Gdansk

Another busy day! We were away early to beat the city traffic in Gdansk, located a convenient parking spot and then took to the pavements for the next few hours. 

Not quite knowing what to expect we were pleasantly surprised. Gdansk has always had the image of a large ship building city with its only claim to fame coming through the Solidarity movement. But on approaching the old town our understandings took a rapid reshaping! 

The first look at Gdansk. 

Wonderful stepped facades - typical of the Hanseatic League towns. 

The city has worked hard at returning its  heart to a place that encourages people to want to enter. This old Hanseatic League town has all the architectural features of these Baltic trading towns. The high stepped facades not only ring the market square but also side streets around the town.

And some with some very ornate finishing. 

The very distinguishable Gdansk Crane - the largest medieval port crane in Europe. 

A lot of work is evident to improve on this reconstruction. War damaged areas are still evident.  As is the trade in Amber!

Mariacka Street was unusual as it had maintained ornamental and functional gargoyles to disperse the water from the terraces of the houses. 

It also had oodles of Amber shops once again. 

And other delights!

Mariacka Street. 

Having had a long look around the city we drove out to the old Gdansk shipyards to the European Solidarity Centre. Here we were presented with  the story of the events leading to the 1980 strikes, the emergence of Solidarity under the leadership of Lech Walesa and how this led to the dismantling of the communist system in Eastern Europe. Again a very intelligent and well presented museum - even though the audio guide wasn't quite as logical as one would wish.  

Entrance to the old Gdansk shipyards - now entrance to the Freedim Museum. 

Political advertising for the first free elections in Poland. 

A Lech Wakesa moment in the museum. 

View out over the old shipyards where the challenge to the communist reign was fermented. 

Later in the afternoon we came across Oliwa Cathedral, a few kilometres from Gdansk, which was hosting part of the World Youth Day. This amazing cathedral has this very unique organ and a recital was taking place during our visit. 

Interesting facade - twin githic towers sheltering a baroque portion wedged in between. 

We chatted with the organisers and then decided to stay near here for the night. 

Another delightful day in Poland! It continues to endear itself to us.