Barry got out of bed earlier than the rest of us and set out on a quest to discover more about the town. He returned in time for breakfast, but then he and Connor left on another reconnaissance while Tessa and Mom worked on the blog.

An hour later, the boys returned with good news. We were changing accommodations. They negotiated a nicer room than we had for a minimal price increase, so we went across the street to the 400 zloty Hotel Grot, where we had incredible service, wireless internet, really nice beds, a beautiful suite and a great sense of relaxation for a day.

After Barry's two trips, he was very knowledgeable in leading the way to Malbork castle, an unbelievably huge castle in Northern Poland. We couldn't believe how well preserved it was until we went on the tour and heard all about its history. It isn't well preserved. In fact, it has been restored several times after several different possessions. It has stood for seven centuries, if you can believe that, and if any of you like reading works like The Da Vinci Code, The Amber Room, The Last Templar, A Knight's Tale or any other kind of Medieval Thriller type genre, this one has it all. Grand Masters, Knights, The Pope, Polish Kings, Prussians, Nazis, and Communist Russians. All of the aforementioned took their turns in this place, and we were amazed at the museum and historical quality, not to mention the amber, armour, and weapon exhibitions. We were led by a wonderful tour guide, a young student in civil engineering. His accent was quite thick but we were the only truly "English" people on the tour, so we got his humour, totally scripted for English people. After we finished the tour, the kids walked the 200 steps up to the top of the tower and took some great pictures of the surrounding landscape and, "of course" (inside joke…our tour guide said, "of course" one million times in 3 hours), themselves.

After we exited the castle, we were met with a festival atmosphere as we walked around the place. We had a bite (sausages and spits of pork) and headed back to our room - our new room - where we played cards, had supper, and checked on accommodations for Warsaw.

Malbork was well worth the side trip!!