Gdansk, Poland
It’s hard to imagine, that in the span of only a generation, a town once frozen in the cold gray grip of Eastern Europe’s Communist past, has morphed into the glorious and vibrant city that we encountered today in Gdansk, Poland.
If there is any one person on the planet that can be given credit for starting Poland’s, and Eastern Europe’s, dramatic crusade for freedom from Soviet domination, it’s the man that we have speaking to us on the National Geographic Explorer this morning … Lech Walesa.
In 1980, Walesa, was working as an electrician in the Gdansk shipyard. Expelled by the authorities for agitating protests, the undaunted union organizer climbed a wall to get back in the facility to lead the first of the shipyard worker’s demonstrations against Russian occupation. On the fourth of June, 1989, those efforts finally culminated in Poland’s first free and open post-war election. Lech Walesa would later be elected president of the country and just happen to pick up a Nobel Prize along the way! And here he was, speaking, shaking hands, and sharing anecdotes on board the National Geographic Explorer! A rare and wonderful privilege, indeed.
After our time with President Walesa, we climbed aboard our tour buses for the short ride to Gdansk’s old city center. Although the protests in the gritty Gdansk shipyards have colored most of our perceptions about this part of Poland, it’s really the historic city center that most accurately reflects it’s glorious past. An important member of the great trading cities of the Baltic Sea, the old town’s architecture is a reminder of the great wealth and prosperity that marked the era of the Hanseatic League of nations.
We entered the old Gdansk through the “Green Gate”, an imposing brick structure with gabled archways that provided access to the wide pedestrian walkways of the old town. Originally made of wood, the Green Gate got its name because it’s location next to the Vistula River. That proximity promoted the growth of much moss and greenery, resulting in the descriptive label that persists to this day.
Blessed with perfect weather and cerulean blue skies, we began our explorations with a guided tour of the historic city center. Later, we broke into smaller groups for museum visits, photographic walks, shopping, and sightseeing. At the end of a magnificent day, our Zodiacs took us on a six-mile trip along the Vistula River through the historic Gdansk shipyard, the hulking machinery providing a contrasting, but no less visually dramatic, counterpoint to the beauty of old Gdansk.
