That’s the end of my time in Grudziądz, having now left for a trip to Gdansk, which is a little to the north of the city. It’s a rather understated and delightful place, although I didn’t see much evidence of tourists in the city during my three days there.

It’s relatively accessible from Bydogoscz and Gdansk, although probably not for a day trip. There seem to be an increasing number of restaurants catering for different tastes, with the prices being reasonable given the off the beaten track location of the city. Hotel provision seems sufficient, with the prices again being reasonable.

The level of English spoken is one of the lowest I’ve experienced in Poland, which isn’t a complaint, just an observation of how few tourists they might be getting. As is usual, the younger generation speak much better English, and the signage at the museums was usually available in English.

There’s been a large amount of European Union investment in the city, which has helped to repair some of the neglected historic monuments. Unfortunately, the railway station seems to have missed either regional or EU funding, and is need of some considerable investment.

But as a location to visit in Poland, there’s plenty of history, and the bridge which covers the Vistula River makes for a particular impressive river scene. The city’s former fortifications are also partly in place, with some offering extensive views of the surrounding area.

On that note, I’m now off to Gdansk for a return visit….

Grudziądz Index:

Railway Station

Ibis Styles

Rynek

Grudziadz Museum

Klimek Tower

Solidarity Memorial

American Burger

Level Restaurant

Wall Art

Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary

St. Francis Xavier Church

Banks of the River Vistula

Bronislaw Malinowski Bridge

The whole city of Grudziądz is really rather pleasant, but if there’s one part that needs investment, it’s the railway station. Google has numerous negative reviews of the railway station, mainly about the issue of homelessness in the building. That might perhaps be true, but the state of the building itself is also clearly an issue, and it needs replacing or modernising.

The building’s exterior.

The interior is just as delightful.

This is the main concourse. It’s not exactly London Waterloo.

This feels like it was constructed in a Soviet style in about the 1960s, and I’m not sure that it has received much investment since. There’s a large supermarket in the building, and two small shops, but not much else.

The lady at the ticket desk was helpful, although her trying to communicate that the next train wasn’t for two hours did take a longer than was ideal given the language barrier.

The station didn’t have any screens indicating the next train, and the clock was perhaps in need of some attention…..

The station platforms, which are better maintained.

I did find the entire ticket purchasing, and working out when the train left and where to connect, rather confusing. The information at the railway station seemed to differ from what there was on-line. However, fortunately there was a young English speaking conductor on the first train and he was able to explain everything, and show me to my train when I connected.

The Ibis Styles in Grudziądz, a modern looking building, which is part of the Accor chain. It’s about a ten-minute walk for the railway station and around a five-minute walk from the city centre.

Ibis Styles certainly go for some interesting themes in their hotels. My Ibis Styles in Bremen was themed around space, this hotel seemed to themed around medieval knights.

The theming continued in the room, although I couldn’t help but feel that they gave it an impression of being a children’s room.

Breakfast in the morning exceeded my expectations in terms of the choice and quality of the food and drink. I particularly liked the tubs of Greek salad and the rolls, which were unusually large. The hotel did though seem to have a problem with flies in the breakfast area….

However, the service in the hotel was always friendly, the prices low (a night including breakfast was around £28) and there were no noise issues, either internally or externally.

There’s an attractive market square in Grudziądz and I particularly liked the water feature which made the area cooler, as it was otherwise too hot….

It seemed sensible just to quickly test the quality of the beer served in one of the stalls around the market place…… I was initially confused to discover that it wasn’t table service, but fortunately I noticed someone else ordering so my British confusion wasn’t observed by anyone.

Tyskie, it’s a little generic, but it sufficed my needs. There was a premium cost for beer at the beating heart of Grudziądz, so this cost around £1.10.

Before I visited this museum I was just a little confused about the entire set-up, as it seemed to comprise of several smaller museums. That did prove to be the case, although fortunately the staff were very good at transporting me from place to place. Especially since they spoke very little English and my Polish is primarily limited to ordering beer.

My thoughts on this arrangement are that it took eight staff to shuttle me around the museum and its out-buildings, and I appeared to be the only visitor in the entire museum. I’m not sure how that works out to be cost effective for the museum, but without that assistance it would have been nearly impossible to find my way away as the signage was limited internally.

However, the staff were all friendly and the museum seemed to be curated in a professional manner. Given the entrance price, which was 9zl (about £1.80), the size and layout did exceed my initial expectations.

The first room I went into was an exhibition of postcards from the late-nineteenth century to the post-war period. It was a reminder that this was once a German city (it was then known as Graudenz), with the bulk of the postcards coming from this period. It seems to have been quite a tourist destination, and I’m not sure that’s true to the same degree today.

I took a photo of this postcard as I took a photo from the same place yesterday. Not much has changed of this lookout point, but much else in the area certainly has.

The top postcard shows that there was an Adolf Hitler Street in the city, as in so many other German and occupied cities.

An advertisement postcard for one of the city’s hotels.

Upstairs in the main building is the modern art section. The floor seemed a little incongruous with the rest of the displays, and to be honest, I didn’t understand what the art was supposed to represent. Normally I’d walk through the gallery quite quickly, but the security guard was busy turning lights on as I walked into every room and it seemed rude to leave the room before the lights had actually gone on.

I was then shown across the road to another part of the museum, in what I think were former warehouses. There was an interesting reconstruction of what the city used to look like, and I’m still surprised at the lack of development on the foreshore.

I liked these, they’re pilgrim badges from the medieval period, and there was a lot of information about the pilgrimages which took place. I’d heard that the churches, and others, sold pilgrims a lot of religious tat at times, but I can’t remember seeing such a large collection in a museum. This was my favourite part of the museum, really nicely put together and there was a lot of back story as well.

Upstairs in the archaeology section of the museum, there were some interesting pieces from quite a broad time period.

One of the displays from the more modern period of the city’s history. I was presented with the history in a backwards manner, from modern history right back to the archaeology section. There was also very little on the Second World War, which is understandable, but rare for Polish museums to omit.

There was a display on Polish athletes, primarily focused on Bronisław Malinowski, the man who died in a car accident on the bridge which now bears his name. This was a temporary exhibition, as was one on romantic postcards, which to be honest, didn’t really pique my interest.

The warehouses that the museum is now located in, or at least, the outbuildings of the museum. I do wonder whether they really need the amount of space that they have, the buildings seem cavernous and ideally I’d have liked more information to have been provided about them.

I walked up this small hill to the entrance. It transpired it wasn’t the entrance.

This was the entrance….. My confusion had a fortunate side effect, the large school party at the site had left by the time I had found my way in, so I had the tower to myself.

I don’t like heights, so this at first sight didn’t seem my most sensible choice of the day. However, the stairs were wide, so unless I peered over the edge, I wouldn’t struggle with heights. I peered over the edge (because I’m like that) and immediately didn’t like it.

On and on….

There are numerous pictures and photos of how the tower used to look to gaze at whilst struggling up the steps.

The final steps.

The views made the climb worth it!

At the base of the tower there are some remains of the castle which once stood here. There were lots of useful information boards which added context to the site, and they were all in English.

These are the old drains.

View from the base of the tower.

This is the southern wing of the former castle, partly restructured when some of the building fell down into the Vistula River in the fourteenth centuries (great civil engineers they had….)

This was a really nicely laid out site, especially since it’s free of charge.

Located on ul. Józefa Wybickiego, in front of a prison, is a memorial to the Solidarity movement. I haven’t been able to ascertain why it’s placed where it is, although the town did have a role in the 1970s in the creation of what was to become Solidarity in the 1980s.

This means August 1989, which is when Solidarity took over part of Government, so I assume that the two are linked.

A memorial to Anna Walentynowicz, one of the founders of Solidarity who was imprisoned for a period in the prison behind (which is possibly why the main memorial is here). She died in 2010 and her dismissal from the Lenin Shipyard was one of the causes of the mass strikes which hit Poland in 1980.

Underneath is a memorial to Edmund Zadrożyński, a local trade union activist who stood up the authorities when it was highly dangerous to do so. He spent some of his final years in prison and died in Grudziądz on 22 November 1982.

An information board, with a few of the faces covered over with dirt. Politics is a dirty business….

OK – it doesn’t look much from the outside, but it’s the best rated burger restaurant in Grudziądz and so it deserves a visit.

The menu is simple, I like that, complexity rarely works well.

There’s a nod to the US diner theme, and lots of American flags. It’s basic, but it looks fine and it’s clean.

There was a selection of beers, but Lech is fine with burgers. So that’s my piwo of choice 🙂

The service was really friendly and although in Polish, I felt welcome. I can see why the restaurant is well reviewed, it feels like a family-run operation.

The food…. The burger bun was crispy, which gave needed texture to the meal. The burger itself was meaty, moist and not greasy, and it had a pleasant flavour. The lettuce added crunch and the chips were firm on the exterior and fluffy on the interior.

Overall, the quality was towards the higher end of the scale. It was at the appropriate temperature, neatly presented and had a pleasant taste.

The burger, chips and beer cost around £4, which I think represents very reasonable value for money. Recommended 🙂

I cheated a little with my restaurant choice today, as this is the hotel’s dining option. However, it looked contemporary in its design and the menu was interesting.

Actually, one of the main reasons I came here was my free Accor drink. White wine, I have no idea what type…

Beautifully presented, although a little bit random perhaps. There are warm shrimps, mango, orange, avocado, peanuts and coriander. There’s meant to be a Thai sauce, but it just tastes of orange to me.

However, despite the textural challenge that the peanuts presented, the ingredients actually worked well together.

Not normally a dessert person, but I was intrigued that they had Eton Mess. They had got a little excited with the fruit, but the meringue sections were light.

All good meals need a beer. Unfortunately they took the bottle away, but this is from the local Olbracht Brewery. It’s a dark gingerbread beer, called Gourmet Foch.

Total price, excluding the wine, was around £8. Expensive for Polish standards, but the environment is pleasant and the service is efficient.

I have no idea who this is, but it’s an impressive size….

This made me want a beer….