I woke up from a good sleep. We were overnight in a central carpark at Bydgoszcz – it had been very quiet overnight. 

It is now getting colder – around 11 degrees in the morning so I put the heater on which gives a huge blast of warm air. 

We had a shower in the van which is small of course but always nice and cosy. We then left for our morning in Bydgoszcz. 

We started with breakfast at Strefa cafe that is on the riverside and serves Turkish dishes. I had a Turkish eggs – poached eggs with labna and chilli which was absolutely delicious. Glenn had a Polish breakfast with Polish smoked sausage, cottage cheese, whipped butter, sliced tomatoes and scrambled eggs with bread – also good. 

We then were ready for our soap making event in the Soap and Dirt museum across the road. 

We were a bit early so went to check out the church from the 1400s close by. It was used until the 1800s when it had fallen into disrepair. The German and Russian armies were using it as an armory in the 1830s. It was then restored in the 1920s and after WW2 to what it is now. 

It has very interesting purple and dark blue colours with lots of decoration. 

Then it was off to our soap course in the museum. We were part of a Polish class but as it was very quiet we got assistance. We had to select colour and essence to add to the cup where hot glycerine was mixed in. We then decorated our soap mould and poured it in. That was it! We get to take it home. 

We then got audio guides to check out the museum.

It started from Ancient Greek hygiene where Greeks were very much into exercising and keeping clean.

The Romans invented latrines and had lots of plumbing. I caught Glenn at the latrines with his friend. 

Of course the Romans were very clean and built bathhouses everywhere.

We then went through cleanliness behaviour throughout the ages in believing that washing weakened you and you had a bath 2 times in your lifetime – at baptism and then at marriage. Also bathhouses became places similar to bordellos and places of ill repute – so many people avoided them.

Plague and disease were rife – the plague doctor with his mask was in the corner.  

Due to this everyone carried around pomades to cover the smell. 

Lice were a problem so you got rid of your hair and wore a wig.

However as the link between health and hygiene became understood people got more interested in bathing – and all sorts of baths were invented.

But you needed something to get rid of the dirt – so soap was needed too.

We then got to the crux of the exhibition and why it’s here. There were 2 major soap factories in Bydgoszcz and lots of their wares were on display. Persil became a big brand name in the 1920s – and you used it for everything! 

Toilet roll was in short supply during communist times. The ration calculated by the government was 2 metres of roll per person per year. Of course everyone had to resort to newspaper!

We came to the end of the exhibition and collected our soaps – very pretty.

We had a final wander around the town seeing more interesting sights. There were names of high profile residents in plaques on the pavement.

We saw archeologists on a building site and had found very old looking stone foundations. They didn’t seem to be as careful as Time Team though!

We continued and found another tightrope walker after yesterday’s tightrope rower. There were many things of interest.

Bydgoszcz had been a working river with many granaries beside it. 

We came back past the old cathedral and saw a memorial to people who were killed during the war. There were also some very old stones and painted areas that were not covered by the render.

Then we headed back to Gus and got going to our next destination of Poznan. 

We checked into the Malta campsite which is part of a hotel complex. It’s next to the Malta lake – so called after the Knights of Malta having lived here. There was a bit of kayaking training going on. It all looks very official with a big stadium.

It was threatening rain so we walked round the other side of the campsite seeing the tracks for the little train that is very close to the campsite. We were soon back in the van. We then had dinner including apple crumble made from the apples we collected at Slovinski National Park. There was a rock concert going on in the nearby stadium but that didn’t bother us. Another great day!