Poland Day 3 – Malbork and more

Well, the experience of Poland continues. As you read in my first post for this day, early in the day I met more family. There are no words to convey the great joy that was a part of that meeting. But eventually we had to move on, so now I’ll tell about today’s journey.

We left Gdansk a bit after 9 AM today. Our goal was the castle at Malbork. But first we had to travel there. We left Gdansk and soonfound ourselves in some low lying land, about 5 feet below sea level to be more precise. Very fertile and very wet farmland with many drainage ditches. The house style here is reminiscent of the Netherlands with good reason–many people from the Netherlands at one time settled here. It’s a very pretty area. Eventually we left the flatlands forthe rolling hills which we saw both beforeand after Malbork. Some interesting things Inoticed.

  • The trees and plants are lot like those foundin the upper midwest
  • There are war ruins, never rebuilt, that areseen from time to time.
  • The roads at times are very rough and narrow, but in places there is also a lot of road construction and improvement.
  • There are some really, really nice homes that appear to be recently built.

Eventually our travels took us to the Castleat Malbork. It is the largest brick castle in Europe and was built in the 13th and 14th centuries by the Teutonic Knights. In 1410 which is exactly 700 years age, the Teutonic Knights were defeated by the Poles in the Battle of Grunwald. I suggest you look that up in wikipedia, it can give you a lot more info than I can, and more accurate. I suggest you check it out to learn how the Poles decisively defeated these ferocious warriors that they’d previously invited, but who overstayed their welcome. The Castle is quite a marvelous site. You can actually see a picture of it because it is the graphic you see at the top of my blog, currently. Yes, that is the castle at Malbork. Quite impressive, isn’t it? We had a guided tour of the castle and all I can say is “wow.” It is an amazing place. It recieved quite a lot of damamge in World War II but a lot has been restored and more is in the restoration process. It is awesome.

After that, we again journeyed through the countryside, driving several hours in some rain at times, but eventually we arrived at our “lunch” destination. Well, time is defined a bit differently here as it was after 4 PM when we got to our destination, but what was in store for us was well worth the wait.

We arrived to some location just outside of the city of Olsztyn and parked on the roadside by two waiting horse-drawn wagons. The first had an accordionist and a trumpter. We got on and were given an enoyable though bumpy ride through the countryside. At one point near the end we stopped and a goup of four on horses entertained us with some horsemanships tricks and showmanship.

 Eventually we arrived at our “lunch” location, a farm.We gathered in the barn where we had a wonderful and entertaining meal. The food and drink included beer and wodka, pickles, excellent bread and lard (smalec), bigos, steak, a vegetable salad, grilled kielbasa, sweet pierogi, more wodka, a sliced meats plate, and coffee and cake. During all of this drawn out affair (it lasted 2-3 hours) we were treated to music, singing, and audience participation including dancing and the like.

It is hard to describe. The atmosphere included some horsemanship with food and music and had a wedding-like theme as well. It was very much fun, quite entertaining, and a wonderful time.

Eventually, we had to leave, it was getting near dark and we were not on the road long before darkness came, so we did not see a lot more scenery, and the area we’re at now is supposed to be very sceninc. But after another 1 1/2 hours, we made it to our hotel. After checking in and getting all my electronic devices attached (camera batteries are in need of charging), I headed down to the bar where I had dwie piwo with some of the others.

And that was my day. I am very tired, having got up early today for the continued amazement, but I figure I can sleep when i get back to the US…if I return. Yes, I am having that much fun. And I also want to report that Sonja and Pat are having very, VERY much fun as well. But, to some extent, I should not comment further. We’ve all agreed that “what happens in Poland stays in Poland! Dobry Wieczor!

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