I had a leisure day of sightseeing today.
By the way, yesterday was a scoreless draw..
Nuns. 0
Muslims 0.
Gdansk is not a typical Polish city. It sure doesn't look like one, and when you read the history it is inderstandable. Before it became part of modern Poland, after WWII, it was more German than anything.
An interesting fact, WWII officially started when Hitler fired on Westerplatte, on the edge of Gdansk.
After the war it was almost completely destroyed by the Russians, as revenge against the Germans. Looting and rape was encouraged. An entire convent of nuns threw themselves off the top of their convent, rather than face the Russians.
The restoration has been unbelievable. The old buildings have been restored to their splendour during the 16 and 17th century. One of the museums I toured had pictures of Gdansk in 1945, and it is nothing but rubble.
You wouldn't know it from what it looks like today.
I did "The Royal Walk", which is the route royalty would take when they visited Gdansk. It starts at 3 gates, which were the entrance to the city, and goes down the Main Street to the harbour, about half a kilometre.
The street is quite wide, pedestrian only, and is lined by beautiful houses and official buildings. As I mentioned before the houses are very similar to houses in Amsterdam. They are tall and skinny; taxes were based on frontage. The insides are all the same. If you were to look down on the house, it would not be a rectangle. It would be like a "U", but with the horizontal line being much longer. The rooms at the front, on all floors, would be the showpieces of the house. The back would be the same size as front, but it would be where the family lived, not as fancy as the front. The thin line connecting the two parts would be utility rooms, with a garden being inside the "U".
This afternoon I visited the shipyard area, which is world famous for the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, under Lech Walensa. This is where the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism started.
There is a very moving museum, which described living conditions under Communism, and the story of the Solidarity movement. Three times did the regime put down the uprisings, one more violent than the next. It took 20 years, but the Polish people were the first to gain their independence.
I wish more Canadians would have an opportunity to see how lucky we are living in Canada. There would be a lot less complaining.
Tomorrow I leave Poland and move on to Lithuania.
Ralf
By the way, yesterday was a scoreless draw..
Nuns. 0
Muslims 0.
Gdansk is not a typical Polish city. It sure doesn't look like one, and when you read the history it is inderstandable. Before it became part of modern Poland, after WWII, it was more German than anything.
An interesting fact, WWII officially started when Hitler fired on Westerplatte, on the edge of Gdansk.
After the war it was almost completely destroyed by the Russians, as revenge against the Germans. Looting and rape was encouraged. An entire convent of nuns threw themselves off the top of their convent, rather than face the Russians.
The restoration has been unbelievable. The old buildings have been restored to their splendour during the 16 and 17th century. One of the museums I toured had pictures of Gdansk in 1945, and it is nothing but rubble.
You wouldn't know it from what it looks like today.
I did "The Royal Walk", which is the route royalty would take when they visited Gdansk. It starts at 3 gates, which were the entrance to the city, and goes down the Main Street to the harbour, about half a kilometre.
The street is quite wide, pedestrian only, and is lined by beautiful houses and official buildings. As I mentioned before the houses are very similar to houses in Amsterdam. They are tall and skinny; taxes were based on frontage. The insides are all the same. If you were to look down on the house, it would not be a rectangle. It would be like a "U", but with the horizontal line being much longer. The rooms at the front, on all floors, would be the showpieces of the house. The back would be the same size as front, but it would be where the family lived, not as fancy as the front. The thin line connecting the two parts would be utility rooms, with a garden being inside the "U".
This afternoon I visited the shipyard area, which is world famous for the birthplace of the Solidarity movement, under Lech Walensa. This is where the liberation of Eastern Europe from Communism started.
There is a very moving museum, which described living conditions under Communism, and the story of the Solidarity movement. Three times did the regime put down the uprisings, one more violent than the next. It took 20 years, but the Polish people were the first to gain their independence.
I wish more Canadians would have an opportunity to see how lucky we are living in Canada. There would be a lot less complaining.
Tomorrow I leave Poland and move on to Lithuania.
Ralf
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