Ogród Saski is 15.5 hectares of garden in the centre of Warsaw. It was opened to the public in 1727, one of the first publicly accessible parks in the world. Last time I visited it I was negotiating treacherous icy paths under the skeletons of trees: now it is a luxuriance of deep summer shade across a blaze of red geraniums and cannas which almost burn the eyes with their brightness. Mosquitoes found it – and the flesh resting in it – pleasureable too.
The two immovable guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier stood impervious as women wielded brooms around them. Sandstone statues lined the avenue, representing abstractions such as Geography, History, Arithmetic, Astrology, Glory. The fountain gleamed white under the blue sky. An inexplicable yellow elephant loomed near the playground. The small lake spouted workmen and fountains.
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