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Published: September 16th 2008
Food food food
Waiting for food in some restaurant or other.Back in 2005, myself, Rob Heyes, Michael Hodgson, David Jeffries and John Yates began a tradition; the exploration of European cities. Trips prior to 2008 may be a little too old to retrospectively blog, so I’m going to concentrate on 2008’s trip to Gdansk.
Earlier in the year, the 5 of us had decided to do something over summer. As usual, commitments at home prevented the prospect of a lengthy trip and so we scoured skyscanner.com for cheap flights. Gdansk was the absolute cheapest, and having visited Poland 4 times already I thought it may be a good choice. Gdansk lies in the north of Poland, on the southern edge of Gdansk Bay, looking out towards the Baltic Sea.
The 5 of us found ourselves in a British owned apartment, close to the centre. Windsor House was clean, spacious, and the owner Jim was very friendly and informative.
Gdansk is a very interesting city, boasting the familiar architecture you might see in other Polish cities, for example, Wroclaw and Warsaw. In a similar to fashion to Warsaw, the majority of Gdansk is in fact a reconstruction; much of the old town
Banter
Banter down by the river. was destroyed during World War II. Regardless, the reconstructed centre is still very beautiful.
There are many interesting things to see in and around Gdansk, particularly, St Mary’s church, Gdansk Town Hall and Zuraw, the medieval port crane. The wooden port crane overlooks the Motława river and is a very popular tourist attraction.
One day, whilst David and John were sleeping off unknown ailments, Rob, Michael and I decided to visit St Mary’s church. St Mary’s (full name Basilica of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary) is the largest brick church in the world. It’s incredibly tall too, and after climbing 470+ steps we were exhausted. The view from the top is exceptional, you can see for miles and miles. Whilst standing at the top puffing and panting, Rob received a phone call from John, who had decided to join us. John being John, interpreted our directions incorrectly and ended up at the top of Gdansk Town Hall. Rob received yet another call from a confused John, unable to find us at the top of the tower. From the top of St Mary’s, Gdansk Town Hall is in plain sight and John managed to spot us flailing
about at the top. In the end we ended up meeting John at the top of Gdansk Town Hall, another 200+ steps!
We also visited a small coastal town north of Gdansk, Sopot. Sopot is a cosy, summer retreat. David was keen to visit the beach, and upon reaching the beach found himself floating in the sea in a matter of seconds. We walked the length of the pier and wandered through Sopot’s bustling town centre. An enjoyable day all in all.
Our last main excursion was by boat to Westerplatte, a peninsula in Gdansk. The first shots of World War II were fired there, and a large monument stands at the very end of the peninsula, overlooking the sea. For Michael, John and I, this completed a series of World War II related trips, having previously visited sites in Berlin, and at Auschwitz.
Gdansk was also responsible for my reintroduction to the cigarette. I smoked way too many Marlboros that week. And Michael and I probably wore to much eye-makeup…
In hindsight, it was a great experience, though maybe we spent too long in one place. The centre of Gdansk can be seen in a
day. It might have been wiser to spend some time visiting other towns and cities, especially with the likes of Warsaw being a relatively short train ride away. Sopot was great but it may have been wise to spend at least a night there. I think we learned a few lessons as a collective, and would probably be hesitant to repeat such a trip again in the future.
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