watch your step

Day 1 in Warsaw, first stop was to visit the Palace of Science and Culture - it's got a viewing platform on the somethingth floor from which we could get our bearings of the city.

The city's inhabitants don't like the Palace - it was given as a "gift" by the Russians in the 1950s and for many Poles it is an all too obvious reminder of their time under Communism. Many say that the best place in the city is at the top of the Palace's tower, because it's the only place in Warsaw that you can't actually see the building.

So, from the top we looked all around and saw tower block after 1960s tower block, and the signs of Warsaw emerging into modernity (building sites all over the place and new glass-fronted skyscrapers). And then, alongside the Palace, one of the streets has these pedestrian crossings on it - painted like this because as you know Frederic Chopin was born here.