Like a Renaissance Festival for Real!

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Another lovely breakfast at the Sisters Lodge Hostel and we are fortified for the trip downstairs with our bags and to the car.  Our destination this morning is the castle at Malbork, the largest brick castle in Europe! It belonged to the Teutonic Knights, the fiercest fighting force of their time. After convincing the BIOB that there is such a place, we are off.

I'm fascinated by the colors on
their apartment/condo buildings!

View from the Sisters Lodge Hostel.  Sad, right?

Interesting bridge!

The drive is quite pleasant and we are in the city of Malbork, looking for the entrance to the castle.  There are several parking signs but we’ve learned that the first lot you see is generally the farthest for the attraction, so we wait until we see the castle itself and its own parking lot.  We are directed to a spot and pay on the way out and to the castle.  There is a large, modern building with ticket sales, guide services and, most important, the WC!

Hee hee!  I get the pensioner’s rate!!  Only 25 PLZ to see the castle!!  Tickets in hand we set off, ready to be awed and amazed by the sheer magnitude of the assemblage of buildings, as well as the state of preservation!  We have Rick’s walking tour and weave in and out of the herds following their guides.  There are five gates to go through before you reach the middle castle and more before you reach the high castle! We see quite a bit before we reach the man who scans our tickets!

I’m trying to imagine what it must have been like to live here, with the possibility of attack ever present.  The huge well in the center courtyard is the only source of water and if there is a siege, all the food you’ve stored is all the food there is!

They say a tour should take about three hours;  but they don’t know us!  Five hours later we return to our car.  We’ve stayed so long that we have to pay an extra 10 PLZ to leave!  It was worth it!

Central Courtyard of the Middle Castle

In the amber exhibit

Portable altar, all of amber

Dare I admit that lunch was one of the day's high points?  I had a salad with smoked fish, strawberries, blueberries, peaches, tomatoes, yellow peppers, yellow cherry tomatoes and various greens, with raspberry vinaigrette. It was preceded by a starter or goat cheese atop a prune and sitting on a small plate shaped and colored like an autumn leaf!  And look at Marilyn's!

The most outrageous presentation ever!

The Gothic Cafe

The old glass is so fascinating!

The armory is filled with swords, chain mail,
armor, pistols and other weapons.

Central Couryard of the High Castle, where the well is located.

The pelican is a symbol of sacrifice.  The story
goes that she stabbed herself to death to feed her babies.

The painted ceilings always captivate me!

Notice the cabbage leaves for use
in the Dansker tower (latrine)

 Now we are facing the long drive to Hitler’s headquarters, Wilczy Szaniec or Wolf’s Lair. There are a number of ways to get there;  but none of them are both direct and on major roads!  I’m willing to defer to the BIOB, at least for a while.  We can always ignore her!  Because we are unfamiliar with all the city names that the signs use instead of directions, like I75 North, for example, it takes me a minute or five to realize that the B is going to take us into RUSSIA!!  No No No!! We are definitely not going to cross the Russian border!!  I choose a new route and give her a minute to figure out that she’s been dissed.  Long story short….we see some gorgeous countryside and find the most marvelous birds!  They are huge and sitting in their nest.  Perhaps they are storks??  Marilyn turns around so we can get a better shot and momma comes!!  Those big birds are the babies!!  And momma has come with dinner!!

I just don't get how this works!

There she goes!  The one below shows the size
and location of one of the nests atop a power pole.
These guys are all over this area!

When she flies off, we’re off, too, and continue what is eventually a four-hour drive to Wolf’s Lair.  Nearly all the way is on small two-lane roads that are lined with trees that have been planted right along the edge of the road.  Many of cloth strips tied around their trunks with red and white stripes, perhaps to alert the dozing driver?  Finally we are close enough to see signs to the bunker and we barely make it before full dark.  There is a guard who opens the cross-bar gate with a remote control and we drive a bit further until we find the entrance door.  Happily we settle into our room, with relief that it does have a window!  A word about Polish windows.  They have a very clever construction!  The handle has three positions.  One locks it closed, one allows the top to pivot inward providing ventilation from the top without allowing the rain to come in, and the third unlocks the bottom pin so the entire window can swing sideways, like a door!  So versatile!

Perhaps the Russian influence?  We are so close to the border.

The mouse at Wolf's Lair!

See how close they are to the road!?

 We are so tired that all we can do is slip into our beds.  They are plywood boxes with three-inches mattresses, light duvets and a light blanket.  The air is almost cold and the sleeping conditions are perfect!