Thursday, September 18 - Travel day, Toruń

Thursday, September 18 - Travel day, Toruń

This was primarily a travel day to get from Gdansk back to Wroclaw where we will fly home tomorrow. Except . . .

About halfway we stopped in the city of Toruń, an old medieval town located at a ford on the Vistula river. Archeological finds date back as far as 1000 BC but the beginnings of Toruń as a city were in 1231 when the Teutonic Knights built a fortress. 

Toruń is famous (they tell me) for its gingerbread. From Wikipedia: 

The very first mention of Toruń gingerbread comes from 1380 and speaks of a local baker called Niclos Czana. The product quickly gained fame across Poland and abroad. Toruń and the city of Nuremburg, itself famous for special gingerbread, were eager to protect the secrets of their recipes from each other. Finally in 1556, they formed an agreement by which each city could bake the specialties of the other.

The famous City Hall was built in the 1390s then expanded in the 1600s to the form we see today.

Note the statue of Nicholas Copernicus, the town's favorite son.


Bridge Gate, part of the original city fortress walls, facing the Vistula River. The gate was originally named the Ferry Gate, then (re)named when a bridge was built in 1497-1500.


Copernicus's House, now a museum. Owned by his family for several generations. Copernicus formulated a model of the universe that placed the Sun rather than Earth at its center. He was a mathematician, astronomer, physician, classics scholar, translator, governor, diplomat, and economist (in 1519 he formulated an economic principle that later came to be called Gresham's law - Bad money drives out good money).

Inside the Copernicus museum. Note the tile stove for heating the bedroom. Most often these stoves are smooth, but this one has shaped ceramic divots to give it extra surface area for better radiant heating. 


Stock exchange. Originally built in 1311, then renovated in 1891 to the form we see today. Now has a restaurant in its ground floor.


Remember the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin who rid the town of rats, then children after the town refused to pay him? This fountain commemorates the happier Fiddler and Frogs story, which is almost exactly the same, except for getting rid of the children part. You can rub a frog for good luck.

When the parking meter ran out we got back in the van and drove on to Wroclaw for our final night in Poland. 

Said Goodbye to Jarek for a wonderful trip. Here is his website if you ever find yourself traveling to Poland: https://more4utours.com.pl/

 

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