Malbork, Poland

Anita,

I made this exact trip in July 2003, first took the train from Berlin Zoo (now it would be Berlin Hauptbahnhof), had to transfer twice, the second time in Stettin,(now in Poland), from there on to Gdansk (Danzig).
I would suggest this: make a day trip to Malbork (Marienburg) from Gdansk since you're going there anyway. Taking the train r/t from Gdansk to Malbork is very interesting with regard to the landscape, there's one stop at Tczew (Dirschau). I stayed at a small hotel in the former old city (Danziger Altstadt) Can't recall if I saw lockers at Malbork train station. Very, very memorable trip in that lower Vistula region.

For those of you who have visited Malbork, can you let me know approximately how much time you spent at the castle and in town - I am trying to determine whether to stop here on the way to Gdansk or on the return to Warsaw and am trying to figure out which trains to shoot for.

We spent half a day at Malbork. I think that was about right. We could have spent more if we walked outside the wall along the river or to some photo spots. They have great Ipod tour guides, included in admission, that describe highlights in multiple languages. Malbork is about 45 minutes by train from Gdansk. The train station is probably a 15 minute walk from the castle. I would do it as a daytrip from Gdansk and leave your luggage at the train station in Gdansk. We ended up hiring a taxi for the day for four of us. It didn't save money, trains in Poland are cheap, but saved time not relying on train schedules.

Thanks for the info. Since I have limited time, I want to do this either on the way to Gdansk (from Torun) or on the way to Warsaw (from Sopot). Given that the current train times are almost 7 hrs between Sopot and Warsaw, I will probably do this on the way into Gdansk/Sopot.