Midweek trip to Gdańsk – day 3 | alison richards

I had a 10pm flight home from Gdańsk today so I could make the most of my time there. Today I planned to get up early and visit the places I'd missed yesterday, mainly the Długa street, the main street through the city. Later I wanted to go to the Museum of the Second World War, so it was going to be a big day.

I was up and out of my accommodation early. Because I had only travelled over to Poland with just my backpack it was easy to pack, and all it meant was that I had to be careful when pulling things out of my bag that a spare pair of underpants didn't come with it! I love early mornings in cities though, as I basically had the place to myself, the other tourists still not out yet.

Mariacka street again, it’s just too pretty!

This monument is to Daniel Fahrenheit, who was born around the corner! Though he was the first to invent the mercury thermometer in 1714, this particular example was modelled on his improved model from 1752

The view down Długa. Most of these buildings were rebuilt after the war

The left photo shows Długa after the war. It was rebuilt by the Communists, but the people of Gdansk wanted the buildings to look like the original buildings. So a compromise was reached – the facades were reconstructed from photos, while the actual buildings themselves were built to Communist specifications, so the buildings look almost identical from inside.

From the centre of town, I walked down along the river. I hadn't really been down this area of Gdańsk much, as it was a little more industrialised and not so pretty, but I did manage to find some pretty spots.

While I was wandering around, I had a phone call from the UK - it was my recruitment agent and there was work available for me to start as soon as possible. I told her I would be back to the UK tonight and I could start work tomorrow. Hooray!

Just in case you weren’t sure where you were…

This is the Rudy Kot or Red Cat club. It is quite well-known as being the place where American-style rock-and-roll music was played during the Communist era. It was a small act of rebellion against Communist rule.

The Basilica of St Mary had opened by the time I'd looped back around there, so I went inside and bought a ticket to go up to the top. Of course, I'd also accidentally chosen to go when there was a school group of little kids all sitting at the top having a picnic! Squeezing around them and trying not to step on any lunch boxes or fingers (there was not much room up there), I managed to get a few photos of the view down below.

I left the kids at the top and went back down the narrow, steep staircase to the church and street level. I popped back into Kawiarnia Retro for tea and a bit of cake to keep me going. Then I walked through town to the Museum of the Second World War, which was about 1.5 km away.

People selling mushrooms and other vegetables

The Museum was really well designed, but I was most excited about the fact that they had lockers into which I could stow my bag. It was getting heavier the longer I walked around and I was grateful to get rid of it for a while. It did mean that I left my camera in the locker as well so I don't have any photos of the museum but, if you ever find yourself in Gdansk, I highly recommend this place. The displays were really interesting, there was plenty of good, useful information, some awesome Communist posters (I love the design of these!) and so much more. I'm not really huge on museums, especially about war, but it was so interesting I could easily have gone back to the start and gone round again. As it was I already spent over 2 hours there.

I went back to my locker to pick up my bag and started the trek back to the city. On the way, I visited St. Bridget's Church, a church that is well-known for its 'amber altar'. This is still a work in progress, and it is VERY over the top...

I went back to the city and found somewhere to eat - it was about 4pm so I wanted something in between lunch and dinner to tide me over for the evening. I went to a cafe called KOS, which sold plates of food by weight. So I had a very filling lunch/dinner and rolled out of there!

I caught the bus back to the airport at about 6:30pm, and got through the airport security and check in. I had a bit of a wait around but I'd rather be waiting around than cut it too close. Also, it was nice to sit down without my backpack on after kilometres of walking!

I got to Stansted just before midnight and caught my bus home at 12:30, getting home at about 2am. I mentioned above that I had picked up work for tomorrow so I quickly got myself to bed. It had been a good little midweek break away!