July 6 - Sunday
We had decided to go to 9 a.m. mass at Chrystusa Króla. The sanctuary filled to standing-room-only (for about 10 people). Naturally, it was all in Polish. Łukasz said the sermon, by a traveling priest, was very nondescript.

After changing clothes at the hotel and checking out (which consisted of telling the clerk, "We're leaving now, goodbye") we visited the castle. There were many displays inside. The first was a couple of shields (the German name for Ostrzeszów was Schildberg; schild=shield) followed by several carved, wooden instruments of torture - witches' chair, rack and stocks. The view from the top of the keep was very nice - took lots of pictures. In the courtyard, we saw a sign showing guild coats-of-arms from the 1500's, including stonemason, baker (with a pretzel), carpenter and cabinet maker.

On our way from Ostrzeszów to the city of Poznan, we stopped at a museum where there was a restaurant, intending to have lunch, but it was reserved for a private function. It was an old mansion where Chopin had once given a recital. Further down the road, we came across the Trzcieliny restaurant. It had been decorated for a wedding the day before, and the white & purple balloons, rose garlands and white tulle drapes were still in place. Mike had rouladin and I had Golabki (stuffed cabbage with tomato sauce). The waitress spoke English very well. She served us cake left from the wedding - mine had strawberry jello in it and Mike's had blue.

Our time in Poznan was spend mostly in cathedrals - ornately decorated. The Basilica, the first Catholic church in Poland, was Sts Peter & Paul. It was built on an island in the river. We saw the town square, beautiful town hall, old firehouse and castle ruins. Because of narrow streets, parking is on a marked part of the sidewalk, on top of the curb. A nice treat was hearing a horse and wagon clip-clopping and rolling across the cobblestones, echoing down the narrow streets lined with stone buildings, just like it sounds in the movies.

When Łukasz took us to the Blues Hotel, he asked the desk clerk to arrange a taxi for us in the morning, to go to the airport. Since there was no place nearby to eat, the clerk set us up with two bowls of delicious goulash, kielbasa (again, soft hot dogs) and bread. She also said there would be sandwiches for us to take to the airport, since we were leaving at 5:30 a.m., before breakfast was served.

The room was very nice, new and somewhat more comfortable than the Katrina in Ostrzeszów (the beds were just as hard as all the hotels). Still no screens in the windows, or air conditioning. The shower was huge by comparison. We watched an "old West pioneer" movie in German on TV - didn't really need translation, it was a typical Harlequin romance.