Gdansk, Poland

After visiting a Fairy Tale city (Tallinn, Estonia), shouldn’t there be a let down?!?  I expected it, but it didn’t happen.  Our follow-up stop, Gdansk, was a port city of Poland with an incredible history.  Europe is far different than the U.S.  We are fortunate to have two large oceans separating us from Europe in the east and Asia in the west.  We have had 200+ years of little interference.  Many of the countries in Europe, especially the smaller ones, have had to endure multiple occupations from usually more than one empire or the other.  They endured the two major world wars, and their history is typically 1000 years or more.

This is the Gdansk as seen at the end of World War II:

80% of the city buildings were badly damaged or destroyed by the Russians as they moved westward toward Germany in 1944.

Here is our first view of the heart of Gdansk in 2019: 

The black and white picture (first picture) shows the Town Hall with much of the tower removed.  The Poles rebuilt the tower and buildings around it, and now it looks as follows:

Some of you will remember that World War II officially was declared after Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939.  Most of the rubble from the bombing is seen only in photos.  80 years after the war, the old architecture has been restored.  BTW, an indication of the the space inside can be predicted by the number of windows across the front of the building.  We were told 3 across is much preferred over 2.  Houses were taxed by width, so typically you can save on your taxes if your house is 2 windows wide.

During the tour, a monument to the Fahrenheit thermometer was pointed out.  It’s inventor was Daniel Fahrenheit, and his family home is in this city.  The U.S. is the only country to still use it as the standard for gauging temperature.

While Gdansk is quite the shipyard for Poland with many cranes and containers, our favorite dockside view looks like the following:

We have been to an onboard class about amber.  Gdansk is the world capitol for amber.  I think we’ve pointed out that it’s a product of tree resin from very ancient trees.  We learned at the talk that 82% of amber sold throughout the world is fake. Shari now has some new authentic jewelry that is quite becoming.

We learned that the beautiful facades of the buildings supposedly indicate what centuries they probably come from.  The ones with curves are from the renaissance period from 1400-1700, and the ones with straight lines are and no curves are from earlier times (medieval).

On the way back to our ship, our guide talked of optimism of being a free Poland, the war far behind them and the communists no longer in charge.  It seemed very evident they have much to be proud of.