If you’ve never been to Poland, or even if you have, chances are good that you have not heard of Poznan. Poor you! Poznan is one of the largest cities in Poland and the university city’s young population keeps it vibrant.
Last summer, C and I cycled through Poland to complete the EuroVelo 9 from Adriatic to the Baltic Sea (see the Slovenia part here). This autumn, C has spent 6 weeks as a guest researcher at the university there, so of course I spent my fall break visiting. At around 3 hours by train, Poznan is one of the easiest destinations in Poland to reach from Berlin. Having visited twice, I think you can easily spend a week there with plenty to do!
Table of Contents
Poznan’s Market Square
Your trip to Poznan should begin on the market square, which looks like it’s out of a fairy tale. When we visited Poznan last summer, the market square and surrounding streets were undergoing a multi-year construction project. This has finally been completed and the square is just picture perfect. Most famous for the fighting rams on the clock tower each hour, the square has lots of touristy restaurants and even a pair of live, albeit sad, goats. Much of the market square is a reconstruction, but that doesn’t take away from enjoying the colorful conglomeration of buildings.
My first blog post and first trip to Poland
Free Walking Tour
I love to do free walking tours when I get to a new place. It helps me figure out where things are and hear a local’s perspective on what’s worth visiting, as well as tips on where to eat and things that you won’t find in a guidebook. We loved stumbling across places we remembered from the tour when we explored Poznan a second time this fall. We did our tour through Walkative and got so many great suggestions.
Museums
My experience in Poland so far has shown me that they LOVE audio guide tours, and I have to say that they do a great job at it. The Brana Poznania and Enigma Museum had audio guides similar to the one in Malbork (the largest brick castle in Europe!) and the castle in Kwidzyn.
Brana Poznania
This museum is about the founding of Poznan and the Cathedral Island, where Poznan originated. The audio guide functions a bit like your TV remote. When you enter a new room in the museum it begins to tell you about that room. You get a brief overview and then you can point and click in various locations to hear more about a certain topic or artifact.
C really liked this museum, and I did too, but I had been hoping to hear more about Poznan as a whole and not just the history (much of it religious) of this small part of Poznan. It’s great that you can do the tour in about 8 different languages, including German and English. I did not feel like I was missing out on anything because I don’t speak Polish. The museum also had a bridge over the Cybina, a side arm of the Warta River, which connected it to the Sluza Katedralna, a historical site which hosted a free exhibit.
Enigma Museum
Did you know that before Alen Turing broke the enigma code which helped end WWII, there were several mathematicians in Poznan who laid the groundwork for this breakthrough? I found the Enigma Museum to be really fascinating. There was an audio guide, which sometimes was a little long, but very informative. It is also available in several languages.
The first room introduces you to the people who worked on decoding the enigma machine’s messages, but the subsequent rooms teach you all about different kinds of ways messages were encoded through out history. There are electronic as well as tangible versions of all of the encoding methods which you can try. I had so much fun decoding and encoding messages with each method. I spent several hours in the museum and could have stayed even longer.
The final rooms go into more details about the timeline, people, and events that lead up to decoding the enigma messages during WWII.
Poznan’s Palm House
The Palm House was a great way to escape some of the cold weather in October. For just 4€ you have access to the 8-9 houses within the Palm House. There were several school groups while I was there, so it was busier than I expected, but I still enjoyed my time. I got to see some animals as well as all the plants, including some parrots, toads, coy fish, ants, and a room full of aquariums. There was also an exhibit of animal paintings displayed among the plants in 2-3 of the greenhouses. Though, there isn’t much information in the Palm House about the plants, it’s usually in Polish, but sometimes includes the English name of the plant as well as the Latin name.
Hiking in Poznan
We were able to do two hikes in Poznan while I was there to visit. The first is slightly outside of Poznan in a national park called Wielkopolski Park Narodowy, Greater Poland National Park. It was very easy to take the train from the main station in Poznan to Mosina. Then we had to hike a bit to the edge of town to enter the park. From there we followed the red trail, which is about 22km long if you do the whole loop. We cut it a few kilometers short by ending in Puszczykowko.
The Dangers of Hiking in Germany: Animals
The landscape was a bit like hiking in Brandenburg – flatish, sandy, and a few ice age boulders. But the forest was GORGEOUS! We never saw huge swaths of sickly monoculture pine trees. It was a diverse and healthy mixed forest. Being the end of October, the leaves were beginning to change. The park is popular, and we saw more people once we got closer to the parking lots. The trails are well-marked and maintained. There were several places with picnic tables, some of which were covered, and benches.
Some things we loved: the lake with the view of a ruined castle. A dead tree behind the castle was a resting spot for a few dozen cormorants. We also passed by a big swampy area that was interesting. There were some informational signs along the way about flora and fauna, but they were all in Polish. You can find the whole hike on komoot.
Poznan Meteorite Craters
The second hike I did was one that C had hiked the weekend before I came to visit. While he worked, I enjoyed the crisp fall air and some sunshine! I was able to do this hike directly from where C was staying at the university, but you can take the tram to Osiedle Sobieskiego, which is the end of several tram lines.
The best part of this hike is getting to the craters. This area has a really healthy, dense forest. I heard and saw so many birds while I was here. Poland is a hotspot for meteorite remains and this location has seven crater formations from them. The hike goes through the Rezerwat Przyrody Meteoryt Morasko, or Morasko Meteorite Nature Reserve. The trail in the park winds by several of the craters and includes information signs which are well-done in English and Polish. Here’s the hike on Komoot.
Thrift Stores in Poznan
I got this idea from Mit Vergnügen, my favorite website to find out what to do and where to go in Berlin. They had an Instagram reel about how to visit Poznan cheaply from Berlin and suggested going thrift store shopping. I’m not sure why I thought I could handle thrift shops when shopping for clothes generally overwhelms me, but I did wander through two or three. There are secondhand clothing shops all around Poznan. I saw men, women, old, and young out shopping! Good for your wallet and the environment 😉
Eating in Poznan
Polish food contains a lot of potatoes, which I LOVE. Though we ate many pierogis, there were some other delights as well.
Vegan
There several places where you can eat vegan or vegetarian in Poznan. Our first meal out in Poznan was at Maitri, which is vegan and gluten free. I could have eaten here every night. The food was so lovingly made, fresh, delicious, and inexpensive! The menu was small but seasonal, which is also more sustainable. I had buckwheat pancakes with a tomato and pumpkin stew, and lots of fresh vegetables as well as a starter beetroot soup. C had a potato quiche which also came with lots of fresh vegetables and pickles. In the end I was so struffed but I wanted more, it was that good.
How to eat a plant-based diet
We also tried to get vegan food at Yuba, but it was so full we wouldn’t have gotten a table before they closed. The food here is more Asian style than Polish. I wish we could’ve tried it.
St. Martin’s Croissant
Poznan is famous for it’s Saint Martin Croissant, or rogal świętomarciński in Polish. This croissant has a poppy seed, raisin, nut, fruit filling and is topped with icing and more nuts. If you eat one of these, you will not need anything else all day. The croissant is listed in Europe’s register of protected destinations of origin, meaning it can only be made in Poznan. Though the protected version can only contain margarine and not butter, it is also made with egg, so it is not vegan.
Day trip to Kórnik
My final tip for spending a week in Poznan is to take a day trip. I learned about Kórnik through the Walkative blog, as well as other day trip destinations. I chose Kórnik because it is easy to get to, has a castle, and there’s a lake to hike around.
All of my posts about CASTLES!
Getting to Kórnik was easy via the 501 or 560 bus from Rondo Rataje with a 45 minute ticket. The bus seemed to depart often from here. I think it returned to Poznan hourly, but I ended up returning on a private bus to Poznan for a few more zloty, just because it was the first one to come by.
How to Hike Safely in Germany
I first hiked around the lake and couldn’t believe how great the weather and fall colors were. Kórnik has a wonderful promenade along the entire east side of the lake. There’s a pedestrian bridge to cross to the western shore of the lake and is next to a wakeboard/waterski pulley. On the other side, there was a nice park with lots of benches and a beach with grass umbrellas. The west side has beautiful, healthy forests. I often stopped to take pictures or listen to the birds. There are a few boardwalks to walk across, which I love. At one point I saw several woodpeckers, Eurasian jays, and Eurasian nuthatches from the same location. It was so nice to watch them all! The trail coincides with an exercise trail on the western shore.
A 1000km bike ride with 100 castles
Back on the eastern side of the lake, I paid 28PLN to visit the castle. The inside is gorgeous and is decorated like it was in its heyday. The information stands in each room are in Polish and English. Some of the signs for the artifacts are only in Polish and there was a history exhibit was all in Polish. Enough information is available in English that I found it worth the entrance. Here’s my hike on Komoot.
Afterwards I also walked through the arboretum for another 12PLN. I was kind of tired by this point, so I don’t know if you NEED to go in if you already walked around the lake, but it was also beautiful in fall colors. Some signs are in English, some have just the English tree name, and others are only in Polish.
Final Thoughts
Something that surprised me was that people either spoke amazing English or absolutely no English. I had expected something a bit more in between. As long as you know hello (dzień dobry) and thank you (dziękuję), I think you’ll get along fine!
I remembered enjoying Poznan when we cycled through it last summer, but it was so nice to get to spend an entire week there. I could easily go back to do more hiking or more time in the city.