“There is a way of being wrong which is also sometimes necessarily right.”
Edward Abbey
Editors note:
The author is aware that ‘Pygmy Wheat’ is fictitious. The wheat is in fact, Triticum Aestivum. I thank the valued readership for pointing this out. Further thanks to the readership for explaining the varying influences on wheat height.
Sunday
We are up early and go for a morning walk.
It is a beautiful, cool morning, washed clean by last night’s storms.
Poland’s mushroom season has started and we spot them starting to fruit. Boletes mostly.
“Fungi marched onto land more than a billion years ago. Many fungi partnered with plants, which largely lacked these digestive juices. Mycologists believe that this alliance allowed plants to inhabit land around 700 million years ago. Many millions of years later, one evolutionary branch of fungi led to the development of animals”
Paul Stamets
We head back, pack, and drive to the clubhouse for breakfast.
To suggest I annihilated the seafood at the buffet is an understatement.
We depart for Słońsk. A small town on the border of Poland and Germany with an unfortunate name.
Gabriel García Márquez
“The only thing worse than bad health, is a bad name.”
The driving is uninspiring after yesterday.
We come across a tiny village, with a handful of houses. Sitting on a small hill is the most spectacular of churches. This single monument, in the tiny hamlet of Stęźyca, is larger than all the other dwellings combined.
A stunning building.
As we leave, the local residents start arriving for the 8.00 am mass.
I am often critical of religion, but I have to acknowledge the role it plays in tying the community together. If it was not for church, these people would feel no purpose in gathering and sharing their lives. Religion has a role to play, it is such a shame that the damage it inflicts on the broader population massively outweighs the local good it provides.
“Do you really mean to tell me the only reason you try to be good is to gain God’s approval and reward, or to avoid his disapproval and punishment?”
Richard Dawkins
We continue and arrive at Słońsk. There is a small hope that the town itself rises above its inauspicious name.
Our place is outside of town and there are a few points of interest that we would like to explore. We walk into the town proper to see the ruins of Zamek joannitów w Słońsku.
Słońsk has a neglected feel. It seems like a few years ago there was a genuine attempt to make the village something that strives to outdo its name, and then gave up. You can see the effort, but it is clear that after an initial triumph, it all got a bit hard.
“Have no fear of perfection – you’ll never reach it.”
Salvador Dali
If Zamek joannitów w Słońsku reflected this perception, the Denkmal KZ Sonnenburg personified it.
The museum commemorates the Nazi concentration camp at Słońsk. A new monument in the village has important historical significance. Erich Mühsam, the German, anarchist, playwright and poet was held, tortured and killed at Sonnenburg. As was the German pacifist and Nobel Peace Prize winner Carl von Ossietzky.
Tragically, as the Red Army approached Sonnenburg and defeat was inevitable, in the ultimate act of cowardice the Nazi guards shot almost 900 inmates in a mass execution.
Yet Słońsk, after building the museum only ten years ago, has allowed it to fallen into disrepair.
We walk home and think about dinner.
It is not hot, the weather is mild, and I am in the mood for beer.
There is a restaurant, Restauracja Tomahawk, right next door.
I order some beers off a menu I cannot read. It is no surprise the drinks are not exactly what we had in mind.
Shell orders the rosół wołowy z makaronem to start. She follows this with pierś z kurczaka and I order the polędwiczka wieprzowa w sosie grzybowym.
Not a bad meal, memorable only for the green beer.
Bed early.
Tomorrow, Berlin.
And I cannot wait.
