Toruń

After another pig-out breakfast, we take the city bus and tram (one ticket - they're good for an hour) to the Dworzec Autobusowy (Bus Station) and catch the 9:40 (8.4 zł each) to Toruń (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torun). Too bad the train station was so far from the city centre. Trains are 10x more comfortable than the bus.

We spent about four hours walking through the Stare Miasto (old town), wandering into churches, marvelling at the decorated buildings, scarfing a kebab for lunch, walking next to the old city walls, buying and eating the famous gingerbread.

May 3 is Polish Constitution Day (and my birthday)

Building detail - the whole city looks like this

The house where Copernicus was born

These city walls (for U2 fans)

Peek-a-boo

Typical Street Scene

  
Exhausted, we get back to the bus station to find we missed the bus by a few minutes. The next bus was crowded with students leaving to go back home. We stopped a couple of dozen times to let them off two or three at a time for the first half of the trip

For some reason, the toilets in the bus station are 2.5 zł compared to 1 or 2 in most places. Unless you're desperate, find the nearest flash shopping mall where they are free. Directly across the road is the Focus Mall with fast free wi-fi and posh loos. We suss out a couple of places for dinner and decide on a place near the train station. It's further than we thought (this map needs a scale!) and the restaurant we want has disappeared.

However, within a block we find the Thu Ha http://www.bistrothuha.pl/ for some Asian food. Not expecting much, we were blown away with the quality. Tom yum, tom kha, and plate of pork with rice and veggies (and polish coleslaw), two beers comes to 44 zł. There's real lemon grass in the tom yum and all the food arrives piping hot. It's very close to the train station and they do take-away as well. We wait less than 10 minutes for the bus back to the hotel and are grateful to be back after a long day.

We had hoped to go Chelmno tomorrow but have decided that we're too achy another bus ride and hours of walking. We see if we can find the river tram instead.