The week in review..............

This has been an interesting and enjoyable week.

Thursday, we went to Elbląg for a visit to the cardiologist.  It was dark when we finished, so I took some pictures in the Old Town area.

Looking down the street:

And, we stopped at a little kawiarnia for coffee and a piece of cake before driving home.

And, the main street of Malbork on our way back home:

Friday, we went to Gdansk .  We didn’t want to pay to park the car at the railway station, so we took the bus from home to the rail station, the train to Gdansk, a streetcar (called a ‘tram” here) from Old Town to the mall and, then, the train back to Malbork.

First, we went to the Old Town area to see the annual Christmas Fair.  There are a number of booths set up selling candies, Christmas ornaments, food items, etc.  We bought some kielbase made with venison, some rape flower honey, a pair of sheep’s wool, sheepskin mittens for me because Alicja is deathly afraid my hands will get cold and a few other things.  The area is quite decorative but it was fairly quiet. I think there is more activity in the evenings.

Christmas fair:

From Old Town, we took the tram to Galleria Bałtycka - a very large mall.  It is also decorated for the season and it was very busy.  We met Alicja’s son, Marek, there.  We had a lunch of pizza and soup at a pizza restaurant there.  Then, we did a short bit of shopping.  There is a store in the mall that carries “foreign” products.  Foreign to Poland, that is.  I found a bottle of pancake syrup which is simply unavailable in regular grocery stores.  I bought it since it was only about 4 times more than I would have paid for it back in Shawnee, Oklahoma.  Oh well.

Tram:

Mall:

After lunch and that short shopping spree, we had to get back on the train.  Alicja bought tickets for us at a reduced rate.  They were round-trip tickets but, the return trip had to be within 8 hours of the first trip.  For that, we paid 29 PLN, or less than $10 US for both of us.  We could not have driven and paid for parking for that price.  And, as we were leaving the station, we looked out at the roads near us.  They were all pretty much in gridlock from all the traffic.  It was much more convenient and relaxing to just ride the train.  The only downside is how much more my backpack weighed on the return trip.