Kobza Haus Gdansk

... around before hauling out and acting as if they are not at all cold. Some Poles sunbathe as it will not be long before the weather is too cold to sit outside in your swimsuit.

After walking off the pier, we go for a walk on the beach. The beach extends for miles in either direction. I would imagine it might be possible to walk to Gdansk down the beach and Gdynia up the beach. People stop and ...

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 ...

... talk to each other. A customer enters after me, another customer enters. Both are scooped up by clerks and are taken to the section of jewelry in which they express an interest. I am ignored. I go to another store where it only takes 10 minutes standing by a clerk to get noticed and buy my jewelry.

A brewery where hubby likes to sample the micro brews made ...

... is a piece of green amber. Hubby found an amber elephant which was a bit pricier than he desired but he hardly ever finds anything for a souvenir so it is going home with us.

Wandering and wandering back around the town, through the market to pick up some food for the train trip on Saturday and back to Sopot and the hotel. Tomorrow it will definitely be ocean viewing and pier walking.

... memorial at the entrance to the shipyards to commemorate a December 1970 uprising caused by the government's increase of prices for life's necessities such as already scarce bread and milk. "Officially" 45 were killed with 1165 injured but with 27,000 soldiers, 55 tanks, 750 armored personnel carriers and 20,000 civil militiamen such as firemen attacking the prostestors, the number is probably much higher.

Can you imagine how bad it must have been ...

... voices, and sounds. We were treated to
a short musical performance and it was very impressive. They played "Ave Maria" and something from Phantom of the Opera, and another one I didn't recognize. Quite beautiful. I visited the little store they had there and bought a hand-made angel that made me think of my mom and all her collection of angels. Then we traveled to the "Green Gate", which isn't even green. It was one of ...

... at the restaurant in the hotel, which was actually quite fancy. The salad was excellent and came with vegetarian patties covered in walnut cottage cheese (tastier than it sounds), and we had perogies stuffed with veal and covered with bacon and shallots (mmm ... perogies). Then of course, we went to bed. We made our way to Sopot, a city right next to Gdansk that has a really nice beach area. It was not a super nice day ...

... Targ (Long Market in "English"), is the best place to begin your exploration of the Cities tourist district, with many enchanting buildings and Baroque architecture to view. The area was destroyed during World War II, but rebuilt shortly afterward to resemble the 17th Century architecture which once stood there. Places to admire along the streets, are the renaissance ...

... more lakes than any other European country apart from Finland. Virtually every little village has a stork-nesting platform atop a telegraph- or electricity-pole, and I had just about givem up hope of photographing a stork in residence until late in the morning as I drove through a Hamlet. The locals were, I think, a little ...

... road the heavens opened, and when I say that I'm talking flash flood type rain, ended up totally soaked through as we had to carry on so as not to miss the train. As soon as we got to the station, the sky cleared and the rain stopped, looks like someone is out to get us. Polish trains are pretty shoddy looking from the outside, all painted in grey and green. but once you get inside its a totally different story. Each carriage has a bunch of compartments with 6 seats in each and ...