After a short rest we walked to Stara Kamienica for dinner. A huge thank you to [MENTION=437899]sydunipete[/MENTION] for the recommendation elsewhere on FT--it was excellent. We got a variety of different pirogies and I found them all to be very flavorful. Also, as someone who doesn't drink it was nice to see non-alcoholic mixed drinks on the menu. I think it's great that this is seemingly becoming more commonplace.







A few pictures of Warsaw at sunset.



Hotel Bristol