Norm & Felicity’s Travel Diary

 Hi all,  A bit of a rest day from trekking today, in and around Gdansk old town. We have been having breakfast in our apartments all trip, which turns out to be a very good idea, as we had one of the worst breakfasts ever at a local cafe - you live and learn! We have been waiting all week for the local museum to be open, just beside our apartment. It is in the 14th Century former town hall, below. While the inside was well worth the visit, the exhibitions in the museum were a little underwhelming. However, as I have been waxing lyrical about how well the poles have done in restoring this town, we were pleased to see some great pictures:  1. Of the devastating state the old town was left in, in 1945  and  2. Photos of some of the willing workers taking the first steps to recovery. Luckily much of the timber work in the town hall pictures above was secreted away from the town just before the bombing. Just a reminder of their work - this picture of the fully resto...

 Hi all, Today, as promised we went castle hunting to the town of Malbork, about 42 km south of Gdansk. This 14th century edifice was built by the Teutonic Knights, a bunch of devout bloodthirsty, wandering knights. The castle is the largest red brick building in the world and has survived many attacks over the centuries, until the Russians came along in 1945 looking for revenge. These two photos are of a 14th century painting of the site, and the aftermath of the 1945 attack, which left the Castle in a horrible state. Luckily the Polish people rallied again to complete a magnificent restoration of the site, as you can see from this google picture below (I couldn’t get high enough!). We had one of the best audio guided tours we have had - even though Normie tried to argue with the attendent that we didn’t need one. We certainly couldn’t  have found our way through the labyrinth of rooms and passages without it. Some shots as we meandered through: We are back in the apartment n...

 Hi all,  An easy day today, we took a short 1 hour boat trip down the river to the Baltic resort town of Sopot. It is definitely a holiday town, and the season is slowly taking off, so not too many people around. We first went under the lifting bridge we had walked across yesterday and made our way through what seemed to be a very ending row of wharfs and container ships until we hit the open sea in around 40 minutes. Then a short cruise along the coat to the Sopot wharf. The beach looks pretty inviting and there are a lot of lovely resort type buildings along the shore. We decided not to have a dip! The town is bigger than we expected and very well presented. After a walk around town, Norm’s hankering for seafood took over and we found an excellent restaurant just off the pier. We had it pretty much to ourselves at 1 o’clock, as it seems they only stop serving breakfast at 12:00. Anyway, good for us as we had excellent sea bream and cod with an Italian Pinot Grigio. Very sat...

 Hi all, Well, we thought Krakow and Warsaw would be hard to top - however in our humble opinion, Gdansk has done just that. For a city that has been part  of Prussia, part of Russia, and Polish along some of the way - it certainly has its own architectural identity, with the merchants from around Europe who traded here giving Gdansk a unique mix of styles. Very reminiscent of some other Baltic ports such as Copenhagen. Today we explored the length and breadth of the old town and the river banks of Motlawa as it winds its way to the Baltic. Then a visit to the red brick St Mary’s Basilica- which started life in the 13th Century, a huge church in red brick that is hard to get a full picture of. Further along the river, we crossed a modern bridge just as the alarms were going off to tell us to get off - it was a lifting Bridge to let ships through. We passed a few 15th century buildings, including the crane in the bottom right, below. Plenty of old red brick here. After lunch we...

 Hi all Just a short missive to let you know we made the short journey (2 and 1/2 hours) by train to Gdansk. We found our way to another great Airbnb apartment in the old town easily and checked in - we can already see plenty of activity from our second floor window over the Main Street. We are already sure we will love Gdansk, which is only a few minutes from the Baltic coast, with plenty to do around this region. Anyway, more about that as we explore the town tomorrow. We have already had a quick shop for essentials, and tried a local bar for a pick me up!  This was right on the Main Street below our apartment. We have seen the cathedral from the outside - looks imposing and well worth a visit tomorrow.  Much more red brick used here, as we have heard from our Lonely Planet guide. Looking further down the street I can see yet another large church, yet to be explored, but not a surprise in this country where the church density rivals Italy! Anyway, it’s an offical travel...

 Hi all We had a very relaxed final two days in Warsaw, although the usually reliable public transport system seemed to be in chaos, mainly due to the Presidential Election being on, and lots of (very peaceful) demonstrations. Anyway, we walked around 8 km each day and joined a few marches (not sure who we supported!). The picture below is from our revisit to the magnificent old town yesterday - with the memorial to the 1944 uprising, where 200,000 poles died, at the top. The other pictures are of the home Marie Curie grew up in and a small 17th century convent nearby. We really love the old town and remain amazed that it was all rubble at the end of the war - the restoration work is flawless.  Today we ventured to another palace and gardens just outside the city, the Palace on the Lake. Another of King Stanislaw’s developments, the grounds are very large and we believe this was his summer abode, when the main palace we visited on our first day got a bit cramped for him! The p...

 Hi all  Today we ventured out of the city on the metro and bus network to the Palace of Jana III just 7 km from the capital, at Wilanow. This 17th Century palace was lucky to be left relatively untouched by the Nazis, (maybe they stayed there?) however they may have stolen much of the artwork, which is still being slowly returned. On the way to the Metro we passed the Soviet era (1955) contribution to the local architectural heritage  - sort of  smaller scale Empire State Building. The Palace and gardens were terrific, and because it was away from the centre, fewer tourists.  We had a great self directed tour through the many rooms of this 17th century building. In some places it had a hunting lodge feel, mainly due to one of the 19th century owners who was keen on the hunt. Nevertheless it was a very well preserved, and huge, palace. We are finding our way around Warsaw, with its great public transport network - on our $20 ( $10 for Norm) three day pass. The i...

 Hi all Yesterday we left Krakow and took the train to Poland’s capital city, Warsaw. We had a pleasant journey and found our apartment easily. After the usual stocking up, we found a nice restaurant for dinner, Butchery and Wine, it was great and surprised us with the news it was a Michelin Star restaurant. Pretty reasonable prices nonetheless and as you can see we were surrounded by beef! Today we explored the Warsaw old town, which unfortunately was almost completely destroyed in WWII, firstly in bombings when the Nazis invaded, then in 1944 in retaliation for the unsuccessful uprising by the Polish people. This was the St John’s Cathedral at the end of the war, most of the old town looked the same. In one of the few good things to come out of the Soviet era occupation of the Country, amazingly the Cathedral, Castle and Old town were faithfully rebuilt on the original plans - remarkable. These photos of the Castle and the old market square, with its row of 17th century houses sh...

 Hi all, Much better weather today - nudging above 15 degrees for the first time for a while. We walked up the hill to the Wawel Castle for the third attempt at seeing inside the Cathedral- success. It was worth the effort as we managed to see right down into the crypt of this 13th Century church, no photos unfortunately (except the one below that Normie took before getting chastised). We made our second, more detailed exploration of the old town, including a few more churches! The most significant visit was to the old Krakow University, the second oldest in Europe (to Bologna) going back to the 14th century. It was the seat of science and renaissance learning, headed by Copernicus and his revolutionary ideas about the earth as a sphere and our place around the sun - ideas that were threatening to many.  The old lecture hall is amazing. Well worth the visit. We spent the rest of our walk taking in some of the lesser streets, away from the main square, finishing with a late lun...

  A sombre, but essential visit today. 1,100,000 people entered these gates and never left, 90% were Jewish. Hard to say anything more 😢

 Hi all Today we had a fairly relaxed day, after watching Melbourne beat Brisbane live in bed (we are 8 hours behind) we made our weekly call to check in on June and Holly. All was well at home, including the dogs. The Jewish quarter in Krakow is in the next block or two from us, so we had a good exploration of this old area that was first established in the 1500’s. Unfortunately, as most would know the Jewish citizens in Poland, once about 10 percent of the population were uprooted by the Nazi ethnic cleansing during WW2. In Krakow, the 65,000 Jewish population almost completely disappeared, most going to the nearby Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp.  This memorial in the town square says more than words could describe. The work of Oscar Schindler is recognised here as one of the few gentiles who made an effort to save a few of the 65,000. We visited the old Synagogue and Jewish museum (below) to learn more about the history of these people in Krakow - very little was por...