Torun in central Poland and Gdansk on north coast 13 September 2014

---

Torun in central Poland and Gdansk on north coast 13 September 2014

After driving on excellent roads, in fact new freeways, we arrived in Torun and visited its Old Town. The key feature of the town was the castle ruins which was established by the Teutonic Knights in Malbork. The castle had a dungeon where they had set up a recording of ghosts and other such scary noises which switched on when people walked into the room. There were several children there when we were visiting, and they were screaming with fright. It kept the kids interested. We then walked through the old town and found a cafe called Queensland Coffee to have our cup of coffee. The waitress couldn't tell us why it was called that (due to language barrier) but we saw on the menu 'Queensland Australia'.

We then drove further north to the medieval town of Gdansk, again on the motorway which only cost $10 AUD for 130km of freeway. We loved Gdansk. The Old Town was busy with people who were wandering through the cobbled streets, admiring the range of architecture and visiting many of the side-street cafes and restaurants. There were lots of tour groups walking around with their tour headsets.

We sat down for our afternoon beer and did some people watching.

After dinner we visited the new Solidarity Museum which was opened on 1 September this year. It was a really interesting museum, presenting the 'victorious solidarity movement' of Poland and the fall of communism in Europe. The first of the anti-Communist movement was in 1953 in East Berlin. Lech Walesa, who was the Chairman of the Ship Building Union in Gdansk, and a leader of the movement against the Communist rule, was eventually elected to the role as Prime Minister of Poland in 1981 when Communism eventually fell. The opening of the Museum is another sign of this democratic progress.

The Solidarity Museum building was incredible with many different waterfalls and fountains outside which were lit up at night. There were gardens inside and really high tech and interactive displays. Outside there was a really high cross which was the symbol of the anti communist movement. Very powerful.

We then walked back into the Old Town to look at the city at night. I love wandering around these old town with their night lights on. We found a restaurant to have some cheesecake and Malbec before returning to our motor home. We parked out motor home on the edge of the Old Town and ended up sleeping there for the night. It was really convenient.

The next morning we had breakfast then walked across the road to a restaurant for our 2nd cup of coffee and were we bought bread rolls for lunch - very convenient!



We then drove west to Kartuzy

---