Berlin to Helsinki Day 5-6: Gdańsk
A rest day, accompanied by a fair amount of biking of course.
Yesterday we visited the beach in Łeba which, even in the morning, was full of people with thousands more streaming down the long avenue towards the beach like some kind of half-dressed pilgrimage. Łeba is a little more tourist-oriented than the other places we've been - meaning that many of the signs and advertisements are also written in German.
Then we found our way out and immediately rode into another sand trap which slowed us down enormously, especially since we had to push our bikes through the sands, even though there were happy symbols all along the way marking it as a dedicated bike path! Our final lesson from this was to not to take any more Polish bike paths that are marked in our map.
Our summary of bike paths in Poland. Mylène is trying to figure out the existential meaning of marking debris as a family and bike-safe path.
After some hills we arrived at the end of the countryside and into what's known as the tri-city area which is comprised of Gdynia, Sopot and Gdańsk. The cities are not very wide but as you can see on the map below, they stretch very far down the coast. The little detour on the map was to recuperate some of Mylène's clothes that she had left with a friend of our couchsurfer in Goleniòw who was driving to Gdynia - she had left them at a restaurant for Mylène to pick up. Just another opportunity to practice our Polish!
We found our couchsurfer in Gdańsk after getting only a little lost. He had cooked us a fabulous pasta dish to refill ourselves and whisked us immediately away on our bikes to tour the old city at night.
At night, the streets are calm but active with people filling up bars both on ships and on land. We visited Szymon's favorite street which was as quaint as they come - with narrow houses each adorned with a unique carved stone stoop and a large, red-brick church at the end. This street was well lit but very quiet and we had some Polish beers (Mylène had red wine) as a night cap to enjoy the ambiance.
What is quite amazing, as with Berlin, is that the entire city was bombed out during the Second World War leaving only rubble on a site that took almost 1000 years to develop. And then they rebuilt everything as it was complete with the stone statues and emblems on the houses, estates and public buildings.
A view from a hill near our host's apartment - he took us up at night to get a better idea of the city. Although the photo doesn't offer much detail, you can see how wide the city is - maybe not much more than a mile -and it stretches for about 7 miles on each side of where this photo was taken (and more if you count the other two cities and suburbs).
Gdańsk is actually a large, pencil-thin city as we found out today - good thing we had our bikes.
We started our day off by biking 10 miles north to Sopot to visit Europe's largest jetty and the downtown area. I found Sopot to be pretty upscale as compared to Gdańsk. I think the port is smaller than in the two other cities an there are large 4 and 5-star hotels lining the beaches. But being in the middle of the bay gives you a great view of both Gdańsk and Gdynia as well as a look across to Hel, the Peninsula across the bay. This land feature makes the area less windy, now they have to work in being further south so that the water isn't so cold!
Me and Mylène with our host on the Jetty in Sopot looking towards Gdynia. There was a fair amount of sun in the other direction so I chose the most ridiculous photo of the three of us.
Fooling around doing acro-yoga on the dock.
The "curvy house" in downtown Sopot. It was just a restaurant that made you feel like you were eating in front of a funhouse mirror.
After Sopot, we rode back down to Gdańsk to another great high vantage point inside a forest. It was hidden in the trees on top of a hill but Szymon showed us the way up to a high tower on top to get a look at the city during the day.
After so much riding and hill climbing, we headed to the beach to have a fish lunch, then laid down in the sand to have a nap (we were up early and we are on vacation!).
Oh, and Mylène wants everyone to know she swam in the Baltic - I didn't because I am a New Mexican desert flower.
Mylène really cools off in the Baltic Sea. How can you be so cold yet so happy?
Since Gdańsk is mostly well known for it's function as a port city, our trip would not have been complete without a visit to the shipyard. The shipyard, known as Stocznia Gdańska, was the site of one of the earliest anti-communist uprisings in 1980 in which the shipyard workers went on strike against the government. The movement was called Solidarność.
Since this was the main entry for supplies in Poland - it had a large effect and soon, food rations were in effect for the next year and a half. Gabi's mother in Sarbinowo had recalled that she had received vouchers for such things as 1kg of sugar in one month, or a one-month's supply of soap.
I couldn't tell from the museum we visited if the rationing was due to a shortage of supplies or if it was to encourage the workers to end the strike. In any case the message of the movement carried forward all the way until the fall of the USSR and the shipyard leader was eventually elected president. Now the shipyard is still active as well as a historical symbol. The entry to the shipyard still lists the 21 demands of the workers who opposed the communist regime and strobe for transparency, a free media and liberty.
The entrance to the Gdańsk Shipyard.
The shipyard in action: we watched a huge crane move large metal parts around from the boats stationed there. We were enginerding out at the huge weights and balance equations that needed to be solved to build such structures.
We then went back to the old city to see some of the brick churches and take in the activities during the day - as well as get some cold drinks at the coffee shop where our host is working for the summer between school semesters. Although through the sites and sounds, Mylène and I marveled most at a 12-14th century crane used in old Gdańsk to lift payloads off of ships. It could lift up to 2 metric tonnes and was powered by men who ran like hamsters inside two enormous wheels situated inside the mechanism.
Mylène studies the ancient crane mechanism.
Such a tour would not have been possible without our trusty bikes. I couldn't imagine having had to figure out, then take the public transportation, then have to walk to all of these places afterwards. Having our own bikes available was luxurious and convenient.
Yesterday we visited the beach in Łeba which, even in the morning, was full of people with thousands more streaming down the long avenue towards the beach like some kind of half-dressed pilgrimage. Łeba is a little more tourist-oriented than the other places we've been - meaning that many of the signs and advertisements are also written in German.
Then we found our way out and immediately rode into another sand trap which slowed us down enormously, especially since we had to push our bikes through the sands, even though there were happy symbols all along the way marking it as a dedicated bike path! Our final lesson from this was to not to take any more Polish bike paths that are marked in our map.
Our summary of bike paths in Poland. Mylène is trying to figure out the existential meaning of marking debris as a family and bike-safe path.
After some hills we arrived at the end of the countryside and into what's known as the tri-city area which is comprised of Gdynia, Sopot and Gdańsk. The cities are not very wide but as you can see on the map below, they stretch very far down the coast. The little detour on the map was to recuperate some of Mylène's clothes that she had left with a friend of our couchsurfer in Goleniòw who was driving to Gdynia - she had left them at a restaurant for Mylène to pick up. Just another opportunity to practice our Polish!
We found our couchsurfer in Gdańsk after getting only a little lost. He had cooked us a fabulous pasta dish to refill ourselves and whisked us immediately away on our bikes to tour the old city at night.
At night, the streets are calm but active with people filling up bars both on ships and on land. We visited Szymon's favorite street which was as quaint as they come - with narrow houses each adorned with a unique carved stone stoop and a large, red-brick church at the end. This street was well lit but very quiet and we had some Polish beers (Mylène had red wine) as a night cap to enjoy the ambiance.
What is quite amazing, as with Berlin, is that the entire city was bombed out during the Second World War leaving only rubble on a site that took almost 1000 years to develop. And then they rebuilt everything as it was complete with the stone statues and emblems on the houses, estates and public buildings.
A view from a hill near our host's apartment - he took us up at night to get a better idea of the city. Although the photo doesn't offer much detail, you can see how wide the city is - maybe not much more than a mile -and it stretches for about 7 miles on each side of where this photo was taken (and more if you count the other two cities and suburbs).
Gdańsk is actually a large, pencil-thin city as we found out today - good thing we had our bikes.
We started our day off by biking 10 miles north to Sopot to visit Europe's largest jetty and the downtown area. I found Sopot to be pretty upscale as compared to Gdańsk. I think the port is smaller than in the two other cities an there are large 4 and 5-star hotels lining the beaches. But being in the middle of the bay gives you a great view of both Gdańsk and Gdynia as well as a look across to Hel, the Peninsula across the bay. This land feature makes the area less windy, now they have to work in being further south so that the water isn't so cold!
Me and Mylène with our host on the Jetty in Sopot looking towards Gdynia. There was a fair amount of sun in the other direction so I chose the most ridiculous photo of the three of us.
Fooling around doing acro-yoga on the dock.
The "curvy house" in downtown Sopot. It was just a restaurant that made you feel like you were eating in front of a funhouse mirror.
After Sopot, we rode back down to Gdańsk to another great high vantage point inside a forest. It was hidden in the trees on top of a hill but Szymon showed us the way up to a high tower on top to get a look at the city during the day.
After so much riding and hill climbing, we headed to the beach to have a fish lunch, then laid down in the sand to have a nap (we were up early and we are on vacation!).
Oh, and Mylène wants everyone to know she swam in the Baltic - I didn't because I am a New Mexican desert flower.
Mylène really cools off in the Baltic Sea. How can you be so cold yet so happy?
Since Gdańsk is mostly well known for it's function as a port city, our trip would not have been complete without a visit to the shipyard. The shipyard, known as Stocznia Gdańska, was the site of one of the earliest anti-communist uprisings in 1980 in which the shipyard workers went on strike against the government. The movement was called Solidarność.
Since this was the main entry for supplies in Poland - it had a large effect and soon, food rations were in effect for the next year and a half. Gabi's mother in Sarbinowo had recalled that she had received vouchers for such things as 1kg of sugar in one month, or a one-month's supply of soap.
I couldn't tell from the museum we visited if the rationing was due to a shortage of supplies or if it was to encourage the workers to end the strike. In any case the message of the movement carried forward all the way until the fall of the USSR and the shipyard leader was eventually elected president. Now the shipyard is still active as well as a historical symbol. The entry to the shipyard still lists the 21 demands of the workers who opposed the communist regime and strobe for transparency, a free media and liberty.
The entrance to the Gdańsk Shipyard.
The shipyard in action: we watched a huge crane move large metal parts around from the boats stationed there. We were enginerding out at the huge weights and balance equations that needed to be solved to build such structures.
We then went back to the old city to see some of the brick churches and take in the activities during the day - as well as get some cold drinks at the coffee shop where our host is working for the summer between school semesters. Although through the sites and sounds, Mylène and I marveled most at a 12-14th century crane used in old Gdańsk to lift payloads off of ships. It could lift up to 2 metric tonnes and was powered by men who ran like hamsters inside two enormous wheels situated inside the mechanism.
Mylène studies the ancient crane mechanism.
Such a tour would not have been possible without our trusty bikes. I couldn't imagine having had to figure out, then take the public transportation, then have to walk to all of these places afterwards. Having our own bikes available was luxurious and convenient.
Position:Bracka,Danzig,Polen
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