Tuesday, July 21, 2026

Baltic Tour 2026 - Gdansk / Malbork

Gdansk / Malbork, Poland, Thursday/Monday 16/20-July-2026

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Thursday 16-July-2026.

After a pleasant overnight in Pardubice the next stop was Gdansk with yet another wonderfully ornate main station. Despite being a bit off our track this was a place Mary wanted to visit for its historic significance (and a parkrun) so we planned a four night stop here.

Our Home Exchange apartment was just north of the city centre. There was a classic “desire path” cutting the corner at the end of the road.

After so much restaurant dining in the last week or so we decided to eat light by cooking in the apartment - pork with paprika and boiled potatoes.

Friday 17-July-2026.

We took a train over to Malbork for an overnight stay in Malbork to snag ”Z” for our second alphabet - “parkrun Zamek w Malborku”. Zamek means castle in Polish and there’s a clue in the name. 

We dumped our bags at the Premium Bed and Breakfast very close to the parkrun and went off to explore the town starting with the castle. It is difficult to visualise how big it is. 

We only looked around the outside of the castle buildings and at a good pace but it still took more than an hour. It is the largest brick building in Europe and has three concentric moats. 

Some original old tiles featuring creatures, elsewhere they had been replaced with modern versions.

Evening meal was at restaurant Kamienica with an oenological first - Polish rosé!

Saturday 18-July-2026.

parkrun Zamek w Malborku, 18/06/26 31:25 [22/31]

The B&B offered a ludicrously generous breakfast unfortunately, due to our imminent parkrun, we were not able to take full advantage of the abundance.

A very soggy parkrun, possibly our wettest ever. Amongst the fellow tourists were a couple we met in Sicily at Uditore parkrun back in May - small world! Normally they have 70 to 80 participants. The rain kept most regulars away but us parkrun tourists are not put off so easily! Ten of the 31 attendees were British.

As we lined up for the start the heavens opened.

The first and second finishers were soaked but happy such is the parkrun spirit. With credit to Zbigniew Jazdzewski for the photos.

After the obligatory shower we did a suggested walk around Malbork and then it was off to the station to reverse out journey back to Gdansk for lunch. We had a lovely light lunch of antipasti at Trattoria Al Dente.

We relaxed in the afternoon then went out looking at old buildings in the town centre. Having worked up a thirst we went for a craft ale at Under Beer followed by a lovely meal at Thai Thai including a tasty spicy mango margarita for Mary. 

We like Thai food but since moving out of London it is a rare treat. Penrith doesn’t run to one and Italy doesn’t really do foreign restaurant outside of the major cities.

Sunday 19-July-2026.

We took a Buggy tour to get a feel for the lay of the land. Our guide was the lively and informative Tomasz, a grandson of Lech Wałęsa! The picture he is holding is of his dad, son of Lech, between Bush and Reagan. 

We visited areas of the famous shipyards including this monument to the 17 workers killed in 1970. Apparently the first monument built by the Communists for people killed by the Communists. 

The plaque reads:

“Memorial of the fallen shipyard workers 1970. A token of everlasting remembrance of the slaughter victims. A warning to rulers that no social conflict in our country can be resolved by force. A sign of hope for fellow citizens that evil need not prevail.”

A light Japanese lunch at Sakamoto-Ya followed by a wander round town. These are some of the red brick buildings around Gdansk town centre. The bottom left shows how they preserve and make use of any ruins of the original buildings.

The World War 2 museum is high on the list of must-see sites in Gdansk. It takes two to three hours even at a steady pace. We learned so much from our visits to the museum and reflected on how some people and countries don't seem to be learning from the mistakes of the past. This poster was a quote describing the post war political landscape.

The birth and growth of totalitarianisms
Democracy in crisis after the First World War

“When the First World War ended, most countries in Europe were parliamentary democracies. But in many of them democracy soon came under attack. In some, including Poland in 1926, democratic governments were replaced by authoritarian regimes. In the Soviet Union, Italy and Germany, governments adhering to totalitarian ideologies - Communism, Fascism and National Socialism - came to power.
What they had in common was their leaders' drive for absolute control, the use of terror and aggressive propaganda, contempt for democracy, a drive to regulate their societies, and great-power ambitions. Their counterpart in the Far East was Japanese imperialism.”

Continuing our wandering we went down to the docks where this historic crane was originally powered by four men in a giant hamster wheel.

The evening meal was classy dining at Canis, friendly service, wonderful food and an extensive wine list in a lovely setting.

Monday 20-July-2026.

We had to have at least one meal of pierogi as I think of it as Poland’s national dish. It made a great lunch on a day devoted to sightseeing.

Gdansk-Lenin shipyard gate number two where we did the Solidarity Museum.

The evening was more craft ale with beer and meal by Brovarnia.

We do like a tasting paddle to try different beers. They only had three beers on tap at the time so we might have to come back in the autumn / winter to taste their dark beers.

The schnitzel was ludicrously large, almost as large as the plate; I couldn’t eat it all.

That evening we booked for a classical concert at the Polish Baltic Philharmonic. A solo pianist, Daniel Zimko, playing Chopin & Ravel:

  • Nocturne in F major, Op. 15, No. 1, 
  • Ballade in F major, Op. 38,
  • A cycle of Chopin's outstanding piano miniatures, the Waltzes, Op. 34. 
  • From Ravel's works, the pianist had chosen Le Tombeau de Couperin.

From the balcony we had a great view of his impressive fingerwork.

Tuesday 21-July-2026.

Up early for breakfast at the main station and purchase of a picnic lunch for the train trip to Warsaw.

Next stop: Warsaw 

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Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Baltic Tour 2026 - Pardubice

Pardubice, Czech. Wednesday/Thursday 15/16-July-2026

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After Budapest, the next stop on our tour was Pardubice in the Czech Republic. The original plan was to fly from Budapest to Gdansk because of the length of the journey. However I wasn't allowed to fly for 2 weeks so we switched to trains. This meant an additional stopover but where should we stop? Tipped off by a poster on the ever helpful FaceBook group "Interrailing for the older crowd" group, Pardubice was where we would change trains and sounded like an interesting place. It was a fantastic find, it is a charming small town with lots of history, a castle and many amazing old buildings. Another bit of serendipity!

Wednesday 15-July-2026.

We didn’t leave Budapest until after lunch heading to the Pardubice and the hotel Penzione Zelona Zaba which translates as Green Frog. It is a 20 minute walk from Pardubice main line station but a short change and a four minute train ride took us to Pardubice Centrum station only 5 minutes walk from the hotel!

We dumped the bags and went for a stroll to checkout the town and stopped in the delightful main square for a beer at Zalozna. The menu looked ok so we decide to eat there as well.

Next morning we had a brief wander round the town and admired the castle from the outside.

There we found found a suggested walking itinerary starting with a circuit of the rampart walls.

The peacocks on the ramparts were very tame and clearly expecting to be fed!

We didn’t have time to do the museum but had a wander round the courtyard.. 

Following the suggested walk we reached the “Automatic Mills”, an old flour mill that has been converted into a cultural and educational centre with workshops, exhibition space and a cafe.

The town centre was lined with lots of lovely buildings.

Pardubice’s town hall (Radnice) is a Neo-Renaissance structure built between 1893–1894 by architect Jan Weyrich.

The green gate is the entrance into the old town and apparently there are good views from the top but we decided to pass for the sake of our knees.

The local Catholic Church with typical very spiky spire.

After the walkabout we went back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and headed off for the next half of the trip to Gdansk.

Next stop: Gdansk / Malbork.

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Tuesday, July 14, 2026

Baltic Tour 2026 - Budapest

Budapest, Hungary / Stuttgart, Germany. Wednesday/Thursday 11/14-July-2026.

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After back-to-back travel days this was our first multi-day stop to allow for full on tourist stuff.

Saturday 11-July-2026.

After parkrun and a shower in Graz we headed off to the main station for a five and a half hour train journey to Budapest.

We may have been in First Class but the air conditioning was not working and the windows were not openable so it made for a pretty steamy trip. Despite it being such a long journey, there was no buffet car so we couldn’t even get a drink or a sandwich. Luckily we had eaten lunch before we set off and had water with us  

We passed countless fields of sunflowers. It would seem to be a major crop, presumably to go into cooking oil and margarine manufacturing.

Our accommodation was in a Home Exchange apartment in a large block of flats with a huge central courtyard.

As it was was late, we went to a nearby bar, Guru Serhaz, that described itself as a bistro. Beer it had aplenty but the food was very basic pub grub. 

Dark beer for me, light for Mary.

From the very limited menu I had jalapeño poppers with chips and Mary had chicken wings with chips but we did get to sample several beers.

Sunday 12-July-2026.

Even the railway stations are fancy. This is Budapest-Keleti, the nearest main station to our apartment.

We wandered around Pest admiring the many fine buildings, many of them neoclassical from the late 1800s. So many that I can only feature a small selection. This is a grand hotel.

Even the manhole covers are fancy.

We saw these cute “gate guardians” protecting one doorway.

Down by the river there was a touching memorial: the Shoes on the Danube Bank in Budapest a powerful public art memorial featuring 60 pairs of 1940s-style iron footwear. It honours the predominantly Jewish victims executed on the banks of the river by Hungarian fascist militiamen towards the end of World War II.

St Stephen’s Church. Very, very ornate: unsurprising as is named in honour of Stephen, the first King of Hungary (c. 975–1038), whose right hand is housed in the reliquary. Interestingly the dome was supposed to be decorated with paintings but they used mosaics instead - see the detail in the bottom right hand picture.

That evening we went out for a very classy meal at A Kert Bisztro. A marked contrast to the previous evening’s meal!

The food was great and the prices were reasonable but the wine prices were exorbitant and were per decilitre (100cc) which meant double for a sensible sized glass.

Our nightcap was in the New Palm Cafe and Pub just along our street.

Monday 13-July-2026.

We spent the morning exploring Buda on the West Bank of the Danube. This is the castle hill as seen from Pest across the river.

First stop was the Buda Tower, all that remains of the Church of Saint Mary Magdalene, where we climbed the tower, lots of stairs in a narrow and hot spiral staircase. At the top we were rewarded with stunning views.

Top - National Archives, middle - the tower, bottom - Parliament.

We walked along the backstreets to end up at Fisherman’s Bastion with great views over the city.

Statue of King Stephen 1st founder of Hungary at Fisherman’s Bastion.

We walked down to the tram line and took it along the banks of the Danube to the Market Hall. This large building downstairs had colourful displays of fresh produce, upstairs had fast food stalls and tourist tat.

We went to the food stalls and making a mistake with the currency conversion we bought an oversized lunch, so large it did us for supper as well. 

Late afternoon we went for a short river cruise seeing again from the river some of the buildings we had seen on land. The parliament building:

The cruise included an audio guide you could download to your phone. Mary had left her phone on charge at the apartment so we shared my earbuds - one ear each.

After a supper of our Market Hall lunch reheated we went out to Amigo, a local rockabilly themed bar for our nightcap. Instead of a beer I fancied some red wine. I received a generous sized glass of average wine that may have been open for some time. Next time I’ll stick to beer.

Tuesday 14-July-2026.

Given our support for the Carlisle Victorian and Turkish Baths we had to check out the thermal baths of which there are several in Budapest. We spent the morning at Szechenyi Thermal Baths. 

This gives an idea of the extent of the baths with multiple pools and saunas to choose from:

We went back to the apartment for a bit of relax and then out to a wine tasting at Bortodoor City followed by a meal at Kata

The wine tasting was meant to be two hours but overran by half an hour thanks to our enthusiastic and knowledgeable host “Smike”. We know nothing about Hungarian grapes and this delivered exactly what we wanted: a history of Hungarian wines, and introduction to the local grape varieties and tastings of sparkling, through white, rosè and reds. I even got a bonus sip of Tokai. 

The restaurant was fortunately only three minutes walk away so we were only slight late. We had spotted this restaurant previously as it promised a gluten and lactose free menu. The food was excellent.

No nightcap today as we were knackered and needed an early night for a prompt start for the next leg of the journey on the morrow.

Next stop: Pardubice.

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