Aug 28 – Gdansk Poland

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Hello from Poland. Our ship docked in Gdynia Harbor, on the Gulf of Gdansk, just off the Baltic Sea. We arrived at 9:30, so we had a leisurely morning today (especially with an extra hour on the clock last night too). The view from our balcony is of a very scenic port. We had plenty of time today to go to breakfast, return to our cabin to publish the Estonia blog with pictures, and report for our tour at 10:40.



According to the ship’s description of this port:

Gdansk, previously called Danzig was recognized by many as the starting place of World War II. The city is over a thousand years old with its founding in the year 997. As member of the Hanseatic League, Gdansk was the richest port on the Baltic and became a cultural center that drew artists and intellectuals from across Europe. However, on September 1, 1939 a German warship opened fire on a garrison north of the city, launching World War II. By the end of the war, Gdansk was in ruins and Poland was occupied by Russia. The city proved indomitable as residents set about rebuilding the old city. In 1980, the spirit of Gdansk's people proved even stronger than the iron grip of communism: a food riot led to the birth of Solidarity, the trade-labor movement that played a pivotal role in bringing down the Iron Curtain.



We went to the Princess Theater to join our tour. Last night we had compared travel plans with our table neighbors and found that Victor and Sandra were going on our same tour. Sure enough, they were sitting in the row ahead of us, waiting in the theater.



Our tour started with a drive through Gdynia and over to Gdansk, about an hour away. Along the way we drove past the home of former President Lech Walesa. Occasionally he is seen standing out in the yard, but he was not present for us to see today. During the drive, our guide explained that after being practically destroyed during the war, Gdansk decided to rebuild in the style of the original architecture rather than modern building. That is actually an interesting decision, but now it pays off with the “old town” being a real tourist attraction. The surrounding area does look like any other suburb, but the downtown is really interesting.



Our bus let us off near the old town and we were given a map of the city center. We may not have mentioned it before, but almost everywhere we’ve gone we have gotten maps – usually pretty accurate.



We agree to follow the guide for about 90 minutes and then everyone would have 30 minutes to shop/eat and make our own way back to the starting point. Assuming the blog program accepts photos ought, you should see some pretty interesting scenes. There were old fashioned building along the river front, original looking bridges across the river, “gates” which had controlled access to the original city, and lots of shops. Actually Gdansk is clearly a tourist attraction during the summer months, but we really enjoyed walking through the street.



Talking about walking, Janet is continuing to have more and more difficulty with the sidewalks and especially the cobblestone streets. The tour in Belgium was very difficult for her (lots of cobblestones) and St Petersburg was physically exhausting, but each subsequent tour has been harder and harder for her. Today was not too bad conditions, but her feet have basically worn out and are very painful wherever she walks. But she made it all around the town anyway and saw everything that everyone else saw – GOOD JOB to her. There were others on our bus having the same problems so fortunately the guide set a very slow pace with frequent stops.



We stopped at a jewelry store which is associated with the Amber Factory we will be visiting later today. The main advantage was their free toilets, but it gave lots of people ideas to explore when they got to the factory’s gift shop. Dave Brink can rest at ease that we did not buy any jewelry here. But we did use their facilities.



One of the places we saw was an original building from before the war. In order to reinforce the wall (to keep it from falling into the square) they had driven rods all the way through from the front wall to the back wall, and place large “Y” shapes on both sides to keep the way erect (maybe a picture will help explain).



From a distance we saw the church tower from a distance, which we visited later in the trip. Our guide told us that there was no spire because a giant had come along and sat on the top before they got that part built. He had placed his toys along the roof tops of many of the buildings (these figures are still there – or maybe they are replacements after the rebuilding). Then the giant had promised to protect the town from dangers in the future. So they never built the spire. The other theory is that the ground had originally been swamp land and they were afraid the extra height might make the tower collapse.



While walking around town we saw the city armory and town hall, the recreation of the 13th-century “merchant road”, a 15th-century palace, the iconic Neptune's Fountain, and then to the cathedral. It is reported to be the world's largest brick church and with Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque architecture which dates to the 24^th century. It had originally been a Catholic church but then became Lutheran. However now it is Catholic again. After he was selected as Pope, John Paul II came to Gdansk and held a mass in this cathedral, where they somehow got 25,000 parishioners inside.



Coming out of the church, we got separated from the guide, but it we were down to the last 30 minutes so we made our own way back to the meeting point. However, Victor got separated from Sandra and he was pretty concerned about her. Actually she had stayed with the guide and got back to the meeting point just fine. But we and he were taking different routes back to try to spot her along the way. All turned out fine though.



After we left Gdansk, the bus returned to Gydnia, where we went to an Amber factory. This area is one of the amber centers of the world. This petrified tree resin is highly valued for both jewelry and is supposed to be a source of folk remedies. They actually mine the amber in three places in Europe – one of which is Poland. However, the raw materials are brought to this factory where they are sorted by color and quality, polished, and set in customer pieces of jewelry. Naturally there was a gift shop at the end of the tour, but we restrained ourselves from buying. There were quite a few people who did purchase things though. Anyway, it was interesting to observe the whole process. Back on the bus, we were each given a small piece of amber for luck.



We then returned to the ship and decided to turn in our Oslo tickets. It showed quite a bit more walking and that just seemed too much to ask, even after a sea day. We had a couple glasses of wine in our cabin and discuss the alternative choices. The excursion people took our tickets and we were able to exchange them for another tour which has an Easy rating. But we will discuss that tour in a couple of days.



We had actually missed lunch (just had a few cookies that we had smuggled off the ship and had brought along in our bag) so we were fairly hungry. Janet got a specialty Mocha coffee beforehand (while we were exchanging the tickets) and then we went to the dinning room. For appetizer, Janet had a mushroom torte and David had shrimp cocktail. She had fettuccini and David had some concoction called a Celery and Apple Chilled Cream Soup. It was more from curiosity, but isn’t likely for him to try it again. For the entrée, Janet had Prime Rib and David had Roast Duck (we were assured it was NOT a close relative of Donald or Daisy). For dessert, Janet had mocha ice cream with chocolate syrup and David had Black Forest Cake a la mode.



We then went to 7:15 early show in the Princess Theater. The performer was a very funny Welshman who poked a lot of fun at the Queen Elizabeth cruise ship (he said he had been on that ship in St Petersburg). He was also a good singer and we had a very enjoyable time – laughed a lot and sang along with some of his songs.



Then we had a little time in the cabin before going up to the Movie-Under-The-Stars. Tonight at 9:30 is “Oz, The Great and Powerful”. Janet especially wanted to see it. We snuggled up under blankets again on deck chairs, because it was kind of windy and that made it chilly. Once again they brought popcorn and cookies around during the show (this time it was oatmeal raisin instead of chocolate chip, so Janet didn’t like them. The movie lasted until 11:30, so this wraps up another fun day of our vacation.

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Photos

Entry Gate into Gdansk
Poland

Shops along Canal
Gdansk Poland

Merchant Street & Neptune Fountain
Gdansk Poland

Figures on Rooftops
Gdansk Poland

"Y" holding buildin together
Gdansk Poland

Armory
Gdansk Poland

Cathedral w/o Spire
Gdansk Poland

Alter in Cathedral
Gdansk Poland

Janet
Gdansk Poland

Polishing Amber
Gdansk Poland