Shall we Gdansk?? (Happy Bastille Day)

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Our first breakfast at the Sisters Lodge Hostel is a pleasant surprise!  Last night all I saw were three glass pitchers with difference cereals in them;  but this morning there is slice cheese, tomatoes, cucumbers, sprouts, hard-boiled eggs, two kinds of bread, jams, soft cheese and butter! The coffee and herbal tea are available round the clock.  We have a full breakfast since it has to last us quite a while, and head downstairs to start our adventure in Gdansk. 

That's our hostel!  The one with the overhang!

We’ve gotten directions, after a fashion, from the young woman who has morning desk duty and we combine those with our map and the BIOB and eventually find our way to the part of town we’re searching for.  It has huge murals painted on the ends of the old Communist apartment buildings, very reminiscent of Belfast.  We are about to give up when we spot the first one, which spurs us on to further discoveries.  There are more than the original forty-nine because there is a competition every year to add news one.  Marilyn drives around and I hope out and photograph them. We content ourselves with about a dozen and then go further south into the city. (I had hoped to show you more of them, but the net here is so slow that it just isn't possible! If we have better luck in Warsaw, I'll add some more photos.)

The entrances to the buildings are also all decorated!

There are two main tourist attractions mentioned in Rick Steves’ book (he’s our travel god), Old Town with its Royal Way and the shipyards where Lech Walesa and the Solidarity Movement began the end of Communist domination here.  Since nearly every Polish city has a Royal Way we opt for the shipyards.  How often can you see such history.  It is trying to rain and we definitely want to be able to see this inspiring sight (and site!)

The BIOB gets us close to a parking lot and we wing it the rest of the way.  We figure that since the attendant gave us a ticket there must be one more spot to park.  Actually there were two, but that’s all!!  And there’s no hint as to what the hourly rate might be; who cares?  We’ll never be this way again!  The last time we parked in a lot we figured the fee should be twenty zloties and we were only charged fourteen, so who can tell!

This is the WC is the park.  I was so proud that I figured it out!

We walk a bit to get our bearings and head in what we think is the right direction and come upon an information touch screen.  It doesn’t recognize Solidarity Square or Shipyards and we’re about to give up when I ask an old man on a bicycle if he can help us.  I show him our map from Rick’s book.  He studies it a minute then points behind us and says, “Left, go long way, go…um”  We add, “Right?” He nods and agrees.  We’re to look to our right and we’ll see three crosses.  We follow his directions and see the crosses ahead of us.  To get there we pass an old Polish Army tank parked between the sidewalk and the busy street.

When we get to the shipyard it is raining.  I’ve brought my raincoat and a baggie for our travel bible and Marilyn has an umbrella.  Since it’s been raining on and off all morning we decide to wait under a tree and read what Rick has to say about the emotion-laden monument before us.  The crosses are adorned with anchors and near the bottom each one has scenes of the workers embedded in it.  At the base of the monument we see the footprints of Pope John Paul II.  He was heavily involved in the workers’ movement and his photo is attached to the gate where the standoff took place.

Yes, those are raindrops on my lens.

The wall behind the monument has plaques from workers’ unions from around the world offering their support.  There is a list of the men who died here, with their ages.  Many were teenagers.  There is also a statue of a worker holding his hands up in front of his face, trying to shield himself from the bullets.

You can follow the shipyard path and see two sculptures.  One represents a ship’s hull and has two electronic strips inside, which are supposed to display quotes from the era, but they aren’t working.  There is another which is a 1/1000 scale replica of a monument by a Russian architect that was to be built, but never was.

From here you can see a red-brick building where the actual discussions took place. It is now a small museum with a scale model of the shipyard and lots of large photos and descriptive text.  And there’s a small gift shop where Marilyn gets a t-shirt with the Polish flag on it and I buy a Solidarity pin for the hat I take hiking.

There is also a much larger building nearby with a library and meeting rooms and more displays.  Most importantly, though, it has a restaurant.  It’s about three o’clock and I really need sustenance.  I have “roasted fillet of sea trout sprinkled with lemon parsley olive oil served on braised in butter asparagus with young potatoes.”  We are served a starter of black olives and two kinds of bread, although Marilyn has to ask for butter.  We had talked about having a glass of wine and now my taste buds are all set! When it comes time to order, though, Marilyn has water!  Undeterred, I order a glass of cabernet sauvignon.  Turns out my wine was cheaper than her large bottle of water!  She graciously shares it with me.  My dinner was superb!  And the fish was only thirty-nine zloties which is about ten dollars!  The wine was about four!

After “lunch” we make our way back and discover that the old train station has been turned into a shopping emporium!  Marilyn finds a beautiful table runner that will be gorgeous with her new kitchen!  We also happen upon one of the many ice-cream stands and have a “deser czekoladowy”, a chocolate and vanilla ice cream treat in a waffle bowl with whipped cream, nuts and chocolate topping.  What a treat!  This is only our second ice cream indulgence!

We feel as though we’ve done justice to Gdansk and head for our car where the parking fee is about what we expected and we find our way home with no trouble.  As an aside – a couple of days ago Marilyn got a Coke Zero with her lunch and the bottle had her financial planner’s last name on it!!  Who knew it was the Polish word for Auntie!!  She sent him a photo and he loved it and asked her to keep the bottle.  Too late!  Maybe we can find another at the grocery store?  We stop into a Biedronka (my lady bug store!) and discover that all the cokes are packed in groups of six and you can’t really read the names on them.  Of course people have been searching before us and many of the packages are torn open.  We don’t see the one she needs, though, and leave.

Parking on the street at the hostel is free between ten at night and eight in the morning.  We get home around eight, so we find the little side street that the night clerk had shown us and park there, with half our car on the sidewalk, like everybody else.

We drop most of our things in our room and head out to explore Sopot.  There are two main claims to fame here, the beach, which is on the southern coast of the Baltic Sea, and a structure called the Crazy House.  We should be able to see both before dark , which doesn’t come until about nine-thirty.

The water really is that brown color!  Like coffee!

Seaweed and other debris

"By the sea, by the sea, by the beautiful sea!"

Every coast need a pirate ship!

Tourists will always feed the gulls!

There is a 1600-foot pier that extends out into the sea and is quite the tourist attraction, with people cruising out to the end to see if they can spot the monument at Westerplatte that marks the spot where WWII began, with the attack by Germany on a tiny outpost in the harbor off Gdansk’s shore.  There are usually musicians and artists but it is a bit late for that.  The large square on the land end of the pier, however, is bustling with portrait painters, games for the kids, balloon vendors and a horseshoe of vendors stalls with jewelry and food.  We are lucky enough to see a wedding party do what must be a traditional dance at the direction of their wedding planner.  The poor groom is a bit lost but everyone seems to be having a spectacular time!

Such lovely architecture!

Most surprising of all is the fact that Marilyn finds her Coke bottle! What are the odds?  She has come out with nothing but her camera, so it is a good thing that I always carry my purse/camera bag.  I lend her the vast sum of five zloty (a bit over a dollar) and she claims her new prize possession.  I wonder if her guy will give her a discount?

After walking on the beach, watching the birds and the people, and window shopping for amber, we head up the Boh. Monte Cassino, the main tourist drag.  It is crowded with summer revelers, and makes me think of Clearwater Beach.  All beach towns have so much in common!  This one, though, also has a four-piece brass band that is superb!  I’ve been working at getting rid of all my change and have been so successful that I don’t have much left.  I give it all to them, though, since Marilyn has nothing but good thoughts and applause to offer.

So many people!

About half-way up we find the Crazy House.  It is said that when you’ve had so much to drink that the house looks normal, you need to stop drinking!!  It’s described as being in the style of Antoni Gaudy and is certainly unique!  It’s hard to actually photograph it because of the trees and the people!

We find the dollar store!  It's called Tiger and this was my favorite discovery!

Just like walking on the grass!

Our missions accomplished, we head home for a much-needed long night’s sleep.  I’m so exhausted that after my shower I don’t even look at my photos!  Well, maybe a few….