in Malbork

Here's the view we had this morning looking out our patio:









And here's the "road" to get to our hotel:







You can see why we almost missed it! We thought we were driving on a sidewalk again...oh, did I tell you that happened last evening??? ...while we were driving in Hel.





We ate breakfast at the hotel...it came with the room price. It was fairly crowded at the buffet breakfast and to watch the people...it was like a feeding frenzy. The rules here apparently are a little different - people butt in front of you and reach over the top of you just to get their food. It reminds me of a bunch of old ladies trying to get the autograph of Lawrence Welk! Dad says it's more like a bunch of hyenas standing over a dead deer. You choose which vision you would like to retain.



Another thing noted...I've noticed that Polish women are fairly big busted but have smaller hips and skinny legs...this includes old and young. Dad says he hasn't noticed and that he will try to pay closer attention.



Another thing that we've noticed is that the Polish people don't smile a lot. I guess for years they haven't had a lot to smile about. But when they sit at a table they rarely laugh and talk. They must think we're goofballs laughing and having a good time. Come to think of it...whenever you see old photos...from the 1800's or the turn of the century, you never see anyone smiling. How interesting to think of how smiles for photographs got started...did one daring photographer just start by saying, "Come on guys, can you just smile a little?" I really do wonder how and when the change came.



So off we went towards Malbork...stopping at Sopot









and trying to avoid the big city of Gdansk. The driving was a bit tense with 2 close calls. This is why we hate big cities and love getting out in the open space.



We arrived in Malbork in mid afternoon. Malbork, of course, being the place where you kids' great-great grandfather Johann Sawatzki came from. And your great-great grandmother, Anna Nachtigall came from close by. The drive to Malbork, once we headed south, was very nice...going through the countryside. Malbork is a city of 40,000 so not too big. The minute we got here we felt way more comfortable than the other Polish cities we've been to or seen.



We found a very nice hotel to stay in. We checked in and then went to the Malbork information center where we asked about doing family research. They referred us to the Malbork castle archives. So we started walking through the streets of Malbork to get to the castle. Here are some sights :



a cart with some potatoes...lots are grown around here and a staple in the food here









That's fresh bread in the cart

















Check out the old camera! Actually this one could have taken a photo of Johann before he emigrated here. Sorry, Sara, this won't fit in our suitcase to bring home to you.







So we kept walking and soon came upon the Malbork castle. I'm not sure these pictures do it justice. It is amazing. It was built by the Teutonic Knights - a German Catholic religious order of crusaders. It was built in 1406 as a Medieval fortress. The order named the castle Marienburg , meaning Mary's castle. The town which grew up around it was later named Marienburg. When Johann lived here, the town was named Marienburg. It is now called Malbork, a Polish name, because the Polish people reclaimed the city after WWII in 1945.



When it was built, it was the largest brick castle in the world. It sits on 52 acres of land...in other words...it is huge! Here are some photos of the castle. Keep in mind that your great-great grandfather grew up viewing this castle probably every day.































This is the cobblestone street that runs through the grounds:







So here's a bit of history...well, more than a bit. If you don't like history, skip over this...but you will be missing something. Most information is courtesy of Wikopedia.



The Tuetonic Knights collected tolls on the river Nogat, running by the castle & imposed a monopoly on the amber trade. Amber is very big here...as the best amber in the world is Baltic amber. Marienburg later became a member of the Hanseatic League, and many Hanseatic meetings were held here. Now the Hanseatic League was a commercial group of merchant guilds and the towns that they dominated trade during the Middle Ages stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea.



Now grab your seats and listen to this (Sara, you already know this). The place where Sara and I stayed in Shetland...the house...was the head of the Hanseatic League...on the North Sea. About 400 or so years ago, the various guilds occupied the very house where Sara and I lived for 3 weeks. Goosebumps...eh?



The Teutonic Order, hugely weakened by defeat at the hands of the Poles and Lithuanians, sold the castle and in 1457 transferred their seat to Königsberg (now Kaliningrad, Russia). The town of Marienburg, resisted the Poles for three further years & then the Poles finally took control,.



The town became part of the Polish province of Royal Prussia after the Second Peace of Thorn (1466).It was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772 and became part of the Province of West Prussia the following year, which became part of the newly founded German Empire in 1871.



Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, the inhabitants of Marienburg voted as to whether they wanted to remain in Germany or join newly re-established Poland. 9,641 votes were cast for Germany, 165 votes for Poland



The town was hit by an economic crisis following the end of World War I. After a brief recovery in the mid-'20s, the Great depression was particularly severe in East Prussia. In January 1933, the Hitler and the Nazi Party came to power and immediately began eliminating political opponents, so that in the last semi-free elections of March 1933, 54 of Marienburg's votes went to the Nazis. After the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, leaders of the Polish minority were arrested and sent to concentration camps.



Near the end of WWII, Marienburg was declared a Festung - a fortress- a military propaganda term from the Second World War which referred to the areas occupied by Nazi Germany. Because of that most of the civilian population of Marienburg fled or was evacuated, but some 4,000 people remained. In early 1945, Marienburg was the scene of fierce battles with the Red Army and almost completely destroyed. The battle lasted until March 9, 1945,and following the military capture by the Red Army, the remaining civilian population disappeared and 1,840 people remained missing. In June 1945, the town was turned over to Polish authorities and permanently renamed Malbork.



Half a century later, in 1996, 178 corpses were found in a mass grave in Malbork; another 123 were found in 2005. In 2008, during excavations for the foundation of a new hotel in Malbork, a mass grave was found containing the remains of 2,116 people, a majority of whom were female. All the dead were said to have been German residents of pre-1945 Marienburg, but they could not be individually identified, nor could the cause of their deaths be definitely established. A Polish investigation concluded that the bodies, along with the remains of some dead animals, may have been buried to prevent the spread of typhus, which was rampant there at the end of World War II.



Of course there is always the Russians who came in after the war was over and pillaged the area. Oh well, enough about history. I'm just glad Johann escaped when he did...otherwise none of you kids would be here...and the world would not be as happy as it is.



So we came back and went to the restaurant in the hotel for dinner. We decided to have a beer (well, we always do). We looked on the menu and there were many beers to choose from but guess what one of them was??? A beer called Johannes. How could we not get that one. So we filled our glasses and had a toast to all of you and to all the Sawatzki generations.





























After a few swigs of beer we perused the menu. I became momentarily very concerned about this restaurant. Here's what I saw on the menu, English translation is the second descriptive line.











I thought, holy crap, they are serving up donkeys!! Then I looked at the category and saw fish. When I came back to the room and googled mule fish, my fears were vanished.



Regardless of that, I think we made very good choices for our meal. Dad got the pork knuckle...which stood about a foot tall...it was huge! That is homemade horseradish in the spoon in the front.











I got the pork loin with dumplings and beet salad. I couldn't finish this.