Malbork Castle

The Teutonic Knights were one of three major military-religious orders to emerge from the Crusades. When the Crusades ended in the 12th century, the order moved back to Europe and were hired by the Duke of Mazovia to subdue a tribe of pagans called the Prussians who had been attacking his lands. The Knights massacred most of the original Prussians, turned the others into serfs, and decided to stay in what is now northern Poland. Around 1275 they began to build Malbork Castle, which became the biggest brick castle in the world and largest castle of the Gothic period. (Though the Germanic Teutonic Knights called it Marienburg.) In the mid-1400s the Polish king took control of Malbork (by buying off the Czech mercenaries who guarded it) and Malbork became a Polish royal residence. In the 20th century, the Nazis used it to house POWs; about half of it was later destroyed by the Soviet army, who saw it as a symbol of longstanding German domination. Much of it is still in the process of being painstakingly restored and there was a lot of construction going on during our visit.


One of the advantages of touring in the winter is the lack of crowds. One can only tour the castle as part of a guided group, but since we couldn't understand the Polish, we were free to wander around on our own using pages from our tour books as a guide. This is a very large, old castle! The amount of brick used is amazing.



Inner castle courtyard with well in the most protected area of the castle



My favorite part of the castle was the Grand Master's Palace "Grand Refectory" room - the delicate palm tree vaulting in the ceiling was amazing for a brick building this old.



We had seen the castle from the train on our way from Warsaw to Gdansk and I thought I would be satisfied with that (and bypass the 45-minute train trip back to tour the castle). But John wanted to see it, so we made the half-day trip from Gdansk and I'm SO glad we did.

Gorgeous Gdansk

I know what you're thinking.....Gdansk, the city of industrial shipyards and Solidarity strikes - gorgeous? YES! I didn't really believe the tour books that said it was second only to Krakow as Poland's most appealing city, but it truly is one of the loveliest cities we have seen so far in Poland. (I think John would say it's the most picturesque). In many ways it reminds one of Amsterdam and, in fact, the architects for much of the old town area were Dutch/Flemish. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Gdansk (guh-DANGSK) was Poland's wealthiest city, owing largely to its location where the major river Wisla (pronounced VEES-wah, though we call it the Vistula in English) meets the Baltic Sea, and this prosperity resulted in a tolerant, progressive and beautiful merchant city.

The 15th century crane, used for loading ships, is considered the symbol of Gdansk

Gdansk has a rather international history: it was seized in the 1300s by the German Teutonic Knights, who "subdued" the native Prussian population and called the city Danzig. (More about the Teutonic Knights later.) In the late 1300s, the city joined the Hanseatic League, a trade federation of mostly Germanic merchant towns and by the 15th century it was a leading member of this network, which virtually dominated trade in northern Europe. In the mid-1400s, the people of Gdansk rose up against the Teutonic Knights and it became a semi-independent city-state with loose ties to Poland. The city flourished in the 16th and 17th centuries, often called its Golden Age. When Poland was partitioned by its neighbors in the late 18th century, Gdansk again became part of Prussia (later Germany) and was again called Danzig. After WWI, it became an independent city-state, part of the "Polish Corridor" connecting it to Polish lands and effectively cutting off Germany from its northeastern territory. In 1939, Hitler started WWII when he invaded Danzig/Gdansk to bring it back into German hands. After WWII, Gdansk officially became part of Poland and was reconstructed to replicate its golden age (since nearly 80% of the city was destroyed during the war). In 1997 Gdansk celebrated its 1,000 birthday with a wave of renovation and refurbishment, which has left the atmospheric old town looking great!

The Gdansk Armory - a "pearl" of Renaissance architecture



Mariacka (mar-ee-AHTZ-ka) Street

"Arthur's Court" - the medieval version of the businessmens' club (named after King Arthur)

Just another house on the main square!

There is no way I can post enough pictures to give you a feeling for how lovely this city is. Of course it helped a lot that the weather was much nicer than during the last trip we took (to southeastern Poland). John says I should say it was "gdamp" when we were in Gdansk, but there really wasn't much rain. The B&B we stayed in (the Gotyk - supposedly the oldest house in Gdansk) was also nice - small, well-decorated, with modern plumbing, right in the middle of the old town (though we did lose power a few times because of all the construction going on). From our bathroom window we looked right at the "largest stained glass window in Poland" which is in St. Mary's Church - the biggest brick church in the world (most large Gothic churches are stone), built in the 14th and 15th centuries and still retaining many of its original decorations (a few days before WWII broke out, locals hid precious items in the countryside).

The beautifully carved main alter and large stained glass window of St. Mary's Church

The magnificent "crystal" vaulting of St. Mary's Church.

Gotyk House B&B

Calling this area the old town is misleading, since it is a very active part of the city's normal activity. And to be accurate, this section of town is really the Main Town. Each morning I would watch people walking to work from the window of our room. It's not some "museum" for tourists, but an active, beautiful city. ALTHOUGH.....there are amber stores all along several streets (including Mariacka, where our B&B was located). This area of Poland is known as the "Amber Coast" and 75% of the world's amber is mined here, so of course I had to buy some as a souvenir. Did you know that amber comes in white, yellow, green, brown, black and all shades in between? That it is both clear and opaque and the only thing that makes one piece more valuable than another is if there's a bug stuck in it? (It is petrified pine-tree sap.) There's actually so much of it all over - including great big chunks of it - that it gets to seem rather common. (I didn't let that stop me though.)

Even the Gdansk train station is impressive.

And, yes, there are shipyards in Gdansk. Here, the monument to the shipyard workers who died during the protests that eventually helped end communism in Poland.

Mid-Year Fulbright Meeting in Warsaw

Stalin's "Gift" to Warsaw: the Palace of Culture and Science, Poland's tallest building.

"Mid-year" is hard to believe! But we have been here 3 months now and have a little more than 2 months remaining. We took the morning train from Krakow (3 hours, $32.50) and arrived just in time for the noon meeting. It was fun to see everyone again and hear how their placements were going. There were many good experiences to share as well as some expected frustrations of adjusting to long-term living and working in another country. John's comment to me afterwards: "Sounds like we really lucked out!" Our apartment is nice and conveniently located, my classes are full and going well, Krakow is a wonderful city with lots to do, we haven't had any major problems resulting from our poor knowledge of Polish, and John and I have each other for company! (Loneliness was a sentiment expressed by several Fulbrighters.) After the meeting, we all went out for a nice (and very large) traditional Polish meal, courtesy of the Poland Fulbright Commission. Several of us brought books we had finished reading to exchange - I've started "A Spot of Bother" by Mark Haddon, a book I probably would never have picked up otherwise.

The US and Poland have just completed negotiations on a new Fulbright agreement that will double the number of placements in future years. Anyone interested????

Palace of Culture and Science in the early morning (on our way to the train station for our trip to Gdansk).

December

Now that December has arrived, the snow has melted! Don't know if it will last, but today was sunny and mild. Great for walking around, which most people in Krakow seem to be doing. The main square is now filled with Christmas decorations, a stage with ongoing music of various types (school choirs, folk singers, various bands), and many little wooden kiosks selling food and handicrafts. It constantly amazes us how busy this big square is, even in winter. It's obviously not just a tourist venue, but a place Krakowians (Krokowites?) visit regularly.

John and I are both recovering from bad colds but expect to be in fine shape for our trip to Warsaw on Tuesday. We're looking forward to seeing all the Fulbrighters again at our mid-year meeting. I've emailed everyone to set up a book exchange - should be fun to see what others have been reading.

Krakow in the Moonlight

Krakow town square at about 4:30 in the afternoon.....

Thanksgiving at the Wawel

Laurel, James and Claire on the walkway up to the Wawel Castle

We were fortunate to have family visiting us during Thanksgiving week. John’s niece, Laurel, who lives in London was here for the week along with her husband James and their darling daughter, Claire. (They even let us watch her for a day when they visited Auschwitz and we had great fun!) On Thanksgiving Day we toured the Wawel (VAH-vel), Krakow’s castle and a symbol of Polish royalty and independence. A castle has stood on this hill at the southern end of Krakow since the beginning of recorded history. Krakow was the capital city of Poland until 1596, but even after the government moved to Warsaw it was in the Wawel Cathedral that kings were crowned and buried. We had walked the Wawel Hill grounds during nicer weather, but had been saving the tour of the castle state rooms and cathedral. It turned out to be a perfect Thanksgiving Day activity with our visitors.

The interior of the castle with its leather-tooled walls and huge 16th century tapestries was amazing. Sorry I can’t show you any pictures, since cameras weren’t allowed. (Once again, we were able to walk right in when normally advance reservations are needed since the number of people going through at any one time is limited.)

The Wawel grounds in nicer weather.

The cathedral on Wawel hill started as a simple Romanesque church in the 12th century and successive rulers surrounded it with some 20 chapels, many with their own domes and architectural style. The result is a mixture of Gothic, Romanesque, Baroque, Renaissance and Neoclassical, evident both from the outside and when touring the chapel interior.

Some of the spires and domes of the Wawel Cathedral.

We finished off our Thanksgiving Day with a fish dinner at a nice restaurant close to Laurel and James’ hotel. (Our apartment doesn't have an oven, so I wasn't about to attempt cooking a Thanksgiving dinner at "home." The sports bar at the Sheraton hotel was serving what they billed as a Thanksgiving menu all week, but it we decided not to attempt the trip down there.) We have much to be thankful for and it was especially nice to have family here to share the day. It certainly made us a little less homesick than we might otherwise have been. (And having a year off will make cooking that big Thanksgiving dinner next year even more fun!)

Claire was a real treat! She was so good, even though she wasn't feeling well much of the time (she wasn't even afraid of that man with the grey beard)!

Zamosc:The End of Our Tour of Southeastern Poland

Zamosc Town Hall

Every time I try to pronounce this city name, Poles don’t understand what I’m saying and I have to write it down. When they say, “Oh…ZAM-ootshch” I think, yeah, like I said! But apparently I don’t get it close enough to recognize. I had first read about Zamosc in Mitchner’s book Poland last summer, where the town square was described as being similar to that of Siena, Italy. Having been to Siena with my book club, I thought it would be fun to check it out. The tour books confirmed that Zamosc is “one of the best-preserved Renaissance towns in Europe.” It was planned and built from scratch in the 1500s according to Italian concepts of the ideal town by Jan Zamoyski, one of the powerful Polish magnates. A program of restoration began in the 1970s and the town has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

So we took a mini-bus to Zamosc – about 95 kilometers southeast of Lublin. (These mini-busses are great little entrepreneurial businesses. In every city we’ve been to, a fleet of vans has set up shop near the government-run bus station. They run very cheap, regular service to the most popular destinations. While some of them cram in a few too many seats and are more than willing to take stand-up passengers…and they do tend to drive a little fast…and the shocks aren’t all that good…they are a great mode of transportation for those of us who don’t want to venture driving on our own on the Polish roads.) Still cold and snowy, we found our way to the old town square - which was practically deserted, though the buildings are very beautiful. I’m sure in the summer when the square is filled with cafes it’s a delightful little day tour.

Zamosc Town Square

However, we quickly realized that on a cold day in November there wasn’t much to do or see and decided to return to Krakow. We found the Tourist Information Center on the square quite by accident (not being where it was listed on my tour book) as we were looking for a café, and fortunately it was open on a Saturday morning, even though we were the only tourists anywhere to be seen. The nice lady there said she didn’t speak English, but she did well enough to inform us that there was only one train and one bus scheduled to go from Zamosc to Krakow each day and that they had both already left. She checked the mini-bus schedule for us and found out there weren't any that go to Krakow on Saturdays (it would have been quite a long ride in a mini-bus anyway). We really didn’t want to spend the night here, so she kept checking various alternatives and finally came up with a bus to Jarislow (yar-EES-waf), a small town in the middle of nowhere, that left in 4 hours. With a 30-minute layover, she assured us we could walk the short distance to the Jarislow train station and purchase a ticket to Krakow that would get us home around 11 p.m. John was very skeptical.

Ruins of Zamosc' Old City Walls

Without any alternative, we set out on our snowy, foggy ride through the desolate countryside. We were glad our bus driver was very cautious, since the roads were winding and narrow with no shoulders (it gets dark at 3 p.m. here, which added to the feeling of being out in the middle of nowhere). The landscape was gorgeous when we could see it in the lights of the bus with snow on every twig and branch of every tree and shrub – often with the tree branches meeting over the road. One tour book describes this area as “the least populated and least known part of Poland: a great swath of agricultural plains punctuated by remote, backwoods villages and a few market towns.” None of this helped with John’s sense that we would be stranded once reaching this place called Jarislow. However, we made it there on schedule, made the switch to the train in plenty of time, managed to get on the right train even without any signage anywhere in the station, and then settled in for the several-hour ride to Krakow. Returned to snow on the ground here as well. Winter has arrived. (Though we didn’t see much of it, turns out Jarislow is one of the oldest towns in the country and on the main road east to the Ukraine. It has a history as a trading town going back to the 12th century.)

Once back in the apartment, I read a little more about Zamosc: “Chiefly due to its off-the-beaten-track location, the town has neither assumed the prominence it deserves on the tourist trail, nor seen the sort of economic success that has revitalized Lublin. Early in the 19th century Zamosc had sunk so far that even the Zamoyskis themselves moved on!” But if we hadn’t made the trip, I would always have wondered what it was like. John says he doesn’t regret going either….we just have to do a little better job of contingency planning next time – and there’s nothing we can do about the weather, so we don’t want to let it stop us from seeing places we’ll probably never have a chance to visit again. (And, though the main square was beautiful, I didn't really see the resemblance to Siena.)