Here are some photos I have taken during the short three days visit to Lübeck.
It is a pity, that out of 2000 photos, only less than 1700 cpuld stay, as relatively good quality ones. I had no tripod, so especially in bad light the pictures taken – turned out to be somewhat out of focus… But – still those, which I have seem to be a fine memory of an interesting trip.
Day off…
I learned to cherish each day off like the best delicacy. Especially, as my season seems to be a very long one – with the end in January. Well… we had a day off at the same time, and almost in the same company. So we started off in the morning. It means – well after 9:00 a.m. we finally decided to move.
Our aim was Torun (Thorn), with a short stop in Chełmno (Culm) on our way. Unfortunately the days are getting shorter (thanks to the stupid time change, giving nothing but earlier darkness), and additionally – because we did not take the highway – in Chełmno we had time only to visit the High Church of the town (popularly called the… St. Mary’s). The reason for it was the lack of time on the way to Torun. As Torun was our day’s target.
But, it doesn’t mean we did not have time to drop in for a tasty chocolate cake and a delicious apple pie in Vanilla Cafe (just upstairs of the flower shop in the center of the town). It seems we did not lack the time for this.
However, Chełmno is a town for a whole day’s visit. For one can’t just walk past the details on the buildings, which although still awaiting better times – retained their charm. How not to sink in the soothing silence of the town’s churches, or how not to walk down the streets – yearning for the good old long gone times of the gossip on the thresholds… So we shall return to Chełmno in spring, when there will be neither itching chill of the wind, nor the drizzle, successfully discouraging to hunt for a good camera shot.
So – promising ourselves a longer spring visit, we finally took off for Torun.
And when we got there… Well, as always – we walked without a rush, and in fact without any purpose. As it is so difficult to decide what to touch first, what to see first. Should it be the Leaning Tower, or the Saint Johns’ Cathedral, or maybe St. James soaked in the purple light of the setting sun, or maybe should it be rather the Town Hall… Finally – as always, we ended up in St. Mary’s
And then we took a stroll through the streets in the deepening dusk.
However Torun is not only one of Poland’s 14 UNESCO sites, it is not only the place to explore the untouched medieval architecture, or to feel the atmosphere – retained throught the centuries. It is not only the town where the famous Nicolaus Copernicus was born…
Torun is also a place to eat delicious dumplings (pierogi). So to maintain the tradition – we went to the Leniwa restaurant. The dumplings were more than worth a visit.
Honestly I can state, that our Torun visit was without any plan, nor aim. We went there just because we love the city, and have known it for a long time. My long historical family bonds keep me tied to the city very firmly…
So we did not have to see anything in particular, neither we needed to admire anything special, to know we visited a unique place on earth 😉
I managed to take some photos of pretty good sights both in Chełmno and in Torun. And of course, because I forgot the tripod – some of the photos are out of focus… And for this I am sorry. 😉
Malbork is beautiful all year long. And this is a true cliché.
However most of the visitors prefer to come here in summer. Of course the blackbirds are singing then, and the days are long AND warm… Yet whoever dares to come here in winter – leaves trully bewitched.
To prove this – I attach today’s photos HERE, and HERE some from my archives…
Enjoy 😀
Whenever I visit Torun, I mainly concentrate on St. Mary’s church…
It is hypnotic.
I do not treat it as a church from today’s perspective. I am amazed by its strong medieval message. We truly are dominated by the grandeur of the interior, and forced to look up. Today by looking UP – we mean looking at the splendid vaulted ceilings. But for a medieval man, it was looking farther, beyond. The ceiling of the church was Heaven itself, the site of God. In the middle ages with the very strong religiousness, it was an extremely important ideological message…
The construction of Torun’s St. Mary’s church started in … 1343. The same year as St. Mary’s Church in Gdansk, and was completed at the end of the century.
HERE is a short video of the church and here ANOTHER one… And ANOTHER…
To feel the atmosphere and to inhale the ages of history – you must come to Torun 🙂
I remember saying once that there is nothing to see in the Lowlands. That they are low, dull, flat and uninteresting…
And then by accident I first found an ancestor among the Lowlanders, and then I became a guide. 😀
Now I can say, I found the key to the Homeland for Strangers (this is how Peter Klassen calls this piece of the World).
Words can not describe the beauty of this huge piece of land which comprises about 2,5 thousand hectares (c.a. 6 177,63 acres).
And it all started around 1540-ties when two huge floods destroyed the area near rich Gdansk (Danzig). The city council decided to invite the experts to help with the flooded land. And who could have done it better than the people from the Low Countries? So, the council of Danzig sent their representatives to meet probably Menno Simmons and to urge him to send some of his followers to the far country on the Baltic, to settle down in the Delta of the Vistula River.
And this is how the history of the Mennonite settlement on the Vistula started.
I found in the Internet a very interesting book by Peter J. Klassen: Mennonites in early modern Poland & Prussia. Definitely worth reading!!!!
I am among the great admirers of the Mennonites’ work and echoes of the grandeur in the Delta…
Not to speak of the magnificent landscapes – here are only few pictures of this amazing piece ofPoland!
