Rain was in the forecast on and off, so we tried to do indoor activities. First we walked to the Palace of Culture and Science. This is the tallest building in Poland, and was built as a gift from the Soviet Union in the 1950s (although for many Polish people, it is not a welcome reminder of Soviet rule). Among other things, the building contains the Museum of Evolution and the Museum of Technology, which were the things we came to see.
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| Doesn't look like rain |
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| This hourglass filled with shoes was just outside |
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| The plaque was in Polish, so I'm not sure exactly what it's about |
It is a beautiful building, with many interesting features. We didn't see very much of the inside, because each exhibit required a separate ticket. Additionally, there was no centralised location where we could find out all of the things we could do here.
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| I love doors |
We arrived 10 minutes before the information desk opened, so we couldn't get tickets to go inside. The kids entertained themselves outside of a metalworks exhibit.
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| She's holding his hand |
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| For some reason, this was not a great slide |
When the desk opened, we discovered that there was no self guided palace tour, and the guided tour in English wasn't due to leave for an hour. Since we figured that the kids would find all of this pretty boring, we skipped the tour and went into the metal figure exhibit. The kids loved it; there were famous characters, as well as vehicles that they could play in. We probably spent about an hour in this one room.
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| This was supposed to be Chewbacca |
My favorite part was sitting on the Iron Throne. I was trying to keep a serious face.
Matt and the kids tried it out for size as well. Who is the true ruler of the Seven Kingdoms? (Yes, I'm a nerd.) I think the kids' photos really show their ruling styles.
The characters were fun and interesting, but the kids really loved playing in\on all of the vehicles.
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| Close up of one of the cars |
When a school group arrived, we decided that it was time to go. Lily said that she wanted to go into the spider and scorpion exhibit in another room, so we did that as well. It was much smaller then the metal figures, but still interesting. There were many different varieties of spiders, and some scorpions. Clara was a bit cranky, so I ended up carrying her most of the time here. I would tell her the name of a spider and where it was from, and she would say something like, "Mexico? Why they take it away from Mexico?"
If you don't like spiders, just scroll on past the next two pictures.
The kids found another mermaid when we left, in addition to a splash pad. It was hard trying to keep the kids out of the water. (Spoiler alert, this wouldn't have mattered by the end of the day.)
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| Here come the dark clouds |
We walked back toward Old Town, passing through a tiny corner of Saxon Garden. This is when it started raining, lightly at first.
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| Taking shelter under a tree |
As we approached Old Town, it started raining harder. We tried to quickly find a place to eat lunch, and lucked into a pierogi restaurant.
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| Hiding |
The food was good, and we even had sweet blueberry pierogies. The rain had let up when we'd finished, so we let the kids pick out souvenirs. I didn't get a group shot of this, but we bought a mermaid for Clara, stuffed dragon for Lily, and a Minecraft pig for Miles.
We were very near the World of Illusion Museum, so we went on in. It was a good thing, too, because it soon started to rain again.
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| Clara has grown! |
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| My favorite mirror |
The kids love places like this, with so much interactive fun. And all of the museums we went to were insexpensive, which is a bonus.
The rain was light, so we decided to walk back to the hotel rather than take a taxi. That may not have been the best choice. By the time we go there, we were all wet and miserable, despite the umbrellas and rain jackets.
Poor Clara, I didn't even ask her to pose for a picture.
I went inside with the kids, Anna went upstairs to relax, and Matt ventured out to get dinner. He came back with crepes, which were very bland (we should've had more pierogies, ha). But of course, we had paczki for dessert, so all ended well.
The big kids went upstairs to bed, and just before Matt and I fell asleep, it sounded like the door to our room opened. It was Clara! She said she heard a noise, so she wanted to see what it was. It's discomforting when your 3 year old seems to want to escape, but I think we waited to sleep until we were sure she was out.
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