Sunday 8th June
When we got down to breakfast on Sunday, Sally informed us that she had a 6ft pole in her room. Was this a local form of room service? Or had she been dancing again?
Chris and Sally had an attic room with a window in the roof. This was ideal as Chris could carry on birding while laying on his bed, binoculars stuck to his eyes.
Having done our research yesterday, we boarded the Black Pearl galleon at 11:00am for our tour of the ship yards and Westerplatte (whatever that was?). As we got under way, having heard there was live music on board, Pete was delighted to find he did not have to sing sea shanties.
The trip goes out to the mouth of the Motlawa and Vistula rivers passing the docks which are now much less busy than they were in the past. But nevertheless there are still a lot of cranes and a quite a number of boats moored up.
Joanie seems a bit more unsure than Kathy and Fiona about the Jolly Roger!
What time does the bar open?
The large medieval wooden crane was used to place masts on ships and to load cargo. During World War II, the wooden area was destroyed and only 60% of the brick portion remained in tact. After the war, it was once again rebuilt and handed over to the museum.
Oh no, I didn’t know this was self–drive!
We pass the sister ship, the Galleon Lion, going the other way.
The cranes are a dominant feature.
Westerplatte is a peninsula in Gdansk, located on the Baltic Sea coast. From 1926 to 1939 it was the location of a Polish Military Transit Depot. It is famous for the Battle of Westerplatte, which was the first clash between Polish and German forces during the Invasion of Poland and thus the first battle of the European theatre of World War II.
We’ve lost Chris. Did he fall overboard? Can anybody see him?
Oh, there he is. Off with the butterflies again. They say it gets worse as you get older.
This is the bombed remains of a building the men lived in and fought from.
They are taking a long time to modernise. Here they are still selling gas masks!
Westerplatte Monument is in memory of the Polish defenders.
A close–up of the top.
From the elevated position of the monument, the protruding cranes give a good indication of the vast size of the docks in their heyday.
They do a good line in orange tugs.
Back on the boat, the bar is open and the live music has started.
The cranes dominate the skyline.
We approach the quay on our return.
Back at the Fahrenheit restaurant.
Back on dry land, we went back to the Fahrenheit restaurant for some lunch. For some reason, the waitress was not in a good mood. Hopefully nothing to do with us! Oh dear, our ability to wind up waitresses seems to be deserting us.
Next we walked up from the Green Gate to the Golden Gate and then around to the north to see what else we could find.
We originally thought this was some amazing juggling with a ball, but it turned out to be a sport called freestyle footbag where you perform tricks with a small bean bag – much easier.
The Golden Gate.
Statues on the Golden Gate.
Statues on the Golden Gate.
The Royal Chapel in front of St. Mary’s Church.
Inspiring!
How did they sneak back into amber street?
Eventually most of us ended back at the hotel for a well earned cup of tea. Some couldn’t stand the pace and retired to their rooms for a quick forty winks.
We again chose the hotel restaurant for our evening meal which this time was well cooked, but the bill was a bit more.
