We woke up to lovely sunshine so we got ready and headed out for our day on the town of Posnan.

We walked along the side of Lake Malta seeing all sorts of sports and the hair razing experience of a bungee jump from a tall crane.

 

There was some serious rowing practice going on. 

At the end of the lake we saw in the distance the little train that goes along the side of the lake to the zoo.

We arrived in the trendy suburb of Srodka where there is a good mural depicting what the buildings used to look like there. It’s so 3D it doesn’t look like a flat wall. 

We then went across a bridge weighed down  with thousands of locks. 

The city emblem of 2 butting goats can be seen in many places.

One of the city walls forts has survived while most were destroyed in WWII.

We arrived on the island of Ostrow Tumski where Posnan cathedral is. It was built during the 10th century and is the oldest cathedral in Poland. 

We went inside to see its amazing decoration.

The two first kings are buried in a golden chapel behind the altar.

We then continued towards the old square and stopped for an early lunch. We had omelette with chanterelle mushrooms, pickled cucumbers and sour cream – innovative and delicious. 

We then kept going to the old square with its very skinny merchant houses up the middle. They had initially been wooden stalls.  Then  houses were built above them with an arched walkway underneath. Each merchant had only enough width for one window per floor. 

The houses around are very decorative- many restored after WW2 – but Posnan wasn’t as badly ruined as other cities. 

We found a plaque on Pawel Strezlecki, a great geological travelled who discovered many tracks and areas in Australia including naming its highest mountain Kościuszko.

We then went to check out the nearby Church of St. Stanislaus – again highly decorated abd with an 1876 organ with over 2000 pipes.

We had a quick look round as we had to go to our St Martin’s croissant making course – or performance. It is one of the top things to do in Posnan so we  had signed up. Volunteers who were keen to help were requested, many were children, and dressed up in aprons and chefs hats. Then it was like a comedy show where each stage of croissant making was shown with different volunteers taking their turn. 

This croissant is only traditionally made and eaten on St Martins day on 11th November. St Martin was supposedly a Roman soldier who shared half his cloak with a beggar. This beggar turned out to be Jesus who gave Martin sainthood while still alive. So the deal with the croissant is to share it.

There was all sorts of jokes giving us information on Poland and Posnan. Posnan people are supposedly the misers of Poland and want everyone to pay for everything.

At one point they had the volunteers cutting the dough with a saber – very risky! At least it wasn’t the children this time.

At the end it was 3pm and time for the town hall clock opposite to strike. Only this time and 1 other time in the day 2 goats come out from the clock and butt heads 12 times. This supposedly symbolises the spirit and character of Poznań.

We then left with a piece of a St Martins croissant and a certificate to say we had qualified as a croissant apprentice. Glenn told the main guy he was off to set up as shop in Australia.

We were now hot and thirsty so needed to find a drink. We walked to the nearby old brewery – now a very trendy shopping mall. The large outer walls of the brewery had been preserved.

We found an outside bar in the now warm sun  and stopped for a beer. 

We then retrace our steps past the market square and cathedral to the little train station at the town end of Malta Lake.

We then had a very pleasant ride on the train to just past our campsite to the new zoo.

We then walked the short distance through the trees back to the van. We had a quiet night with dinner of leftovers from last night then bed – just what we needed.