Olsztynek and Olsztyn

Today I caught a train to Olsztynek, a small town south of Olsztyn, to visit the open air museum. I decided not to go by bike because the roads between Olsztyn and Olsztynek didn't look particularly inviting, either motorways or tiny, most likely unsealed roads.

One thing that struck me as strange about Olsztyn's train station (dvorzec kolejowy) was that there were no bicycles parked outside on the bike rack (see lower right). What station doesn't have bikes parked in front of it?

It didn't feel safe leaving my bike as the only one there, so I ended up hiding it next door at the dvorzec autobusowy behind a bus shelter.

I got to Olsztynek by catching a local train to Działdowo. The return ticket merely cost 5zł (€1.25).

The station building in Olsztynek made a slightly neglected impression.

When I got to the museum, it was just about lunch time.

I sampled some more local cuisine and had an excellent potato cake (bapka ziemniaczana) with chanterelle sauce. Like most places in Poland, they also offered a great cole slaw side-dish (surówka).

The open air museum consisted of a large variety of very different historic buildings that had been carefully dismantled at their original site and rebuilt here. There was also some farming equipment and most buildings could be viewed from the inside.

A clattering of windmills, the museum's emblem.

Back at Olsztynek station, I took some photos of the adjacent factory building.

When I returned to Olsztyn, I discovered the observatory and planetarium.

I was very excited and visited the next show. Unfortunately it was an American production from 2002 about Mars exploration which made no reference to recent discoveries by the Curiosity rover. The programme was dubbed into Polish and the credits showed that Laurence Fishbourne had done the original voice-over.