Hotel Pica Paca Gdansk

... cold now from being out of the sun. As we get closer to town, we pass a man selling smoked barbequed cheese. It is delicious. What a treat. We thought at first that it was covered in something but it is nothing but the cheese. It is so fresh that it squeaks when we chew it.<br><br> Back to the hotel to get our jackets before venturing out for dinner and an evening promenade. What a lovely easy place.

I am not a hot chocolate drinker. Maybe one or two Swiss Miss packets in a 2 or 3 year period is about enough for me and then I need enough marshmallows to totally take over the chocolate. So a couple of years ago (already!), traveling in Croatia, one of the other tourists (Thank you Heather!), got a cup of hot chocolate at a roadside restaurant. I was intrigued to see that ...

... for pushiness. Forty minutes in the showroom without a single salesman approaching us. As there are many car dealerships, we are ready to leave when someone finally sees us and comes over to see if we want to buy a car. We have already been sitting in cars and kicking tires just to see if they notice us. He says, just saw you walk in the door. A line definitely or ...

... gave us information that we had not had yesterday and showed us some new areas that we had missed. It was a good little tour.<br><br> She had told us a good place to eat baked potatoes too. We headed for that. On the way though we passed the Uphagen House which has furniture from the period when it was a viable house. It was open so we ducked into it and got a free ride with our tourist ...

... whatever was on offer (whether needed or not) so it could be traded later on in the day. <br><br>I listened to a group of America's finest telling their tour guide about how wonderful our government is and that this could never happen in the US. One particularly decrepit old woman who looked to be a card carrying member of God's waiting room told her guide, "Nancy Pelosi and President Obama are working hard to have the goverment take care of us. Too bad you ...

... any pintail concerns that we would be cannon fodder for the course we had a strangely disappointing uneventful flight. We arrived in Poland under a mask of heavy cloud until the recognizable form of the Gdansk Crane was visible from below. Despite Odie having to endure a 10 minute Customs quiz, we were out with near German efficiency. A 25 minute cab journey costing z50 (£12.50) dropped us at the Novotel just on the outskirts of Gdansk old town flanked by a main road and some ...

... who headed the Solidarity movement and was later president of Poland. I remember seeing the riots on TV. It was the start of the fall of Russian control, including the fall of the Berlin Wall - very historical place. We headed back to the ship and sailed for Denmark. The Polish people are very proud and very distrustful of Russia. They are trying very hard to become and remain a free country. Joining the EU has helped them a lot ...

... to see despite being mostly destroyed during WWII. Actually Gdansk (also known as Danzig in German) has the notoriety of being the place where WWII started, when some German war ships opened fire on a garrison located here. We did a little browsing for amber jewellery (one street is completely filled with amber shops), checked out the main drag and then made our way back to the hotel. Supper at the hotel was good again ...

... when it comes to matters of the bladder, it was absolutely amazing that i didn't need to go loo once - that has to be a record for me!!!!!!!!!!!! The border crossing was at 2.30am and of course there always has to be one numpty that leaves their passport in their bag under the bus (not me). I couldn't even tell you about the scenery but i think we drove through the polish lake district which looked mysteriously dark ...

... once I start uploading my pics. We had a wander round the touristy areas and looked in a few of the shops before heading back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We went to this restaurant on the waterfront covered by a canopy, but you guessed it, as soon as we sat down the rain came on, AGAIN. Same stuff really heavy sharp rainfall. Once we had relocated our table out of the dripping, we went on to have a lovely meal. I had a grilled shark steak, which I think was fresh, but ...