Second day exploring Poznan, Poland

We had an open Saturday to explore Poznan. No planned tours. No specific places to be at any specific time. But I had a few things I wanted to check out. After a quick breakfast at inna.piekarnia we started by doing a brief spin around Wolnosci Square.

I'm a sucker for trams, so of course I took a few pics of them as they passed through.

From there we did a brief pass by the Royal Castle (aka, Zamek Królewski w Poznaniu), which looks to be an interesting museum that would be worth some time during a longer stay in town. But we did Wawel and I would be doing Malbork in a few days. So in Poznan we kept the castle part of the agenda to exteriors only.

On our ~15-minute walk to the next castle, we took a few vibe shots. You can see the cloudy cool weather was with us again.

Next stop, the Imperial Castle, which I was surprised to learn is just over 100 years old. When I think 'castle' I think hundreds of years plural, not just 100. For my money, the prettier of the two castles in Poznan. Nice fountain feature. And it seemed a bit like a park. Some benches on the grounds with people sitting down for a chat with their coffee. Saw a couple of people walking their dogs in parts of the garden. Just your local neighborhood castle.

My next objective was to visit a couple of neighborhoods west of the city center, Jeźyce and Łazarz. Rynek Jeźycki would be about a 20-minute walk from the Imperial Castle. And I was intent to take a tram at some point during my time in Poland. Lot of walking and scooting made the tram mostly irrelevant to our getting around. But I had done my research, learned about the Jakjojade app from Zuzanna's YouTube video, and wanted to test it out. So we got ticket for the 8 tram and rode it over. Bypassed the Bilety machine because we had what we needed on the app. Almost waited on the wrong side of the street which would have sent us off in the wrong direction. But in the end we took an uneventful 5 minute tram ride to Jeźyce.

We hopped off the tram and took a look around the open air market that is right on Rynek Jeźycki. Authentic. Struck me as a good place for locals to get their basics, nothing more, nothing less.

Did a spin around the stalls, then a quick walk around the block before we found a pick up point for some scooters.

We made our way south along Szylinga and then Matejki, as illustrated in the google route tracking shot here.

One downside of scooting is I can't really capture pics of what we're seeing as we go. Occassionally we hop off and grab some shots. But you're too busy navigating the sidewalks, people, cars when you're in the street, etc. Not a best practice to scoot one handed with a phone in the other. At least I can't do it. Especially since the throttle is on the right and I'm a righty with my phone. Anyway, really liked this area. It was early afternoon on a cloudy Saturday. Low key vibes all around. Definitely had the feel of the part of town you'd want to live in and spend some time in.

For example, there is Wilson Park. That day they had some kind of weekend fair going on with family-friendly activities. Number of people out walking their dogs. Just a pleasant place to have in your community.

As we worked our way back north we snapped shots of things and places that caught our eye. Mowish Mash Specialty Cafe, for one, which has stellar google reviews.

Miscellaneous side streets hiding some great looking small townhouse / rowhouse type residential buildings. With your local fruit stand + mural nearby on the main drag.

Couple of hip Asian places side by side (Min's,, and & Kim Chi Ken) across from a bagel place.

We dropped the scooters and planned to grab a Bolt back to the hotel.

But we were having bad luck. For whatever reason it was showing all cars were going to take like 12 - 15 minutes to come get us. And it would be a 20-minute walk back to the hotel. So we sucked it up. About halfway we were ready for a bathroom and coffee break. Right on cue we found Gwara. A quiet, cozy joint that was toasty warm. Enjoyed an espresso, tasty hot chocolate, and a pistacchio & raspberry macaron that we couldn't wait to chomp into before snagging a pic. Would recommend.