THE CASTLE AT MALBORK AND ON TO TORUN

Anniversary day started with an experiment.  We sometimes have a hard time finding a good cup of coffee.  The coffee has great flavor, but you never get enough in one cup.  This morning on the way out of Gdansk we stopped at a McDonalds to check out the coffee.   

The bad news, it doesn’t taste very good.  The good news, you get a lot of it.  Go figure!I

It was cold and rainy when we found the castle.  Built by the Teutonic Knights the (The Fortress of Mary) was begun around 1276 and finished 3 decades later.  It’s hard to capture a castle in small pictures, especially one this immense.  However, here are some shots.      

  Four of the important Knights.  The kitchen where all meals were prepared for the monks and nuns who were also residents here.

Being leg weary from climbing towers the day before, the self guided castle tour took 3 hours.  We had an English speaking audio set that explained each element and room.  There were 50 stops on the guided tour.  Leaving the castle about 2:30 we had a nice afternoon drive on to Torun where we found a lovely small hotel in old town and settled in for a couple of days.    We had our anniversary dinner in the dining room because reviews of the hotel said the food was the outstanding feature.    We were not disappointed.  In fact we liked it so well we had two breakfasts (they come with the room) and dinner both nights.  The service was very formal.  We had enough time after dinner to take a walk through old town to get the lay of the land.