We are in Poland, a country near and far away at the same time. What adventures are waiting there? Today we are starting our tour on the Krutynia, the most beautiful paddling river in Europe. Today we want to see what the polish people have to offer to eat!
You can read the first part here, second here, 3 here and 4 here and the 5 here, 6 here and more here and here and here and here
An endless parade of young people passes through downtown Poznan, one of Poland's oldest cities and, with 557,000 inhabitants, the country's fifth-largest city. The trade fair city lies directly between Berlin and Warsaw on the European Route 30, which crosses the continent from the North Sea to Minsk in Belarus.
It is a very special kind of metropolis, because Poznan is not a university city like so many others. It is a university with a city: 120,000 of its 560,000 inhabitants are students. And tonight, too, they all seem to be out and about, meeting up, drinking beer, eating, and waiting for the city's numerous clubs to open.
A party city
A party city, a bulding city, also an industrial city and a city of trade, Poznan has always been all of these. As early as the Middle Ages, important transport routes crossed here on the banks of the Warta River, so that Poznan became a trade center early on. Today, the industrial metropolis is known above all for its trade fair: Since 1921, trade fair visitors have found their way to the capital of the central Polish province of "Wielkopolska", providing international influences.
With a history that stretches back thousands of years - the first traces of settlement date back 12,000 years, making Poznan one of Poland's oldest cities - the eagerly awaited settlement is considered the cradle of Poland: the country's first episcopal see was founded here in 968, and Poznan was also the royal residence until 1039. Another 250 years beyond that, Polish monarchs were buried in the crypt of the cathedral.
History on every corner
You can smell the fragrance of this multifaceted history on every corner. Besides the cathedral, built in the 10th century and given its present Gothic form in the 14th century, where straight believers devoutly and movingly sing together, the Old Town is one of the main sights of the city.
Conveniently for visitors, the "Route of Kings and Emperors" connects its greatest attractions. The town hall, one of the most important Renaissance buildings in Central Europe, offers a special spectacle every day at noon: two tinny billy goats strike their horns twelve times above the tower clock.
Posen, as it is called in German? Or Poznan, as the Poles call it? Well, the Prussian rule lasted, with a short interruption, only 117 years. However, it left its mark on the city, producing numerous new buildings up to 1918: the imperial residence palace now houses a cultural center, and the Royal Prussian Academy is part of the university.
Still wounds all around
Prussia's anti-Polish policy resulted in the "Poznan Uprising" immediately after the end of World War I, which caused the province of Greater Poland to be absorbed into the new Polish state. There are still wounds from that time, even if they are no longer visible at first sight.
The numerous nature reserves in the surrounding wooded hills are not to be overlooked. River valleys and lakes invite to hiking, biking, cross-country skiing and water sports in this sports-loving region. There is even a year-round ski slope on the shores of Lake Malta, once the site of a 2009 World Rowing Championships.
The heart of the city, however, is undoubtedly the Old Market Square. Completely destroyed during the Second World War, the houses have been rebuilt in exactly the same style that was seen in the city in the centuries before. Today, one could think that everything has always been like this, because the fact that these are comparatively new buildings is not noticeable at all.
The Old Market Square
Especially not to the many-headed party folk who do not come every evening to study architecture and history. The party-loving young men and women, among whom the high quota of bachelorette parties is particularly striking, are drawn to the numerous cafés, bars and clubs on the Old Market Square, which is then transformed into a large open-air party zone by street musicians, roaming Djs with large boomboxes and spontaneous dancers.
The Cathedral Island in the east of the city is also a tourist highlight. This is where Posen's first settlement and the first Polish bishopric were founded in the 10th century.
If you want to see a brewery in operation and taste the famous Poznañ beer, you should go to the Lech Brewery, a company that supplies barley juice to all of Poland and half of the foreign countries. The bottles rattle, the labeling machines hum - this is how around seven million hectoliters of beer are produced every year.
The Prussia of Poland
The locals are as proud of this as they are of their western Polish identity. "The people from the east have a completely different mentality. It's almost like Russia," says one of them, proud of his home region. "The streets here are not as dirty and bad as in Warsaw."
Further east, he says, the right attitude toward work is lacking, but it exists here thanks to the "malocher mentality" of Upper Silesians, which in turn is consider a bit too Prussian in eastern Poland. Posen (Poznan) has a great work discipline, "but somehow people there are not as spontaneous and open as here."
The old borders between Austrian Galicia and the partition territories of Prussia and Russia once ran very close to Poznan, and despite having a German grandfather, Urban considers himself entirely a Polish patriot. They're all in love with the city and if you visit the town, you will understand why.
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A few more pictures for you:
Wow - its such a beautiful city - would love to visit one day !
You should!
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Muy bonita la ciudad, y las fotos sin palabras súper geniales