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ShareFour flights up, carrying knapsacks that have got heavier by the minute on our long walk from the railway station to the bus, and back to buy tickets, back to the bus and then to the hotel which no one could find... though everyone knew where the castle it faced was! It was enough to test anybody's endurance.
Then there was the room. Signing in at a hotel in the late evening means you get the smallest room left, and this was practically a child's room; a sloping ceiling, the bed needing to be crawled into. But there was a lighthouse painted on the wall and tiny mirrors tacked alongside the bed that one could peer into and a skylight to let the night air in.
Why no lift, we grumbled, but as we cooled down and took our shoes off and washed our faces in cool running water, reason returned.
A quick walk around the area told us we were in the most beautiful part of Warsaw. The old city is not old. It was reconstructed with amazing accuracy out of ruins that the bombardment of Poland during World War II had left behind.
And, but naturally, none of the buildings that served as residences or hotels or restaurants that now stood in re-creation of the old, could bear being changed in any way. Thus there were no lifts, not inside, not outside. And no billboards or hoardings advertising the many hotels or their hot and cold running water... we felt a little foolish at our carpiness, as we realised how carefully preserved the entire area was.
Late next morning we decided to find the Museum of Warsaw Rising, where the history of the city and its struggles against the Nazis, the Soviets and Communism could be seen.
It took half the day to find the place, but at the museum, the enormity of the task the brave Poles had undertaken came across loud and clear.
The magnificent castle that stood outside our hotel window was there in the original. Exactly four pillars a metre high and an arch abut 2 metres wide.
Of the other monuments and buildings there was not even that left. And yet, where we were stationed for our stay was part of a UNESCO Heritage site!
I thought of the equally magnificent buildings we have in the country I call my own. Nothing that lacks in magnificence, or character, or ambience. And thought to, of the struggle we as a nation had had to undergo to wrest it all for our own.
But what we lack is the sense of pride of fierce protectiveness that was evident here. Which allows us to neglect, destroy, pillage, and even sell what can never be replaced.
New Warsaw is full of high rise glass fronted buildings... faceless. It reminded me of some of the many that are the pride of our own city of Mumbai. No tourist stops to look at these buildings, they are utilitarian and soulless. And but for the old city, Warsaw would not be a stop on any tourist's itinerary. There's a lesson to learn from that.
A very real one. Are the real Mumbaikars listening?
