"Warsaw" a Warsaw Travel Page by mightywease

It was strange standing in Plac Zamkowy outside the Royal Castle and comparing the Black and White photograph taken in 1945 with the present day scene in front of us. The two images seemed almost incomparable. In the photograph there are few if any buildings, just piles of rubble which are testament to the destruction wrought on the city towards the end of the Second World War.

However, 60 years later, on a cold January day, a group of school children are waiting to enter the rebuilt Royal Castle, the restaurants and buildings surrounding the square still have their Christmas decorations outside and people have stopped to chat to one another next to Zygmunt's column. Each a testament to the spirit of regeneration and resistance found in the city and its populace.

Regeneration still seems to be happening in Warsaw if the number of cranes swinging round the skeletons of high-rise buildings on the outskirts of the city centre is anything to go by. Yet pop into Cafe Blikle, for instance, on Nowy Swiat and you almost feel like you've stepped back in time to 19th Century cafe society. Or walk around the Rynek Starego Miasta where the three story merchant houses were also re-built after the Second World War to their original 17th and 18th century designs.

The Palace of Culture and Science is a monument to a different time. Built by the communist regime between 1952-55 it was a 'gift' to the Polish people from the Soviet Union and remains a controversial structure, architecture is imposing and yet rather austere, a the reminder to many of another occupation perhaps.

Imposing, but of a very different nature, could also be used to describe the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes and the Path of Remembrance in the Old Jewish Ghetto. Following the route round an area of less than inspiring Soviet era architecture there is inspiration in the courage of those who fought, and died, for freedom and their beliefs.

Time does, of course, make its mark on all cities, yet somehow I felt it more in Warsaw than I have in other places. It was almost as if it was more visible both in terms of what has happened to the city and what is happening. Warsaw feels like a city that is rushing forward, wanting to embrace its future. I hope it's a good one