This year around national day of Poland felled on Monday,
November 11, fortunately for us, it’s going to be a long weekend. First thing
came to my mind where and when to hit the road, after hitting some clicks I
found the Polish trains have a great deal on weekend commuter tickets (see more
information below on how to get there). I immediately made up my mind to get
most out of the deal in travelling across Poland during the weekend. On
Thursday night, I gave call to my of friend, to whom I always trusted and knew
she will never say no to my plans, I was still sceptical as we just came back
from our Baltic/ Scandinavian trip week ago.
Nonetheless, she
agreed to my dictated plan on visiting Gdansk and Lodz. On Friday evening, we
took overnight train from Katowice at 20:05 to Gdansk on price of a seat, I was
happy we can stretch our legs and catch some sleep during the journey, but to
my disappointment the train reached Gdansk on time at 6:00am, avoiding me to
catch on some more sleep. |
| Gdansk Railway Station |
I asked, Angel
my friend what now? We knew Gdansk is a very historical city as World War II
triggered over her dispute, it is also considered as most beautiful city on the
Baltic coast and one of the most important port cities in northern Europe.
A) Old Town Square in Gdansk :- “Let’s take a walk towards Old town square”, she said, from her
experience as she knew Baltic cities are famously known for their architecture
and the square will be the best place to source more information about the city
form the tourist office.
She was right
again, but the Old town square of Gdansk was not similar to what we saw on rest
of our Baltic trip, we started with Royal route from the upland gate towards
Green Gate, we came across numerous narrow streets selling amber all the way.
The square looked so colourful with its picturesque well known residence building
on moistly morning, navigated our way through most important canals called
Radunga and Motlava famous for local eatery and pubs.
 |
| Every Building has a Story |
B) Neptune Fountain:- Looking for tourist information across it; we found renaissance style
fountain in front of Arthurs Court, The Neptune fountain is city’s most loved
symbol and often a meeting point for city guided tours, along with other
tourist, we took the opportunity as well to get the best souvenir picture.
 |
| Neptune Fountain in Gdansk with Tower clock behind |
C) Town hall:- The main town hall on the Old
town square exhibits history of Gdansk and Poland, we were much more eager to
climb the clock tower to get panoramic glimpse of the city, with a reasonable
price of 5PLN. Punter Tip:- The
museum is free on Mondays
D) Zuraw:- (Wooden Crane) :- The first
written mentioned of the wooden crane is documented from 1363, It was used to
lift loads of cargo weighting upto 2000kg from harboured ships, Zuraw was badly
damaged during world war II, The crane after being rebuild in 1955-62 was
handed over to martime museum, to this day it is called upon as the oldest port
crane in Europe. On below picture you will see ’Zuraw’ and ‘Soldek’ the first
ship build at Gdansk shipyard.
 |
| Zuraw Oldest Wooden Crane in Europe and First Ship 'Soldek' built at Gdansk Shipyard |
Punter Tip:- The
museum is free for visit on Saturday
 |
| Polish Post office Monument, Remembering the courage of Post Employees defending their heritage |
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| St. Nicholas Church is the oldest Church in Gdansk |
 |
| Love Bridge, Common Sight in European Cities, what caught my eye was Lord Shiva- Hindu Deity on one of Locks |
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| Statue of Jan Hevelius, a known astronomer and Brewer |
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| A must visit is the Local Hala market favourite for it's fresh foods and local produced Goods |
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| 17th Century Gate marks the entrance to the Longest Street. |
It was 7pm, by
now Me and Angel thought it’s time to check out our hotel....near beach side at Oliwa, ....Guess what it was a Mistake?; Cont...d on Lodz Post..
Punting in Gdansk:-
By Bus :- My Preferred choice is WIFI enabled Polskibus.com, between 40-50 PLN it can ferry you from Warsaw,
Krakow, booking earlier can even cost you less.
By Air :- Gdansk Lech Walesa Airport is
connected with major low cost airlines, Bus 210 runs between airport, city
centre and train station.
By Train:- Intercity.pl caters to your various needs,
worth checking special offers on their web page as we found out weekend ticket
was a great deal,
* It
cost 154 PLN (2nd Class); 247 PLN (1st Class)
The ticket bearer is entitled
to unlimited travel across Poland on domestic intercity and TLK trains, from
Friday 19:00 hours until 6:00 am of next working day, In our case the Monday
was national holiday, we could enjoy the benefits until Tuesday morning 6:00 am,
On board you can take any free available seat, It’s better to take additional
reservation ticket before start of your journey were you no need to pay
anything extra, reach booking office show them your week end ticket and they
will print a reservation for you...
Public Transport:-
Bus/ Tram
|
Price
|
- Single Ride
|
3.00 PLN
|
- Upto 60 mins Ride
|
3.60 PLN
|
- 24 Hours
Ticket
|
12.00 PLN
|
* There is student discount for ISIC holders under the age of 26,
in all public transport, It always better to
buy extra tickets in hand as
Ticket vending machines are not available on ever stop/station.
* Do not forget to validate your ticket after boarding the bus/
Tram, If you are not sure ask someone where to punch it, There is on the spot fine of 140 PLN + cost
of ticket if your caught by ticket inspector.
 |
| Xmas in Gdansk |
Getting away
from Gdansk :- Sopot beach town with resorts, Spage Getaways , and
Gdynia named after fishing village, both can be best reached with SKM
Kolejka (Commuter trains), running in between them very 10-15 minutes, we didn't manage to catch on this cities but what I heard from my friend’s it’s
great escape for nightlife and relaxation place along sea side.
