Rain met us on the Saturday morning train to Warsaw, making our first hours in the city misty, cool and damp. There is a lot to experience and explore in Warsaw, and choir members had time to shop, wander parks or narrow, delightful streets, shop for artwork, pottery, and other souvenirs, stop for coffee, drinking chocolate, or a meal and enjoy them in outdoor seating, see the Church of the Holy Cross where Chopin’s heart is buried in a pillar, take an elevator to the top of the Palace of Culture…the list goes on. It was a great way to recharge after our intense days of recording, and to rest before our final day of concerts.
One delight of this trip has been discovering that each city in Poland has its own special magic, and oh! the, cobbled streets filled with people walking in the gentle sun that broke through midafternoon, small shops and cafes, flower and balloon sellers, the remains of the old double wall and city gate… standing in the wide plaza drinking in the colors and shapes of the Old Town front.
Into my heart’s treasury
S. Teasdale
I slipped a coin
That time cannot take
Nor a thief purloin,
Oh better than the minting
Of a gold-crowned king
Is the safe-kept memory
Of a lovely thing.
–Lucrecia Mejía