Sztynort, Węgorzewo and Giżycko

[Route] Today I really started to get into the lake district, circling the lakes Jezioro Dobskie, Jezioro Mamry, Jezioro Święcajty, Jezioro Harsz, Jezioro Kirsajty, Jezioro Dargin and Jezioro Kisajno, along with numerous smaller ones, and camping on the beach of Jezioro Niegocin in Giżycko.

I left Czerniki towards Parcz and came across Mazurlandia just after Gierłoż. The miniature park features models of several of the sights I visited in the past days, such as Święta Lipka and Reszel.

I picked up some bread, cheese and chocolate milk at Mażany and had breakfast next to yet another St Mary's shrine (the flowers in the background).

My first stop today was Sztynort, home to a palace which was inhabited by Heinrich Graf Lehndorff who was executed for taking part in an attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler. Today the palace is very much in need of repair.

The hunting lodge that belonged to the palace is now a restaurant in Gałkowo some 78km away. Only an advertising board by the new owner Alexander Potocki remains.

I stopped for lunch in Węgorzewo, the northernmost town on my trip. The road to Pozezdrze offered this quintessentially Masurian vista at Jezioro Piecek.

Further along the way to Giżycko I came across a German WWI memorial in Pieczarki, formerly Pietzarken. The inscription reads: »The heroic death for the fatherland died in the world war 1914/18 from the parish Pietzarken:«

Just outside Giżycko I discovered this likeness of Virgin Mary locked into a little box by the side of the road. I thought I heard her whisper »I am Mother of God and I command you to release me«, but I must have been hallucinating because my Polish isn't nearly good enough.

When I arrived in Giżycko I didn't find the tourist information and ended up at the port. The port information told me that the best place to camp in Giżycko was right here at the port, but I didn't realise at the time that the port is a privately-run enterprise whose business isn't giving out unbiased advice. As a result, I put up my tent on a lawn which has the atmosphere of a car park (because essentially that's what it is) and lacks even the most basic security features such as a perimeter fence. I later discovered a proper campsite, Kemping LOK, a few hundred metres along the lake shore.

In a recent refurbishment, Giżycko has gained an impressive pedestrian bridge connecting the port to the mall across the railway line and a major road.

I enjoyed a swim in Jezioro Niegocin before a having little walk around the castle and Boyen fortress.