We left the free spot beside the park in Elblag and drove the short distance to the museum of the Elblag Canal.

As soon as we arrived we met our new friends Amanda and Graham Munro from the Wolfs Lair. We had a quick chat as they had seen the canal in action and were heading off.

The reason the canal is so interesting is that, instead of having many locks on some large inclines, it uses 2 large cages running on rails creating a funicular for boats – one going up and one going down. 

It was built in the 19th century to create a reliable commercial trade route connecting the inland lakes of East Prussia (the Oberland region) to the Baltic Sea via the port of Elbląg

We timed it well to see it in action. 

Then Lisa, Glenn and I went into the museum to find out more. We found that the architect    Georg Jacob Steenke had travelled the world to see possible solutions to the 100 metre rise in 10 km that the canal had to traverse. 

He found the solution in the Morris canal in Pennsylvania and then at Blackhill on Monkland canal in Scotland. 

After seeing all that we drove on to Malbork but initially on the most horrendous old cobbled road that shook everything up including breaking a clip off a roof vent.

It’s very pretty to look at – but very uncomfortable to drive on!

We arrived in Malbork and parked up in the campsite ‘Over the Pond’ from Malbork Castle. We got a great view.

After a quick late lunch – as usual – we headed off to see the castle. 

We bought the ticket to see everything with the audio guide. The whole tour takes 3.5 hours. It detects where you are and plays the relevant information – just like your personal tour guide. It sounded like the same voice – perhaps it’s AI? 

Anyway we started at 3.30pm so we had a lot to fit in before the inside areas closed at 7pm.

Malbork Castle was built by the crusading Teutonic Knights in the 13th century from the German region. They were initially providing medical help to the crusaders and were also religious. They then became fighters.

They later sold the castle to the Polish king King Casimirus in 1457 after they had many defeats including the huge 1410 siege and battle of Grunwald. 

The castle was badly damaged in WWII but has now been restored. We did see restorers still working on it. 

We saw the following:

High Castle where the monks lived. 

The chapel – the oldest remaining part in the Castle .

The monks had a tower with a long corridor where they would go to and burn the corridor if they were attacked. 

Pottery – recreated after much investigation and reconstruction of the old shards found.

Armory

Amber museum – this museum is very renowned in Poland. There were some very old – and some very contemporary pieces. The amber gift shop had some nice pieces too!

The grinding mill

Reconstruction after WWII leaving the castle in a terrible mess. They have done an amazing job!

It was very quiet by the time we finished. I got a last photo of the 4 major Grand Masters of the castle.

We eventually finished at 7pm and were herded out the only open gate by the security. We couldn’t see Sean so went back to the vans. Apparently he had left through the normal exit and waited for us there. So we had missed him – poor Sean.

After we had showers I made dinner of salmon, mashed sweet potato and cauliflower enjoyed by all.
There were a few lights on the castle.

We had no energy after that so we were soon in bed.