A walk along the river Brda at Bydgoszcz

Work has started again with a vengeance and when I'm not teaching, I'm preparing materials for my courses. As a result I don't have much time this week and I've missed my usual weekly posting. I've been wanting to finish off my Polish travel story, but even that will need to be curtailed a little (I can hear you all breathe again), so I thought that for this week, I'd just take you on a walk along the River Brda at Bydgoszcz with me. 

We stopped at Bydgoszcz on our way to Gdansk as Koos wanted to show me the canalised river with its rather special former lock, and I must say I was very glad we did because it was really lovely. Bydgoszcz is a fine city, not quite as charming as Torun, but maybe that was the weather. As you can see from these photos, it was cloudy and quite cool, so that always changes the atmosphere. It even rained a bit but not enough to affect our walk.

I love waterways and locks and to my delight, there was a boat going through the one we came to as soon as we reached the waterside. Follow the path with me and enjoy scenery.

Looking upstream from the lock

A small park near the lock. The glass topped box behind the
bin is full of books that you can exchange. A mini library

See the boat in the lock? What a nice surprise!

Rising to the upper reach

It was a trip boat and we were sorry we didn't have time to do an excursion
I would have loved that

And off she goes with a throng of happy passengers

This is the interesting bit. I hope you can read the text below as it explain
it all.

Essentially the in and out of this lock were on the same side, as the river
and canal were split into two parallel levels at the time. The English
is a bit odd, but I hope you get the idea

The old lock is no longer in use but has been kept as a monument. The new
lock we saw has replaced it and has rerouted the river to make the transition
easier

The new and the old lock from the other side

Then we crossed a few streets to find the real river
and how charming it was

By this time, it was quite gloomy, hence the dark scene, but it was lovely to walk
the path and see the students on the bench enjoying being outside

Looking back along the river from a café terrace where we stopped for coffee

Zooming out a bit.

This was from a bridge over the river showing where the canal and Brda
merge again. You can see the weir to the left

The cleanup crew on the water. Nice job!

Looking downstream where there are trip boats and restaurant boats moored

Lovely to see the water being used by canoeists too

Some of the grander buildings that line the river

After our walk, we strolled back up the hill to the station and continued on our way to Gdansk, but this was a lovely interlude. I think I could bear another visit to Bydgoszcz, so maybe one day I'll persuade Koos to go back and we can do a boat trip and explore more of the city.

Enjoy the rest of your week allemaal! The final stage will be coming soon.