POLAND - POZNAN

Our first taste of Poland proper was when we discovered Poznan - a small town with a lovely square - Stary Rynek that had narrow colourfully painted gabled houses both within and around a large open square, which had lots of places to sit and have a coffee and watch the world go by, which we did.






Here is the old Town Hall or Ratusz, which is now a museum with some very interesting pictures, photos and memorabilia about the town and surrounding area.

We were followed around and watched by the staff very keenly - as if they were not sure what we were going to do.





Many of the houses had statues and other interesting carvings on the corners.

In and around the square were some beautiful churches, many restored after the bombings of WW2








We discovered that each town has a symbol with some sort of historical reference to it here in Poznan it is 2 goats and they are to be found on everything as souvenir items and also as here as statues in a small garden just a short walk away from the square - cute is the word I think Suri used.




Close by in the small village of Kornik is reputedly one of the great castles in Poland, it was very interesting, but a little on the small side, though it did have lots of antiques inside. Here I am outside of the castle enjoying an ice cream.




Most nights we did not have any difficulty finding accommodation - here is the view from the window of a Polish Motel that we stayed at in Gniezno - I think we were the only people staying there as we saw nobody else except the staff - it was very much the sort of place I imagined was all the rage in the communist years - very austere, dark and a little musty, I could visualise old men in uniforms sitting in corridors drinking vodka.