Gdansk
7/29/2025 - 8/19/2025
We left Spain on a 6:45 am flight (ugh!)… other than it being really early and us being very tired, it was a pretty decent travel day. We were pretty tired when we arrived in the Gdansk airport, but I must say, they make it easy there to find your public transportation. They literally had lines on the floor that you followed – one color led you to the buses, another to trains and trams, and a third to the taxi stand. Completely idiot proof! Just the way we like things!
Gdansk is on the Baltic coast of northern Poland, with a population of about 500,000, it is Poland's sixth-largest city and its major seaport. It is a REALLY cool city and will be our base for 3 full weeks!
For those of you that are tired of “just seeing a bunch of old buildings” on our blog (you know who you are!), you will be happy to know that there is pretty much nothing left in Gdansk that is old! But it still looks old 😊. About 90% the old beautiful Hanseatic city was destroyed in WWII, but was rebuilt to look as it did prior to the war. Tourist call the beautiful area along the water “old town” (because we are too dumb to know the difference or bother to look it up). Locals refer it as “main city” … we switched up our vocabulary after a couple days.
The WWII museum in Gdansk was pretty enlightening. Like most people, we totally understand the impact of WWII on the Jews, but hadn’t realized the extent of the impact on Poland. After WWI, Germany lost territory that Hitler wanted restored. He had managed to move into and take over other ports and cities/territories in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Slovakia, and Lithuania by threatening and bullying. After a few other successes, he demanded control of Gdansk which was then called Danzig and technically not part of any country at that time, but rather independent and administered jointly by Poland and the League of Nations. Control of Gdansk meant control of the most prosperous port on the Baltic.
When Danzig (Gdansk) wasn’t just handed over to Hitler, he launched an attack against the Poland. France and Britain finally stood up to him and declared war on 9/3/39 and that was the official start of WWII. The Nazis justified the invasion by suggesting that Poland had been planning to invade Germany. Although Britain and France both declared war on Germany because of the attack against Poland, they never sent any meaningful assistance to Poland to aid them in their defense. Then on September 17th, the Soviet Union joined forces with Germany and also invaded Poland. To be clear, Germany and the Soviet Union hated each other… they just decided to join forces long enough to gang up on Poland! Poor Poland didn’t stand a chance!
Polish civilians faced widespread violence, forced displacement, and brutal occupation. The Nazi’s aimed to eliminate Polish culture entirely and to exploit Polish labor. Poles were killed in mass, forced into labor programs, and hundreds of thousands were deported and lost their homes and lands.
The Solidarity Museum was even more enlightening than the WWII museum (in my opinion). It was about Poland’s fight for a free and democratic society. At the end of WWII, rather than Poland being restored to an independent country, they were screwed over yet again and handed over to Soviet Russia. Poland was called Polish Peoples Republic and was ruled by the communists from 1945 through 1989.
Life sucked for the Poles during this era! The communist government exerted tight control over the economy and everyday life. There was a shortage of food and store shelves were often empty, media was strictly censored, and freedom of speech was severely curtailed. They were paid very low wages and had substandard housing. Through the years, the government would increase prices for food and necessities that were already unaffordable. The people’s only real recourse was to strike which often led to violent retaliation by the government. Workers were often beaten, incarcerated or killed. Sometimes the strikes were successful in preventing the price increases, but not always.
The largest strike came in 1980 and was the beginning of the “Solidarity Movement”. It started in the Lenin Shipyards of Gdansk, but the movement and organization spread throughout the country. Pretty much everyone stopped working unless they were deemed necessary for the health and well being of the Polish people – such as doctors and hospitals. But even they took a stand by flying the Polish flag outside all their windows (which was strictly prohibited).
They managed to negotiate and gained some freedoms and rights, but that was short lived! About a year later the communist government imposed Marshal Law to regain control. The Polish people couldn’t gather in groups (they would patrol the streets and hose them down with fire hoses if there appeared to be gatherings!), they had strictly enforced curfews, and could be stopped at any time and made to show their “papers” or risk punishment. In spite of the governments attempts to exert increased control, the Solidarity Movement had already taken hold and the people weren’t giving up. It took another 8 years, but Poland eventually gained its freedom in 1989. They were the first country in the Eastern Bloc to gain freedom from Soviet-backed communism.
The Gdańsk Shipyards are historically significant for shipbuilding, but are even more renowned for being the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, a pivotal force in the fall of communism in Poland and Eastern Europe. While the shipyards produced over 1,000 seagoing vessels, their role in the 1980 strikes and the formation of the Solidarity trade union is what cemented their place in history. The shipyard was slated to close in 1988 by the Communist government. The workers viewed the closure as politically motivated and an attack on Solidarity.
Despite plans to close the shipyard in 1988, it did not close entirely at that time, but downsized significantly. To this day, a small number of specialized vessels are still built and some buildings are used for yacht building and maintenance. But much of the shipyard looks like a giant graveyard for old cranes and warehouses.
On a brighter note, some of it is finally being renovated, updated, and repurposed! First, of course, is the Solidarity museum which is housed in a building that was part of the original shipyard. In another area, several huge old shipping containers and a warehouse have been converted into bars, restaurants and a music venue with lots of outdoor seating … it is super cool!!!
We visited a park on the far outskirts of town (about 30 min away by tram) that was very pretty. Lots of walking paths with a canal and little waterfalls, a cathedral, a strange little (big?) terrarium called the “Palm House” with a little restaurant and a museum. I wouldn’t consider it a “must see”, but it was nice… particularly since we had a rare really sunny day!
Also in the same general area as the park, we did dinner one night in a really cool high rise building with amazing views… and we ran into our exchange partners! So we got a quick picture with them 😊
Gdansk is known as the Amber capitol of the world. Yes, the WORLD – seriously, look it up! There are literally hundreds of amber shops. I got a ring and earrings. Grady got a ring and bracelet (aka mancelet according to Erin and Colleen!)
There is an Amber Museum which everyone said was a “must see”. We got bored pretty quickly. We aren’t really museum people, so it needs to be pretty interesting to hold our attention, and reading about tree resin that formed 40 million years ago just isn’t that interesting (to us)! And to make it worse, we unintentionally went on “free museum day” (similar to can goods day at the state fair!)
The coolest amber display was in St. Bridget’s church. The main altar was made almost exclusively of amber – a ton of amber! And if you have ever held a piece of amber, you know it is incredibly light! So a TON of amber is A LOT of amber! The altar was jaw dropping. Pictures don’t begin to do it justice. There were several other side chapels that contained some pretty impressive pieces of amber as well.
The church also houses a crypt containing hundreds of bones. Although the identities of these remains are unknown, the prevailing theory is that they belong to individuals buried in shallow graves around the church in the 17th century and were subsequently relocated to the crypt. So they made a wall of the skulls… I mean, why not! The crypt also holds relics to St. Bridget of Sweden.
The other impressive church in Gdansk was St Mary’s. It holds 25,000 people and is one of the three largest brick churches in the world. We visited a second time for an organ show/concert. It was kind of boring!
What was really cool about this church was the astrological clock which is over 45 feet tall and was built in the 1400’s. The clock's dials show the time and date, phase of the Moon, the position of the Moon and Sun in relation to zodiac signs, and a calendar of saints. Every day just before noon music starts playing and little doors open up and a procession of little characters file out of the clock (3 kings and the apostles). At precisely noon, Adam and Eve, positioned at the very top of the clock, chime the bells for the time.
The music continues for a couple more minutes, then all the little characters go back home. And, my favorite part, the “show” ends with a little grim reaper going through the procession after all the other characters have departed. It was very cool!
Saturday evening we went to a restaurant called Zafishowani. During dinner, we started talking to the wine sommelier. He recommended we return to do a food and wine pairing. Basically, you select your meal and he selects the perfect wine to go with each course. Our only remaining available day was Monday, but he was going to be on holiday. He insisted that if we came in the staff could call him and he would guide them through the pairing for us.
We arrived around 1:30 and explained to the waiter what we had been told. He disappeared to call his boss and returned with 2 glasses of cava on the house for us! And holy crap, we were treated like royalty! Over the top amazing service, helpful recommendations on what food to order, extensive descriptions of each course, and, most important, perfectly paired wine complete with extensive descriptions of the winery and wine making process. It made for an absolutely perfect final day in Gdansk! If you ever go to Gdansk, we HIGHLY recommend this restaurant!!
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