It ain't heavy, it's my bike: Eastern European Adventure, Day 4: Brzeg to Warsaw

Woke up early and dragged my luggage to the train station to catch the 7:18 train to Warsaw. The train station didn’t feature much English signage, but it was straightforward enough to figure out where to go.

However, I didn’t realize that I needed to watch for which car number to board, and I ended up on the completely wrong end of the train from my seat. I eventually got it figured out, but I felt pretty ignorant. There were only two or three stops between Brzeg and the central station in Warsaw, and the trip went by pretty quickly. I got there at about 10:30 a.m., and got the train tickets for the rest of the trip purchased while I was at a station with English-speaking employees. The ticket for me from Warsaw to Krakow, and tickets for Molly and I from Krakow to Prague were a total of $101.

"Stalin's Penis" is what this building is nicknamed, since he "gave" it to Poland after WWII

Then I walked about 25-30 minutes to my hotel, which was about 1 mile south of the Old Town. I could add a bike rental to my room reservation for an additional $10, so I went ahead and did that. It was a ‘90s mountain-style frame with a 7-speed internal hub; totally functional for the task at hand. I set out for the Warsaw Poster Museum, which was 6 or 7 miles south of the hotel. I wasn’t sure what to expect for bike infrastructure, but I was pleasantly surprised. There were a few spots that were a little hairy, but once I got a half-mile south of the hotel, there was a dedicated off-street bike path the rest of the way adjacent to the sidewalk. There were a lot of people biking, which was great to see. The Poster Museum ended up being on the grounds of the former Summer Castle of the Polish royal family (Wilanow), but fortunately Thursdays were free admission day to the grounds, so I got to walk around there a little bit, too. The poster exhibit was awesome, and I bought a bunch of postcards of Polish-adapted posters for American movies.

Next, I wanted to explore the large city park south of downtown, so I rode back along the banks of the Vistula River. I found a bike bridge under the freeway crossing the river, so I rode across to the suburb on the other side, where I found a statue to what to me was a random Polish general, and rode back.

I found the U-Jazdowski, which was an old castle housing a modern art museum. Thursdays were free admission day there, too, so I checked that out briefly and went in search of the Chopin statue. Along the way, I found the Orangery, which was an old theatre building where they’d discovered beautiful frescoes behind the walls, as well as a bunch of plaster busts of Roman statues, as well as Polish royalty.

The Chopin statue is huge, cool, and in a really nice setting. They have free live concerts of his music there on Sundays in the summer.

I went and found dinner at an Indian restaurant in the Downtown area, and tried a Tyskie, which wasn’t as good as Zwyiec or the local lager in Brzeg. It tasted more like an American adjunct – too sweet and not enough hop character to balance it out. Beers in Warsaw are just as cheap as in Brzeg - $2 to $2.50 for a pint. I found a statue of Ronald Reagan on the way back to the hotel, because why not.