Waking up to Birdsong at 530am (Colonia Del Valle Centro, CDMX)

I usually wake up around 6 or 615 when the dog scratches my face reminding me it's time for her insulin. Today I got up at 530 for some reason and noticed how loud the birds were. There are birds at 630, too, but it's much more subdued. I *think* this is an every day occurrence that I usually miss because I sleep with earplugs, but I'm not sure. Rainy season also started in recent days, with a decent storm last night. Maybe that heightens activity? Anyway, welcome to our urban jungle.

How I Spent a Sunday in Warsaw, Part II: Familiarizing Myself with New Town (and Old Town) on Foot (April 2026)

After the tour with Marcin (Part I of my Sunday) I must have grabbed lunch. Most likely was another stop at McDonald's for another McCrispy chicken sandwich. But then I ventured out for a couple hours of targeted roaming. I wanted to familiarize myself with the locations of some relevant hotels in the city and get a lay of the land around Nowe Miasto (aka, New Town).

Nowe Miasto is still old (Wikipedia says it goes back to late 14th century), just not quite as old as Stare Miasto. Both areas date back ~700 years, but Nowe Miasto developed outside the Barbican walls that marked the limits of central old town.

You can see that Nowe Miasto is just to the north of Stare Miasto, with Dluga and Mostowa as the dividing point.

Stare Miasto

Nowe Miasto

My walking plan was to start near the Flaner Hotel, past the Sofitel, on through Ogrod Saski toward PURO Stare Miasto, and then over to Mamaison La Regina via Freta, the central street that runs through Nowe Miasto.

Flaner Hotel has a great location, just off a relatively quieter stretch of Nowy Swiat. Restaurant row is an easy walk to south. Both old town and new town a manageable walk to the north.

Sofitel is conveniently located as well, sitting across from the plaza with the Tomb of the Unkown Soldier monument. Slightly less curb appeal charm on a main intersection, but very close to Saxon Garden, so it balances out.

These pictures are from April 12, so still early-ish in spring, but it was pleasant enough and people were out enjoying the day.

As I crossed the park this building caught my attention.

Cool design with that curved, romantic style ironwork on the balcony. And probably some very nice views of the park. But with buildings like this I always worry about getting the noisy neighbor - the one who is out on the balcony on his/her cel, watching tik toks at max volume, smoking, etc. I'm pessimistic that way.

I continued on to check out PURO Warsaw Stare Miasto.

Understated logo visible just above the handlebars of the left most bike in the row

PURO is a great hospitality brand that we work with a lot around Poland, incuding their Warszawa Centrum property, so I wanted to get a sense of this location. On the map it looks like it has a lot going for it. Proximity to Saxon Garden. Not too far from old town and the Royal Route on foot. But the area around it, at least when I was there, felt a little dull and uninspiring. Fine, but would not be my first choice. Mine might be a minority opinion, though, as it has great reviews.

View one way from in front of the PURO

View other way from in front of the PURO

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

Generic scenes walking east on Senatorska

I weaved my way out to Podwale and then pointed myself toward new town. Took a few of the obligatory shots on my way. Nice in the late afternoon sun.

It was around 4pm local time, probably around 60 degrees more of less. And it seemed like a lovely place to hang out in. Hard to put a finger on it exactly, but more interesting vibes than its larger neighbor just to the south.

New Town square has an undestated charm.

And what looks like a couple of great restaurants to take in the vibes and view on a warmer afternoon. This is Enoteka Warszawska:

And this is Zyto:

Having seen what I wanted to see I started my walk back to the apartment. Couple of smaller shops caught my eye. Of course the Bolesławiec pottery shop. (Judy and I drove out there together last year and I wrote about it.)

I think it's this place

Then the Hello! Gift Shop got my attention with that mermaid bag in the window.

It's a nice shop, definitely worth a few minutes to browse. I was tempeted by the Warszawa bag, but (a) I'd already purchased a couple of more functional shopping bags from Biedronka, and (b) the size / strap combo wasn't really gonna work for us. It would just be another random bag in our collection of random bags that extends literally into the dozens. So I saved the 30 euros and then enjoyed the half-hour stroll back the apartment without taking any pictures. Just enjoying the walk and the scenery in the moment.

Slice of Life in la CDMX: Soft Pretzels from De Encuentro (Del Valle)

De Encuentro is a place around the corner from us where we get our weekly loaf of fancy toastin' bread. It's located along the way between our condo and the grocery, so Judy passes it multple times each week. Usually it's busy with people on their laptops, chatting over coffee, hanging out with their dogs, etc. A solid little neighborhood cafe.

Most people seem to like it, including Daniela

Recently Judy noticed they had a new product offering: soft pretzels. Last week or maybe the week before we got one and I agreed it was indeed soft and tasty. Today we decided we were gonna get ourselves more pretzels. However, when we stepped up to the counter we saw a display case with zero pretzels.

Those dark loaves in the plastic bags are the fancy toastin' bread we get

They said they'd be coming later, so we asked if they could set a few aside for us and send us a whatsapp when they came in. De acuerdo.

Judy negotiating the contact details

I took a couple pics of the unusually empty little tables outside.

A little later they messaged us and we went to fetch the pretzels. 4 for $148 MXN.

The end.

How I Spent a Sunday in Warsaw, Part I: Touring Old Town, Muranów, and a Bit of Praga (April 2026)

After my busy Saturday in Łodz (read part I, part II, part III), I had set aside Sunday for a fuller exploration of Warsaw. First on the agenda was a highlights / overview tour with one of our Warsaw partners. I'd be getting orientation in the Old Town, some additional perpective on the Muranów neighborhood, and also a quick pass through Praga. Our agenda was not necessarily the typical tour, but something of a hybrid and a chance to meet Marcin.

He came to pick me up in this:

It's a Zuk.

I had some concerns that doing a tour in one of these would be corny or really make me stand out as a TOURIST. But what I experienced was that people love the Zuk. Or are at least fascinated by the Zuk. Old timers seem to have a warm nostalgia for it. Younger folks were curious about it. And I did not see any others driving around Warsaw. It seemed unique, unlike the dozens of classic car tours you see rolling around Lisbon, for example. The vehicle was definitely an ice breaker / attention getter, but not in a crazy disruptive way. Just every time we parked there would be one or two people commenting and others doing double takes and smiling. I'd say it is maybe akin to the effect that a VW van has (had?) when you'd see one in the wild. But with more working class vibes than flower child energy.

Functional space in the back for tours up to maybe 6-7 people. I rode shotgun for my personal tour.

First stop, Sigismund's Column and the entrance to Old Town. Took a few establishing shots, including the prime location McDonald's (more to acknowledge the interesting juxtaposition than as a scouting shot for lunch later).

Our timing coincided with the trumpeter , so I snagged a video with some awkward audio as Marcin got self-conscious mid recording.



As we walked around Marcin explained how the area was destroyed in the war and rebuilt by the communists (who leveraged the reconstruction in propaganda illustrating how pro-Poland they were). He pointed out some elements here and there where you can see if something is original or was rebuilt. Honestly I don't remember those tips. But in the bottom two pictures below you can see how the bricks around the foundation are distinctly different than those further up the wall.

We maneuvered through the streets of old town and I took some of the obligatory pictures. I'm a sucker for tidy symmetrical scenes like this.

Also a fan of elevated walkways between builings. Bonus for the peek out to the Vistula river.

Kept moving to see the main Rynek and of course the mermaid statue.

After a spin through the old town we took the Zuk to the Muranów neighborhood, which was where much of the Jewish Ghetto was during WWII. My Friday tour covered some of the more traditional elements and sights related to the Jewish Ghetto. With this tour Marcin wanted to show some of the less obvious, perhaps overlooked aspects. We stopped on Nowolipki street, between Smocza and Jana Pawła II, near the church of St. Augustine (pic below).

The area is now residential flats, with some murals honoring local figures, some of whom participated in the Uprising, like Irena Kwiatkowska.

Marcin flipping through his materials

The detail that Marcin wanted to emphasize was how this area was built right on top of the demolished buildings of the ghetto. And that thoughout the area the bricks of the old buildings are still just under the surface. To make his point, he kicked through some dirt and turned this up.

The demolition was so vast and the resources to rebuild so scarce that they mixed the ashes and debris of the old buildings with cement and raised the apartment blocks right on top of the old ghetto ruins. So as you walk around what is now a peaceful seeming residential area, literally right under your feet are reminders of the absolute horror that took place 85 years ago.

After that soaked in for a moment we hopped back in the Zuk and made our way over to Praga. On the way I took a few scenery shots.

I liked this guy's hat

A glimpse down Przyrynek from Wojtowska. Marcin noted it's a very nice street for people who have more money than he does.

A shot over toward the old town while traveling on Wybrzeze Gdanskie

And then we entered into the Praga side via Most Slasko-Dabrowski. The intersection of Targowa and Aleja Solidarnosci had vibes of some big ol' Chicago intersections.

Maybe Western and Diversey or something like that. Maybe Fullerton and Ashland. On the edge of interesting neighborhoods but with a gritty/grim mundanity. The necessary 'vialidades' as we call them in la CDMX, that connect one part of a city with another, more practical than charming.

We only did a quick spin through a small slice of Praga, with the point being to illustrate how uneven the redevelopment is as a result of the very complicated issues related to determining ownership and accountability. Block by block, building by building, lot by lot, you saw how 80 years later this part of Warsaw is still wrestling with the weight and complications from the war.

Our time was winding down so Marcin pointed the Zuk back to my apartment where I'd grab a coffee to fuel up for the next stage of the day (next post).