Today's focus was a visit to the Roads to Freedom Exhibition (Drogi do Wolnośći), which is all about the anti-Communist struggle in Poland.
The exhibition is north of the main streets and square, so Frank studied our route and even plotted out a Coffee Heaven stop for me on the way. It was inside a mall, so we got a brief glimpse of a Polish mall too. There was a bakery across from Coffee Heaven, where I made my best guesses about which pastries would be tasty, and did extremely well. I have a feeling that might have something to do with the fact that ALL the Polish bakeries we've been to have been fantastic. Who new the Poles had such fabulous baked goods?
Our walk north took us past some scenic spots, including an old mill:
It took us about twenty minutes to get to the Exhibition entrance.
The entrance, which is behind the brick column in the picture, takes you down a set of stairs to an exhibition that is entirely underground.
Right by the entrance is an example of the type of military tank that was a common sight on the streets of Gdańsk during the Communist era riots.
One part of the exhibit showed a mock-up of a typical empty grocery store in the late 1970s. People would line up for hours for anything that was on sale, even if they didn't need it, so they could use the item to barter with later. The Communist era was known for its shortages of many food items and other basic necessities like toilet paper.
Here are the 21 demands of the striking shipworkers in Gdańsk, which were painted on a board and hung so they could be seen by trains passing the shipyards.
This is the pen that Lech Wałésa used to sign the historic agreement referred to as the August Accords. It is about a foot long and has a photo of Pope John Paul II in it. Apparently someone handed it to him to use so that everyone watching could truly see him signing the document.
Lech Wałésa was a leader of the famous shipyard strike in 1980 and a key figure in the Solidarity trade union which was created as a result. He later became President of Poland and also won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1983.
The Solidarity movement was the first independent trade union to be recognized in the Eastern Bloc. It eventually paved the way for the first semi-free election in 1989 and finally the toppling of Communist regimes in Poland and throughout Eastern Europe.
It took us about 2 hours to get through the entire exhibit, which included an overwhelming and eye-opening quantity of information about the incredible hardships and oppression people faced under Communism and the amazing efforts of coordination and perseverance it took to overcome it. Exhausting but very educational!
We emerged back at ground level and walked to the nearby Monument to the Fallen Shipworkers. The gigantic steel monument, which is 131 feet high, was built in 1980 to commemorate the 44 people who died during the bloody anti-Communist riots of 1970. Its construction was one of the demands put forth by the striking workers in 1980. The symbolism of the monument includes crosses which represent resurrection and victory and anchors which represent the "crucifixion" of hope. The structure is emerging from broken concrete to denote the idea of defeating Communism. From the monument's center, paths spiral outward showing that the idea would spread around the world.
The monument stands in front of the entrance to the famous Gdańsk shipyards.
Based on our guidebook, we didn't think we would be able to go in, and it was described as the "former" Shipyard, with plans to regenerate it in the near future.
However, we were allowed in, and there is definitely some construction underway, although we could not figure out what was being built. There were workers wandering around in Shipyard jumpsuits and hard hats, but it was unclear to us whether there was actual Shipyard work being done or just new construction. Overall, it felt like a sort of creepy, abandoned place - an atmosphere that was only added to by the cloudy gray weather while we were there. There were also some random art pieces scattered around the grounds.
After our educational morning, we headed back to the main area of town via another scenic route that took us past more of the small waterway we had passed earlier.
Somehow the area reminded us both of England.
As you can see from the differences in the sky from one section of pictures to the next, the weather seems to change its mind every few minutes.
Back in town, we strolled along Długa and Długi Targ, The Long Street and Long Market, which form the main street and are also referred to as the Royal Route. They have a gate at each end, and the buildings along the entire thing are extremely colorful with interesting facades. The entire thing was rebuilt after World War II, just as in Warsaw, but here the reconstruction seems even more lived-in and authentic.
This is the tower of the Town Hall building which is on the main street.
Here are some examples of the building details:
We followed the Długie Pobrzeże (Long Waterfront) which runs along the canal to head toward lunch at a Polish restaurant called Baryłka, another guide book suggestion. The street is filled with more amber and souvenir vendors that you can count.
This was my view as we walked toward lunch:
This was my view at lunch:
We had another bowl of our new favorite soup, Żurek, which came in a bread bowl this time, and shared a pork chop. We have done a pretty good job of eating almost only Polish food but still getting a good variety. We also have only had one mediocre meal (the first one) the entire trip - everything else has been really good.
The rain that started up just when we started lunch had ended by the time we were ready to head back out, so we did some more wandering around the extremely picturesque town.
As a surprise for Frank, I had booked him a massage at the "spa" in our hotel, so at 6 o'clock, he went down to the spa area and I camped out on the terrace of our hotel which overlooks the canal.
This was my view as I sipped a latte and worked on the blog:
More strolling in the evening to get some more cash from the one HSBC ATM we found on the other side of the river.
And a surprise rainbow just as we were heading to dinner:
Sunset view (with moon) over the ruins of something that seems to be in the the restoration process on an island in the canal.
With the assistance of our hotel, we had made a reservation at Goldwasser for dinner. It is right on the canal and we got a table up on the second floor terrace.
After an excellent dinner (Zucchini pancakes with salmon, Greek salad, a pork loin dish), we shared a piece of their homemade cheese cake and felt obliged to try the famous Gdańsk specialty - Goldwasser liqueur - which contains flakes of real gold.
After a short walk home and a last view of the canal at night, it was time to pack and head to bed. The alarm clock nonsense starts again tomorrow...
ILM
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