Warsaw to Torun

Friday, July 3

We left for the medieval town of Torun, where my oldest cousin lived, a popular tourist area and home to the astronomer Nicholas Copernicus & renowned chocolate-covered gingerbread. It took about 3 hours to get from Warsaw to Torun, and there was a lot of road construction. On the way to Torun we passed a wooded stretch of road where people were selling forest mushrooms and baskets of berries & cherries on the hoods of their parked cars or on a blanket next to their bicycles. They had large umbrellas attached to the cars to shelter them from sun or rain. My host said that some of them pick them in the forest to sell by the side of the road.
My elderly cousin had a lovely lunch prepared. The Poles are known as some of the most hospitable people in the world, and have a saying that “A guest in the house is God in the house.”
We then toured the old town area of Torun, very lovely and truly old, with some places dating from the 14th century. The castle was closed, unfortunately, but we took photos of the outside and through the slats on the gates.
We stopped for drinks at a nice outdoor café in the middle of Old Town Torun, and got 3 beers, 1 Coke & a tea for the amazing price of 20zł – under $7! Visited the Church of the Blessed Assumption, where a mass was going on.
Had dinner at Vinci Restaurant – and this was the only disaster of the trip to Poland. The restaurant seemed pleasant, with outdoor tables & nice place settings. We sat outside & asked for house wine, which they said they didn’t have, but brought us 3 glasses of a red wine. Smelled odd. My DH, Jim, had a swig & I took a sip, and it was awful! My DD, Cate, said it smelled like nail polish remover, which was a surprisingly accurate analysis. We told the waitress about it and when she returned from inside, she said the chef said it was supposed to smell like that! Seriously! A nice-looking restaurant serving horribly rotten wine – and making excuses for it instead of quickly apologizing! We complained and got another glass of a real wine. When our meals arrived, 2 of us were served first, then 2 others, and the fifth, my youngest cousin, wasn’t served until much later. When the dish finally arrived, she started eating and was searching for the mussels (she had ordered seafood pasta.) We asked our waitress, who replied – matter-of-factly – that it was because someone else got the seafood pasta, so my cousin was served the other dish! (This was a cheaper pasta dish, & the person who ordered it got the better one, so didn’t say anything!) The seafood pasta had by this time been served and eaten. No effort was made to make amends. We demanded that we not be charged for this dish, so the restaurant complied and also gave us dessert free-of-charge. – BTW, Cate’s dessert plate was severely chipped and she cut her finger on it. What an experience! Avoid this place at all costs - unless it changes ownership and staff!
We headed off to our hotel in Bydgoszcz after dropping the ladies off at my eldest cousin’s place – she doesn’t get around much, and so skipped the touring. We had reservations at Kuznia Hotel, which my DH found on the Internet – reasonably priced and including breakfast. Finding it in the dark was another thing. After asking for directions at a convenience store & buying a map, we located it – and weren’t sure if we made a good choice. There was a sign at the street, but there was an old and narrow driveway leading through the buldings. As we approached it, the area opened up and we found it to be very nice, modern, with a restaurant area & nightclub. DH asked for ice for his knee, but they didn’t have any…??