The major attraction of Poznan is the Old Market square. Which has quite an unusual format versus other central squares we have visited. It is square as all the other ones but it is a much larger square plaza but the unusual feature is that in the middle there is another small square of buildings including the Old City Hall. Usually the City Hall anchors the square on one side but here it is actually in the middle of the square with a few buildings around it.
Otherwise the buildings surrounding the square are quite typical, they are beautiful but we would be hard-pressed to distinguish them from any other major city with a maintained medieval central square.
With the rain on and off the majority of people and groups are hiding near overhangs and souvenir stands. Everyone is awaiting the major attraction at noon which is of course also the reason we made a beeline for the central square.
And the reason is the head-butting goats in the Old City Hall. It is a major attraction in town and the goats are butting heads only at noon and at 2PM and we don’t how the weather will be so we plan to try both of them. With ten minutes left it looks cloudy but not rainy so maybe we will be able to catch them at the first occasion?
In fact there is even some sun out as we make a quick detour to the, surprisingly free and clean, toilets right next to the city hall.
But as we return to our spot in front of the City Hall the situation has deteriorated significantly with dark clouds right above us. And as the goats start to come out the rain also starts to fall, we shouldn’t be so surprised with our luck.
However the crowds do not budge and so we do not budge either. The umbrella is out fighting with the other umbrellas and covering our camera taking photos and videos of the goats.
The head butting is fun with the crowd ahh-ing and ooh-ing at every head-butt and an actual trumpet player playing a song to match the tension. Quite fun even with the rain.
But now we have enough of the rain so we dash inside a nearby restaurant we have researched prior that has multiple Polish specialties we want to try. Luckily there is one free table funnily when we leave the whole restaurant is empty but not now.
We order a zero alcohol beer which is quite good and a hot coffee that warms us up until the zurek comes. This is one of the major specialties here, a sour soup with egg and home-made bread which is surprisingly good.
The main course are pierogies and beef cheeks, both of them specialties and really good and welcome as we are quite hungry at this point in time.
Exiting the rain has stopped after falling quite hard while we were eating. We decide to take advantage of this to take another look at the City Hall and then search for a cache.
But first we take a look at one of the many fountains in the central square, this is in honor of the settlers from Bamberg and is called, not surprisingly, Bamberka Fountain.
For the cache we take a side street out of the square and find a more quiet street where the cache is an easy find. Phew. And then we go to visit the beautiful pink Collegiate Basilica and with the rain coming again then we enter the Archaeological Museum. Which is smart as there is another bout of rain that ends by the time we exit, this was lucky really.
And that was the last bout of rain for today, when we return to the central square it is cloudy but the dark clouds have gone. So we can visit in peace and enjoy the beautiful plaza.
There are lots of fountains in the plaza and now we have time to explore all of them before it is time to return to the train station.
We didn’t have time before to take a full tour of the plaza so now we go round the whole plaza and we enjoy the many beautiful buildings and the fact that the majority of the tour groups are gone.
On the back side of the Town Hall sits the Museum of the Greater Poland Uprising that we don’t have time to visit but sounds interesting enough, maybe next time if we have more time.
And then the sun is out which makes for even better photos and then it is time to buy souvenirs and return to the train station.
For souvenirs we cannot resist buying a plush pigeon, a few magnets including one with the head butting goats and the piece de resistance, a couple St. Martin’s Croissants. These are the specialties of the city and are great especially the next day at breakfast. And then it is time to go back to the train station and then back to Berlin after a beautiful day in Poznan if we exclude the rain portions of the day.
