Friday January 20th, 2023
The shuttle from Monza is 20 minutes late. I will have limited time when I arrive at the airport. As soon as I arrive, I check the flight on the scoreboards, even if I already know the gate. The flight is 40 minutes late. I eat something and wait. So I arrive in Gdansk with more or less the same delay. I leave the airport to take the bus. Mine just went through and I have to wait 20 minutes.
I get off at the new town hall stop and walk towards the hotel. While I’m here, I take some pictures, it’s already dark. I arrive at the hotel, quickly settle into my room and then go out to take pictures of the illuminated city. The center isn’t that big, but it’s cold. After a while I decide to take shelter inside a mall, waiting to meet Dorota, her train is also 15 minutes late. Leaving the mall, I head towards the station, to be sure of the distance and not be late. It’s still early, I walk around, I see 2 churches and the big mill and I go back to the station.
After about 20 minutes Dorota arrives. We hadn’t met for about 1.5 years. Together we head to the hotel, and after she settles in, we go out for dinner. We choose a place that cooks pierogi, near the cathedral. We eat a lot. When we go out, we would like to walk a bit along the river, but it’s cold. We therefore decide to go back to the hotel and postpone the visit until tomorrow.
Saturday January 21st, 2023
We get up very calmly, we leave the hotel around 10.30. We have a quick breakfast in a café on the main street. At the end we head towards the docks area. We see the monument to the workers who died in 1970. Then we enter through the yard gate, and head towards the canal. We see a part of the museum, most of the information is in Polish only. Dorota tells me a bit about what’s written.
We go out and continue our tour of the yards. Some of them are still used today. We see the furnace and the big M3 crane. Now we return towards the center, stopping at the church of St. Catherine, where there is the tomb of the astronomer Hevelius and at the cathedral, where we can admire the great astronomical clock. We make a stop at the hotel. A little later it starts to snow. We play a little ping pong and then we rest in the room. Around 16 we go out to eat something, it continues to snow and there is wind.
Saturday January 21st, 2023 – Afternoon
We stop almost immediately in one of the first restaurants on the main street. At the end we would like to visit the town hall, it should close at 6pm, but even if it’s only 5pm everything seems to be closed already. We then return to the hotel. The sleet and wind continue. Around 6.40 pm we go out and go to Mass, in Polish, at 7 pm in Sw. Mikolaja. At the end of the celebration it rains a little less, but there is still wind. We head to the hotel, walk a bit along the riverside, and stop at a pastry shop to warm up and eat a slice of cake. Shortly after 21 we return to the hotel.
Sunday January 22nd, 2023
We have breakfast at Wedel’s on the riverside, then we go back near the hotel and take the tram to reach Stogi beach. It’s a bit cold and windy. We walk on the sand for a long way, heading towards a pier. We realize it’s too far, so we decide to go back to the tram. Since we have to wait about 20 minutes for the next one, we walk through the forest nearby, see some WWII bunkers.
We go back to the tram and reach the center. We make a short stop at the hotel and go out again along the riverside. Arrived at the bridge that opens, we have to wait about 20 minutes, so we decide to go and see the historic post office and the monument outside that commemorates the sad events that happened here. We then cross the river and look for a place for lunch. Searching a bit, we find one that is not crowded, where we eat very well. We walk a little more through the streets of the centre, without a precise destination.
After a while we stop to drink an hot chocolate and warm up a bit. We walk a little more, then we go back to the hotel. Now we relax a bit before heading to the station, it’s now time for Dorota to go home. We arrive at the station a few minutes early. We say goodbye. I go back to the center taking some pictures, with a little sadness. So I stop for dinner around 9pm, then I walk around the illuminated city and go back to the hotel after 11pm. I wait for Dorota to get home before going to sleep.
Monday January 23rd, 2023
I get up around 7.30, have breakfast at the hotel and start walking around the city. I enter some churches and around 10.30 I visit the town hall which is free today. The visit is interesting and takes some time. In winter it is not possible to climb up the tower. At the end I would like to visit the “Arthur’s Court”, but unfortunately today it was only open from 10 to 11.30.
I visit the Uphagen Dom, I spend less time here. Then I would like to go back to eat at the same place as yesterday, but I find it closed. I cross the bridge and stop in one of the first places I find. Here too I eat well. It’s about 1.40 pm, I cross the river again, and enter the maritime museum, I decide to visit only the part inside the ancient granaries. The museum is very nice, there are many models of ships and sailing ships. Around 3 pm, I finish the visit and calmly go back to the hotel.
Later, around 15.40, I head to the bus stop, crossing the historic center again. Around 5pm I’m at the airport, there’s a bit of a queue at the security checkpoints. My flight is supposed to leave at 7pm, but it’s 50 minutes late. I eat a piece of cake and wait.
You can read about another of my trips to Poland here.
