Day 5 – Sunday, May 8th – Poznan
We leave Lichen Stary and head to Poznan. There we met local guide, Adam Dykiert at our next lodging place, Hotel Brovaria at 11am. Our guide is very enthusiast and proud of his heritage and city. Our tour lasted over 3 hours and we covered a lot of territory. Poznan is a city on the Warta River. It included a visit to Poznan Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul, which is a 10th century Gothic-Baroque architectural style, the Uprising Museum, a city park, then we road an electric trolley train to Old Town Hall (it’s famous because of the display of the mechanical fighting goats, that fight each other everyday at noon and bring crowds to the square to see it).
We spent one night at Hotel Brovaria which is in a historic building off the Old Town Square with a restaurant and brewery. Our room was cozy, spacious and with tall ceilings, inspired with early 20th century style. We enjoyed dinner outside at one of the local restaurants on the square. It’s been another long day so we retired early and got some rest for our next adventurous day which will take us to Torun on our way to Gdansk/Gdynia on the Baltic coast.
Day 6 – Monday, May 9th – Poznan – Gdansk/Gdynia
On the way to Gdansk, we stopped in Bydgoszcz to do more research at the Archives. This time for my paternal side Melka. After we did our research I had a lody (ice cream) from the local shop across the street from the Archives. We then stopped at Wielki Komorsk and visited the parish of St. Bartholomew. Then we drove to historic Torun a northern city of the Vistula river. Torun is famous fot it’s native son, the astronomer Copernicus. We had lunch at u Flisaka at the city market, visited the leaning tower which is Poland’s own tower of Pisa. We got back in the car heading to Gdansk driving through the villages of Wielki Komorsk, Fraca and Lalkowy. In Lalkowy we stopped at the church of St. Barbara where in the church cemetery we found headstones with the name Melka.
We arrive at the Guesthouse Old Smokehouse in Sobieszewo on the Sobieszewska Island about 20 minutes Gdansk Old Town.
Day 7 – Tuesday, May 10th – Gdansk/Gdynia
We woke up at Guesthouse Old Smokehouse in Sobieszewo on the Sobieszewska Island.
Dale met with a local ornithologist and did Birding at the Bird Sanctuary on Sobieszewska Island just down the street. In the afternoon we drove to the Port of Gdynia on the Baltic Sea. We visited the new Emigration Museum in Gdynia which was nicely put together and is a must see place when in Poland.
Day 8 – Wednesday, May 11th – Gdansk
In the morning we visited the Cormorant Reserve in Katy Rybackie about one hour from Gdansk. Then we traveled to Sztutuow a village on the Baltic coast. On the beach, it was quite windy and I collected shells and found amber pieces in the rough sand.
Next we are on our way to the Castle of the Teutonic Order in Malbork.
After a long day at the Castle, we headed back to our hotel and had dinner near our lodge.
Day 9 – Thursday, May 12th – Gdansk
We met with the local guide to do a city tour of Gdansk Old Town, the shipyard and visited the European Solidarity exhibition.
Gdansk is another port city on the Baltic coast of Poland. We walked Mariacka Street which had many amber, clothes, art, clocks, etc. Long Market featured Neptune’s Fountain and beautiful colorful buildings reconstructed from the 13th century.
We walked along Motlawa River embankment where their were plenty of shops and restaurants. We saw St. Mary’s cathedral which is cited as the largest brick church in the world.
We headed back to the Guesthouse Old Smokehouse.
Mary