Neubrandenburg and Szczecin
May. 5th, 2025 01:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeThis weekend was the third of our Springtime trips, this time visiting Neubrandenburg and Szczecin. I had been wanting to visit Poland's seventh-largest city for a while and with our future in Berlin still uncertain, I thought now would be the best time to do it. Furthermore, the journey was practically free as we could get most of the way there on the Deutschland Ticket. The truth is that travelling by bus would have been much quicker though. Considering Szczecin is only 130km from Berlin, the fact it takes over three hours to get there by train is insane. Still, we didn't mind the extra journey time for the price, plus it enabled us to see the town of Neubrandenburg too (although being stuck in a non-air conditioned coach in 25C heat for the first hour did make me regret not taking the bus).
Known as the city of four gates, Neubrandenburg has the longest and one of the best preserved city walls of its era in the world. Noticing that the transfer times of the trains was a mere four minutes, we decided to get off here and spend two hours exploring. We also knew we had to buy supplementary tickets to get over the border into Poland and we couldn't do this online. As it turned out, we could have done it on the train and the four minute layover was irrelevant as the connecting service was held back until our service had arrived in Neubrandenburg. We weren't to know this though and the kind lady at the Deutsche Bahn travel shop got us the tickets we need. I did all this in German, as well as ordering a sausage and bread roll from the DB store next door, which Wolfie and I ate in the beating sun. It was the start of a good day.
We basically walked around the walls of the city, sometimes on the internal side, sometimes on the external side with its moat. We spied the timbered Wiek houses, most of which are reconstructions and occupied by various charities and companies. These were little properties built into the wall itself, which made it distinctive. In parts, the whole thing had a countryside cobbled lane appearance while the grandeur of all four gates, but particularly the breathtaking Treptow and Stargard gates was fantastic. One of them had an ancient battering ram parked outside it and although Wolfie was still struggling with walking due to previous cheese inducement, it was a pleasant stroll all in all. At parts we dipped into the city itself to check out the medley of medieval and more modern buildings. The main square is a modernist paving slab shopping concourse affair which seemed quite lively, while the huge church on the southern side is now a concert hall. We were delighted to discover that dinosaur heavy metallers Heavysaurus are playing there in two weeks' time as part of their Pommesgabel tour. If we weren't back in the UK, maybe we'd go. Outside the church, there was also a bronze statue of a howling coyote which looked a lot better from the side-on view. However, the main attractions were the gates. Their gothic brick structure reminded me of the architecture in nearby Wismar while the white painting, turrets and statues of saints gave them a unique twist. They were great to see, but it did make the aforementioned shopping area and a huge tower block plonked right in the centre even more incongruous. Also, I was surprised to see the number of gay pride flags in the windows of many residences and businesses, while I think there was a gay bookshop too. Even at the station there were adverts telling us about the local LGBTQ+ society. Considering Pride is not until August here and this is in AfD-voting Mecklenburg-Verpommern, I was quite surprised. Still, it did make me feel more relaxed there.
The border train to Szczecin was rather dinky, but we managed to get a seat and watched the world go by. Szczecin is just over the border by about 20 minutes and it's amazing this small line is its best connection to Germany. Once at the main railway station, we observed a vending machine exclusively for bouquets of flowers then headed up to our hotel, a rather tired looking Ibis on the edge of the city centre. We rested a while after checking in, then headed out to do a little exploring shortly after 7pm. Alas, at around this point, it started to rain pretty heavily so we were ducking in and out of shelter for the next hour or so. Furthermore, Wolfie had burst a blister on his foot, which was starting to annoy him. By the time it got to 7:45pm, the light was already fading, so we gave up doing more of the red path tourist route and decided to grab some food.
Browar Stara Komenda had been recommended by the local tourist board as a decent place for craft beer and even though it was more like a German microbrewery, it did afford us a good place to eat. Conveniently, it was just around the corner from our hotel, on the side of a park alongside which now sits the imposing red-bricked new town hall. This was an impressive building that dominates this square, but we were more interested in grabbing some food due to the rain. We walked in and weren't seen to for about 10 minutes, with us wandering up and down the main corridor trying to grab any eye contact with the waiting staff. They were clearly doing a beer tasting or something as we were roundly ignored until a bearded man in a silly hat who was snuggling with his girlfriend on a sofa came up to us and told us to just order at the bar. We went there and were ignored for another five minutes before an apologetic waiter told us to grab a seat upstairs and he'd come and find us. He was really accommodating and I'm glad we stayed as despite my growing frustration, he made the experience. The beer was strong, but the food was what set this place apart. We had bread and dripping to start, a traditional Polish dish that is served with pickles. I can take or leave those, but the lard on soft bread and sprinkled with salt is divine and reminded me of when we frequently visited the now defunct Ambrosija restaurant in Bradford. For our main, we had 'Pork neck prepared in a Szczecin way' which was essentially baked with mustard and brine-pickled cucumber, basted with Amber beer, served with roasted potatoes, garlic sauce and salad. I am not usually a fan of cucumber but cooked in mustard and stuffed in this meat, it was incredible. The potatoes went with the garlic sauce well and we were very satisfied indeed.
After grabbing a second beer and soaking up the rather lively ambience - and having to walk through four colossal farts from a man in a Hawaiian shirt in the urinals - we headed over to The Office, which turned out to be the only craft beer bar in the city. I gave Wolfie the choice as his leg was starting to hurt again, but he was happy to make the 15-minute walk, during which we got to see more sights on the red route. This is a tourist initiative, a 7km route that guides tourists to all of the major sights. I wish more cities had these as it was an incredibly efficient way to see the main things to see. With 42 stops, there was a wide range of different aspects of the city to view, and we had already done 10 of them before going for the meal. Heading to The Office, we saw another six or so, while we also got to see the main square which is just adjacent to the bar. This seemed to be one of the main nightlife areas of the city, but things were a bit weird as Saturday was Constitution Day, and thus a national holiday. Indeed, we tried to visit The Office again on the Saturday, only to find out it was closed. It was one of our most sober Saturdays ever. On the Friday, we had a great time going through their eight draft beers. We also grabbed some cheese flavoured 'squashed pretzels' which were definitely more like bagels. The gentleman behind the bar told us that The Office is the only craft beer bar in the city, which I found strange as Poland is generally good for such things. There was a gaming bar we were going to try which Google claimed was a craft beer place too, but he said it wasn't that good. Anyway, this place was great and we got chatting to a few of the regulars too before decamping at around 1am.
I had really weird and erratic dreams in the hotel, probably on account of the heat being too high, so I didn't sleep that great. Indeed, I had wanted to get up by 11am but it wasn't until after noon by the time I surfaced. Alas, Wolfie's leg had taken a turn for the worse during the night so he decided to stay in bed while I went out exploring. Fortunately, the red route ran pretty much outside our hotel, so it was easy to join it and see the remaining things we had not yet seen. First, though, I stopped off for a breakfast hot dog at Zabka. It means little froggy. I thought this would be enough, but later in the day, I was craving ice cream so stopped off at one of the many ice cream parlours to get my fill.
The walk was extensive and snaked around many of the sights. It was so comprehensive that on occasions, it took me under a hideous flyover where an old convent once stood. I walked by the river Odra for a while, taking in some of the ambience, before dipping back into the old town to see the main sights of the city. This is where the Ducal Palace is, which was probably the highlight. There was little to see internally. I couldn't be bothered queuing to go up the tower, while the two museums they had were somewhat provincial. One was dedicated to alters, although the history of Borislaw was quite interesting, while the second functioned like a chancellery, which was fine. The six coffins were of particular interest, as was some of the furniture. The main highlight though was the main court inside the castle, which was set up for a concert of some sort. On one side there is a wonderful clock, whose face is in essence a bearded man. In his open mouth, there is a number representing the date, while there are lions rampant in all four corners. Two dates are listed, those of the recent preservation, while the gongs are hit by a court jester sat above the face hitting gongs. It was all quite intricate stuff.
The red route continued relentlessly and I kept following, past the impressive Naval Academy, National Museum and West Pomeranian Voivodeship Office. Sadly, all of these were closed due to it being Constitution Day, but the latter was bedecked in red and white flags and bunting, which made it look pretty. All three buildings overlook the Odra River, with a colonnade and fountain leading down to the bank. This sweeping staircase was built in the early 20th century and forms quite an impressive ensemble with the architectural wonders behind it. Called the Haken Terrasse, the fountain at the bottom was particularly wondrous in the sun. Pressing on, I walked through a park and headed back into the city centre, where I found out about the Znak Rodla outside the PAZIM building (which is just a cylindrical skyscraper). The hooked Rodlo symbol was the sign under which the First Congress of Poles united in Berlin on 6 March 1938. The purpose of the congress was to assert that Poles had an obligation to defend their national identity and tradition, language and culture.
Further down, I saw the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic building, which is built like an iceberg. I managed to sneak inside and look at the interior of this architectural marvel, which was all bedecked in white geometric shapes. The giant silver sound sculpture in the far corner seemed to emphasise this. Like most places in the city, it was closed, while I couldn't get into many of the churches either as they seemed reserved for those taking Mass. Indeed many were closed off aside from two stools in the entrance where worshipers kneeled to pray. The huge St. James Metropolitan Basilica was one church I could go in, and I was even able to go up the tower for a small fee. This was done via lift, which made climbing the fifty-or-so metres easier, and I was afforded views from three sides. These were quite distinct, facing the docks and sea on one side, the city on another, and the countryside on the third. We were closed in by windows though, many of which were covered in bird shit, which somewhat obscured my photographs. On the way back down, I shared both lifts (there were two lifts with a break on the third floor) with a group of five teenagers, which was fun. No wonder I needed my ice cream afterwards. Inside the church, I saw a stained glass window with a steam locomotive on it, which was somewhat unique.
Back at the Philharmonic building, I checked out the black angel statue, Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970, which commemorates the 16 people who died on this square in the Szczecin uprising of December 1970. Interestingly, protests in Szczecin relating to the formation of trade unions happened before their more famous equivalents in Gdansk, with the late 1960s and early 1970s being a time of serious unrest in the city. The red route covered this too, highlighting buildings that were set ablaze during the unrest. After this, I made a note of the house where Catherine the Great was born - which is now a marble-clad insurance firm or something - before noting a few other buildings on my way to finishing the tour. I had expected it would take me about three hours, but it was nearer five with my time in the Duchal Castle and I was quite glad to make my way back to the hotel.
Saturday night ended at the Nowy Browar, which was only 150m from our hotel. The truth was, having brought back a king-sized hot dog for Wolfie from Zabka at around 5:30pm, we weren't particularly hungry but thought it best to have food. I was feeling pretty tired after all my walking, so ended up having a small nap, waking up at around 7:15pm. Wolfie was still resting, so I decided to head over to Lasztownia, which is on the opposite side of the Odra river to where I had been earlier. This was just as well as there was quite a police presence on the alternate bank, in contrast to the pleasant milling that was happening on the other side. This was the main dock area and quite the social spot, with a Zabka thrown in of course. I had a pleasant walk alongside the riverbank, admiring the stunning architecture of the Wały Chrobrego on the other side. Under the flyover, there is a museum in the shape of a huge boat, and this marked the former main harbour area. There were cranes similar to those on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow, while further down, there is a collection of buildings that were clearly warehouses. Outside these, there was a collection of about 20 food trucks, while in the gravelly car park next to it, there were a load of wide boys doing donuts. I ambled along, feeling a little out of place in my Einhorn Kostum t-shirt, before exploring an island in the middle of the river that has been turned into a beach-side bar. This would have been a good place to relax for a while, but the time was approaching 8:30pm and I did need to go out for food with Wolfie.
Anyway, after this, we ended up in Nowy Browar, another German-style microbrewery. This one was showing live sport - with Lech Poznan 7-1 up against a team of no hopers - but fortunately the volume was down. This meant the atmosphere was enjoyable and after waiting a long time to grab someone's attention, we were soon afforded a seat. We ordered our customary lard and bread again, then Wolfie opted for beef ribs in sesame seed sauce and I had the pelmani. We were toying with the idea of having two portions of lard, but fortunately we had only gone for one as when the food arrived, it was massive. I had looked at the prices and thought lard plus pelmani equalled the cost of the ribs, but in the end, the portions far outweighed the cost. We shared all the meals and even though the food was delicious, we couldn't eat all of it. This saw us wobble back to the hotel for a rest before debating whether we should go back to The Office or not. I was feeling quite bloated, but reasoning it was our last chance to do so, I acquiesced. We walked there in the pissing rain only to find out it had been closed quite a while. With no other bars open and a few too lively people kicking about, we headed back to the hotel where we just drank chilled water from a carafe for the rest of the evening.
Aside from herring and paprika paste which I didn't much fancy, the pasztecik is the main dish of Szczecin. Essentially dough sticks filled with either meat or cheese, they are served with borscht in a handful of fast food eateries throughout the city. I had forgotten about this delicacy until late on Saturday and feared I had missed out as many weren't open on Sunday. However, the appropriately named Pasztecik on the appropriately named 3. Maya was open and so after we checked out, we made our way up there. It was definitely worth it and the kind lady behind the counter said there was a special offer if we bought three rather than our original plan of getting two each. There was only one meat one left, so we shared that and had a cheese and mushroom one each. The borscht was warm, tangy and rich, working very well with the greasy pastry. We sat on the canteen bar as we ate and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Alas, as we walked back to the railway station, it started to rain heavily so we had to dip into a Starbucks where I got an agreeable macha tea while we waited for the rain to abate.
I had read that the biggest underground bunker, and one of the biggest in Europe, was built underneath Szczecin railway station and thought this was worth checking out on our way back to Berlin. I was a little worried they wouldn't let us take our bag in, but they were fine with it. Alas, they only accepted cash as their card machine struggled with internet connection. This meant I had to go to one of the rip-off cash machines at the train station to get out the equivalent of €44. Still, it was worth it and once we were in, we followed the three colour-coded paths through the bunker. We donned hard hats just in case we hit our heads - more useful for me than for Wolfie. The red path, the first, was the longest and took us through the bunker itself. It highlighted many of the heating and water facilities, as well as the places for men, women and children. Exhibitions covered things like the history of Poland's territorial boundaries through the years (which a nice man had to explain to us upon hearing our confusion) and pictures of what the bombed out city looked like. We also got to find out a little about what life was like inside the bunker during Allied bombings. The bunker itself was built by the Germans, or at least slave labour used by them, and this was covered in detail too.
The other two colour-coded paths were much shorter. The blue one dealt with the Cold War and was the shortest. This was interesting enough, but it was all largely things I knew. The yellow one was a tad longer and focused on Polish culture during the Communist period. This was fascinating as it covered everything from furnishings and brands through to pop music and resistance. Alas, we had to race around this one a little on account of us needing to catch our train, but it was still great to be immersed in the culture of another country. I found the celebrity gossip magazines smuggled in from nearby Germany to be of particular interest, along with the children's programmes. Tytus the monkey and Reksio the friendly orange and white dog were both endearing and I've ended up watching a few Reksio episodes on YouTube already. We also found out about a straw bear thing called Mis created by the Polish 'King of Comedy' Stanislaw Bareja. I also enjoyed finding out more about 1980s Polish pop music, particularly the subversive pink-haired punk band The Pink Tufts and their song 'Dentist Sadist'.
We decided to leave Szczecin on the 3:01pm service back to Neubrandenburg, so the last few minutes in the bunker were a little rushed. Still, we did manage to get a seat on this packed service, where a kind lady was asked to move her bag off a seat and in putting it on the rack, dropped it straight on my head. She was very apologetic, but I was dizzy for a while, with the irony being that I had just taken a hard hat off having just come out of the bunker. The journey back was largely uneventful. We got our connection at Neubrandenburg, and this train filled up significantly the closer we got to Berlin. We were in the vestibule area and at least had snagged seats, but it did get quite unpleasant. At least we did get into the capital on time though, where we headed over to the Peter Pane on the other side of the road to Hauptbahnhof. This is a standard German burger chain, but one we had not yet tried. It was very similar to Hans im Gluck. Wolfie had a smashed patty burger and I had the 'Dreikasehoch' which was probably a little too cheesy. We shared a mixed plate of beige fried food (fries, onion rings and sweet potato fries) alongside two dips. I had to go the toilet and fart a lot, my guts not liking all the rich food we had had on our trip. After all this, we took advantage of being at the main station on a Sunday and grabbed a few supplies from Rewe before getting back to Spandau shortly after 8:30pm ahead of another working week.
Known as the city of four gates, Neubrandenburg has the longest and one of the best preserved city walls of its era in the world. Noticing that the transfer times of the trains was a mere four minutes, we decided to get off here and spend two hours exploring. We also knew we had to buy supplementary tickets to get over the border into Poland and we couldn't do this online. As it turned out, we could have done it on the train and the four minute layover was irrelevant as the connecting service was held back until our service had arrived in Neubrandenburg. We weren't to know this though and the kind lady at the Deutsche Bahn travel shop got us the tickets we need. I did all this in German, as well as ordering a sausage and bread roll from the DB store next door, which Wolfie and I ate in the beating sun. It was the start of a good day.
We basically walked around the walls of the city, sometimes on the internal side, sometimes on the external side with its moat. We spied the timbered Wiek houses, most of which are reconstructions and occupied by various charities and companies. These were little properties built into the wall itself, which made it distinctive. In parts, the whole thing had a countryside cobbled lane appearance while the grandeur of all four gates, but particularly the breathtaking Treptow and Stargard gates was fantastic. One of them had an ancient battering ram parked outside it and although Wolfie was still struggling with walking due to previous cheese inducement, it was a pleasant stroll all in all. At parts we dipped into the city itself to check out the medley of medieval and more modern buildings. The main square is a modernist paving slab shopping concourse affair which seemed quite lively, while the huge church on the southern side is now a concert hall. We were delighted to discover that dinosaur heavy metallers Heavysaurus are playing there in two weeks' time as part of their Pommesgabel tour. If we weren't back in the UK, maybe we'd go. Outside the church, there was also a bronze statue of a howling coyote which looked a lot better from the side-on view. However, the main attractions were the gates. Their gothic brick structure reminded me of the architecture in nearby Wismar while the white painting, turrets and statues of saints gave them a unique twist. They were great to see, but it did make the aforementioned shopping area and a huge tower block plonked right in the centre even more incongruous. Also, I was surprised to see the number of gay pride flags in the windows of many residences and businesses, while I think there was a gay bookshop too. Even at the station there were adverts telling us about the local LGBTQ+ society. Considering Pride is not until August here and this is in AfD-voting Mecklenburg-Verpommern, I was quite surprised. Still, it did make me feel more relaxed there.
The border train to Szczecin was rather dinky, but we managed to get a seat and watched the world go by. Szczecin is just over the border by about 20 minutes and it's amazing this small line is its best connection to Germany. Once at the main railway station, we observed a vending machine exclusively for bouquets of flowers then headed up to our hotel, a rather tired looking Ibis on the edge of the city centre. We rested a while after checking in, then headed out to do a little exploring shortly after 7pm. Alas, at around this point, it started to rain pretty heavily so we were ducking in and out of shelter for the next hour or so. Furthermore, Wolfie had burst a blister on his foot, which was starting to annoy him. By the time it got to 7:45pm, the light was already fading, so we gave up doing more of the red path tourist route and decided to grab some food.
Browar Stara Komenda had been recommended by the local tourist board as a decent place for craft beer and even though it was more like a German microbrewery, it did afford us a good place to eat. Conveniently, it was just around the corner from our hotel, on the side of a park alongside which now sits the imposing red-bricked new town hall. This was an impressive building that dominates this square, but we were more interested in grabbing some food due to the rain. We walked in and weren't seen to for about 10 minutes, with us wandering up and down the main corridor trying to grab any eye contact with the waiting staff. They were clearly doing a beer tasting or something as we were roundly ignored until a bearded man in a silly hat who was snuggling with his girlfriend on a sofa came up to us and told us to just order at the bar. We went there and were ignored for another five minutes before an apologetic waiter told us to grab a seat upstairs and he'd come and find us. He was really accommodating and I'm glad we stayed as despite my growing frustration, he made the experience. The beer was strong, but the food was what set this place apart. We had bread and dripping to start, a traditional Polish dish that is served with pickles. I can take or leave those, but the lard on soft bread and sprinkled with salt is divine and reminded me of when we frequently visited the now defunct Ambrosija restaurant in Bradford. For our main, we had 'Pork neck prepared in a Szczecin way' which was essentially baked with mustard and brine-pickled cucumber, basted with Amber beer, served with roasted potatoes, garlic sauce and salad. I am not usually a fan of cucumber but cooked in mustard and stuffed in this meat, it was incredible. The potatoes went with the garlic sauce well and we were very satisfied indeed.
After grabbing a second beer and soaking up the rather lively ambience - and having to walk through four colossal farts from a man in a Hawaiian shirt in the urinals - we headed over to The Office, which turned out to be the only craft beer bar in the city. I gave Wolfie the choice as his leg was starting to hurt again, but he was happy to make the 15-minute walk, during which we got to see more sights on the red route. This is a tourist initiative, a 7km route that guides tourists to all of the major sights. I wish more cities had these as it was an incredibly efficient way to see the main things to see. With 42 stops, there was a wide range of different aspects of the city to view, and we had already done 10 of them before going for the meal. Heading to The Office, we saw another six or so, while we also got to see the main square which is just adjacent to the bar. This seemed to be one of the main nightlife areas of the city, but things were a bit weird as Saturday was Constitution Day, and thus a national holiday. Indeed, we tried to visit The Office again on the Saturday, only to find out it was closed. It was one of our most sober Saturdays ever. On the Friday, we had a great time going through their eight draft beers. We also grabbed some cheese flavoured 'squashed pretzels' which were definitely more like bagels. The gentleman behind the bar told us that The Office is the only craft beer bar in the city, which I found strange as Poland is generally good for such things. There was a gaming bar we were going to try which Google claimed was a craft beer place too, but he said it wasn't that good. Anyway, this place was great and we got chatting to a few of the regulars too before decamping at around 1am.
I had really weird and erratic dreams in the hotel, probably on account of the heat being too high, so I didn't sleep that great. Indeed, I had wanted to get up by 11am but it wasn't until after noon by the time I surfaced. Alas, Wolfie's leg had taken a turn for the worse during the night so he decided to stay in bed while I went out exploring. Fortunately, the red route ran pretty much outside our hotel, so it was easy to join it and see the remaining things we had not yet seen. First, though, I stopped off for a breakfast hot dog at Zabka. It means little froggy. I thought this would be enough, but later in the day, I was craving ice cream so stopped off at one of the many ice cream parlours to get my fill.
The walk was extensive and snaked around many of the sights. It was so comprehensive that on occasions, it took me under a hideous flyover where an old convent once stood. I walked by the river Odra for a while, taking in some of the ambience, before dipping back into the old town to see the main sights of the city. This is where the Ducal Palace is, which was probably the highlight. There was little to see internally. I couldn't be bothered queuing to go up the tower, while the two museums they had were somewhat provincial. One was dedicated to alters, although the history of Borislaw was quite interesting, while the second functioned like a chancellery, which was fine. The six coffins were of particular interest, as was some of the furniture. The main highlight though was the main court inside the castle, which was set up for a concert of some sort. On one side there is a wonderful clock, whose face is in essence a bearded man. In his open mouth, there is a number representing the date, while there are lions rampant in all four corners. Two dates are listed, those of the recent preservation, while the gongs are hit by a court jester sat above the face hitting gongs. It was all quite intricate stuff.
The red route continued relentlessly and I kept following, past the impressive Naval Academy, National Museum and West Pomeranian Voivodeship Office. Sadly, all of these were closed due to it being Constitution Day, but the latter was bedecked in red and white flags and bunting, which made it look pretty. All three buildings overlook the Odra River, with a colonnade and fountain leading down to the bank. This sweeping staircase was built in the early 20th century and forms quite an impressive ensemble with the architectural wonders behind it. Called the Haken Terrasse, the fountain at the bottom was particularly wondrous in the sun. Pressing on, I walked through a park and headed back into the city centre, where I found out about the Znak Rodla outside the PAZIM building (which is just a cylindrical skyscraper). The hooked Rodlo symbol was the sign under which the First Congress of Poles united in Berlin on 6 March 1938. The purpose of the congress was to assert that Poles had an obligation to defend their national identity and tradition, language and culture.
Further down, I saw the Mieczysław Karłowicz Philharmonic building, which is built like an iceberg. I managed to sneak inside and look at the interior of this architectural marvel, which was all bedecked in white geometric shapes. The giant silver sound sculpture in the far corner seemed to emphasise this. Like most places in the city, it was closed, while I couldn't get into many of the churches either as they seemed reserved for those taking Mass. Indeed many were closed off aside from two stools in the entrance where worshipers kneeled to pray. The huge St. James Metropolitan Basilica was one church I could go in, and I was even able to go up the tower for a small fee. This was done via lift, which made climbing the fifty-or-so metres easier, and I was afforded views from three sides. These were quite distinct, facing the docks and sea on one side, the city on another, and the countryside on the third. We were closed in by windows though, many of which were covered in bird shit, which somewhat obscured my photographs. On the way back down, I shared both lifts (there were two lifts with a break on the third floor) with a group of five teenagers, which was fun. No wonder I needed my ice cream afterwards. Inside the church, I saw a stained glass window with a steam locomotive on it, which was somewhat unique.
Back at the Philharmonic building, I checked out the black angel statue, Pomnik Ofiar Grudnia 1970, which commemorates the 16 people who died on this square in the Szczecin uprising of December 1970. Interestingly, protests in Szczecin relating to the formation of trade unions happened before their more famous equivalents in Gdansk, with the late 1960s and early 1970s being a time of serious unrest in the city. The red route covered this too, highlighting buildings that were set ablaze during the unrest. After this, I made a note of the house where Catherine the Great was born - which is now a marble-clad insurance firm or something - before noting a few other buildings on my way to finishing the tour. I had expected it would take me about three hours, but it was nearer five with my time in the Duchal Castle and I was quite glad to make my way back to the hotel.
Saturday night ended at the Nowy Browar, which was only 150m from our hotel. The truth was, having brought back a king-sized hot dog for Wolfie from Zabka at around 5:30pm, we weren't particularly hungry but thought it best to have food. I was feeling pretty tired after all my walking, so ended up having a small nap, waking up at around 7:15pm. Wolfie was still resting, so I decided to head over to Lasztownia, which is on the opposite side of the Odra river to where I had been earlier. This was just as well as there was quite a police presence on the alternate bank, in contrast to the pleasant milling that was happening on the other side. This was the main dock area and quite the social spot, with a Zabka thrown in of course. I had a pleasant walk alongside the riverbank, admiring the stunning architecture of the Wały Chrobrego on the other side. Under the flyover, there is a museum in the shape of a huge boat, and this marked the former main harbour area. There were cranes similar to those on the banks of the River Clyde in Glasgow, while further down, there is a collection of buildings that were clearly warehouses. Outside these, there was a collection of about 20 food trucks, while in the gravelly car park next to it, there were a load of wide boys doing donuts. I ambled along, feeling a little out of place in my Einhorn Kostum t-shirt, before exploring an island in the middle of the river that has been turned into a beach-side bar. This would have been a good place to relax for a while, but the time was approaching 8:30pm and I did need to go out for food with Wolfie.
Anyway, after this, we ended up in Nowy Browar, another German-style microbrewery. This one was showing live sport - with Lech Poznan 7-1 up against a team of no hopers - but fortunately the volume was down. This meant the atmosphere was enjoyable and after waiting a long time to grab someone's attention, we were soon afforded a seat. We ordered our customary lard and bread again, then Wolfie opted for beef ribs in sesame seed sauce and I had the pelmani. We were toying with the idea of having two portions of lard, but fortunately we had only gone for one as when the food arrived, it was massive. I had looked at the prices and thought lard plus pelmani equalled the cost of the ribs, but in the end, the portions far outweighed the cost. We shared all the meals and even though the food was delicious, we couldn't eat all of it. This saw us wobble back to the hotel for a rest before debating whether we should go back to The Office or not. I was feeling quite bloated, but reasoning it was our last chance to do so, I acquiesced. We walked there in the pissing rain only to find out it had been closed quite a while. With no other bars open and a few too lively people kicking about, we headed back to the hotel where we just drank chilled water from a carafe for the rest of the evening.
Aside from herring and paprika paste which I didn't much fancy, the pasztecik is the main dish of Szczecin. Essentially dough sticks filled with either meat or cheese, they are served with borscht in a handful of fast food eateries throughout the city. I had forgotten about this delicacy until late on Saturday and feared I had missed out as many weren't open on Sunday. However, the appropriately named Pasztecik on the appropriately named 3. Maya was open and so after we checked out, we made our way up there. It was definitely worth it and the kind lady behind the counter said there was a special offer if we bought three rather than our original plan of getting two each. There was only one meat one left, so we shared that and had a cheese and mushroom one each. The borscht was warm, tangy and rich, working very well with the greasy pastry. We sat on the canteen bar as we ate and it was one of the highlights of our trip. Alas, as we walked back to the railway station, it started to rain heavily so we had to dip into a Starbucks where I got an agreeable macha tea while we waited for the rain to abate.
I had read that the biggest underground bunker, and one of the biggest in Europe, was built underneath Szczecin railway station and thought this was worth checking out on our way back to Berlin. I was a little worried they wouldn't let us take our bag in, but they were fine with it. Alas, they only accepted cash as their card machine struggled with internet connection. This meant I had to go to one of the rip-off cash machines at the train station to get out the equivalent of €44. Still, it was worth it and once we were in, we followed the three colour-coded paths through the bunker. We donned hard hats just in case we hit our heads - more useful for me than for Wolfie. The red path, the first, was the longest and took us through the bunker itself. It highlighted many of the heating and water facilities, as well as the places for men, women and children. Exhibitions covered things like the history of Poland's territorial boundaries through the years (which a nice man had to explain to us upon hearing our confusion) and pictures of what the bombed out city looked like. We also got to find out a little about what life was like inside the bunker during Allied bombings. The bunker itself was built by the Germans, or at least slave labour used by them, and this was covered in detail too.
The other two colour-coded paths were much shorter. The blue one dealt with the Cold War and was the shortest. This was interesting enough, but it was all largely things I knew. The yellow one was a tad longer and focused on Polish culture during the Communist period. This was fascinating as it covered everything from furnishings and brands through to pop music and resistance. Alas, we had to race around this one a little on account of us needing to catch our train, but it was still great to be immersed in the culture of another country. I found the celebrity gossip magazines smuggled in from nearby Germany to be of particular interest, along with the children's programmes. Tytus the monkey and Reksio the friendly orange and white dog were both endearing and I've ended up watching a few Reksio episodes on YouTube already. We also found out about a straw bear thing called Mis created by the Polish 'King of Comedy' Stanislaw Bareja. I also enjoyed finding out more about 1980s Polish pop music, particularly the subversive pink-haired punk band The Pink Tufts and their song 'Dentist Sadist'.
We decided to leave Szczecin on the 3:01pm service back to Neubrandenburg, so the last few minutes in the bunker were a little rushed. Still, we did manage to get a seat on this packed service, where a kind lady was asked to move her bag off a seat and in putting it on the rack, dropped it straight on my head. She was very apologetic, but I was dizzy for a while, with the irony being that I had just taken a hard hat off having just come out of the bunker. The journey back was largely uneventful. We got our connection at Neubrandenburg, and this train filled up significantly the closer we got to Berlin. We were in the vestibule area and at least had snagged seats, but it did get quite unpleasant. At least we did get into the capital on time though, where we headed over to the Peter Pane on the other side of the road to Hauptbahnhof. This is a standard German burger chain, but one we had not yet tried. It was very similar to Hans im Gluck. Wolfie had a smashed patty burger and I had the 'Dreikasehoch' which was probably a little too cheesy. We shared a mixed plate of beige fried food (fries, onion rings and sweet potato fries) alongside two dips. I had to go the toilet and fart a lot, my guts not liking all the rich food we had had on our trip. After all this, we took advantage of being at the main station on a Sunday and grabbed a few supplies from Rewe before getting back to Spandau shortly after 8:30pm ahead of another working week.
