Click on the link below my water color painting of Malbork Castle to see the small book I created about our two months in Poland.
https://issuu.com/garyartista/docs/poland_book_2_14d696fd25c58d
Strolling Poland- a short book
Art
Ukranian Woman
Robert Mueller
I’m watching, I’m listening.
Close up
We move in on the eye, it’s shimmering reflections, fluidity, how it conveys awareness.
She’s A Looker
My pen and ink of Poznan Cathedral
My pen and ink of Poznan Cathedral. My travel notebook is 14 x 22, 5.5 x 8.5″
Peg in Vincent’s Wheat Field (digital)
This is after Van Gogh’s “Wheat Field with a Lark.” Starring my wife Peg and my friend Vincent.
Strolling Torun
Torun is small and thus easy to walk. It is full of remarkable architecture, with many restaurants, bars and cafes to add to your enjoyment. The buildings range from the brick structures daring from the 14th century Teutonic Knights to the Gothic to Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The town was not damaged in WW2, so the buildings are not newly rebuilt.
Toruń is another of several Polish city members of the Hanseatic League. The prosperity led to the three main styles, Gothic (dating from 1200’s) in brick, Mannerism and Baroque. The city walls and the now ruined castle are from the Gothic period.
The Cathedral of SS. John the Evangelist and John the Baptist (14th century) has some wonderful sculptures and paintings from the era, including a Moses and St. Mary Magdalene. The multiple altars are ourstanding.
Copernicus was born here and, if you will allow just this one pun, the city revolves around him. There are two museums that deal with him at least in title, this statue in front of city hall, and lots of reproductions of famous portraits.
While you wander about you are tempted by the lody – ice cream – which is very popular in this comparatively warm weather, with temperatures as high as 28c, 80f in generally partly cloud skies. Donuts are elaborately presented, a variety of calorie rich cakes. The city is most famous for its gingerbread, which fortunately for my waist line I do not like. There is very good cappuccino, espresso and macchiato (small cappuccino) — be careful about the latter as there is a small macchiato espresso and a the very large latte macchiato. There are waffles with real whipped cream and cherry jam. Gone are the pretzels, hard and soft, found in Cracow and the multitude of fruit stands and street markets from everywhere we have been. Remaining is the ever-present beer, with wine still an expensive alternative, and I hope you do not like sugar-free colas as they are harder to find if not impossible. Pierogies are everywhere in Poland so here as well, but I could not find latke, potato pancakes. Since our 1998 visit the Italians and Turks have moved in, so pizza and donor kebab are popular, as well as hamburgers even.
With our flat located within blocks of the Rynek (central square) we had the shortest possible commute. This turned out to be not the case in our next destination, the historical city of Poznan. On the other hand, we had two flights of these stairs:
Lech Walesa, two pieces in homage
I have long been an admirer of Lech Walesa. He was the head of Solidarity, having come to that position by way of his willingness to speak up for his fellow workers and take the jail time, periods of unemployment and other consequences. He was a father and a husband, so his actions were not easy for him nor for his wife and family. They helped develop Solidarity into a political movement with 9.5 million members at its peak, after having become the first non-government controlled trade union in the Soviet bloc. Solidarity helped bring down not only the Polish communist regime but helped bring about the fall of the Soviet Union. Lech maintains an office at the Solidarity Museum and at 72 still comes to work there.
