Gdansk

Since we dock at around 11 am in Gdansk we have the morning free. Glenda is doing laundry and I'm catching up on this travel journal. Our walking tour of Gdansk was wonderful. Our guide, a Mr. Skibenski, was a worker in one of the shipyards where Solidarity was formed. His parents were killed at Auschwitz, and a brother was killed by the Soviet Russians. We saw the huge crane that used a human treadmill and gears to install masts onto ships. We saw the church of St Mary, the largest brick Gothic church in the world. Most of the city was destroyed in World War II. Much of it has been rebuilt from the original bricks. There is a large Fahrenheit thermometer near the place where Fahrenheit was born. His parents committed suicide by drinking poison, so the young scientist was raised by his uncles. The European Union was holding a festival representing all of its member nations. St. Mary's Church is now Catholic again since World War II, though for 400 years it was Protestant. Its buttresses are not flying buttresses, but rather internal buttresses. The large stained glass window overlooking the altar is of modern design. The renaissance building used as the arsenal is characterized by the representation of exploding grenades on the facade. Next door is a modern building of Soviet design. Though it does not compare in its elaboration, it is also on the register of historical buildings simply because it is a representation of that period in architectural history. We saw a building that was a prison in Napoleon's time. The Catholics were having an evangelical rally on one of the main streets. We passed a replica of a renaissance ship that now carries tourists for a short excursion on the way to the large crane used in renaissance times to install masts on ships. When we returned to the ship our guide pointed out where the first shots of the Second World War were fired. A Marine barracks right where our ship was docked was destroyed by naval shelling, and then further destruction took place during aerial bombardment on the second day. The ruined barracks is now a national monument. After the excursion I walked over to photograph the park in which these ruins are preserved. We had the marinated steak at Manfredi's, then went to hear a concert of the music of the Beatles.Read more