Today was an interesting day. I left Gdańsk this morning. A little later than I wanted because when I woke up this morning it was a bit too cold and I really didn’t want to get out of my sleeping bag because it was nice and toasty… I finally got on the road about 1030 and headed south. My first stop was at Malbork Castle, which was established in 1274 by the Knights Templar and over the next 220 years was added to continuously, and from about 1450 it was made into a royal residency for the Kings of Poland.
I parked the bike in a safe car park (£2) and did a tour of the castle for a few hours. The tour cost £6 with an audio guide and was well worth it. This would have cost an arm and a leg in the UK, plus a lifetime membership to the NT…
It’s an utterly fascinating tour and a breath-taking example of a medieval fortress. The castle was damaged extensively during WW2 but the government has done a superb job of restoring the castle to its former glory. If you ever visit northern Poland you MUST visit this castle as it’s superb, and one of the best castle tours I have ever experienced.
After that I headed south, heading for Torun, and that’s when the weather changed for the worse so for the next two hours I was in and out of the rain, with the last 40 minutes in very heavy rain. I finally got to the town of Toruń, found my campsite and then got the tent up. And there’s nothing like putting up a tent in the rain to challenge your sense of humour…
Fortunately my waterproofs kept me dry and all my kit was dry too, so after some food and a massive mug of Yorkshire’s finest tea it’s time for a quick update and then bed. It was only 140 miles today but the last 60 miles were hard work with the heavy rain and treacherous roads, so I’m needing to recharge my batteries. I’m doing a little sightseeing in the morning before I head south again to the city of Wrocklaw.
