Warsaw

bedroom

work in progress

chapel

King Jan III Sobieski

fighting the Ottomans

St. Anne's church

Chopin monument

writer Sienkiewicz

Stanislaus Augustus

The last king of Poland (until 1795)

Lazienki Palace

Was the summer residence of Stanislaus Augustus. renowned for its Thursday Dinners where he brought together writers, scientists, architects, and diplomats.

Park of Lazienki Palace

Chinese garden

Princess Andromeda

chained to a rock by the shoreline as a sacrifice to the sea monster Cetus (visible in the lower-left corner) before being rescued by Perseus.

Hercules

Portrait of Princess Giuliana Pubblicola Santacroce as Lucretia

This was painted by the Swiss artist Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807). A particularly intriguing detail of this composition is the faint, ghostly outline of a hand appearing near her right arm, seemingly trying to restrain her from plunging the dagger into her chest.

View from the study

My car gives up on us

On the day of our departure from Warsaw, I received a phone call from reception: my car was running and had been running all night. I could not quite believe that, but there was no arguing with the facts. I found the motor on and the lights as well. The gas level was so low that it did not show anything.

I decided to get some gas with the help of the car rental company's emergency assistance, but could not understand which buttons I would need to press on the telephone machine. I had to get the reception to talk to the Polish line, but that hung up on her twice.

I  got that sorted and later wanted to leave for Krakow (3 hr drive), where we had a tour scheduled for late afternoon. The car started easily, but I got the above two cryptic error messages and could not engage a gear, neither forward or backward. Long story short, I managed to get a replacement car and we made it in time for our tour.