Poland - Gdansk and the Baltic Sea

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Our next stop on the Poland trip took us all the way to the northern coast and the city of Gdansk. The city is an important Polish port and is the location of the famous Lenin shipyards where the Solidarity movement began. Lech Walesa worked here as an electrician in the 1970s and in 1980, he helped form Solidarnosc as a trade union to combat communism in Poland. We had nice weather and walked throughout the old part of the city which, like a lot of the larger ones in Poland, was bombed and suffered a lot of damage. It is quite sad to see and read about all of the wonderful old sights in these cities that were destroyed during World War II. Fortunately, most cities were quite proactive about reconstructing damaged buildings in their orignal form, rather than tearing them down in favor of modern structures. We went to the Church of St. Mary which is an old gothic church, and the largest brick church in the world. It has room for 25,000 people. It contains an astronomical clock from the 15th which is very impressive. We also walked to see the famous medieval Gdansk crane, which is the only remaining example of such a structure in all of Europe. We walked away from the main part of the old town to find St. Bridget's church, which became famous in the 1980s as a meeting place for the Solidarity movement. Inside the have a monument to Father Jerszy Popieluszko, who was kidnapped by Polish communist secret police and killed before being thrown in a reservoir. He was a very outspoken anti-communist who was the religious leader of Solidarity.
After our day in Gdansk, we traveled a little ways up the coast to a small ocean village for the night. We got there just in time for a very nice sunset over the Baltic Sea. The seafood was also very good in the evening. Unfortunately, my knowledge of Polish didnt include fish species, so our ordering was fairly random.

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Photos

Gdansk Port
The port was home to Solidarity and has architecture that is unique for Poland.

Medieval Gdansk Crane
This crane is unique for all of Europe. It was built in the 14th century and used to unload ships from the era.

Astronomical Clock
The astronomical clock inside St. Mary's Church was built in 1464.

Astronomical Clock
The clock keeps track of dates, holidays, moon phases, religious celebrations. Not available in wrist-watch size.

Amateur Photographer
Someone sneaky (Sylvia) snapped a picture of me while I was taking some of my own.

St. Bridget's Church
This church is famous as a primary gathering point for the Solidarity movement.

Fr. Jerszy Popieluszko Memorial
St. Bridget's contains the memorial to Father Jerszy Popieluszko-the pastor of Solidarity, who was murdered by communist secret police.

Comments

[Craygee]

SO bummed that i didn't make it out to Gdansk, that sunset looks ineffably breathtaking.