City walls still present in Gdańsk
|
It looks like what it is, a Hanseatic port city. It could be anywhere along the Baltic. Gorgeous!
|
Marvelous
|
The main street, or Long Street, or Ulica Długa by day
|
|
The city hall (Rathaus in German or Ratusz Głównego Miasta in Polish) with its tower (really, for once the tallest building in town is not a church!)
|
Neptune's Fountain
|
Even the Post Office is lovely
|
Breakfast
|
|
Polish Zlotis
|
This, on the other hand, is a church.
|
Looking back down the main street
|
|
|
|
|
Inside this old city wall tower is a museum for Amber, which is common in the Baltics
|
An Amber Stratocaster
|
|
Amber lampshade
|
Looking out of the museum tower
|
Looking out of the museum tower
|
Looking out of the museum tower
|
|
Mortar
|
Cannon...
|
... Baby Cannon
|
|
|
|
|
Yes, the statue beheaded another statue.
|
The City Hall has a museum inside it as well, they open at 30 minute intervals for a maximum of 50 people at a time. 6 went in with me. This is the "Red Room" I suppose it was a former royal palace.
|
|
Detail of the ceiling in the "Red Room"
|
Detail of the ceiling in the "Red Room"
|
Fireplace
|
Original wall paintings
|
|
Engraving print of the Crane
|
A view of the city
|
Post-war rebuilding
|
An exhibit on Danzig Free State, which existed 1918-1939
|
|
This German 8mm Mauser Model 98 rifle was made at the Danzig arsenal in 1916.
|
Danzig was a German city until 1945, when the Poles took it over a part of the agreement with Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States that reshaped Europe and brought about the Cold War.
|
German posters
|
Office
|
|
Reiche Marks. Note some of the crazy high inflation values. The exchange rate change in the 1920s from 55 Marks to the Dollar to 2,500,000! Ouch!
|
A map of the Free City
|
|
Wartime photo of a Panther Tank. I think it broke through the street into the sewers or the like, based on the way the rails are coming up over the hull
|
|
German Pak 40 75mm gun
|
Dead horses and ammunition wagon, for the Pak 40
|
Destruction in the city
|
Cute car, ravaged city
|
|
Pre WWII
|
Post WWII
|
Rebuilt
|
Back on the streets...
|
|
This fellow makes handmade cameras. He made a lens out of amber! He has an exhibit of photos made with the amber lens up in the Amber Museum across town.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The obligatory Scottish Bar
|
(bronze) Eagle on the roof
|
|
|
Gate to the docks
|
Museum of Natural History
|
In a study, how much of ancient Poles diet consisted of which kind of game animals. Hirsch and Pig are over 10% each, but fox was only .15% of their diet...
|
|
Same thing with domestic animals. 41% goes to piggies, 38 to cows and 1.63 to horseflesh.
|
Wooden longboat, 2500 years old.
|
The old docklands, razed in 1995, still uncompleted.
|
The Crane (Żuraw). First mention was 1367. It burnt in 1442 and again in WWII. Rebuilt after these fires, it shows how useful a crane was. At 11 meters to the top wheel, it was the biggest in the Baltic, perhaps the world at one point. It can lift 4 tons, by people power, men running in cage wheels, like a Hamster.
|
|
Cage wheels. They are 20 feet (6 meters) or more across
|
Pulleys and ropes
|
The docklands on the Motława River from the crane
|
I am standing in front of a cage wheel. and stairs to the upper level
|
|
|
Local widllife
|
Does your plaza have lions?
|
Modern architecture
|
|
Sadly, it began to snow as we headed to the airport for the flight back to Germany.
|
|
