Szczecin; Monday, 23 July, 2012

After a hearty breakfast, to make up for the lack of dinner the previous evening, I headed out over to the Cathedral to have a look around. Much of the Cathedral was destroyed in WWII, but it has been repaired and part of that has included putting in spectacular panoramic windows in the spire of the cathedral tower. Lifts whisk you to the viewing platform in ease from where there are stunning views over the city centre.

Having taken in the tower and the cathedral itself, I headed down to the station for one of the more unusual sights in the town, Szczecin underground. Underneath the station is a massive bunker complex, originally started by the Prussians as part of the station construction it was converted into an air-raid shelter by the Germans and then into a nuclear bunker by the Soviets. Today there are tours round both parts of the bunker (in Polish, but with an English transcript).

After taking both tours I quickly grabbed some lunch before heading off to do one of the two suggested walking routes that the tourist office publish. In this instance a 3Km walk from the city centre out to the beautiful rose gardens in the North of the city, except I cheated and took a tram up to the rose gardens and walked back in the opposite direction.

Having completed that walk I then took the other suggested walk, this one is even easier to follow that the first walk as the entire route is marked on the pavements in the city centre with a broken red line. They even paint on the information point numbers so you know where to look for an information board.

By the time I had completed both of the walks it was early evening so I headed over to the old town hall square for a bite to eat before heading back to the hotel to start my packing ready for the following morning.