We leave our little lakeside camp, head back up the rutted road and towards the Wolfs Lair. On route we stop at Mikolajki a colourful town on the river, although a quick bike around was enough, its a bite to eat and off again.
We figure the Wolfs Lair will be busy so plan to get there first thing tomorrow and there is a nice little parking spot only a couple of km’s from there so we head there. Its raining now the temperature has dropped so we settle in for the afternoon. We spend a quiet night without any bother and arrive at Hitlers main wartime headquarters next morning right on opening time. Of course the Russians bombed the crap out of it so many of the bunkers are in ruins but the overall picture of the place is worth the visit to get the feel and tie in another piece of WW2 history. Its popular and by the time we leave the buses and cars are pouring into the carpark.
We are heading north now towards Gdansk and stop near Pieniezo, another small camp spot in a backyard, which is really the size of a paddock. Lovely older gent cant do enough for us and we park up all alone in his immaculate yard. Its still pretty cool with a strong breeze and we settle down for another quiet night amongst the whistling trees.
After we leave our camp spot we head to Katy on Elbag canal and view a completely different way to transport boats rather than the traditional locks. Its a inclined plane of railway track with a carriage that transports the boats up and down with hydraulic power, quiet amazing to watch and the fact that it operates exactly as it was built in 1860 is amazing. Its a quiet spot as well so we park up in the carpark and stay the night.
Its an early start this morning, we leave at 8am and our destination is Malbork Castle, it opens at 9am and we have an hours journey so hopefully it works out. Well sometimes it does, our cheap parking spot care of PFN is right next door and 3 Zloty about 75 Euro cents gets me 3 hours. We just made it back, 3 hours was pushing it in the end, what a place, completely restored after WW2 bombing, an amazing job and just knocked me over. The armaments section was one of the best layouts i have seen, in fact the whole castle was superbly done, such a credit to all that had a hand in it. So its a 14C Teutonic castle and the worlds largest brick castle. We also had a an audio guide, usually not what I would go for but in this case it was so well done that it would have been a shame without it.
We head off from Malbork castle and towards Gdansk, stopping about half way there at an abandoned marina. Its on the river Vistula, a wide river that seems to be boat free. Not one boat, canoe, kayak, ferry or barge went past the whole time we where there, its just weird, no wonder the marina is abandoned. Quite a few fisherman turn up and leave at all times day and night and we have another 2 vans parked along the concrete, overall it was an easy stop.
Its not far from here to Gdansk and we arrive there about 9.30am, park next to a small marina and its a 10 minute walk to the old town. Once again its a rebuilt town after the heavy bombing of WW2 and its impressive. Gdansk is also the centre of the amber trade and of course those shops are everywhere. The old town has a nice feel, ok there are plenty of tourists, numbers rising by the minute , but you don’t get that false feeling. Ok maybe apart from the little river boats that look like cars, not a good look. We enjoyed the town though and later that day I make my way to the WW2 museum about a 5 minute walk and half hour wait for the pedestrian bridge to lower, you have to time your crossings thats for sure. Again the Polish have outdone themselves, this is a brilliant museum detaining the path of Poland through the war and its a good 2 hours plus before i realise its 5pm already, really enjoyed it, great information and stories. A week ago we didn’t think Poland was going to do it for us but the last week has been amazing and turned our opinion around. Before we came here we figured it would be a bit like Romania, Bulgaria maybe, but its a totally different country, seems to be so modern, fast moving and prosperous. To think it was annihilated in WW2, then ruled by the Russians and communists until Lech Walesa led the uprising back in 1989, I think many countries could take a leaf out of their book, cause it is steaming along.
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