The Polski Express: Trip to Toruń -- special extended edition

Dear Barry,

Of the four of us in Poland, 3 started out as physics majors. I am the only one who still is. I find that there are an awful lot of math vs physics scuffles. Physics came out ahead today as we visited Toruń, home of Copernicus.

Each picture below is made small because I have a lot of them and nobody likes scrolling. They are linked to versions sized as what I have posted in the past. It's unclear to me why there is this huge gap, but I promise the rest of this post does exist.

	Today we spent the day in Toruń. We left Łódź bu train before 8 in the morning, arriving around lunchtime.
	Arrival at the Old Town. You probably knew that. Because there is English on this sign! Toruń is a tourist sort of place, so even though it is not as large as Łódź there are enormously more resources for non-Polish speakers.
	Yay bilingualism!
	We are careful not to be tourists in Łódź. It would just not be appropriate given the city and the length and nature of our stay. However, we really being in Toruń as a free pass to be touristy and snap a million pictures. I figure that it may be obnoxious, but the locals will get us back by jacking up the restaurant prices.
	And besides, we were by far not the only tourists.
	Also, did I mention that Copernicus was born here?
	Here in Toruń, I mean. Did I mention that Copernicus was born in Toruń? . . . Copernicus Toruń Copernicus Toruń Copernicus Toruń.
	Interestingly, this was not the only Tupac-themed graffiti that we encountered. There were several (stylistically distinct) instances.
	One thing I love about Europe that America cannot duplicate is the architecture. Buildings, who knows how old, just sit around like it's no big deal.
	They are used for a variety of purposes, just like new buildings.
	Some of them are very large. This in particular is a face of the church of St. John the Baptist. This church was created (though much of the structure was built in following centuries) before 1250. We were able to peek inside, but not take pictures.
	Within the walls surrounding the church, there was a statue of our friend JPII. I guess being the first Polish pope really gets you popular in Poland; we see him pretty often.
	We enjoyed most that he is a statue holding a statue. Holding a statue.
	We also encountered a lot of knights, dragons and angels sitting on the fronts of buildings. This was not the best example, but narrow streets made it very difficult to get a a picture of most of them.
	We had lunch. Pierogi and beer (very Polish). Mine were full of sausage, which was good, and juniper berries, which... were memorable. At the time I write this, it has been at least 9 hours since I ate them, and I am not yet hungry.
	We visited the ruins of a Teutonic castle. It was conquered by an uprising of the townspeople of Toruń in the 1400s. Among his many involvements, I guess Copernicus was involved in fighting against the Teutonic order. In his house is a document written by NC, asking for reinforcements against them.
	A lot of the castle was not in ruins, as much was reused as part of the city. The old and the new are really just blended right together here. Cars drive through ancient arches like this in several places, and the wall stretches around most of the Old Town.
	Copernicus Museum! We were not allowed to take pictures inside (and honestly there wasn't much to take pictures of). I was not really that impressed with this museum. However, even though he has a lame museum I think Copernicus is probably still worthwhile.
	While recovering from pierogi and all of the steps in the Copernicus Museum, we sat on benches and watched pigeons. It was actually pretty entertaining; it must be mating season. The male pigeons (we assume) all had their feathers ruffled up. He would walk at a female pigeon "hey honey, let's propagate the species." She would walk, or sometimes fly, away from him "fat chance jerkface." Within seconds, he would start walking at the next nearest female. This was repeated until all females left. Then the bunch of males just sat around behind our bench and practiced puffing out their feathers, thinking "tomorrow that lady-pigeon will not be able to resist my poofy charms."
	This is a plaque in Polish. We didn't actually read it, or recognize or look up any of the words in it. We didn't even check if there was an English translation of the whole thing nearby. Why not? Because we could feel what this place was.
	And what it still is: a gladiator pit. You can even see the figure in black fleeing as three new warriors, each a godless killing machine, enter on the right.
	On our way out we stopped at a park with some flower arrangements.
	Finally, we headed back to Łódź. The train ride took us once again through some beautiful countryside. Notice Thomas, as he crushes his opponent's tanks.

Hope you enjoyed this trip. I sure did.

---

Here are some new, large pictures. They are up now that I got PhotoStitch to work. As you might expect from a photo built from others, it is larger than one alone. Click knowing this.

Some buildings are very tall. This is the boring end of a really old church. The exciting end had a very high money wedding. There was a stretch SUV limo out back. In Poland it is rare to even see what in the US would be a regular sized car.

This one didn't turn out particularly well. It's a goofy angle of St. John's church. You can see the scaffolding they use to restore it. Interesting fact: in one of the pictures used to make this one, Philip was knocking on the door. I don't know where he went.

Just another ancient gate popping up out of the road.

From the razor wire and barred windows, we guessed that the building on the left is a prison. Across the street you will find Copernicus University. It was almost enough to reduce Nathan to tears.