Perhaps Gdansk

Another city not considered for a visit but a city that had some small meaning to me. Gdansk, located along the Gdania River and a port city on the Baltic Sea.


Thanks to another high speed train, we were able to make the trip from Warsaw to Gdansk, a distance of 340 kilometres, in just over 2 hours and 40 minutes.








 It was heavily bombed during WW II by the Allies and Russians after being occupied by the Germans.


















The plan was to visit some museums and its old town. Sadly, like Warsaw, it had been destroyed during the war but rebuilt to become one of the more visited places in Poland.

One of the pleasant aspects of Main Town is that the River Gdania flows in a circuitous route throughout the it.

Reminded us very much of Amsterdam with out the smell of marijuana and the ding, ding, ding of  bicycle bells.

Some of buildings survived the war. The Gdansk Crane dates back to the 14th century. It was used to load and unload cargo. It houses a museum exhibiting daily life of the port from 1500 to 1700. A interesting place to spend no more than 30 minutes.

The main attraction for me was the European Solidarity Centre which is devoted to the history of Solidarity, started in 1979 by Polish trade unionists and then morphed into civil resistance movement that spread throughout the Eastern Bloc countries. Some say that the creation of the Solidarity movement was the start of the beginning of the end of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics in 1991.

It rose from a shipyard worker's strike. Solidarity became a reality in the late summer of 1980 when it was recognized by the Polish communist government who signed an agreement allowing its existence. Led by Lech Walesa, a worker from the shipyard,  the movement grew to 10,000,000.

I had a small and personal connection to the Solidarity Movement. For me, it began in May of 1983; I was a 30 year old husband and father of two young boys. The world was going through the worst economic conditions since the 2nd World War. Inflation was in the double digits. We had just finished building a house with construction interest rates rising from 8% to 21% during the build and locking into a regular mortgage at 13.5%.

The Social Credit party led by William (Bill) Bennett junior had just been re-elected to a third term. Filled with power, the Socreds brought down draconian labour laws and terminated many of the social services that had been instituted over the past several decades. Bennett was following the same radical conservatism ideology of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher. Twenty-six bills were tabled.

Two bills dealt serious blows to the public sector unions. Under Bill 2, the unions lost the right to negotiate anything but wages and benefits and included the indefinite extension of wage controls. Bill 3 gave the government the right to fire anyone with out cause regardless of seniority and terminated any type of job security. 

On July 15^th, Operation Solidarity was born; a coalition of 400,000 BC unionists was formed to fight the Bennett restraint program.  The name grew from the Solidarnosc (Solidarity) movement protests happening in Poland. 

They  even using the same red and white banner used by the Polish movement.

Photo: Vancouver Sun

It was July 19^th and the union called an evening meeting of all Tranquille employees. Tranquille Institution started life as a tuberculosis hospital before becoming a mental institution.

At the time, I was the chief engineer of the heating plant and mechanical maintenance department for Tranquille.  

At the meeting we were informed of the closure of Tranquille and the layoff of all employees. There was no plan for what would happen to the residents and there was no actual date for the closure but under the new legislation all employees would loose their recall rights. That night, it was decided  the staff would occupy Tranquille and evict all management staff.

During the night a handmade flag was raised over the steam plant.

The next morning, I was waiting at the front door for my manager and the fire chief to arrive. I informed them that the union had taken over the institution and that they were not allowed to enter any of the buildings including the fire hall. The same thing was happening to management all over the complex.




http://www.virtualmuseum.ca/community-stories_histoires-de-chez-nous/solidarity-bc-protest_solidarite-protestation-cb/story/chapter-6-the-tranquille-occupation/

For the next three weeks, I lived on site, bunking down at the fire hall. Initially, I was contacted by Victoria and threatened that I would be held personally responsible for any facility problems that could occur on site but as time progressed the calls were more conciliatory as it became apparent that we were maintaining the institution as we normally would have.  

Fire Hall Photo: The Game of Nerds

Three stressful weeks later, we turned the institution back over to management, formed a huge parade and joined by other unions along the way, walked from Tranquille to a downtown Kamloops park where a huge Social Credit rally was being held to celebrate a by-election win for the Socreds in the Kamloops riding. We spoiled all their fun that day. 

Photo: Vancouver Sun

Operation Solidarity continued for the next three months with the largest demonstration ever witnessed in Vancouver, over 60,000  marched past the hotel where the Social Credit Party was hosting their general meeting. Two weeks later, a general strike and Nonie and I were spending some quality time on a picket line at a local liquor store.


Photo: Victoria Times Colonist



Six months later, I was offered and accepted a management position and we moved to Vancouver. 

Meanwhile back in Gdansk, we are headed for the War Museum. We planned to spend the morning there before catching an early afternoon train back to Warsaw. 

Our enjoyment of touring the Solidarity Centre the day before was quickly crushed by the memories stirred up at the War Museum. 

Given the direction of the world today, the lessons of past wars have been lost and forgotten. Everybody should tour a war museum every few years. 

First We Take Warsaw

We had an early evening, 18:25 train departure from Passau to Vienna arriving at 20:40. We traveled on a German made ICE-T train. Capable of up to 230 kilometres an hour, It was why we were able to travel from Passau to Vienna, a distance of 310 kilometres in 2 hours and 15 minutes. 

In Vienna, we were catching an overnight train to Warsaw departing at 22:20.  

Photo: www.seat61.com

Normally we would have allowed for a much earlier arrival to ensure we had plenty of time to make our connection in Vienna. However, our “on-time” experience with European train systems has given us the confidence to reduce our lay over times. Rather have the extra time to explore Passau than sit in a train station.

We were traveling to Warsaw on  a sleeper train called the Chopin. (Frédéric François Chopin was a Polish composer and virtuoso pianist of the Romantic era)  Advertised as a modern Polish sleeper, our car had seen a lot of use. Everything about it screamed the 90’s. We had booked the deluxe sleeper that provided a washroom with shower and included breakfast. The breakfast was a plastic wrapped slice of bread and pastry, a small container of juice, and some mystery meat. A very small hot coffee was delivered by the car attendant. 

The shower was more of a dribbler than a shower.  Full on, the stream of tepid water barely flowed down the wall of the shower stall. You had to rub your body along the wall to get enough water to wash. Eeeewww! 

Verdict? Should have stayed overnight in Vienna and caught an early train to Warsaw.









Warsaw had not been on our radar for a visit. We were drawn there by the chance to visit with some of our extended Chinese family. They had us quickly up and touring, with no learning curve. Meeting us at the train station then showing us the ropes on navigating Warsaw’s excellent public transportation system.

For our stay in Warsaw, we had booked a small apartment through a Polish accommodation company. Not something we normally do but the low cost was irresistible. . Their on line presence seemed legitimate and they were listed on several of the larger e-rental company sites.  The apartment was exactly as the picture on their website so a shout out to P  & O Apartment Group.

Our front door opened onto  Old Town Market Square, the geographic centre of Old Town Warsaw, hence the name

The 2^nd World War and the decades that followed were not kind to Warsaw nor kind to Poland.

The Old town had been almost completely razed by the Nazis as they retreated from the Russian advance. Rebuilding began all most immediately after the war and continued through to the mid-1960's

This is a picture of the Old Town Market Square after the Germans got through with it.

Photo: Wikipedia.com

Much of the tourist industry is driven by those years.  Bus tours to take you to the concentration camps that surround Warsaw. Many walking tours describing what life was like through the 2nd World War and Communist years.

We took three tours. The historical tour was interesting as much of Old Town had been destroyed during the war so the age of the buildings for most of the buildings were only 50 or 60 years.  We were patiently guided to those few buildings that existed before the war. There were not many.

 A shout out to freewalkingtour.com/warsaw/ for their excellent guides. Tipping is encouraged.

The Warsaw Uprising was our next tour. The uprising began as the Germans were in retreat from the Russian army advance. The intent was for the Poles to drive the Germans out of Warsaw and free Poland’s capital after five years of German occupation. As the Russians arrived on the outskirts of Warsaw they halted their advance leaving the Germans lots of time to regroup, defeat the Polish resistance and raze the capital in reprisal.

Warsaw Uprising Memorial.



This ploy allowed the Russians to easily occupy Warsaw and Poland for the next 40 years.

Our final walking tour involved one of the most infamously remembered atrocities of World War II. The  Warsaw Ghetto Uprising which began in 1939, when the Nazis who had occupied Poland a few months earlier, forced 300,000-400,000 Jews into a 3.3 km area in central Warsaw. Here, thousands of Jews perished due to starvation and disease.

In 1942, the Nazis began mass deportations of the Jews disguising it as a “resettlement to the East”. In the short period of only two months over 250,000 to 300,000 Jews were removed from the Warsaw ghetto and exterminated at the Treblinka concentration camp. 

Photo: fcut.usf.edu

Near the end of 1942, the Jewish resistance movement learned that the deportations were part of an extermination process and took up armed resistance against further deportations. On April 19, 1943, when the Nazis and SS entered the ghetto for the final removal of Jews, they were ambushed by the Resistance. 4 weeks later the last of the Jewish holdouts were killed.   (Wikipedia)


The Nożyk Synagogue is the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland. It was completed in 1902 and restored after World War II.

I would recommend reading the book Mila 18 by Leon Uris, a fictional story of the Warsaw Ghetto.  Mila 18 was the address of a bunker that was the final headquarters of the Jewish resistance and on May 8 the bunker was found, attacked and destroyed by the Germans. Resistance members trapped in the bunker committed suicide rather than be taken prisoner. 

There is a stone monument situated on the site at Mila 18. The bodies of those who died in the bunker were not exhumed and remain there today. The rock sits on a rubble mound made from the houses of Mila St.   

It might seem to those reading this blog, that Warsaw could be a bit of a depressing place, but that is far from the reality. During the day, tourists from around the world filled the streets and out in the evenings with our friends, we found the city full of young vibrant Poles, most of whom were born long after the war had ended. The city is well worth a visit and it doesn't hurt to be reminded of our past as we are sadly doomed to repeat it. 

Two Castles, a Palace and a Fortress

When not biking between picturesque little towns and villages, we got to spend a few hours in more urban centres. Stop #1, Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia since 1993. During the communist reign, Czechoslovakia was split into two and became the Czech  Socialist Republic and the Socialist Republic of Slovakia. 

We arrived by bike, to a cold, wet gloomy Bratislava. We were booked for an evening tour but had a few hours to explore the city on our own.  and meet some of the citizens. 

Our tour transportation was unique.

And like every good European city, Bratislava has a hrad (castle). One of the more whiter ones we have seen.  The choice of white for castles seems a very daring choice. How do you get the blood stains out.

It has burnt down several times over the last 1,000 years, the last time in 1811 where it laid in ruins till 1957 and finished in 1968.

The weather continued to deteriorate but on the positive side, we were the only ones wandering around the old city.

It was back to the MC Carissima for a special coffee.

Stop #2 was Budapest. Another wet and gloomy day.

Budapest was once two separate cities. Buda and Pest. Buda became the capital of  Hungary in 1361. In 1849, the first permanent bridge was build across the Danube linking the two cities and 24 years later Buda and Pest merged to become Budapest. Not sure why it could not have been called Pudabest.

And like every European city, it has a castle.

And like every castle it was located on a hill.

The first Buda Castle was built in the 13th Century while this version was completed in the 18th Century.

Someone took pity on us poor tourists and 100 years  later built a funicular that carried us to the castle.  Pretty sweet ride for something almost 150 years old.

We were met by a friendly guard who didn't need a gun, his steely stare alone kept tourists at bey.

The day got pretty wet, traffic got pretty nasty and slow while the windows on the Hop on, Hop off bus got all steamy providing a very blurry view of Budapest.


Back to the MC Carissima for a special coffee.

Stop #3, the beautiful city of Vienna. We were booked on a bus tour during the day and off to a Strauss concert in the evening.



First stop was walking tour of old town.

No European city tour is complete without a cathedral. St. Stephen's Cathedral is the go to cathedral in Vienna and located smack in the middle of the Vienna's old town.

The old town has been nicely maintained and restored, sadly it is just like most other European old towns, full of restaurants, souvenir shops and stores found in most shopping malls around the world.


It did have some pretty cool fountains.

Bad news,  Vienna does not have a castle.
It has a palace! Schloss Schoenbrunn

I know you are asking, what is the difference between a castle and a palace. A castle is a fortified dwelling and a palace in just a glitzy dwelling.

Sadly it was not included in our drive by tour.

Photo: www.schoenbrunn.at

It was back to the MC Carissima for a special coffee and to dress for our concert. Surprise, surprise we were driven to Schloss Schoenbrunn for a 60 minute concert. No pictures allowed so borrowed one. Very enjoyable but expensive 60 minutes.

Back to the MC Carissima for a special coffee.

Photo: www.schoenbrunn.at

Stop #4, Passau, the start and the end of our trip. We arrived early in the morning to a beautiful blue sky day. With a late train departure to Vienna, we had the whole day to explore.

Of course our itinerary included a castle,Veste Oberhaus. To be fair to the definition of a castle, Veste Oberhaus is actually a fortress. A fort or fortress is different from both a castle and a palace as they are designed as a military fortification, specifically with war in mind.

Like any castle, it was located on a hill.

It was built in 1219 by Ulrich II, the first bishop-prince of Passau. It was attacked five times in it's first 200 years of existence, two of those times were by the pissed peasants of Passau.


Of course, there were no handy funiculars or elevators for us. .

Just stairs, lots and lots and lots of stairs.

But the views of Passau and the surrounding country were worth the climb.

While the views were spectacular, the fortress itself was a little under whelming.


Perhaps it was the company. Those bishops can get a little prickly.



Time to head to the train station.