We left the motorhome area in Lidzbark Warminski and drove just over an hour to Frombork. 

The major sight here is the fortified Frombork Cathedral dating back to the 13th century. Nicolas Copernicus lived and worked here from 1510 to 1543. He worked for his uncle who was a bishop handling the finances of the cathedral and also in medicine. He had studied many subjects at 4 universities in Europe.

Unfortunately the Copernicus museum was closed but we did find several artifacts related to him and many other things to see. 

We bought tickets for the observatory tower and the cathedral organ concert. 

First we went up the observatory tower which is next to the Copernicus Tower where he sometimes lived and worked. He later had another residence where he did his observations outside on his patio. However I’m sure he used the Observatory Tower sometimes as it’s the tallest – and because it’s called the observatory tower. 

We found some Copernicus related items. 

There  is a huge moon sculpture and information on the first astronauts to visit the moon.

On the next floor is a very large Foucault Pendulum that swings around 360 degrees in 24 hours showing the effect of the earth’s rotation. 

We went to the top of the tower. 

The views from the top allowed us to see the enclosed Vistula Lagoon which has the border with Russia running through the middle of it. 

We went back inside finding some funny cartoon pictures related to Copernicus. 

We then came down the tower as we had to get to the 1pm organ concert in the cathedral. We enjoyed some downtime looking at the elaborate inside of the cathedral.   The organ was identical to the one at Lidzbark Warminski with moving parts. 

The organ pieces were mostly classical by German composers – probably to keep the mostly German audience happy. There are large numbers here in bus parties. 

The concert came to an end and we had a chance to look around the cathedral. 

I found the grave of Copernicus which was unexpected. 

It had been rediscovered after several attempts to find him by reading old testimonies and then using scans of the floor in 2005. It was confirmed to be him by dna testing between a tooth from the skeleton and a piece of hair from a book owned by Copernicus from a museum in 2008. Then he was reburied with much pomp and circumstance with a large tombstone in 2010. His skeleton is shown below.

I don’t imagine he would have been very popular in the religious community with his outlandish views that the earth and other planets went around the sun. He was buried with few honors in a grave out of the way. 

The rest of the cathedral was very decorative.

We then went to check out the Copernicus tower but couldn’t get in.

After seeing all we could we went down towards the Harbour. We found a nice cafe on the way and had coffee and cake for lunch outside the old water tower and opposite a huge Copernicus.

We then went down towards the Harbour where we saw Russia on the northern part of the lake.

Glenn had to put his feet in the Baltic Sea for the first time – there are 2 openings from the lagoon into the sea. 

We went back past the square commemorating Operation 1001 where scouts helped rebuild Frombork. 

We had a chat with Copernicus.

There were also some graves from WWII – probably found recently.

We then walked the short distance back to the vans and then drove on to a free parking spot beside a park outside Elblag. 

Lisa, Glenn and I took a short walk up a nearby hill  in the sunshine to get views of Elblag. The church windows were reflecting the sun, looking like a Gaudi church. 

We got back to the vans for beer in the park, but it soon turned cold. Sean’s chilli con carne warmed us up. A few cars came into the carpark running their engines for a long time – probably teenagers. 

Later they went away and we had a quiet night.