We spent a full day under the wings of our personal tour guide in Gdańsk...Agnieszka....she was wonderful as we walked and drove around the area for the entire day learning about the history, the beauty and charm of this area of Poland.
We are ready to begin learning about Gdańsk!
Our tour started at St. Mary's Church, which we had seen from the outside on our first night in Gdańsk. We spent a few minutes inside this very old, tall church.
Gdańsk this same weekend.
We learned that the changes in the brick denote the repairs done after much damage during WWII.
This is a picture of a large view of what Gdańsk looked like after WWII....it reminds us of Warsaw. Warsaw and Gdańsk were two cities that were heavily damaged during WWII. To see these cities, rebuilt and recovered over a relatively short amount of time shows the commitment and pride of the Polish citizens.
A backdoor to the St. Mary's Church and entrance to a charming street.....ul. Mariacka - Mary's Street.
The oldest house in Gdańsk, built in 1451....now a functioning hotel, museum and sweet shop. Here I am with our local tour guide -- Agnieszka.
Here is the charming Mariacka street, regarded as Gdańsk's finest street.....there are many kiosks and small shops selling all kinds of amber and amber products.
Mark and I are standing on one of the porches on Mariacka street. To my left are purple flowers in a concrete flower box. The box extends outward as the head of a gargoyle-like figure - on the far right side of the photo. There are many such figures on the street. Ingeniously, the gargoyle heads are really the ends of gutter systems that drain water from the tops of 4-story houses, down to the street.
Below is the side view of one of Gdańsk's most recognized landmarks...the Gdańsk Crane. The crane itself is not visible - it's on the front of the black-sided housing. The crane was originally built in 1442, destroyed in WWII, and rebuilt afterwards. Its purpose was to unload cargo and to assist in the installation of sailing masts on ships.
Underneath the crane is what appears to be a giant hamster wheel....
....except this one used men, who operated the crane by walking inside the wheel and turning it, which caused the crane to move up or down depending on which direction they were walking.
We learned a little more about amber when our tour guide took us to an amber shop where the owner is a good friend. Here I am holding a piece of real amber, part of it is raw and part of it has been polished.
There are so many shops that sell amber....we have often wondered how to tell if the amber is real or not. Many pieces look just like plastic. The owner of the shop demonstrated how to tell the difference between real and plastic pieces of amber.
He placed different pieces in a vase of salt water. If they were real amber, they floated....if they were plastic, they sunk to the bottom. It was hard to tell the difference without this demonstration. Mark and I had previously heard about this technique, and it was good to see the demonstration.
I did find a small piece that I liked and wear it as a necklace.
We learned about another important/famous person who comes from Poland....Daniel Farenheit. In 1724 he became the first person in history to develop an accurate way of measuring temperatures. 
The Farenheit scale was used worldwide for 250 years, until the 1970s when most of the world converted to the Celsius scale. I would have never thought that the Farenheit scale was developed by someone from Gdańsk, with a surname that is definitely not Polish.
Standing in front of the famous Neptune Fountain - one of the symbols of Gdańsk. Originally erected as a statue in 1549, it was converted to a fountain in 1633.
Mark tried on the shackles at the Prison Tower, "the scene of many blood-curdling interrogations" in medieval times. Fortunately for Mark, the shackles didn't fit....so we continued on with the tour.
The Prison Tower and Torture Chamber
Below is the Highland Gate that marks the southern entrance to the Royal Way, leading to Długa and Długa Targ streets on which royals traveled through Gdańsk. This gate was built in 1574 and is quite impressive!
Here was an interesting young man that caught our attention, drumming up interest or business....on bouncing stilts!
The Old Arsenal...in the early 1600s this building was built to store weapons and ammunition. Such a beautiful building for holding instruments of destruction.
The architecture is said to be one of the finest examples of "Dutch Mannerist" style in Gdańsk.
Above and below are pictures of the Church of St. Catherine, built in 1227-39 - almost 800 years ago!
We drove a few blocks away from the city center, and came to an area that we had actually heard about years ago...the Gdańsk Shipyards. Here is a monument to shipyard workers who died during a strike in 1970, in protest against low living standards.
The seeds of protest sown in 1970 blossomed ten years later in 1980, when the shipyard workers again went on strike against low living standards, and also for the right to form a trade union. This was the birth of the Solidarity movement that ultimately helped to bring down communism in Poland. Poland was the first nation to rid itself of communism, and the rest of the communist bloc followed, country by country.
Above and below, Agnieszka and a display explain about the history-making events that took place in this very place.
Above and below, Mark and I in front of the gate to the shipyard where Lech Wałęsa and the other shipyard workers locked themselves inside the yard for 3 days. The lock-in ended when the government met all the demands of the workers, including the recognition of Solidarity as a free trade union.
After the shipyards we drove to Oliwa Cathedral, where we heard a recital on a massive organ, originally built in 1763-88. The organ sounded magnificent, with almost 8,000 pipes. Since we're familiar with the Salt Lake Tabernacle and its organ, we looked it up - it has over 11,000 pipes, and the LDS conference center organ has about 8,000 pipes, like the Oliwa Cathedral.
Next stop was Sopot....a seaside resort area. It was a very warm and windy day. An interesting observation....even though there were many people sitting in view of the sea, very few people were actually in the water. When I asked why, I usually heard that it's because the water is too cold. Unfortunately, our tour didn't allow the time to go down onto the beach and plunge our big toe in the water to see if it's colder than San Diego's water.
We did find someone in the water....doing quite an interesting activity....we have no idea what it is called!
The person is pulled on a boat...much like when water skiing, then with just the right amount of pressure, water is pumped through the long hose and out the jets on the bottom of the frame, pushing him about 8 feet into the air.
This was quite entertaining to watch.
We walked along Europe's longest wooden pier...
....then drove over to the third city in the "Tri-City" group....Gydnia.
Here is another monument, this one honoring people who went to sea and never returned.
A pirate ship ride for tourists...
After returning to Gdańsk after a full day of touring...we decided to a 90-minute tour on the Motława river.
Above and below are views of Westerplatte....the monument marking the place where World War II began, when Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. The outnumbered Polish soldiers fought valiantly and held off the Germans for 7 days, but were eventually defeated.
The monument is supposed to be like a long sword stuck into the ground, up to its hilt.
We had a long, but lovely day learning about the Tri-City area in northern Poland. We would love to return someday....buy some amber pieces and enjoy the scenery again....but on a day not so hot....I think autumn would be a lovely time to return.
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