After breakfast we walked the 1,000 meters to the ticket booth for the castle and for $29.50 Polish Lot (about $8US) for a senior rate we purchased an entry ticket which included a GPS enabled audio guide. That guide was fabulous and helped throughout the day. The Malbork Castle is the largest castle in the world measured by either land area or number of bricks. I'll not describe going through the castle, but I will say that if there is one castle in the world to see, it's this one. The preservation and conservation work is fabulous, the audio guide is so very helpful. We even had lunch in an inside restaurant and that was excellent. Following our visit to the castle, we took a little tour train around the castle and the nearby city and small dinosaur theme park. The cobblestone street and lack of suspension on the trolly cars probably loosed every kidneystone I have or ever thought of having!
For dinner we had chicken wings and salad at Pappa's and it was very good. This was a stop I really appreciated making despite it being a bit out of the way. Due to time constraints, we had to cut out riding up to Denmark, but all that we have seen in Germany, Czech Republic, Poland, and Lithuania has been so nice.
Tomorrow will be another long 300 mile ride down to Wroclaw, Poland. I had originally planned two nights in Malbork and then 3 nights in Cesky Krumlov, but it would have been a 600 plus mile riding day between Malbork and Cesky Krumlov. So we conferred and decided to ride 300 miles to Wroclaw, spend two nights (one sightseeing day in the old city); and then ride 300 more miles to Cesky Krumlov and spend two nights there with one full day for seeing the castle there. I can't emphasize enough that 300 miles of riding in Europe is a lot of riding especially in Poland with all of the road construction and unsigned detours.
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