Warsaw or Berlin

bearfan

Ancient Mariner
We are going to Gdansk to see Maiden on Jul 4. Looking over our itinerary, it looks like we will have 2 or 3 days to spend in another city. It will be my son and I going, he will be 19 when we go. I have been to Berlin, but only for one day, so I did not come anywhere near seeing all of it, he has not been there. Neither of us has been to Warsaw.

Interests would be mainly historical sites. Whichever city we plan on seeing will be where we fly in and out of, so we need to decide fairly soon as I want to buy the plane tickets by the end of January.

Any thoughts on which one is the better to visit, I am sure both are quite good. The main strike against Berlin is that it is further from Gdansk and slighly more expensive to fly to (not by much though). The plus to Berlin is that we want to visit Krosno Ordzanskie, which is semi on the way from Berlin to Gsdansk (some of our family lived up to the early 1900s when it was Crossen an der Oder).

Any thought would be appreciated.
 
Generally, I always advocate going to places you haven't been to yet. I hear Warsaw is a great place, and I'm sure you will have a lot of fun there. Then again, if you go to Berlin, you might run into a certain stonehead who could show you some of the lesser-known, yet more interesting parts of the city.
 
I would say Warsaw is not the most interesting city of Poland. To visit I mean. The destroyed center was rebuilt and it looks pretty neat but I think you could do more in Berlin, certainly with Perun!

If you ever have the chance go to Cracow. The most beautiful city of Poland. But I understand it isn't exactly on your route.
 
That is always the problem whenever I go anywhere, so much to see and not nearly enough time. Talked to my son a bit about the trip yesterday, he's going to look into Warsaw and Berlin a bit more and see which has more appeal to him. I narrowed it down to Warsaw or Berlin, mainly because those are the airports we would need to fly to from here.
 
Just saying:
If you are interested in historical sites, want to feel them, breath them, go (one day) to Cracow because it's one big historical site, untouched by WWII. Warsaw is all new (or "fake", it depends on how you look at it). This certainly played a part when I walked those streets.

At the same time I realize that Berlin was also heavily hit in WWII (but not as much razed to the ground as Warsaw). And: lots of -still "visitable"- history followed since WWII. (The Wall and such)

Back to Cracow. It has:
- the largest medieval town square of any European city


- Kazimierz, historical district; best known for being home to a significant Jewish community from the 14th century on until the Holocaust in the Second World War.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazimierz
Schindler's List was largely shot in Kazimierz. Schindler's factory in Cracow has turned into a museum. Kazimierz was turned into a ghetto (Roman Polanski evoked his childhood experiences there). This might also be of interest:

Under the German Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II, Podgórze district was closed off in March 1941 as a ghetto for local area Jewry. Within the walls of the Kraków Ghetto there were four prewar pharmacies owned by non-Jews. Pankiewicz was the only proprietor to decline the German offer of relocating to the aryan side of the city. He was given permission to continue operating his establishment as the only pharmacy in the Ghetto, and reside on the premises.[3] His staff were given passage permits to enter and exit the ghetto for work.
The often-scarce medications and pharmaceutical products supplied to the ghetto's residents, often free of charge, substantially improved their quality of life. In effect, apart from health care considerations, they contributed to survival itself. In his published testimonies, Pankiewicz makes particular mention of hair dyes used by those disguising their identities and tranquilizers given to fretful children required to keep silent during Gestapo raids.
The pharmacy became a meeting place for the ghetto's intelligentsia, and a hub of underground activity. Pankiewicz and his staff, Irena Drozdzikowska, Helena Krywaniuk, and Aurelia Danek, risked their lives to undertake numerous clandestine operations: smuggling food and information, and offering shelter on the premises for Jews facing deportation to the camps.
The pharmacy is still there and can be visited, as a museum.

Wawel, Castle Hill
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wawel

Cracow is near:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wieliczka_Salt_Mine
One of the world's oldest salt mines still in operation. Stunning.
- Auschwitz. Stunning in an entirely different manner.

If I'm informed well (can't find a source at the present) the city had 8 million tourists this year, about 4 times as many as Gdansk (2nd place).
 
Thanks for posting all that ... I'll need to take some time and read though that, plus a few books I ordered on travel in Poland/Germany in general. Ideally I want to narrow this down to two places to stay (one will be Gdansk for sure) and once we get that down, we can plan some day trips to surrounding sites. In about 4 or 5 years, I'll be in a position where I can take 2 or 3 months off, then plan then is to hit Europe hard .. I have a list a mile long of cities I want to go see.

Once I am done with this trip, I'll be doing the same with my daughter in 2 1/2 years ... she is thinking France (not Paris ... already been there), Germany, or Romania. Have plenty of time to figure that one out :)
 
I'm not fond of continental European historical architecture, so I'd put more effort in visiting places around the cities, estates, old villages, castles / fortifications, etc.

But if you visit Krakow, be sure to get your accommodation here :

800px-Nova_Huta_.jpg


:D
 
Estates, old villages, castles / fortifications in continental Europe do not have African historical architecture. :D

That pic looks very familiar. A typical suburb. :)

edit: I just realised that it is Nova Huta (Pittsburgh of Europe)!
Not that typical then, but surely, lots of blocks look quite like that. Smog included, nowadays.
Damn, there are too many cars in Poland.
 
From some info here (and other place) ... I think we will be doing Berlin. Plan will be fly to Berlin, stay there a few days (doubt we need a car), fly to Gdansk, get a car there ... and on the way back fly to Berlin, then home.

Thanks for the input .. it was very helpful.
 
My pleasure! No car needed in Berlin, I guess, with the S-Bahn etc.
And how many nights in Gdanks? (If you'll stay in Gdansk I wouldn't use a car, unless you'd like to do that for airport transport.)
 
From Gdansk we will probably be doing a few day trips out of the city, so we'll need a car for that. In Berlin we will be staying in the city.
 
@Forostar, I meant typical city blocks found in central European cities :) And I like to see parts of cities where people actually live, that's why I posted Nova Huta picture. A typical commieblock.
 
Probably too late to pitch-in with advice, but here goes.

I visited both Berlin and Warsaw within a few days of each other. My wife and I both found Warsaw to be more interesting. This was mainly because of how different it is to most of the "typical" European cities. I was fascinated by the city's rebuild, and by the strong presence of Stalinist architecture throughout. The palace of Culture and Science stands-out like a sore thumb in the middle of the city. It is quite incredible to look at, especially given what surrounds it. We also enjoyed seeing the Stalin-era statues and memorials that are dotted around the city - fascinating to look at. Above all we were struck by the strength of the marvellous people of Warsaw; a city that was razed to the ground in WWII, then occupied by Soviet forces before finally being freed again......the people are quite wonderful.I remember going to a large outdoor market that was held in a stadium in the city - the stadium wasn't much to look at, but we soon learnt that it was built out of the rubble left over from WWII - they just bulldozed it all into the middle and built a public structure out of it!

Berlin is also a great place to visit of course - but I personally found Warsaw to be quite unique compared to the rest of Europe.
 
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