Publié: 01.07.2019
Don Curry has always had a great interest in the history of the countries he visits. Cultures, traditions, nationalities do not suddenly emerge out of nothing, they develop under certain conditions. Don Curry finds it exciting to explore this. Perhaps one day he will even be able to understand why a party called 'Law and Justice' (Polish PiS) is working so hard to prevent law and justice; or in other words, to implement what its leader would like to understand as law and justice. However, today Don Curry dedicated himself exclusively to history long past.
The day started after a manageable breakfast buffet at the Hotel Transit with a powerful piece of the present: it took Don Curry a whole hour to navigate through Berlin's city center to the edge, constantly threatened by congested traffic and an aggressive horde of kamikaze bicycle riders who swarmed around Don Curry's Golf at any time and any place.
Shortly after Poznan, he left the Polish highway to head north. His first destination would be the medium-sized city of Gniezno, formerly known as Gnesen. Here he had landed in the heart of the Polish state, as Gniezno is not only one of the first human settlements in present-day Poland, but also the legendary and historical first center of the Piast state, which developed into the predecessor of Poland.
The magnificent cathedral, which dates back to the Romanesque period, bears witness to this. But sometimes the historical significance of a building seems to overshadow the visual impression. Don Curry felt mainly disappointed. Numerous baroque elements and a modern high altar from 1997 made the spirit of history become rather short-winded. Unfortunately, he didn't have time for a tour of the Romanesque doors and a climb up the towers. He might come back on another occasion, but a real longing for Gniezno and its treasures did not arise.
He would have liked to delve further into his journey through time, but the distance from Berlin to the farthest point in northern Poland did not allow for it today. So he only drove through extensive landscapes of northern Poland and small villages with their lively stork nests until he reached Frombork on the Vistula Lagoon.
He checked into the small hotel with an extremely friendly receptionist/waitress, treated himself to fish soup, pike-perch fillet, 2 plum beers from the Allenstein Kormoran Brewery, and homemade aronia vodka during a violent rain shower, and then burned off at least a few calories with a nighttime walk to the harbor on the Vistula Lagoon.
This place, too, breathed history incessantly. Don Curry would explore it further the next morning. Today, the diverse journey through time had brought him back to a contented present.