April 22, 2014
WARSAW: Woke up to a beautiful day in Warsaw with 73 F weather! The entire city is in springtime with flowers in bloom everywhere. Last week it was snowing at home and I lost all my spring flowers to a hard frost.
>We had a lovely breakfast in the Hilton hotel, and then headed out in a taxi to Old Town. We walked to the Madame Curie Museum, walked up the belfry at St. Anne’s etc. Our cab driver told us he was married in the church 40 years ago! What a lovely spot for a wedding. Tip: always carry lots of small zloty bills for the tip to the waitress; they do not put the tip on the bill if you charge your meal.
We stopped at the Milk Bar Mleczny Familijny for pierogi. Probably the worst Polish meal I have ever eaten. Mrs. T frozen pierogi taste better. LOL. The total price with 2 cokes was only 21zl. That is only $7. The place was packed. No one ordered the pierogi but us, which certainly says it all.
Afterwards, we took a taxi to see the Palace of my distant relation King Poniatowski in the Lazienki Park. Marian Langiewicz’s first wife was Marie Bauer, her ancestors were Poniatowski but changed their name to Bauer when they moved to Coburg and left Poland behind.
Lazienki Park was amazing. Peacocks, boats, statues and the entire park is in bloom. Just a lovely spot in Warsaw. Romantic couples kissing on the grass, young babes in old-fashioned prams and one mother openly breast-feeding. The ambience was 1920’s Warsaw. We saw small blue birds in the park that are called the Sikora Modra. I tried to get a photo but they are too fast for me.
After 7 hours we returned home via taxi, tired but happy. We ate dinner in the hotel, restaurant–300 zl. That is $90 U.S, which was the most expensive meal we had in Poland. The food was good and the entire first floor is new, modern and lovely.
Tomorrow morning we leave for the ancestral home of the Langiewicz family: Ciemniewko. Got a call from Aga Pawlus from PolishOrigins, all details are set. That was very nice of her to call.
Warsaw Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage site. It does not disappoint-destroyed during WWII, it was rebuilt after the war. Walk up to the top of St. Anne’s Church in Old Town (top photo above), the view up there is fantastic.
The walk from Old Town to Łazienki Park is not to be missed. I wanted to walk to the Park because of King Stanisław August Poniatowski, distant relation of Marie Bauer. I had spent years trying to do the genealogy of Marie Bauer, first wife of Marian Langiewicz. The history books just call her “Marie Bauer” and offer no information on her family. I did have some basic information on Marie because of her Aunt Caroline Bauer, the famous German singer who had written a Memoir of her life and was married to Wladyslaw Plater. I finally got a break when Marie’s name was indexed in familysearch.org. Here is the information:
name:
Marie Maximiliane Christiane Bauer
gender:
Female
baptism/christening date:
09 Oct 1834
baptism/christening place:
Mannheim, Baden, Germany
birth date:
08 Sep 1834
birthplace:
death date:
name note:
race:
father’s name:
Karl Bauer
father’s birthplace:
father’s age:
mother’s name:
Leopoldine Von Hinkeldey
mother’s birthplace:
mother’s age:
indexing project (batch) number:
C92144-2
system origin:
Germany-EASy
source film number:
1192163
reference number:
201
ALSO: here is a snippet from a book. Note that it says niece of Karoline Bauer and Grafen Plater. The Platers are buried at the Rapperswil Castle in Switzerland, the castle is a Polish Museum. Grafen Wladyslaw Plater fought with Marian Langiewicz’s father in the Insurrection of 1831. Marian was there after 1865, met Marie Bauer and married her.
Bauer (N N… v.), Tochter des badischen Majors v. B. und Nichte der mit dem Grafen L… P l ater verm. Karoline B. (s. d. im Hauptwerke), (Geburtsjahr unbekannt), verm. seit.. . mit Marian Langiewicz (s. d. im Hauptwerke), gest. zu Konstantinopel 30. ??? 1870.
google books, page 18: Moniteur des dates: Biographisch-genealogisch-historisches welt …, Volumes 7-9
By Eduard Maria Oettinger, Karl August Kesselmeyer
Be that as it may, do not miss Warsaw. The exchange rate for US Dollars makes it very affordable and I just loved it.
My world traveling mother is blogging from the best city in the world, Warsaw!