We are staying right on the waterfront where lots of flash hotels and restaurants are. Our place is not so flash, but it is very handy, overlooking the Motwala River.

This is a shot of some of the expensive boats moored just across the way. Obviously there is some private money in Poland now. Hard to believe that it was in August 1980 (between the time I had Joseph and Thomas to put it into perspective) that Lech Walęsa scaled the walls of the Lenin Shipyards in Gdansk starting a strike by the Solidarity Movement that eventually resulted in him being elected as the first freely-elected president of Poland in 1990. Pope John Paul II also played a significant part in the destruction of communism in Poland.

The Polish people are very busy trying to catch up to the rest of the free world.

This is another famous symbol of Gdansk – The Crane – very impressive as it was built in the 1400’s to unload ships. Men walked in the big wheels to turn them around.

We took a ride on this boat to Westerplatte – which is the site where WWII started. A moving open air museum has been set up on the site. We learnt so much about Gdansk’s history today. No wonder there are dozens of groups of school kids on excursion over here.

In the early hours of 1 September 1939, German soldiers opened fire on Westplatte, which was an important army store and port for the city of Gdansk. On the same day, German soldiers stormed the PO in Gdansk. Refer to the previous post on the monuments remembering all the Poles that were murdered following that event. Thousands of Poles lost their lives trying to defend their country.

This is the monument that has been erected to remember this event where WWII started.

Central Marine Museum – oh my goodness, now this was a marathon effort. Once you get into these museums, there is no turning back. We walked for more than two hours meandering our way through excellent displays, and got nowhere near finishing the museum.

This ship is moored directly across the river from us – the first ship of its type built at the Gdansk shipyards. And behind it in the three old storage buildings is the rest of the museum we walked through for hours.

An education officer was giving a beaut picture talk about a significant historical event for Gdansk and then all the children got to dress up as characters in the old painting. It was such a great idea. Kept me entertained anyway.

Dinner at home tonight – a curry Michael cooked using the piece of alleged ‘fillet’ steak he bought on our first day here. We fly out for London tomorrow evening. No plans for tomorrow as yet. It will depend on the weather.