Toruń & Ziemia Chełmińska

I've been in Toruń sorting faunal samples from early medieval and Teutonic Order sites with Daniel Makowiecki for various isotopic studies, doing bits of teaching, meeting with various colleagues and having a look at some castles with Marcin Wiewióra. The best was Lipienek, which is normally completely inaccessible as it's overgrown completely with lethal vegetation - pretty much a wall of thorns. Right now the vegetation is dormant and it's very accessible...given its location, surroundings and importance, potentially a site for future excavation. This is the outer bailey (przedzamcze):

and this is what's left of the main castle:

But soon it will look like this

I also found out that beavers have colonised the Vistula around Toruń, chewed up trees in the process, and there are wolves prowling on the other side of the river, probably going after all the wild boar and roe deer...so all we need now is a bear or two, some lynx and we'd be back in the 13th century...