Day 6 (July 10, 2018): Day of 1600 stairs

Today was the day to pull back the layers of Gdansk.  What a city!  What a history!  It had a great impact on us, and we concluded over dinner -- as we watched Croatia beat England in the World Cup semi-final -- that coming here was the best location we could have possibly chosen in Poland.

We left the hotel at 9AM and made it back by 8PM.  'Twas a long day, but the weather was perfect.  And why the reference to 1600 stairs in the blog entry title?  Well, we climbed the highest bellfry we have EVER climbed (at 409 stairs up and 409 down);  we climbed the tower at City Hall (283 stairs up and 283 down);  and we climbed at least 100 stairs up and 100 down at the 'Crane'.  Add it all up, and it represents a good workout!

The photo captions tell the story of the day here in Gdansk. We are off to Slovakia at noon tomorrow.  It is supposed to pour rain through the night and into tomorrow, so it will be a good day to fly.

Good night from Gdansk, and congratulations on your win, Croatia!  (We were there a year ago today, so we have quite a soft spot for Croatia.)

One of the endless Communist-built apartment blocks that still typifies housing in Poland, as in every former country in the Soviet Union.

Gdansk Glowny - the main train station.  What a bell tower!

St. Mary's Church, dating back to the 1300s.  It is considered one of the two or three largest brick churches in the world.  We started the day by climbing the 409 steps to the top.  Amazing vistas of Gdansk!

Inside St. Mary's Church.



Built in the 1400s by clockmaker Hans Duringer, the astronomical clock at St. Mary's tracks everything from the time of day, the position of the moon and sun in relation to the signs of the zodiac, and even a calendar of the saints. The work features three distinct tiers with a rotating parade of apostles, death, and the three kings that appear daily at noon at the top. Standing over 45 feet tall, the huge decoration may be the tallest wooden clock in the world.    
According to legend, Duringer was deliberately blinded by the authorities after completing the clock so that he was unable to produce a clock of equal beauty anywhere else!  How's that for grattitude?!

The view from atop St. Mary's bell tower.

The view of Dluga ("Long") Street from the the Main Town Hall bell tower, looking east.

The view of Dluga ("Long") Street from the the Main Town Hall bell tower, looking west.

Burgher-style houses in Gdansk, as well as the Artus Court (completed in 1350), with the Main City Hall tower in the background.

Dave's new pal, at the Artus Court.

St. Mary's Gate, a shadowy Gothic gateway, opens onto St. Mary's Street, featuring St. Mary's Church at the far end.  Dluga Street may be the busiest and longest of Gdansk's streets, but St. Mary's is considered the jewel in Gdańsk’s crown.

The Motlawa River runs through Gdansk's city centre.  The section shown is ground zero of the scene.

That odd structure is the Gdansk Crane, one of the defining symbols of Gdańsk and represents what little is left of the city’s great trading age. Dating to 1367, it was used to transfer cargo and to put up masts on ships. At one time this was the biggest working crane in the world.

Enjoying our stroll along the Motlawa River.

The Gdansk Armouries.

That is one SCARY down-spout!

Amber guitar, anyone? Towards the end of the afternoon, after dropping too much coin on amber (this part of Poland is considered the world's treasure-trove of amber), we visited the Amber Museum.  The museum is dedicated to all things amber.  It is located in the Foregate, a former prison and torture chamber, so in addition to amber displays, there's also some startlingly realistic displays of torture chambers. Two for one!

The European Solidarity Centre:  This amazing museum, deliberately clad in rusting steel plates as you would find in a shipyard, is where we ended our touring day.  It tells the moving and brave story of  the rise of the Solidarity Trade Union movement at the agdansk Shipyard in 1980, how the Communists negotiated with Lech Welesa and legitimized trade unions in Poland, and then how they came down with a hammer on December 13,1980, implementing martial law and a return to an iron fist. But that didn’t stop the unions. With the encouragement of Poland’s own Pope John Paul II and worldwide pressure, martial law ended in 1983. The USSR’s economic weakening and Gorbachev’s “glasnost” approach led to the collapse of Communism in Poland in 1989. Lech Welesa became President, “Solidarnosc” took the government, and a domino-effect of Communist collapse spread across the rest of the USSR. It is truly one of the great stories and lessons in negotiation, peace and persistence of the 20th century. 

At the European Solidarity Centre: Pope John Paul II (from Krakow, Poland) visited Gdansk at a critical time in the Solidarity struggle.  This was his Pope-mobile for the visit.

At the European Solidarity Centre: A militia truck, used to round up people during martial law in the early 1980s.

At the European Solidarity Centre: Remember the Solidarity Movement from the 1980s and its logo? The whole world stood behind it, and the pressure broke the Communists‘ back. 

The beach in Sopot, north of Gdansk, where we are staying.

The sunset on a perfect day in Poland.