Gdańsk: Czwarty szczęśliwy! (Z przystankiem na Elbląg, Gdynia i Sopot)

I was so happy when I woke up that I was finally in Gdansk. I honestly never thought this trip would happen after my last 3 times of trying.

I got up early and headed to the city to get some food and pick up the walking tour. The company I used was Walkative and I chose them after a good tour in Berlin.

The tour was good but it was information overload and I honestly couldn’t remember what was said at the start of the tour. It was such a shame too because Gdansk has some important history behind it.

Gdansk was known as the Free City of Gdansk and a country in its own right. It was once owned by the Germans and called Danzig. It was surrounded by sovereign Poland and the Poles wanted it because of the port and access to trade with the rest of the world.

The people of Gdansk wanted to be ruled by themselves only and not to share the tax money with the Germans or Poles.

Gdansk was also where the first shots of WWII were fired that started the war. I need to read more into this since I have a keen interest in the war.

Gdansk was also the birthplace of the Solidarnosci (or Solidarity) movement. This happened in the shipyards of Gdansk and all over the country you can see symbols of the Solidarity movement.

If you look at the list o prominent people from Gdansk you will read some names that you recognise. It brings you such people as Donald Tusk (European Council president) and Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit (the very same the temperature scale is named after).

Once the walking tour was over, I had a wander around the city some more to see what it had to offer. I got myself a nice cold raspberry Pepsi and a hot dog before heading to Bazylika Mariacka Wniebowzięcia Najświętszej Maryi Panny w Gdańsku to climb the tower for the views.

It is said this is the largest brick church in the world.

The tower has 409 steps to the top and costs 12 zł for a normal priced ticket. The views from the top were amazing but for the rain I could have stayed up there for the rest of the day. When I was descending, there was a bit of bottle neck as we needed to wait for someone who had a bit of a panic attack whilst going down the spiral steps.

St Mary’s Basilica has a shrine to Pawel Adamowicz who was the mayor of Gdansk. He was attacked at a charity event in January 2019 in the city. I remember quite clearly reading about it. You can read about it here and here.

Once I was done here, I went to get some food and then head out on the tram and then headed back to the hostel for an early night as I was getting a train to Sopot the next day.

Total steps: 15,741

Total miles: 7.5

Below are some pictures from the day I spent in Gdansk

I left about an hour before the train was due so I could get some chocolate and fizzy to give me the sugar I so desperately craved.

I also sat on the station platform for an hour and I was loving it. So many passenger and goods trains passing by. I loved, loved, loved it. I got so many pictures and videos of the trains.

I got to Sopot and headed to the main centre to go see the lighthouse (as suggested by Tom. Cheers). I wasn’t here for very long as I wasn’t feeling the best. I climbed the lighthouse and got some good pics of the views. Well worth a visit if you ever go to Sopot.

The tower cost 6 zł for a normal priced ticket and there were 136 steps to the top. The views were really good and you could see along the coast back to Gdansk.

At noon everday, they play music from the lighthouse. I was here long enough to get a video of it.

Once I was done here I had a walk around for another 30 minutes before heading back to the train station and to the hostel to call it a day.

Once I had woken up, I decided that I wanted to go somewhere else close by so had a look at the map to see where to go and where I could get to from the local train station. I decided on Elblag (even though rain was forecast).

I went out and got food and then came back to the hostel and chilled.

Train to Sopot: 4.4 zł

Train to Gdansk: 4.4 zł

Gdansk – Sopot: 10 miles

Total steps: 17,838

Total miles: 8.6

Below are some pictures from the day I spent in Sopot

I was up early on purpose today so I could go sit at the station on the other platform and train spot for an hour before I headed to Elblag (pronounced Elblog). The journey here was a little over an hour so I was able to get warm on the train and sit and enjoy the scenery.

I didn’t know what to expect from the city as I hadn’t really looked up much about it. Sometimes I think that’s the way to do it then you have no preconceived ideas of what to expect.

I headed out of the station and picked up the tram heading in the direction where I thought I wanted to be. I did see some buildings from the tram and got off and had a wander around. I was trying to see as much as possible as rain was forecast the whole time I was there.

I looked at the map to find the general direction of the centre of the city and headed there.

Elblag is a quaint city. They had a sculpture trail all around the city which I thought was pretty cool. As I was walking, I found the old gate of the city and headed in that direction.

I went through the gate and had a walk down the one main street of the old town and then saw a church and the tourist information centre. I didn’t see any souvenir shops here – that’s how small the city is. I decided to go into the church and saw that they had a tower.

Guess what I did dear reader: that’s right. Climbed the tower. A normal ticket costs 8 zł. The tower has 136 steps to the cash office. There are another 60 steps to the first metal spiral. It then has 75 steps on the first metal spiral. Then another 105 steps on the second metal spiral. I felt every single step of this. I was actually quite nervous on the metal spirals here. One of them had a yellow and black taped step which didn’t inspire confidence I would make it to the top.

Again, the views were really good. Once I was down on terra firma, I went to the river and walked across the bridge before heading for some food. As soon as I sat down, it started raining.

I decided this was the time to head for the tram but not before stopping at the tourist information centre to powder my nose and charge my phone.

Once it was sufficiently charged, I headed out onto the tram to go to the end of the line and see if there was anything worth seeing. It turns out there was. I waited for the tram and it started to rain. I got my trusty (pahahaha) umbrella out and walked around the church that was there. The building was quite different to others I had seen on this trip.

I decided that I would head to the train station and wait for the train as I didn’t really want to be out in the rain.

I got back to Gdansk and the rain had stopped and it was a nice easy walk back to the hostel.

Train to Elblag: 18.30 zł

Train to Gdansk: 18.30 zł

Gdansk – Elblog: 47.5 miles

Total steps: 13,703

Total miles: 6.4

Below are some pictures from the day I spent in Elblag

I decided that I wanted to see more of the area so on the train back from Elblag I booked some train tickets to Gdynia. I can’t believe how cheap the trains are here. You’d pay 7-8 times in the UK to go the same distance. I digress though. I was up and only spent a shorter amount of time at the station as it was forecast to be cold and windy and I wasn’t really feeling being cold.

You want to know how tired I was today? I’m glad you asked. Sit down (or stand, or whatever) and i’ll tell you. I usually have my mask on my elbow as I don’t like it around my wrist when i’m not wearing it. I went into the local shop and put my mask on and then dropped it under my chin as the station was really close.

As the train was nearing I panicked because my mask wasn’t on my wrist. I thought I had dropped it on the platform so looked around and then though it must have blown away. After a couple of minutes I realised it was under my chin. Yep, that’s how tired I was!

It was about 30 minutes to Gdynia. As with Elblag, I had no preconceived ideas of what to expect. I decided that today I would walk and see where my feet would take me. They took me right down to the port.

I wandered along some side streets and came across a couple of churches that were quite different to one another. Gdynia was also different to other cities that I had visited on this trip as it didn’t have the Dutch/Hanseatic architecture.

As with the other places in Poland I visited, there were a lot of monuments to the Solidarity movement. There really wasn’t much else to see so I went to get some lunch before heading back on the train to Gdansk. As I was on the train, the conductor came to inspect the ticket and she said something to me in Polish and I responded asking her if she spoke English and she rolled her eyes, smiled and then walked off. My guess is that my ticket wasn’t valid for the service at that time.

I got back to Gdansk and went tram surfing for an hour or so before having a walk around the old town and then heading to meet the tour guide. The tour I was doing was the Nazi Terror Tour.

He showed us where the Great Synagogue once stood. It was destroyed by the people of Gdansk before it was invaded by the Nazis. They have black stones in the ground where they believe the foundations stood.

This tour was better than the first one I did but I couldn’t really concentrate as my feet were hurting, I was tired, I was desperate for the loo and I was super cold.

Once the tour was done I headed back to the hostel as I needed the loo again and this is how the rest of my night went. Of course I didn’t sleep well since I had to be up at daft o’clock to go to the airport.

Train to Gdynia: 6.50 zł

Train to Gdansk: 6.50 zł

Gdansk – Gdynia: 15 miles

Total steps: 22,603

Total miles: 11.1

Below are some pictures from the day I spent in Gdynia