Circling through Poland - with a bit of Germany thrown in.

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More of the outside






Pretty obvious wartime damage



The High Castle





The size of the castle can be hard to grasp.

The town mascot again









This is only a small portion of the photos we took. This place requires many hours to even scratch the surface. We didn't even walk around the perimeter.

 

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We then walked to Malbork train station.

Passing a model of the castle on the way there



The centre of town



Equestrian state of King Casimir IV. King of Poland 1447 - 1492 - "under him, Poland defeated the Teutonic Knights in the Thirteen Years' War and recovered Pomerania."



We were surprised about how impressive the railway station was. It was built in 1891. As I have said before Imperial Germany was good at constructing impressive railway stations. It was lucky enough to have survived WW2 relatively unscathed.

Train station building with platform 1, freight forwarding building and station toilets | Malbork Sightseeing | Malbork

Malbork railway station ranks as one of the town’s best preserved and oldest buildings. Completely renovated in recent years the building dates from 1891 and features beautifully restored ceramics in the extremely elegant ticket hall. While the station dates from the end of the 19th century,

www.inyourpocket.com

This waiting room almost makes you want to wait.





The platforms.



On the way back to Gdansk we passed over the Vistula River and through Tzcew passing the remnants of a historic bridge. This was built in
1851 -1857 as a road/rail bridge. On completion it was the longest bridge in Europe. It was rebuilt several times after WW2 due to flooding damage as well as war damage. There has been controversy about work being carried out on it because of its historical importance.

"On the morning of September 1, 1939, the bridges were bombed, the purpose of which was to damage the mine wires. Polish railway workers prevented a freight train arriving from Malbork and carrying a company of Wehrmacht engineers from entering the bridge. After repairing the cables at 6:10 AM, Polish engineers blew up the eastern section of the bridges, and then the western piers . In retaliation, the naz_s shot 21 Polish railway workers, customs officers, and members of their families"

Most drogowy w Tczewie – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia

pl.wikipedia.org

 

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I must thank RB again. In his trip report including Poland from earlier this year he reported on a pleasant day trip to the city of Sopot only about 15 minutes by train from Gdansk. It did look like a nice outing so I decided to also go there. However, instead of taking the train both ways we went there by boat and returned by train.



Our boat. the trip takes about an hour you pass through the port of Gdansk and out into the Gulf of Gdansk (part of the Baltic Sea) before docking at the jetty in Sopot.



Our apartment complex again



A huge amount of construction is occurring in Gdansk. These were right next door to our apartment. I did see earlier this week that Poland's economy is so strong that it is now ranked the 20th largest world economy by GDP - edging out Switzerland.



Some of the docks and shipyards we passed



A large vessel on a floating drydock. With the dirtiest smokestack I have seen in years behind it.





A nice conjunction of names. Kimberly for W.A and Hansa Shipping as Gdansk was once a major Hanseatic city.



Some old fortifications. The "Seagull Rampart" built in 1844 - 1846 by the Russians.



Approaching the Westerplatte Monument commemorating the Battle of Westerplatte in 1939. "On 25 August 1939, the German pre-dreadnought battleship Schleswig-Holstein, under the pretext of making a courtesy call, sailed into Danzig harbour" - "On the early morning of 1 September 1939, Schleswig-Holstein fired a broadside at the Polish garrison"

Battle of Westerplatte - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Nowy Port Lighthouse built in 1893. Complete with a Time ball on top. It was the first lighthouse on the Baltic to use an electric light.

Home - Latania Morska Gdańsk Nowy Port

www.latarnia.gda.pl

Next door is the Harbourmasters office for the port of Gdansk.

 

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For our boat to start its journey it had pass by the sing bridge. Here is a video form another day of it in operation.

Passing through the heads. The port city of Gdynia is in the distance. The Polish ships we used to see visiting Fremantle were all registered in Gdynia.


Gydinia



Looking across to Sopot



There was a passenger ship in the gulf being attended by a tug





Sopot



Sopot jetty and marina with the 'Pirate Ship' being readied to leave







A tourist boat having fun





Just after we disembarked



The jetty



These people were not all off the arriving boats. Plenty of people were strolling out from the shore. There was small fee payable to walk on the jetty from the landside but we didn't have to pay anything extra



The marina

 

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My wife has been taking photos of these for years and I a=used to tease her about it. Now of course II realise that they are compulsory for a TR here.



One of the more picturesque lighthouses I have run across. Built 1903 -04. It still has alight but it does not have the range to classified as a true lighthouse these days.





A bit of, I assume, Tiffany inspired glasswork



A side street





You simply can't escape Bluey.



It was still school holidays and the place was crowded.
.

Time for lunch. All that we ate was very good.

The view from our table. We only rarely had problems with people smoking on the outside tables.







I tried the tasting paddle it was pretty good but I still can't really muster any great enthusiasm for IPA.



Pork knuckle for me



Pork in Hunter Sauce (mushrooms and onions)



Pierogi

 

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I know Wojtek was featured by RB in his TR but the story is so good it deserves a repeat.







Church of the Saviour - a Lutheran church completed in 1919.



Garrison Church of St George. Built around 1900 as a Protestant church. After 1945 it was 'converted' to Catholic.



An interesting old villa







The name of this hotel surprised us. The rooms and facilities are apparently 'Chinese' themed.





By the time we got to the beach it had become a bit overcast and windy. The port of Gdansk in the background.





These are used as change rooms




"The hotel was originally built in 1924–1927 at a cost of 20 million Danzig gulden as the most refined hotel in Sopot - the Kasino Hotel.

Between 19–26 September 1939, the hotel served as Adolf Hitler's headquarters from which he went twice to the outskirts of Warsaw to oversee the invasion of the city."

Now a Sofitel