Walking. Gossip. Travel.

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Gdansk – Galleon Tour to Westerplatte

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

It was my final day in Poland and Łukasz’s suggestion to go on a pirate galleon to Westerplatte didn’t seem like a bad idea. It required very little energy and involved sailing the high seas. Well, the Baltic Sea.

The company operating the trip has two boats that they use, which are quite different in design, but both look the part. We got to go on both of them, the Czarna Perła (the Black Pearl) and the Galeon Lew (the Lion Galleon).

They had live music with a man playing sea shanties, he was surprisingly good.

We had a little visit to Westerplatte, with the monument in the background. We only had an hour there which would have been insufficient to actually see the entire historic site. It was certainly much busier than when I had gone before in November 1996.

Our galleon arrives into Westerplatte, ready to sweep us back into Gdansk. We enjoyed watching some of the visitors trying to barge their way up the gangway to ensure that they got first entry to the boat…..

Gdansk harbour area.

Watching the other galleon go sailing past us as we headed back into Gdansk.

The final trip was over as we arrived back into Gdansk.

I’d never noticed this sign before, but it’s on the entry to the central harbour area.

Łukasz, surveying the high seas and wondering what life would have been like as a Polish naval commander.

Me, wondering what free gift Greggs will be sending me this month on the app.

September 9, 2025
Gdansk

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

After a lovely few days in Gdansk, I’m now off to the airport to catch my first Wizzair flight which will take me to Cologne in Germany.

Willa Fahrenheita

Galleon Tour to Westerplatte

Caffe Perro Negro

Browar PG4

Forum Shopping Centre

Westerplatte

Kotka Cafe

Salad Story

Labeerynt

Gryf Hotel

Pijalnia Wodki i Piwa

Solidarity Museum

I’ve arrived 🙂

September 9, 2025
Gdansk – Willa Fahrenheita

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix some broken image links]

For my final three days in Gdansk I stayed at the two-star Willa Fahrenheita. It’s about a twenty-minute walk to the city centre, but there’s a tram setup nearby meaning both Sopot and central Gdansk are easily accessible.

The hotel reception isn’t always open, but there’s a number that can be called. They have a system of not using keycards or keys, but instead relying on numerical entry pads for the main door and the room, something which I prefer (I don’t have to wait at reception at hand them back….).

Nice welcome snack and drink, always a lovely little touch. The man at check-in was also particularly friendly, making a real effort to give a positive first impression, which he certainly managed to do. I was also checking-in slightly earlier than the usual hours, so his efforts were much appreciated.

The room had a pleasant balcony, although the view wasn’t spectacular, I had hoped to see The Hanging Gardens of Babylon or herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the plain.

The room was clean and comfortable, I quite liked the little sofa which overlooked the balcony area. I did find that the housekeeping hours were rather erratic, but given the price, I thought that it was overall a very acceptable stay. It was also quiet, it’s tucked away down a back street set back from the road, so it’s unlikely that anyone would be disturbed by external noise.

September 9, 2025
Gdansk – Caffe Perro Negro

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix some broken image links]

I’m not really a cafe person normally, but since it started to pour with rain, I thought it would be a pleasant environment to sit for a while. There were no brave patrons sitting outside when I went in, primarily because it was bucketing down with rain, but it started to get a little busier by the time I had left. I also like the building, it’s rather quaint.

The cafe, which was mostly full when I was there, had a quirky interior, and felt rather at ease with itself. There was just one staff member serving, and she didn’t really get chance to stop during my visit. She seemed rushed, but was always helpful and pleasant.

I liked the spider effect which the lighting had. I also liked the atmosphere, as it was quiet and peaceful, without some awful rowdy and raucous music playing. The interior of the restaurant also felt quite artistic in its design, some considerable thought had been put in to how the cafe felt and looked for customers.

I was less taken with the light covering.

It was raining outside, so the rule is that I must have a hot chocolate. The rule is actually quite flexible, sometimes I must have beer. I wasn’t asked if I wanted cream on top, but I was very pleased that the drink appeared with lots of it.

The price was reasonable as the cafe was quite central, 9zl for the drink, which is around £1.80. They did food as well, primarily cakes, but also rolls and some light meals. I didn’t see any chicken bakes on offer though, so I decided to save myself for a pub visit…..

September 9, 2025
Gdansk – Forum Shopping Centre

[I originally posted this in June 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

Since I last came to Gdansk a huge new shopping centre has opened up near to the city centre, and it’s rather substantial in size with two McDonald’s (that’s how a shopping centre size can be judged). I do quite like shopping centres, as it means free toilets and food courts, which are both useful things to have available.

I also have an exciting theory (well, it’s not exciting at all really, but I have to make things sound as interesting as I can) that a city’s economic situation can be measured to some degree by what is happening with their shopping centres. In Norwich, the Castle Mall seems to be looking ever emptier every time I go into it. There appear to be more closed up units than open units, and I do wonder whether the Castle Mall is actually going to be a viable shopping unit in a few years.

Anyway, I digress. In Gdansk, as in much of central and eastern Europe, they’re building shopping centres at some pace. And I rather like this new one, the Forum Gdansk, and it’s an impressive building in terms of its design and its size. Apparently there were some teething troubles and the opening launch got delayed, but all these little snagging issues (I use that word for Liam) seem to have been resolved.

The food court. One of my favourite places in any shopping centre. And, unlike many other centres around the world, they’ve actually got enough tables even for when I came here at a busy time (ie, not when I took the above photo).

Much of the shopping centre has three storeys of shops.

Big and airy….

Some sort of dance event being held outside of the centre.

The exterior area, and one of the centre’s two McDonald’s. The whole centre appears popular in terms of the number of people here, although since it’s just opened it might still have a novelty factor. The opening hours are long and it’s easily accessible from both the main railway station and the main street.

September 8, 2025
Gdansk – Westerplatte

[I originally posted this in June 2018 regarding a visit to Gdansk in November 2016, but I’ve reposted it to fix some broken image links]

Back to November 2016, when I visited Westerplatte which is where the first military conflict of the Second World War took place. Of all the places that I visited on that trip, this is the one that stayed with me for the longest, as the area is now so serene and peaceful that it’s hard to imagine the horrors of what happened there.

For such an important historical site, it’s not particularly easy to get there. There are buses which go to and from the site from Gdansk city centre, but they’re not that frequent. The buses were though quite busy, so perhaps in time the frequency of the buses might increase. For the moment, buses 106 and 138 go the site and they’re the standard bus ticket price.

The site is substantial in size and it contains a large memorial to the battle, as well as numerous buildings in various states of repair. Some of the buildings are nearly entirely destroyed, a few are still standing, but most are badly damaged. There’s no entrance charge to enter the site and there are numerous information boards placed around the location to allow visitors to interpret the site. My investigation of the area took just over two hours, although I could have done with just a little more time, but was constrained by the bus timetable.

Back to the importance of Westerplatte…. Gdansk was at the time known as the Free City of Danzig and was technically run by the League of Nations to ensure that it was protected. However, the League of Nations wasn’t a particularly effective or strong organisation, and it was soon railroaded into positions which weren’t in the interests of Poland or its people.

Danzig had a majority German population, so it found itself as a bastion of empire in what was now an area surrounded by Poland. The compromise agreement of being managed by the League of Nations was never really tenable, as German nationalists wanted it back. With the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, that desire of seeing a German Danzig became an important point of principle for Hitler.

On the 1 September 1939 the German ship Schleswig-Holstein fired upon the Polish troops at Westerplatte and the war had begun. The Polish resistance surprised, and I think horrified, the Germans. The Poles were also holding other locations in Gdansk that the Germans were to attack, and the strength of the defence was respected by the German troops. However, the Nazi control saw it as a substantial threat, and so perhaps took a much more aggressive line to how they treated the Polish military.

The defence of Westerplatte did delay the Germans by many hours, which was the initial point of building these defensive structures. Around 15 Poles were killed during the battle, but around 250 Germans lost their lives. The Germans soldiers at the site were so impressed at the bravery of the Polish defence that when the Poles surrendered, the commander of the site was allowed to keep his sword.

One of the badly damaged buildings which the Germans attacked. It was impressive to me that the building still stayed standing, let alone they had managed to secure it so that visitors could walk around it. They must have done complex civil engineering things to strengthen and support parts of the collapsing concrete and masonry. Or they just left it and hoped for the best…..

More photos of the interior of the same building. There are ramps which have been added to the structure to get in and out of the building, but none of it was closed off to visitors. I didn’t like to explore too closely though, just in case random bits of building fell on me.

The exterior of the above building, with the ramp to access it visible on the right hand side.

Another damaged structure at the site.

This today is the bridge at the end of the main street that so many tourists walk over and the Żuraw (or crane) building is visible on the right hand side of the photo. It’s rather haunting to be reminded that the Nazi party was so warmly welcomed into Danzig by the mostly German inhabitants.

The Westerplatte Memorial which was contributed to mark the bravery of those Poles who defended this site, and to all of those who defended freedom.

The flags of Poland and the European Union fly at the site. Freedom prevails.

September 7, 2025
TAP Portugal (Luxembourg to Lisbon)

[I originally posted this in July 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

This was my first flight on the Portuguese national carrier, TAP Portugal, flying from Luxembourg to Lisbon. Although I’m then waiting at Lisbon Airport for a flight to Seville, again with TAP Portugal.

The flight was around fifteen minutes late leaving, but the boarding process was efficient.

This is the aircraft that I flew on, the Airbus A320. This photo is from the in-flight magazine, a relatively interesting publication that was conveniently in both English and Portuguese.

I hadn’t realised until just before take-off that TAP provide free food and drinks on their flights, something I’d rather British Airways still did. A crew member handed out the package containing the chicken roll, an apple juice and some aircraft-shaped sweets. I think that there was a cheese version of the roll for vegetarians, although it was the meat version that was automatically handed out. It all tasted fine, and was perfectly adequate for a flight of under three hours.

The drinks service came a few minutes later, and it looked like a wide selection of soft drinks were on offer. I opted for a water, but there were coffees and teas available as well.

A reasonable number of flights at Lisbon Airport appeared to require bus transport, which meant that I had a wait on the tarmac in a bus for a few minutes. My view was of TAP’s maintenance depot.

Overall, I thought that the flight was better than I had expected, especially since I hadn’t realised that food and drink were included. The crew were multi-lingual, friendly and welcoming, whilst the aircraft was clean. Perhaps the biggest negative about the flight was that some of the passengers applauded and shouted excitedly when the captain landed the aircraft, and being British, I fouTAP nd this behaviour far too raucous.

September 7, 2025
Annemasse – Ibis (Accor Hotel)

[I originally posted this in August 2018 about a visit from March 2016, but I’ve reposted it to fix the broken image links]

One of the problems of visiting Geneva is that it’s very expensive, and so, since I had visited the city before I made the decision to go and explore some of nearby France. Annemasse is a town on the French/Swiss border and the prices are much cheaper. It’s about a ninety-minute walk or a thirty-minute bus journey (I walked, obviously) from Geneva to Annemasse, so it was a convenient place to stay on my first evening.

The Ibis hotel (I pinched the above photo from the hotel) is towards the Geneva side of Annemasse, although it’s only a short walk into the town centre. It was a relatively cheap option and although it wasn’t particularly exceptional, it was clean and comfortable.

I stayed in the hotel twice during the week, once on the evening my flight landed and another time the night before my flight departed Geneva. I’m rather risk averse, so I like to be as near to the airport as possible, to minimise the possibility of any little disasters taking place….

As can be seen from the photos, I had the same exciting view on both of my stays since they gave me similarly located rooms during my two visits.

Not the best of photos, but it doesn’t really matter with Ibis, as all the rooms look pretty much the same across the chain. Clean and comfortable, and I didn’t experience the construction noise that some people were complaining about when I visited.

The breakfast, which rather unusually I didn’t take photos of, was adequate, although again, wasn’t exceptional. For visitors to Geneva though who want to save some money, this is a perfectly viable hotel and it’s within relatively easy distance of the Swiss city.

September 2, 2025
Fakenham – Superstore

[This is from August 2018, but I’ve reposted it to fix the broken image link for the photo that amused me at the time….]

This isn’t particularly amusing, but this is certainly my sort of superstore 🙂

September 2, 2025
Smuggler’s Trod Challenge Walk 2018 – Yorkshire Coast LDWA

[I originally posted this in August 2018, but have reposted it to fix the broken image links]

I thought it’d be a great idea to spend a weekend in Whitby and also complete the Smuggler’s Trod 25-mile challenge event which is held nearby as part of the adventure. Five other people from Norfolk & Suffolk LDWA came along and we were rather lucky with the perfect weather for the event, no rain and not too much sun.

The walk wasn’t particularly challenging in terms of hills, but there was a hill climb straight from the start at Robin Hood’s Bay. The total ascent for the entire walk was 657 metres though, which was hilly enough for me.

The early section of the walk went along the official Coast to Coast path as we went inland.

The colours along the route were beautiful and the whole walk was along a varied landscape with numerous wooded areas, moors and along riverbanks.

Bev trapped in ferns.

The food selection was wonderful throughout and the doughnut type things were particularly delightful and very moreish. One checkpoint was kindly making up sandwiches to order, so I quite happily waited there whilst eating jelly babies.

We went through a farm with some interesting pieces of ironwork dotted about, including this fine looking soldier.

Approaching Robin Hood’s Bay again towards the end of the route.

The last part of the route was along the former railway line from Whitby to Scarborough. It’s a great shame that this line has been lost, but it is now a popular cycling and walking route.

The end of the challenge event today leaves the railway line just before Robin Hood’s Bay so that entrants have to walk up the hill to the former railway station, which is the end point of the event. For those who are running out of time, the organisers allow them to just walk along the railway line to the end, which I was tempted by anyway, but that would have felt like cheating….

This is what I had to deal with….

We walked around the challenge event in two groups of three and I won’t go into details into what went wrong for the group of three that I wasn’t in. But I will say that Maria, Jane and Ray clearly weren’t able to navigate as well as me, as I didn’t end up walking four miles extra by mistake…..

Everyone is rewarded with a pie at the end of the walk, and I was so brave that they let me have two. Actually, they let me have two without the bravery bit, but if they had known have brave I was, they’d have given me two anyway, so that’s the same thing…

They were selling flasks from the 2017 event for £1, which seemed a bargain to me as another reminder of the event.

I thought that the whole event was well run and the volunteers from the Yorkshire Coast LDWA group were all friendly and had a great sense of fun. I hadn’t intended before the event to repeat this one, but having completed it, I’m pretty sure that I’ll do it again in the future.

September 2, 2025