Day 13 - A Day in Solidarity

View of across the street from our hostel balcony. This place is like a wonderful hotel except for sharing a bathroom. Modern style and clean, white appointments.

Gdansk Stare Miasto & Shipyards

We're driving into Gdansk and have already decided to skip Rick Steves walking tour of the Royal Way. Yes, I know it is wonderful but we're a little "Royal Wayed" out. 

After a lovely breakfast of bread, cheese, ham, tomato, cucumber, and coffee, we grabbed the car at the 10am hour before the parking charges went into effect and headed from Sopot to Gdansk.  We plan to find the murals on the sides of the communist era ugly buildings and take some photos. I'll do the driving and Melodie will do the hopping out to grab the shots. It's raining so we're going ahead with our day no matter what!

We try the b-in-the-box but without an exact address, she doesn't do well in getting us to the Zaspa District where 49 murals are located. Again, just driving around and following our nose, we find them and get a few before the rains shoo us away.

In Gdansk, we decide to locate a parking lot which we easily accomplished just by finding Stare Miasto (old town) and following blue P=Parking signs.  We get our parking claim ticket and start to walk using Rick's walking tour but we got turned around. So, coming to our aid, was a wonderful man a little older than we on his bike. He stopped, and with his limited English, was able to direct us to the shipyards...our most important destination.

A rainy visit but it eventually cleared.

Pope John Paul II footprints from his visit to the memorial.

Between rain showers, we took pictures, read up on the history from Rick Steves' guidebook and then toured. The rains broke and we began our self-guided tour with Rick Steves.

Polish army tank

Wall of memorabilia from unions and workers from around the world

Unarmed worker trying to avoid bullets from the Polish army

Communist construction at the yards.

Shipping container cranes

The Shipyards in Gdansk were the site of the beginning of the end of the Russian occupation in Poland. Led by LechWalesa, the workers united when wages continued to stagnate but the price of essentials, like bread, continued to rise. The wealthy didn't experience any problems because of the price of non-essential items like a TV were kept low for them but the people could barely eat. The siege of the shipyard went on for days and the people rose up in support by bringing food to the fence for the workers inside. Other workers across Europe supported their efforts for better wages, working conditions, and the lowering of the price of essential goods for life. The cross monument erected by the workers after their 21 points were met was allowed by the Communists. An anchor graces the top of each one and a monument to those gunned down during the siege has multiple plaques sent by other countries to honor their efforts on the behalf of workers everywhere.

We visit the Solidarity Museum where I buy a t-shirt for the first day back at school and a pin for my hiking hat.

Gdansk is also the site of the beginning of World War II. It was here that a German vessel anchored off the coast with advertised peaceful intentions and then began bombing the Gdansk's Westerplatte peninsula thus starting World War II. 

Free to enter, we wandered about the grounds and then had dinner at the Amber Side restaurant on the shipyard grounds. Something to remember is that the wait staff will not automatically bring you your bill after they have picked up your plates. Even if you don't have anything to eat or drink on the table, they look at this place as yours until you decide to go. THAT'S when you get their attention for the bill. I was getting a little perturbed over the wait for the bill and stood up to leave. The waiter noticed me and came over with the bill. I guess I should have said or done something sooner to get his attention.

Walking back to Stare Miasto, we walked further into the old town and did some shopping. I purchased a lovely handmade runner for my table. I haven't bought anything for my kids but I'm thinking that I never see other items that I bought in the past so perhaps they just don't want or need more "stuff". So I'll look for the grands.  Kids remind me of them daily.

It is already 5p and we want to get back to Sopot to walk the Baltic Sea beach and check out the longest wooden pier in Europe. We park on a FREE side street that the hostess at the hostel pointed out to us and headed for a nice beach walk.

Jellyfish

"Under the Pier"

The beach was lovely. The water wasn't too clear but filled with a brown seaweed that the gulls enjoyed using to fish for their dinner. Closer to the pier, the water cleared considerably and people were swimming. All of sudden, we see a Pirat Ship! And that's it's name...PIRAT! They give rides out to sea every hour and 20 starting around 10am.  It reminded us of home and Gasparilla.  The freighters in the distance reminded us of the Baltic shipping channels that are very busy.

Leaving the beach, we walked up to the square and heard some music. We quickly walked to the scene and found a wedding party doing a processional dance before entering the hotel for the reception. They had a great time and the people in the square enjoyed watching them too.

We walked the shops but had been warned by Rick's guidebook not to buy on the street but in a shop where the prices were similar but the guarantee of quality workmanship and stones would be better. So we didn't buy even though a couple ladies tried their best to lower the price enough to entice us.

In the meantime, I had gotten an email back from Ciocia and Jimmy wants the bottle that I had already thrown away! So I'm on the lookout for another. After walking the beach, I saw a little concession stand with a soda machine and the nice young Polish girl helped me rummage through the bottles until I found another one.  They seem to be ONLY in Coke Zero!  Of course, I had brought no money so I had to go and find Melodie to borrow 5 zl for the coke.

From the beach square, we walked up the tourist-busy Monte Cassino Blvd with all its shops, street vendors, restaurants, and street musicians. We spent some time in their dollar store called Tiger. Fun but no sales were made by us.  

The Crooked House on Monte Cassino. "When it looks straight, it's time to stop drinking."

A brass quartet playing show tunes from America.

Crowded Monte Cassino with a Film Festival currently underway.

We got back to our room at the hostel around 9pm and headed for the showers. Tomorrow we drive an hour to Malbork Castle, the largest one in Europe and then on another 4 hours to Wolf's Lair, Hitler's bunkers, near Ketrzyn.