Day 7 and 8: Day Trip to Gdańsk and Sopot

And we're back! Yesterday was a very long day for both of us as we had our first excursion out of the Warsaw area. Our day trip took us to Gdańsk and Sopot, on the beautiful Baltic sea. These two cities are part of a region called Trójmiasto (Tricity) which also includes the relatively new city of Gdynia.

The night of May 1st, after packing up our bags, we headed to the main train station in Warsaw (Warszawa Centralna). To save time, we would be traveling to and from the north by "economy" night train in little cabins with fold down beds for 6 people (Kuszetka). Here we see Isabel, all ready to take her first European train ride.

The three cities (Gdańsk, Sopot, Gdynia) are located right next to each other along the coast with Gdynia in the north, and Gdańsk in the south.The train there took us first to Sopot. The relatively small town is a popular summer time resort for Poles and international tourists. This funky architecture on the main drag is called the "crooked house".

The main street is called Bohaterów Monte Cassino Street (Heroes of Monte Cassino) and is lined with several shops, malls, and really cool statues.

This is the Pier in Sopot (Molo w Sopocie), the longest wooden pier in Europe (511.5m). Having just arrived in Sopot at 5:30am, it was much colder than we expected and all the stores were still closed. To pass the time we went out on the pier and took in the sights of the Baltic ocean. We're glad we got out so early because the early morning sun was beautiful, and the rest of the day was rather cloudy.

At the end of the pier we could see the stillness of the water and some men fishing right at the end. For some reason I didn't notice my gigantic finger in either of these pictures but despite my ineptitude, I think they get the point across.

Looking back you can see one of the more prominent buildings on the beach, the Grand Hotel.

The Trójmiasto region is interconnected by a system of trains and buses so after walking around Sopot, we were only a short trip from Gdańsk. Sometimes known by its German name, Danzig, this city used to be a semi-autonomous city-state between WWI and WWII. In the 1980s, the Solidarity movement (Solidarność) was started by striking shipyard workers, leading eventually to Poland's first freely-elected president since the communist era. Here's Isabel standing outside the main train station right after we arrived.

We stopped by an old mill converted into a shopping mall. It was cool because the original foundations were still visible.

Being a historic port city, there are several canals with nice walkways along the water. I couldn't be trusted to not fall into the water so I needed close supervision from Isabel.

This is the Gdańsk seaport crane, a very distinctive landmark. On the inside, the crane was essentially operated by human hamsters running around on big wheels. Though not unique in design, this is called a treadwheel crane and this one is especially large. I asked but Isabel did not want to go for a run on the wheel.

Eventually we came across Diagon Alley Mariacka street in the old town which is just one of the market streets lined with very tall row houses. The street is composed mainly of jewelry shops since Baltic amber is a local specialty.

The long market is another notable street in the old town which was nice to walk along and take in the architecture.

St. Mary's Cathedral is Europe's largest medieval brick cathedral and we climbed all the way to the top of the bell tower (400 steps to get to the top). Part of the trip was along an extremely tight spiraling staircase with no railing......this was a bit scary (for Isabel), but the view from the top was definitely worth it. I took a picture of Isabel standing on the other side of the tower, below her you can see the church bells which are already pretty near the top.

We tried to take a picture together but failed too many times so we eventually got fed up and independently decided to ruin the picture, this was not coordinated. It was our best one...

In the evening, we returned to Warsaw on another overnight train, and spent the rest of the morning sleeping once we returned to the apartment. That afternoon we met with some of Kuba's relatives on his dad's side of the family and had a great visit with them.

Our next trip is to Cracow, with side trips to the Wieliczka salt mine, Zakopane, and Auschwitz, then on to Vienna! We are leaving for this trip on Sunday, returning on May 15th. Should be lots of pictures!

xo