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Published: December 26th 2014
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Gdansk, Poland--Wednesday, May 21
st Warm and bright sunny blue sky day.
Got up early in order to have breakfast and be ready to catch our tour bus by 15 minutes to 8:00. The tour bus was to drive us about an hour through the countryside to Malbork Castle. The German name means Mary Castle. It is the largest Gothic castle in the world with an area of 21 hectares (52 acres) and is considered the largest brick structure ever built. It was built in stages in the 13
th century and became the main stronghold of Teutonic Prussia and the seat of the “Great Masters of the Order” by 1309. After several wars and various other crises, in 1457, it became the residence of Polish rulers for the next 3 centuries. It was destroyed during the Prussian period and again during WWII. However, it was then rebuilt, and in 1997, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
We walked all over the place, going room to room, on several floors. The Great Refectory is one of the most impressive rooms at 30 meters long, by 15 meters wide, and 9 meters high (roughly 100’x50’x30’). It could hold over 400 seated
guests for a meal. The floor had round brass covers that could be lifted in the winter to bring up heat into the room from fires built below. This system was found in several rooms, but was available only for those persons who were deemed important enough to be kept warm.
One of the interesting inside rooms was the privy located down a long, long hall with a gargoyle type character holding onto his privates that was molded on the main courtyard wall to point the way.
Some of the highlights of the remaining areas included a museum section where just a few of the tremendous number of the religious artifacts that must have existed in this large and rich castle had been saved; the obviously ornate Chapel that was still in ruins but where they are working on the restoration; the kitchens on the ground floor that were huge and very interesting with all the ovens and grills; and the treasury.
We next visited an amber museum located in several rooms in the basement of this castle. Both old and modern pieces were displayed. Of course, by this time, we were out of time and had
to hurry to catch up with the tour group. We then exited the castle building by taking a very narrow, steep, dark stairway located on the backside used, I would think, for only servants and guards. As we were going down, Valerie slipped on a broken edge of one of the steps and fell. Thankfully, she was holding onto the rail and didn’t knock into the women right in front of her and then have everyone topple like dominos. She limped back to the bus and we then rode back to the ship.
Once on board, she went to the doctor and they x-rayed her foot and decided it was just a sprain and they gave her an air cast to wear. Her other knee was scrapped where she came down on it to keep from going further down the steps. She also had bruises on the calf area of the same leg.
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