Sunday, April 08, 2007

The Mermaid of Warsaw

Today, Easter Day, I went out walking in the Old Town, called Stare Miasto in Polish. Here I am standing at the Old Town Market Square with my Polish friends in front of the statue of 'The Mermaid', apparently a sister of the Danish one :) and emblem of the city of Warsaw.

The Old Town is probably the most attractive area of Warsaw. It stretches between Wybrzeze Gdanskie Street, Grodzka, Mostowa and Powale Street. All major attractions are in the vicinity of Rynek Starego Miasta - Market Square.

Warsaw Old Town was established in the XIII th. century. The heart of the area is the Old Town Market Square with its unique traditional Polish restaurants, cafes and shops.

The Old Town was completely destroyed in World War II but, like Nürnberg, some of it has been rebuilt to look like the original. Without Aissa to tell me these things, I would never have guessed that the market square in Old Town Warsaw is a complete reconstruction.