Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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  • Malbork – Malbork Castle (Frederick the Great Statue)

    Malbork – Malbork Castle (Frederick the Great Statue)

    Back to another post about Malbork Castle….

    The Germans had a marvellous idea in the 1870s that they would create a large and impressive statue of Frederick the Great (1718-1786) which would stand two metres high. Frederick was the King of Prussia between 1740 and 1786 and responsible for the First Partition of Poland, which was to ultimately destroy the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The aim of their great statue was to have four figures underneath it, each of whom was an important Teutonic Grand Master.

    They picked:

    Hermann von Salza, Grand Master from 1209 until 1239, who secured the status of the Teutonic Order.

    Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, Grand Master from 1303 until 1311, who moved the Teutonic Order base to Prussia.

    Winrich von Kniprode, Grand Master from 1351 until 1382, the longest serving holder of the office.

    Albert of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Grand Master from 1510 until 1525, who turned the Order into a Protestant one following the Reformation (it’s been Catholic again since the 1920s).

    The aim of this little arrangement was to show the continuity between the Teutonic Order and the Prussian Kings, with the statues placed in the central courtyard of Malbork Castle which would make them hard for visitors to miss. The statues were all designed by Rudolf Simering and they were unveiled on 9 October 1877.

    Unfortunately, like a lot of things at the castle, they were badly damaged during the Second World War. The statue of Frederick the Great has been entirely lost, although the four Grand Masters are still here and have since been repaired and restored. Their arrangement today looks a bit random, but they once stood in each corner of the grand monument that had Frederick the Great on top of them. I’m not sure what Frederick the Great would have thought about all this…..

  • LDWA – Winter Poppyline 2022

    LDWA – Winter Poppyline 2022

    This weekend was the Winter Poppyline, the 50-mile challenge event offered by Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA. It usually takes place every other year, and took place this year following the postponement in 2021 due to the pandemic.

    This post is primarily photos that have been sent to be used on social media, so expect to see them soon on various LDWA social media sites. As ever, it was a wonderful event and it’s always a delight to hear all of the positive feedback that’s being received. The event was actually just over 51 miles and congratulations to everyone who finished and to those who didn’t quite make it, but they had a good go and that’s the main thing.

    Jayne was a marvellous organiser as ever and the marshals worked hard to ensure that everyone had a positive experience in the checkpoints and HQ. We also trust that entrants enjoyed the variety of terrain that North Norfolk has to offer, including the fine coastal views. The weather wasn’t too bad, but the wind did pick up and that was mentioned by a fair few entrants.

    Always happy to marshal these events because of the friendliness of the entrants and other marshals (and it saves me walking the event, as that can tire me out) and I’m proud that Richard’s training is coming on well at the registration desk. He’s able to cope on his own now, which makes it much easier for me to go and interfere with the arrangements in the kitchen on a much more regular basis. And it took me thirty minutes and the help of four marshals to work out to turn the lights off in the gym for those sleeping in there, before I gave up and someone else fixed the problem.

    I loved the choice of drink that our medic picked…. Both our medics were professional and helpful, although the one on the early shift had a quieter time it’s fair to say. Raynet and 4*4 also offered marvellous support to the marshals and to entrants, it was good to have them there.

    This was left to annoy me….. A complaint will be going to Stuart Bain nationally about Hilary for doing this……   🙂

    More to come about this event across our social media, but thanks to others who have posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram about their experiences.

    There it is, the terrifying Beeston Bump….. This caught our many walkers, it’s a reminder never to under-estimate the Norfolk Himalayas.

    Here is the head of risk assessment for the event, Simon, with his friendly and welcoming face at Cromer cliffs to greet the walkers and remind them to be careful of the cliffs (or not to fall off them to be more precise). This selfie he took doesn’t really reflect just how much of a welcome he really offers though   🙂

    Anyway, I digress, onto the other photos…..

     

  • Finding the Source of the River Wensum Part 3

    Finding the Source of the River Wensum Part 3

    PART 3 OF FINDING THE SOURCE OF THE RIVER WENSUM

    When Nathan and I were training for the LDWA 100, we started on a series of expeditions to find the source of the River Wensum. I accept this isn’t as challenging as finding the source of the Nile or the Ganges, but there was limited ability to use public transport and venues open during the lockdown, so we had to be a little resourceful. Anyway, we got as far as Lyng, and I wanted to go further to complete what we started. Nathan has retired from walking now, so this time, I convinced friends Richard and Liam to come with me. It took us a while to organise, but with my complaining that I was tired after marshalling the LDWA Winter Poppyline on the Saturday (more on which later) we were ready to go.

    Standing in the same spot as my photo from the last section of the walk, we started at Lyng Mill. The fun fact for this mill is that there is some support for the theory that it was where blotting paper was first created, a mistake caused by messing up production of normal paper. Another great Norfolk achievement.

    I was still quite sleepy when I took this photo, but Richard noted that the village sign notes some other spellings of the village’s name. The village sign was placed here in 2010 and shows the church, the now disappeared medieval abbey, the mill, a blacksmith and Humphry Repton who designed the gardens at Lyng Rectory. Lyng might now feel like quite a sleepy village, but it was once an important settlement with its two religious buildings.

    An old heritage map of the village. Some far-sighted council likely put this up 20 years ago and it’ll probably stay here until it falls down. We walked through the courtyard of the Fox at Lyng to get through to the church, reminding ourselves that next time we do this then we’ll get a Sunday lunch at a pub en route.

    St. Margaret’s Church in Lyng, which deserves a longer visit, as this was a building with some considerable character.

    The west tower dates to the thirteenth century, as does the bulk of the nave. The font is also from this period, another remarkable survival.

    This is rather odd (the church I mean, not Richard standing in the foreground), as the chancel is off-centre compared to the rest of the building. It transpires that the chancel was rebuilt in the 1860s on the site of the original floorplan, which suggests to me one of two things. Either there was an north aisle which has been brought under one larger roof later on, or the church was widened in the late medieval period and they never got to widening the chancel as well. I suspect it’s the latter, there’s not much space on that north aisle.

    The Victorian plan for the new church.

    I think this was appropriate to the day’s quest, a map of the local area on the wall of the church, with the river’s route being clearly noticeable.

    This is a legacy of when some pews were available for free usage, as opposed to those who got a seat up-front but had to pay pew rental for that benefit.

    A blocked up door, which I initially couldn’t work out, but I think it was the former entrance to the two-storied fifteenth century porch.

    There are numerous more stories to tell about this church, I’ll return…..

    Given the walk, I felt the need to take a photo of this sign.

    Our rule was to try and catch sight of the Wensum whenever we could. Walking through Lyng, this isn’t it, these are the lakes formed from the former quarry that was located here. However, the Wensum winds it way behind here, so we went to investigate.

    We walked by the lakes, located on Quarry Lane, in the hope of seeing the river at the rear of the lakes. Liam took the lead here in case there were any dangerous animals in the undergrowth.

    To cut a long story short, it’s not really quite possible to see the river, but we could see the route that it was taking in the distance. So we walked back to the road, but pleased that we had investigated.

    Back on the main road we walked through the metropolis of Fustyweed, which seemed to consist of four houses, of which one was a treehouse. This small hamlet has name origins which are uncertain, although there’s a guess at trying to explain the situation at http://www.lyngonline.org.uk/whats-in-a-name.html.

    This is the bridge on Elsing Lane, with Richard and Liam standing in front of the river as it heads towards Norwich.

    And there’s the landscape from the other side of the road, looking towards the source of the river.

    A photo from the same location, without the bridge’s ironwork in the way.

    The village’s mill is visible.

    As we walked northwards, a rather fancy wall appeared, which I imagine is the country estate wall of Bylaugh Park.

    One of the lodges at the entrance to the road leading to Bylaugh Park.

    This will definitely need further investigation, St. Mary’s Church at Bylaugh. This is kept permanently locked, but there’s keyholder information and we’re planning to get in touch to visit this church in the future. Richard, who is the most social, is going to get in touch with the church as there are some interesting things to see inside it seems.

    The tower is late Saxon or early Norman, the rest is a much later rebuild from when a grander building was needed for the hall. It’s positive that this church survives as there’s no real congregation here, the hall isn’t lived in and there are very few residential properties nearby.

    Richard and Liam standing in the graveyard, and this is really quite a pleasant place to be buried (as far as these things go….) with its view over the River Wensum.

    All very tranquil and there’s a newer section to this graveyard a little nearer to the road. The Wensum is quite wide at this point, it’s showing few signs of narrowing at the moment.

    The pleasant path from the church back to the road.

    The second lodge of the hall. The road here goes to the north of the Wensum and we could see the river’s route, but couldn’t get near to it. The hall is worthy of more investigation and I wonder whether it might be possible to visit, although it’s currently in use as a training centre. The hall had been completed in 1852 and was designed by the architects Charles Barry, Jr. and Robert Richardson Banks. It was one of the most substantial residential buildings in Norfolk and one of the first to be constructed with a steel girder frame. The building was damaged during the Second World War after it was used by the military, and there were attempts to turn it into a nursing home following the end of the conflict. The core of the building was flogged off in 1950 at an auction, including the roof and the interiors.

    I noted this destruction to Richard and Liam as I had found that information on-line. So imagine my surprise when three minutes later we walked near to the entrance to Bylaugh Hall and it looks very complete with not much evidence of destruction. It transpires that it was only around twenty years ago that it was decided to save the building, and a grand reconstruction has taken place at what was previously a wreck. There’s more about this work at https://thecountryseat.org.uk/2013/02/22/bylaugh-hall-the-hidden-history-to-a-remarkable-restoration-opportunity/.

    There is some evidence that President Eisenhower came to the building during the Second World War and apparently Winston Churchill visited on a few occasions. It’s hard to imagine that a former President of the United States has been driven down this quiet back road, but I rather hope that the story is true.

    The walk then goes to the Swanton Morley Waterfalls. You can see the look of excitement in the faces of Richard and Liam, I think they felt quite humbled to be near such an important site. This is very much Richard’s patch of Norfolk (I mean Dereham, rather than this particular stretch of mud), although he hadn’t been aware of this water feature despite driving by it on numerous occasions.

    I’m surprised that there isn’t a visitor centre by this major attraction, although I accept that it’s not quite Niagara Falls. This isn’t the River Wensum, it’s a channel that was created from it for the purposes of constructing a mill. I think that’s one thing that I’ve learned from this whole process, there were a lot of mills along stretches of the river, an essential early power source. We saw a few fishermen in the area, and although this isn’t a hobby that is in the slightest bit of interest to me, I can imagine it’s a quiet and peaceful location if they can ignore the sound of the thundering waterfall.

    The river reappears at Swanton Morley, including this rather lovely bridge, but more about that in the next post.

    And here are Richard and Liam on the bridge, celebrating the completion of our short walk.

    Despite Richard being told clearly not to look at the next part of the river walk, which we’ll tackle in a few weeks, he ignored that and excitedly ran towards it pointing. I disregarded his exuberance and obsession with questioning authority. I mentioned that Nathan would have been appalled at this continued breach of the rules that we had established, but Richard didn’t seem concerned at his lack of river walking etiquette. Anyway, I digress….

    And that’s that, not the longest of walks, just 7.3 kilometres, but it was really rather lovely to get nearer to the source of the River Wensum……. And just as we finished the walk, I had woken up after my lack of sleep from the previous evening, which perhaps wasn’t ideal timing.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (3rd Visit)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Oxford Street – Hard Rock Cafe (3rd Visit)

    This visit to the Hard Rock restaurant at Marble Arch is from a couple of weeks ago, another funded by a promotion from The Fork.

    Like another customer, I tried to be seated away from the stage, but they’re not having any of that. This has happened before and I think the staff are privately slightly annoyed that the restaurant is paying for entertainment, this is a music venue and that customers are trying to sit away from it. Fortunately, the music wasn’t too loud and seemed to my highly untrained ear to be suitably professional.

    I was aware of the restaurant’s limited beer choice before going, but this was a tolerable option. It’s expensive at £5.50 and although I wasn’t paying, that really is at the high end of the scale. There are other options, such as a pint of Heineken which costs £5.95 and a Birra Moretti which costs £6.75. This isn’t a venue that will much care what CAMRA think, but they charge significantly more proportionally for a half than for a pint.

    The BBQ chicken with fries, coleslaw and ranch style beans. This is a photo of the second meal, as the chicken they brought over on their first attempt was cold in the middle. I think they’re brought in pre-cooked as the chicken was entirely cooked, it was just cold rather than raw. I always have a moment of wondering whether the meal is tolerable to avoid having to waste it and complain, but it was fridge cold in the middle and that was far from ideal.

    The staff member was apologetic and took it away immediately, and the wait for a new meal wasn’t too long. The chicken was tender and moist, with the half a chicken portion being entirely sufficient. The chips were the usual fluffy on the interior and firm on the exterior arrangement, with the coleslaw being of a good quality but rather sparsely portioned. For those paying full price, the meal would be £16.75, which isn’t cheap, but isn’t entirely unreasonable given the location and prestige of the restaurant. Although hopefully usually they’ll cook it properly.

    The atmosphere in the restaurant was comfortable and the staff were attentive and polite, so the experience was once again positive. The number of offers here seem to be reducing, so I imagine that they’ll be gone nearly entirely in the next few weeks as the number of customers starts to return to normal. Anyway, I’d merrily recommend the restaurant, but would still recommend going on a voucher offer…..

  • Malbork – Malbork Castle (Amber Museum)

    Inside the formidable Malbork Castle is the amber museum which for reasons known only to them is entirely missed off the audio guide they gave to me, and I only found it as I guessed it should be on the tour. The signage on site is pretty poor for this, I think they’re relying on their audio guide.

    It’s quite a sizeable museum and would in normal circumstances be worth a visit in its own right, even if it wasn’t located within the castle. It opened in 1965, just four years after the castle reopened after repairs were made following the serious damage caused during the Second World War.

    Amber is fossilised tree resin which I think is impressive when it contains prehistoric creatures, such as the one above. Amber is also commonly used in jewellery, although that’s of little interest to me. It has though been traded in this part of Poland for centuries and it has apparently been traded for thousands of years. I think it’s possible to walk along the beach and often find some, but on my coastal walk last week it was snowing which made that endeavour rather more complex.

    Some of the examples of amber jewellery.

    A recreation of an amber worker’s set-up.

    There are some inter-active elements in the museum and the whole arrangement felt modern.

    I can’t see that I was overly excited by amber which has been turned into other things, but this was quite impressive. It’s some sort of solitaire game on the left dating from the eighteenth century and on the right are chess pieces dating from the first part of the eighteenth century.

    And my favourite item in the museum was the guild book of the Slupsk (a Polish town a little to the west of Gdansk) amber guild from 1569 until 1804.

    Anyway, it was an interesting distraction from the rest of the castle. I mentioned at the beginning of this post that the audio guide didn’t include this section at all. That’s not entirely true, just as I was leaving the exhibition it decided to tell me that I had reached the beginning of the amber museum. I turned the damn thing off at that point.

  • Gdansk – New Swing Bridge over River Motława

    Gdansk – New Swing Bridge over River Motława

    This new swing bridge for pedestrians was constructed as part of the development of Granary Island and it opened in 2020.

    Here it is in action to let the pirate ship through.

    I think it’s rather nicely designed, it’s quite graceful to watch it spinning around. It was constructed by Immobel (Belgium) and Multibud (Poland) and cost around £1.5 million. This view has certainly changed since I first came to Gdansk a few years ago, with Granary Island still showing the damage from the Second World War, but now it’s a modern leisure and residential complex.

    I took this photo in 2016 and Granary Island is on the left and the swing bridge would be right at the foreground of this image.

    And here it is at night. All rather lovely.

  • Gdansk – Memorial to Murdered Scouts During the Second World War

    Gdansk – Memorial to Murdered Scouts During the Second World War

    I don’t have much to add about this memorial in Gdansk, other than I think it’s a really appealing design to make its appearance look like a tree stump. It’s here to commemorate the lives of those scouts and their leaders who were killed during the Second World War, many of whom were murdered as the organised ranks were considered a threat to the new German regime.

    One of those murdered was Alfa Liczmański who was the co-organiser of the scouting movement in the city, which in 1939 had 2,000 members. He was arrested soon after the Free City of Danzig was seized and was imprisoned locally before being taken to the concentration camp in Stutthof, located around 35 miles from the city. He was executed by the Germans on 20 March 1940, although his body was exhumed after the war and his remains moved to Cmentarz Srebrzysko.

    The memorial was unveiled in 2003 and there’s more information about the movement at https://gdanska.zhp.pl/komisja-historyczna-choragwi-gdanskiej/.

  • Gdansk – 210 Bus to Airport from City Centre

    Gdansk – 210 Bus to Airport from City Centre

    Many cities around the world treat passengers coming in on airlines as this money making opportunity from the moment they get off the aircraft, with dodgy taxi arrangements and expensive public transport from the airport. Glorious Gdansk, as ever, does none of that. The 210 bus goes from the airport to the city centre (and of course back again) and costs 3.8zł, or about 70p, for the journey. The 110 bus also goes into the city, but stops at Galeria Bałtycka (or Gdańsk Wrzeszcz to be precise, but I tend to remember things by shopping centres and their food courts) which then requires a walk/tram/bus/train into the Old Town of Gdansk.

    The bus back to the airport goes from opposite the central railway station, or at this spot near to Forum Gdańsk. There’s not normally more of a 15 minute wait between buses and the times are clearly displayed. There’s a 24-hour service, although the night time version of the 110 and 210 buses is the N3 service.

    Spacious inside and it’s easiest just to buy tickets from the machine by the bus stop, which are available in English and Polish to avoid any purchasing mistakes. They accept card and cash. But it is essential to validate the ticket on boarding, not that I’ve ever been asked to show my ticket in Gdansk.

    The journey takes 45 minutes to get from the centre of Gdansk to the airport.

    Taken at roughly the same place at the airport, it was a little colder when I arrived into Gdansk a couple of weeks ago…..

    And here we are, back at the delights of Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport.

  • Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport – Executive Lounge

    Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport – Executive Lounge

    I’m not entirely sure of the official name here, but I think it’s just ‘Executive Lounge’, so we’ll go with that. It’s the only lounge in Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport, so it’s not a confusing arrangement. It’s only around one minute walk from security and it’s near to most of the gates, with the signage being reasonably clear.

    There was only one staff member visible as it was quiet, and she was welcoming the occasional entrant in a friendly manner, as well as filling up the food and drink supplies.

    As can be seen, not a packed lounge in terms of the number of customers. There were a few power points dotted around, although not really enough, and the lounge uses the airport wi-fi which isn’t of a very high standard. Not an ideal arrangement in either case.

    The view back down onto the concourse, with the queue to for check-in for my flight still visible to me. I was pleased not to be at the back of that queue.

    The drinks selection. There were signs on the fridge saying that staff had to serve the food and drink, but the staff member told me that I could just get whatever I wanted myself. Covid regulations seem to be tailing off quite quickly at the moment and since it was quiet it made more sense for the customers to help themselves.

    Some of the food selection, which is mostly snack based.

    Always a positive sign I think to see a local beer, Jasne from Brovarnia Gdansk. It was an unexceptional lager, but it’s local and hard to find anywhere else, so an effort has been made and so I approve.

    There wasn’t much else in the way of the food, but this salami and salad roll was quite tasty.

    I gained entry into the lounge via my credit card which gives me two free lounge accesses per year, but otherwise it would be £20 to get in. I’m not sure that there’s much value there, unless someone wanted to drink a lot of alcohol quite quickly I suppose. However, I liked the lounge and it was peaceful and quiet. There could perhaps be more power points and the lounge really needs its own wi-fi that works properly, but the arrangement seemed organised and I was pleased to have visited.

  • Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    Wizz Air (Gdansk to Luton Airport)

    And it was time to come back to the UK, departing from Lech Wałęsa airport in Gdansk. As an aside, it must feel odd for Lech Wałęsa when he uses this airport to know that the entire place is named after him. I’m always slightly saddened to leave Poland, but I’ll be back in a few weeks and so can look forwards to that.

    Usually I’d just download my boarding pass on my phone and go straight through security, but Wizz Air don’t have any on-line processes in place to check the documents of travellers, so everyone is directed to the check-in desks first. It’s positive that they’re checking the UK’s Locator Form, although to be fair they’re legally obliged to, but a shame they don’t have a set-up similar to that BA have with VeriFLY.

    I tried to get through a little earlier, but the friendly member of staff at check-in said they would only open the boarding desk for my flight two hours before the flight departed. She also helpfully mentioned that my mask wouldn’t be accepted by Wizz Air on any of their flights, although I did silently think it had been accepted on the Wizz Air flight out to Gdansk. But, I wasn’t sure on their policy and had a spare mask, so that was all fine. I was told to check the boarding screens around 150 minutes before the flight, which transpired to be useful advice, as that’s when the check-in desk for my flight opened. I was fortunate to be nearly at the front of the queue, as it snaked back to the entrance to the terminal within a few minutes. The member of check-in staff quickly checked that I had a passenger locator form confirmation and then my boarding pass was printed, which is a free service when customers can’t check-in on-line.

    Safely through security (where I was praised by the security staff for my efficiency, which I lapped up willingly) and into the lounge (more on which in another post) it was time to trek to the corner of the airport and Gate 1, located in the non-Schengen zone. There was a queue, but there’s always a queue with Wizz Air…..

    This process is the same with Wizz Air and Ryanair, they call passengers forwards to wait before the aircraft is ready for boarding. Which means a wait on the steps down to the tarmac, which is fine for me leaning against a wall reading a book on my phone, but less so for those who don’t feel quite as comfortable standing on steps for twenty minutes.

    And it started to rain quite heavily, but it was only a short walk to the aircraft. Wizz Air rarely use airbridges, which has the advantage of meaning that I can take photos of the aircraft.

    The aircraft was registration HA-LXS, an Airbus A321, which has been in the Wizz Air fleet since June 2017.

    I boarded via the back of the aircraft and the flight was clearly busy, and I think just about full.

    I had the middle seat, which is the first time I’ve had this in years, although the other passengers on each side were ideally behave which makes things easier. The leg room on Wizz Air really isn’t ideal, but the flight was only for two hours and so is bearable. The crew were friendly and helpful, although I couldn’t work out where they were from as their ability so speak so many different languages is really quite impressive. The pilot announcements were hard to hear, but we landed on time although the wind made the landing quite bumpy. Well, very bumpy actually, but it added to the excitement, although the babies on board decided at this moment that they really didn’t like what was happening.

    It’s also fair to add here that this flight cost me £7.50, so it’s hard to fault Wizz Air for anything given that. The service ran as expected, the aircraft was clean, the flight was on time and everything was as comfortable as could be expected. The arriving into Luton Airport on time was fortunate as my friend Liam was there to pick me up, so he didn’t have to wait for endless amounts of time in an industrial park in Luton. Anyway, based on this flight I’d happily fly with Wizz Air again, they fly to a wide number of destinations that I want to visit and although I can’t claim the flight was luxurious, it’d be ridiculous to complain at the price that they charged.