Poland- Day 6, Gdansk

Apparently I finished Day 5 without looking at my notes, because I completely forgot that Clara ended up in our bed around 3:30 in the morning. She's currently going through a phase in which it's difficult to get her to sleep at night, and she hasn't been great when she's had to sleep with her siblings.

Anyway, we woke up and got ready, then went downstairs for breakfast. Like in the last hotel, there were sandwich items, yogurts, and cereals, and also a few salads to choose from. Everything we tried was delicious.

Before we headed out for the day, the girls had seen a few ants on the pavement outside the hotel. They built a nice nest\meal of grass for the ants for the day. I'd love to know what's going on in their minds sometimes.

Our hotel, great location and service

Once they had finished, we went to look at St Mary's church, which is the largest brick church in the world. Of course the kids found a splash pad on the way. We somehow convinced them not to run through it, although they played around the edges for several minutes.

We were right next to the church, so I was able to take photos without hearing how boring it was.

We made our way around to the front of the building.

The kids loved the scale model of the church outside. I snuck in the entryway and took one picture, but the lighting wasn't great.

Then the little ones discovered an old statue outside, and had fun posing with it. Clara noticed that it looked like it had three claws, hence her hand gestures.

Lily said, "3 add 3 is 6!"

From here, it was a short walk to Long Market in Old Town Gdansk. We wandered a bit, and the kids played behind Neptune's Fountain. We also found one place serving paczki - sadly only one of two we found in this location!

We had found out where to go to ride on the pirate ship we'd seen the previous day, so Matt stood in the long line to get tickets. When he reached the front, he was told that they only take cash, so we would have to find an ATM and wait a couple of hours for the next tour. (There were two ships, and we wanted the one with a covered area since it was so sunny. So we wandered around and had lunch while we waited.

Lily started a little photo shoot, which kept us entertained.

I tried to narrow it down, but I loved those photos.

Near the Maritime Museum, we found a sunken boat in the harbor. It looked like it had been there for a while, but hadn't been removed.I'd love to know the story behind it!

Lily showed us a lion statue she had spotted, although Clara insisted that it was a monkey and it was her friend.

I love watching her hold hands with statues

We then had lunch before it was time to try again with the pirate ship. We enjoyed lunch outdoors at an American style restaurant.

When we had nearly finished eating, we saw a man in the square holding a boa constrictor. He was taking money for photo ops, and Clara was fascinated. She wanted to hold the snake, so Matt took her to the man. They quickly came back once she realized that the snake was alive.

By now it was time to try again for pirate ship tickets. This time, they told us to line up at the ship, and guess what - there was a card reader. Matt was pretty irritated.

Clara insisted that this was a slide

Waiting to board

We quickly boarded and found a table big enough for the 6 of us.

When we started moving, Clara was so excited to wave at everyone we passed. The whole ride would have been worth it just to see the joy on her face.

It was hard to get good pictures, but it was interesting to see the sights.

It wasn't long before Lily and Miles wanted to go up top so they could see better. Matt was with them much of the time, but I gave him a little break. They loved the breeze and sun, and the view was much nicer.

We stayed tucked away in this little corner

Wisloujscie Fortress

This ship cruised the Martwa Wisla to Westerplatte, and back again. Our ticket allowed us about an hour at Westerplatte before we made the return trip. The Battle of Westerplatte in 1939 is often sited as the battle that began World War II, although I've read that it was only one of the first. It turned out that one hour wasn't enough time to fully explore the area, but it's just as well since the kids were not exactly thrilled with this part of the day.

Remains of a military railway station

We followed the path, which took us along the coast of the Gulf of Gdansk, leading to the Baltic Sea. We couldn't have asked for a more beautiful day.

Matt took the kids to the top of this old tower to look around.

Hi Lily!

Coming back down

Anna and I were happy to stay on the ground, where we discovered an underground bunker. I would have loved to see inside.

A little farther into the woods, there was an area with several signs showing information about the history of Gdansk. 

At this point we hadn't seen everything, but it was time to get back to the dock to catch our ride. We took a different path back, and saw remnants of ammunition storage as well as another bunker.

Although I had wanted to see more, the kids were more than ready to be finished with this part of the day. They were running up and down the hills away from us, so we basically dragged them back to wait for the boat.

I love this shot

On our return trip, we did not have the same ship, so there was no shade from the sun. We were all hot and tired, and pretty listless during the ride. It also felt much more crowded, so we (I) may be been slightly cranky. We did, however, get to see the Westerplatte Monument, which we hadn't reached during our walk.

Westerplatte Monument

This trip, we stopped and just sat in the water for a while (probably because the drawbridge wasn't yet scheduled to open for us). A man sat and played music for us, which did help a bit.

Playing with Daddy's hat

Once we disembarked, we didn't want to pen the kids in another restaurant, so we took them back to the hotel. Matt and I went to a nearby convenience store, and bought snacks for dinner, as well as for the next day's travel back to the UK. Pretty exciting, right?

Clara and Lily were pleased that the ants seemed to have eaten their gifts from the morning. However, while they were checking this out, a very large dog snapped at them and scared the living crap out of them. This did not help Lily's intense fear of dogs at all. We were able to calm her down though to get everyone ready for bed and our last hours in Poland.