It rained quite a bit last night and continued into the morning.  

Sean woke up with the cold so it was good he stayed at home in the van to recover.

The remaining 3 of us went into town and got off the bus early where we could walk along the river to the busy spots. 

We came across some interesting old stone figures which are very worn and have been named the Hags – not very complimentary!

We checked out more amber products in the shops on the lovely Mariaka Street. Nord Amber is a highly recommended shop with genuine amber so we went there. 

We stopped for coffee and cakes there- Lisa and I had enormous cardamom scrolls. 

We then moved on to the European Solidarity Centre, a short walk away in the old shipyard where Solidarnosc started paving the way for Polish freedom from Communism. 

The whole building is built like a ship with rusty metal panels. 

We had audio guides which were really excellent- again detecting where we were in the building and providing an ongoing commentary.

We learned that the strike started when food prices were put up again by the communist government but not wages. There were food shortages and tiny cars didn’t fit many families.

Also activist Anna Walentynowicz who had worked for 30 years in the shipyard was sacked.

Lech Walesa who had already been sacked due to activism jumped over the wall of the shipyard and became the leader of the strikers.

The audio with lots of films, boards and artifacts took us through how the country got behind the strikers and the communist government had to agree to independent unions and their ability to strike. Also they published an independent newspaper where all press had been controlled up to now.

However a year later when the soviets weren’t happy with the way things were moving towards freedom, Soviet tanks moved into Poland and martial law was imposed overnight.
People woke up to tanks on the streets.

Everyone had to be home between 8pm and 6am and no group gatherings. They even had to get a licence to have a wedding with a stipulated number of people.

There was also a lot of informing as people and their families were threatened.  
Phones had an initial message saying that all conversations were being monitored.

Polish Pope John Paul had been elected in 1978 and visited Poland 9 times in all. He gave hope to Poland morally particularly in 1987 at Westerplatte telling them to hold out and fight.
The communists tried to stop him meeting Lech Walesa but had to allow it due to pressure from the pope.

However there was more backlash by the Polish people against the communist government and in 1989 in round table talks with Solidarnosc the government agreed to a partially free vote.

A vote was carried out with 100 candidates with Lech Walesa as their leader. The communists were the opposition. Here are the election posters for ‘Lechs Team’.

Lech Walesa’s team had a landslide victory. The communists won only 1 position. 

This lead to greater power to Solidarnosc and by 1991 Poland was an independent country.

After 3.5 hours we were quite tired but had enjoyed the story abd the way it had been presented. We went up to the 6th floor viewing platform with views over the old shipyard – now trendy eating areas and bars, but some areas are not being used – looking a bit derelict. 

As this was our last day in Gdansk we had to finish off everything. 

Lisa and Glenn got on the tram to Zaspa to check out street art.

I went to the Artus Court building back on Dluga street. It was the 14th century meeting place for Dutch merchants and called the best pub in Europe at the time. 

The main hall is amazingly decorative with art covering every section of the walls and ceiling. 

It has a huge ceramic tile heater in the corner from the 14th century with significant people on it.

The top floor is an art gallery with paintings mostly views of Gdansk that I enjoyed.

The whole venue was only 3 rooms so I soon finished and checked out the outside.

I got on my way seeing a wedding couple marching down the Main Street.

I met up with Glenn and Lisa in the pub we were in yesterday and had beer and chips – we had had no lunch.

Then it was home to see Sean. 

I did a quick cook up of kransky sausages, eggplant, zucchini and sweet corn – we were starving and felt a lot better after eating that. 

It was getting late by this time so we all went off to bed exhausted after another brilliant day in Gdansk. We will be sad to leave it.