Sightseeing in Poznan

We arrived in Poznan Sunday afternoon with my mother, sister, and brother. We only had a few days with them in our home away from home, and there was so much we wanted to show them.

We had hoped to be dining al fresco in the Old Square Sunday evening, but it was too cold. So we took an inside table at Room 55, one of our favorite places. For dessert, we moved on to Cacao Republika. They serve the best hot chocolate, like a drinkable pudding or ganache. To finish off the evening, we had to stop by Kriek, the Belgian Pub. Slewek, the owner, is the perfect host. We sampled different beers and vodkas and finished off the evening with Ed and my brother, Dennis, drinking beers from half yard of ale glasses, tall glasses with a bulbous, unstable bottom. To insure patrons are careful with his expensive glassware, Slawek requires them to deposit one shoe into a basket that is hoisted to the ceiling until the glass is safely returned. This definitely got Dennis’ attention because he was only traveling with one pair of shoes.

Ed was off to work on Monday, so the rest of us started our day with a bike ride around Malta Lake, then on to pottery shopping, lunch at Sweet Surrender, amber shopping, a visit to a cukiernia to pick up dessert. The weather was nice enough for dinner outside at Restauracja Ratuszova. I’m sure my mother expected to eat more sausage while she was here, but we did all start our meal with soup, and that is very Polish.

Tuesday, we saw the sights and learned about the history of the city. We started where Poznan started, at the Cathedral. From there we walked to the Old Square in time to see the goats on the Old Town Hall butting heads and hear the trumpeter as the clock struck twelve. We visited the Parish Church and the Franciscan church. We saw Freedom Square and learned about what’s German vs. what’s Polish, museum vs. bazzar, theatre vs. theatre. By this time, lunch was long overdue. We opted for Zielona Weranda and more thick hot chocolate.

Tuesday was also the day we had to put Dennis on the train. He was flying out of Berlin early the next morning. After the train station, the four of us stopped off at Brovaria, a brewery/hotel/restaurant for pierogi. As it turned out, we tried all kinds of things, but no pierogi.

At this point the pace is starting to catch up with me, maybe all of us. Wednesday was the last full day in Poznan for my mother and sister, so we spent the day wrapping up loose ends. They wanted to visit a Polish supermarket, the Lech Poznan kiosk at Galeria Malta, the Starbucks at Stary Browar for a Poznan mug. We had lunch at Manekin. Ed met us after work for a visit to Piwo Centrum, the place in town to get craft beers – many of them unpasteurized. Since Ed hadn’t eaten lunch, we stopped by The Dubliner, so he could have a plate of ribs and mom and Laura could see the castle built for the German Kaiser which is now a cultural center.

This brings us to the last city on our great adventure. Didn’t they make a movie about “if it’s Thursday, this must be Krakow?” 😉

P.S. I need to add that my brother was in Poland twenty years ago as part of a cultural exchange program, a volunteer teaching English in the eastern part of the country. Before he left last week, he told me how happy he was that he’d returned. He didn’t think SO much change was possible in one generation. He said something to the effect that it did his heart good to see what people can accomplish, when you let them.