Had a good night’s sleep and up fairly early for brekky. Polish sausage and scrambled eggs. The day started off cloudy and quite cool, hopefully it will get better later on!
Plan for today is to see Gdansk and then on to Malbork and its castle.
Rather a cold start to the ride – glad I kept my thermals on, but was still freezing. It never rained, but it was very overcast and windy. Finally the sun crept out for a bit near Karwia, where I stopped and ate a waffle and had a quick look at the Baltic Sea. I never knew they had white sandy beaches just like back home in Oz!
From there I decided to skip Gdansk and head straight to Malbork so that I could still do the castle today, and then get going to Warsaw tomorrow, putting me back onto my original trip plan. The roads so far had been pretty so-so, no worse than yesterday, but often not much better either (the 213 was especially bumpy), which slows progress down quite a bit. And I’m worried the saddlebag mounts won’t last the distance!
Not long after Puck I got back on the E28, which turned into a motorway after Reda. While I don’t usually like motorways, it was pure heaven to ride on decent straight tarmac for a bit. Unfortunately the E28 rather sneakily turns into the E75 which is a toll highway with no obvious signage (that I could remember seeing) letting you get off it before the first toll gate. Oh well, at least progress was good, shame it didn’t last – the first section of the 22, the main road to Malbork, was very bumpy cobblestones!
Eventually I made it though, and soon found the Tourist Info, where the lovely lady helped me find a selection of hotels to check out. Unfortunately of my top two choices on was fully booked and the other only had a luxury suite left. So I eventually settled for a place run by an elderly couple. Exceedingly basic amenities, but great location directly across the river from the castle. And they even put my bike into an old shed!
By the time I had checked in and gotten going to visit the castle the clouds had rolled in again, the wind had picked up, and I was soon ruing having left in only a tshirt (by the time I got back to my room it was down to 13C!). Malbork castle itself is fantastic, although not all that much of it is original, having been undergoing restoration for 200 years or so, and having been extensively damaged during WW2 before being rebuilt since then. It’s still very impressive and well worth a visit. 2 hours to go through it was definitely a bit rushed! On the other hand being almost the last person through meant there was no queuing anywhere or annoying tourists getting in the way of pictures.
I ended up having dinner in Ye Olde Carvery in the castle bailey, being too cold by now to go looking for the place which the lady from the Tourist Info center had recommended. It was basically food cooked up to appear medieval. During the day they had archery and whatnot there as well, but by the time I rocked up it was a bunch of french pensioners and myself fighting for the last bits out of the pot.
A nice long digestive walk through town and along the river and it confirmed that Poland closes up around 7pm – there was hardly anybody around! While I could understand that of the tiny seafront towns, I had thought Malbork to be a bit of a bigger tourist magnet, and still be going. So nothing for it but to go back to my room, type this up, and then head for a nice long (and hopefully hot! – last night’s was cold..) shower.
