Knights in Shining Armor, and the Beach!

This past weekend we and group of friends made a trek up to Gdansk in Northern Poland. Our goal was to visit Malbork during the annual reenacting of the Siege of Malbork. We took the train down from Gdansk and spent the day enjoying the medieval fair, fabulous period accurate costumes, and touring the castle. Unfortunately, after a long day spent around dust, hay, and horses (with not an open pharmacy in sight), my allergies decided to make my day miserable. I held out as long as possible, but in the end I started to make Dave miserable too, and we admitted defeat and headed back to our hotel as the the began. We still got to see lots of cool things like a longbow archery competition: Before heading up to Malbork, we spent the morning touring Gdansk, shopping for amber, visiting the canal, and drinking beer. Here's a picture of Gdansk's old town:

And here is Dave by the canal in Gdansk. You can just make out a wooden medieval crane to the left of his shoulder.

On Sunday, we decided to go to the beach. We were surprised to find out that our hotel, though technically in Gdansk, was much closer to the Polish resort town, Sopot. Our hotel was smack on the beach. We didn't come prepared for the beach: I just went in my clothes, but we managed to find Dave a rather unique set of swim trunks at the local market for $3. The water was cool, but pleasant enough to swim in. You would never guess we were on the Baltic Sea, would you?