Visiting Malbork Castle (Poland), Part I: The approach

I gave Judy a morning off from the sightseeing this day (May 27) and ventured off to Malbork Castle on a solo DIY mission. It's about 30 minutes by train. By this time in the trip I was very comfortable with the Koleo site and app for managing my tickets. So off I went. Got on the 7:52 train out of Gdansk with a gameplan of being done with everything and back in Gdansk by noon.

The castle is a good 20-minute walk from the train station.

First maybe 5-6 minutes of that is pretty generic fringe suburb scenery. There's this manufacturing plant across from train station. Think it's this place (well reviewed, btw).

Then you make your way across the roundabout.

It gets somewhat more interesting as you enter the center of town via its main drag (Tadeusza Kosciuszki). I was here at 8:30 am on a Tuesday, so not a lot going on. But a cute stretch of donut shops, a cafe, a bakery, as well as general things people need day-to-day, such as a pharmacy, a butcher, etc.

I wouldn't say that you need to allocate extra time to soak in the charms of downtown Malbork. But if you find yourself with extra time, there a few places to pop into.

Further west along the main drag you pull up on the statue for good king Kazimierz and it becomes clear you're on the right track to the castle.

When you hit this pizza chalet, bang a soft left and you're right there.