Torun, Poland

This weekend, Lissa and I took a short trip to the beautiful town of Torun (about halfway between Warsaw and Gdansk) which is known for its Gothic Old Town, its decorative gingerbread, and as being the place where Copernicus was born.

View of Torun
(from the tower of the very cool 14th century Town Hall)

Lissa and Copernicus:

According to the confusing signage within: this building may or may not have been the place where Copernicus was born, but was definitely owned by his family, and so one is statistically more likely to be in the place where Copernicus was born when in this house, than in, say, the Louvre:

Birthplace of Copernicus, maybe:

The town is also has the ruins of a castle of the Teutonic Knights, built in 1233, and subsequently destroyed by what I imagine to be very angry peasants with pitchforks and such around 1466. The Mediaeval wall around the city is also partially intact, and includes one particuliarly precarious tower.

Lissa examines the ruins and I stay far away from that tower:

Other highlights of the trip included...

We accidentally attended some kind of folkloric festival with cute polish children doing folk dances with kitchen implements:

I had Ukranian Borscht, which consisted of absolutely nothing but a spicy bright red broth:

All in all, a fun, interesting and surprisingly easy excursion!