Lidzbark Warminski
11 March 2000
It started off as a beautiful sunny (but cold) morning. A great day for a day trip. However, by 9h, it was cloudy. Oh well, at least it didn’t snow or rain.
Mary and I caught the 8h bus to Olsztyn (66km, 8.30 zl). There is a direct bus from Mragowo to Lidzbark Warminski, however, it only runs Monday – Friday. We arrived at 9h30, then caught the 9h45 bus to Lidzbark Warminski (50km, 4zl). That took us another hour, so we finally arrived at 10h45.
The bus station is a 15-minute walk from the Old Town area. The entrance to that area is an old gate from the 1500’s, the High Gate. The Old Town area really isn’t worth seeing, as it was destroyed during WWII and was rebuilt with dingy and gray one and two story buildings. However, if you walk through the old town area, to the river, you see the main reason we came here..The Lidzbark Warminski Castle.
The castle was constructed during the 14th century. It is red brick, very large and has turrets on the corners. We found the entrance and went in. A man who didn’t speak English greeted us and opened a door so we could start our tour. I asked him in Polish if we needed to buy tickets, and he said "free."
The first room we went into had pictures of many different castles in the area. The most impressive was the island castle of Trakai, which is outside of Vilnius, Lithuania (which was already on my plans for the summer).
The next area we were directed to was the cellar. We descended two flights of narrow, curving staircases to the main floor of them. Displayed there were cannons, cannonballs, etc. from the 1600’s. The cellar is also made of brick and has vaulted ceilings, as do all of the rooms of the castle. By this time, there were four other people looking around as well.
The man that was guiding us around motioned for us to go into the area marked Kasa Biletowy (ticket cashier). I figured that this would be where we would pay for admission. However, there wasn’t anyone behind the register. We still waited there and soon a lady appeared. She motioned for the group of us (now 6 people) to follow her. It really was going to be a free guided tour! The regular price is 6.10 zl and, as we found out, this tour is well worth it even if you have to pay!
The tour takes you through all three levels of the castle, with different displays in all areas. There is even a beautiful church, decorated gold and white. Most of the items date back to the 15th and 16th centuries, but there are also some from the late 19th. I really enjoyed all of it, except the 20th century art display in one of the rooms of the top level (which was tolerable). I am not a modern art person.
We caught the 14h15 bus back to Olsztyn, arriving at 15h30. At that time, we had to take the 15h50 train back to Mragowo, as the next bus didn’t leave until 16h40 (the 15h45 bus is only Monday – Friday). That was fine, as we prefer train travel to bus travel. Also, the train ticket ended up only costing 6.96zl. That was strange, as the usual fare is 8.70zl. Charging less is fine with me.
All in all, what a great day. Lidzbark Warminski is a long bus ride from Mragowo, but we both agreed that it was well worth it.
