Poland - Day 7, Gdansk

I'm finally finishing up this trip- just before sending the kids back to school in September.

Our flights back to the UK were on this day, so we had nothing specific planned.  We started with breakfast at the hotel, which was much more crowded than the previous day.

When we had finished, we went upstairs to pack everything up and check out.

We were able to leave our luggage at the hotel until it was time to leave, so we headed outside and just started walking.

Since we had nothing on our agenda, we just let the kids run and play wherever there was room to do so. We came across a tour group looking at a cool metal tree sculpture. It's called the millenium tree, and was crafted in 1997 to mark the 1000th (!) anniversary of Gdansk.

I had one last paczki, and the kids had pre-lunch ice cream.

filled with rose jam

The city in ruins after WWII

The kids saw a street performer dressed as a statue, and they all put coins in his bucket. Clara drew the line at shaking his hand though.

Walking back toward the hotel, we stopped for lunch at a pierogi restaurant. We ate outdoors next to St Mary's Church, and the food was fantastic. Matt tried borscht, which was bright red, and tasty. Lily and Clara actually ate most of it!

our view of the church

baked pierogi

Inside the restaurant, there was a window in the floor where you could watch the workers making pierogi. The kids all had a chance to watch, and I was glad I hadn't worn a dress.

Silly boy

Walking back to the hotel, we went down a pretty little street lined with vendors. I later found out that this is Mariacka Street, and according to gdanskguide.eu it is a good place to buy real amber.

We had seen taxis around town advertising a certain app, so Matt had downloaded it and ordered a taxi the night before. Once we had gathered our bags, we stood outside the hotel to wait. Five minutes before the driver was due to arrive, Matt checked the app, and our taxi had just cancelled! Now the app was saying that it would be 30 minutes until another driver could arrive, but we didn't have that long. We went inside the hotel and told the woman at the front desk, asking if she knew of a taxi company we could call. She said that the app we used is terrible about cancelling, and made a call for us. Within 10 minutes, a taxi was there to collect us. We were extremely grateful for the help, and I left a nice review for the hotel and the woman.

waiting

We made it to the airport in plenty of time, and had an uneventful flight back.

As usual, we asked the kids about their favorite parts of the trip.

Miles' favorite part of Warsaw: getting Reuben (his Minecraft pig)
of Gdansk: seeing and running around the splash pad

Lily's favorite part of Warsaw: walking on the (old city) walls
of Gdansk: going on the pirate ship

Clara's favorite part of Warsaw: playing in the park
of Gdansk: the letters




Now get ready for a photo dump. I had mentioned in a previous post about the architecture, which looks very old and beautiful. Many of these buildings were destroyed during World War II, but were rebuilt afterward to look the same. Here are some of my favorite buildings and doorways from Warsaw.

A man told us that this was the only building standing after the war. I have not been able to verify this.

And here are several interesting buildings from Gdansk.

There were some exceptionally elaborate buildings in Long Market (above). More info on some of those can be found here.

The kids may have been trying at times, but I did really enjoy our trip. I'd love to go back and see other areas of the country, but we'll see where we're off to next...