Warsaw is located on the central Vistula, in the glacial valley of the Vistula, and on the middle masow valley at an average of 100 meters above sea level. The city spreads out on both sides of the Vistula and lies approximately in the middle between the Carpathians and the Baltic Sea – to each destination about 350 km.
The historic city centre is located on the left, west bank of the Vistula on the elongated Vistula cliff Skarpa Wiślana, which rises relatively steeply about 15 to 30 meters above the Vistula. One of the first bridges in Europe with a length of several hundred meters connected the two banks as early as the 16th century.
The Warsaw Royal Route (Królewski tract) begins at the Royal Castle and leads south for about 10 km to King Jan Sobieski's Wilanów city residence and is one of the longest representative streets in the world. It is made up of several representative streets, the Kraków Suburb, the New World (Ulica Nowy Świat) and the Ujazdowski Avenues (from north to south). The Royal Road runs along the Vistula and, together with the Saxon Axis that runs perpendicular to it, formed the main axis of Warsaw's urban development. It was built on at the beginning of the city's history and connected the former Jazdów settlement with the old town.
Since the 16th century, many magnate families moved their headquarters to Warsaw, where the Sejm met and the royal election took place. Anyone who wanted to take part in big politics had to be present on site. Although Warsaw never became the capital of the aristocratic republic, but was always “just” a royal seat and Sejm city, the politically important decisions were made here. In this respect, the capital Kraków only remained a formal capital after 1611. Many of the representative palaces were built along the main axes of the city (King's Way, Saxon Axis, Ulica Senatorska, Ulica Miodowa, Ulica Freta) in the Baroque and Classicist styles. Some of the largest palaces with extensive gardens were built just outside the main streets, such as Wilanów Palace.
Due to the city's often tragic history, there are many memorials to victims of foreign and tyrannical rule in Warsaw. These include, above all, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Warsaw Ghetto Memorial, the Warsaw Uprising Memorial, the Xth Pavilion in the Citadel, Pawiak as well as numerous smaller memorial plaques and stones that the attentive visitor encounters at almost every street intersection.
There are over 700 km of cycle paths in Warsaw (in 2010 there were only 275 km). A large bike rental system in Warsaw is called Veturilo.
Our first visit to Warsaw also brought us to the banks of the Vistula, the river that, over large parts of its length, also accompanies the course of one of the most important amber roads from the Roman Empire via the Moravian Gate and its mouth into the Baltic Sea.
As already described in the article "Off to the city centre of Warsaw", we first took public transport to the Palace of Culture and then walked along the so-called "Royal Route" to the old town.
In terms of local public transport, Warsaw not only has a really well-developed network of cycle paths, but also a good bus, tram and underground network.
May, with its first truly sunny days, is the perfect time to start the caravanning events season and meet industry representatives, rally travel planners and caravanning enthusiasts in search of new equipment and inspiration.
On the road again in Poland, we had been looking for accommodation in the vicinity of Legionowo for the night and found what we were looking for right on the banks of the Zegrze reservoir.
A business meeting with two entrepreneurs from Warsaw had led to a short visit to the capital of Poland, followed by a short visit to the Castle Square in the city center, which was known far beyond the country's borders.