Poland: From Warsaw to Gdansk

So this morning I was up early to be packed and check outbid the hotel in time for my transfer to the train station. I wasn't looking forward to a five hour train ride, but was determined to make the best of it. Thankfully my compartment wasn't full, but a large Polish woman (straight out of central casting, I swear...) with bag fills of treats for herself, decided she wanted to talk extremely loudly into her cell phone for most of the trip. About an hour into one of her conversations, another cell phone rang, and I thought to myself, how in the world is the other person in the compartment going to be able to have a conversation on his cell phone with this woman talking so loud... Little did I realize it was HER OTHER cell phone. YES! She had two phones... Anyway, she talked a lot making a nap difficult. What should have been just under a five hour trip turned out to be a just over six hour trip due to numerous construction sites along the way.

When I arrived at Malbork, I got off the train and met my driver/guide on the platform and we made our way to Malbork Castle. It is the largest medieval castle complex in Europe and the largest structure made completely of brick (over 35 million bricks). It was a castle for the Teutonic Knights back in the 13th-15th centuries. It was amazing, but like just about everything else in Poland, was pretty much destroyed during WWII.

The have done a great job of restoring it, using as much of the original building materials as possible. After a very late lunch, we made our way inside and toured the castle for about two and a half hours. It really was something else. I have also learned more about this area of Poland and have decided when I come back I will have to spend more time around here, because there is so much to see and do... I am only going to be able to complete a fraction of them while I'm here...

We then drove from the castle to Gdansk, which took a little over an hour, and I was dropped at my hotel. After getting settled in, I took a walk around the old town, had dinner, and walked around/explored some more of the town. It kind of reminds me of Amsterdam, with it's canal houses, and there are a couple of canals that flow through the town, although certainly not as many as Amsterdam. I am looking forward to my tour tomorrow so I will have someone who will be able to explain to me what everything is!!!