Well, Mary’s party was the first step in moving from work time to play time. As Ron pointed out, the trouble with these events is that you go all over the world, but you never actually see anywhere. So the organizers had planned a little outing for us before the Closing Ceremony.
The venue they selected for the morning, however, was quite a way a way. We were all loaded into a bus. Or rather most of us were loaded, at which point it became clear the rest weren’t fitting. So the half of our team that was in the bus, got out, and Daroish of the Kiwi team joined us, along with quite a few other people. The second bus was an army bus, and the driver basically stamped on the brake like he was marching and someone yelled “Halt”. Other than that, it was pretty much the fun bus, especially on the way back when the rest of the Kiwis defected as well.
A fireplace in the recreated village at Biskupin
We left town by the scenic route. We crossed the bridge over the Wisla River (which two of our hosts told us was the longest bridge in Europe – a fact Google firmly refuses to support) and then headed down a country lane. We then waited about 15 minutes at a level crossing before meanderning through several other back streets and then hitting the open road. Then it was just over another two hours to Biskupen where we were to visit a museum and a recreation of a village from about 1000 BC.
The museum tour guide told us about the types of buildings found in the area both before and after the period when the recreation was set. You probably don’t want to hear about all that here.
Interesting brand name - found in the bathroom at teh restaurant
After the tour, we were taken to a restaurant for lunch. This would be a good opportunity to mention that the buffet dinners each night at the Hotel Filmar and the lunches at the Aeroclub were both absolutely delicious and top notch quality. As to this meal, well it served mostly for contrast.
We then headed back to Torun, with our guides stressing because we were behind time. There was clearly no way we were going to make it to our next venue – the Torun Planetarium – by 3pm. And Marzenna and Anja only stressed more when we found ourselves behind a crashed tractor. We got past that quickly enough, and arrived at the Planetarium where our eager guides rescheduled for 4:30.
I really do mean it about the "mad dash" through Torun
This left us with no time at all to prepare the photo cards and gift bags that had waited – as these things do – for the last minute. So we performed various mad dashes through Torun old town to try to get our shopping done and a good team photo printed before 4:30, and then Mary headed back to the hotel to stick the newly-printed photos onto cards while the rest of us attended the show at the Planetarium. By then, the planned walk back from the Planetarium to the hotel had been scrapped in favour of retaining the army bus. Well done the organizers! Of course, we arrived there with 15 minutes to prepare for the Closing Ceremony, so it was pretty much a necessity.
We then all dashed upstairs, threw ourselves at our smart outfits, threw goodies at the bags, and rushed downstairs for the festivities. But we all got there on time.
