Gdansk Group Trip – Day 3 (Galleon Tour to Westerplatte)

A few years ago I went on this galleon tour with my friend Łukasz on his stag weekend in Gdansk and I recall him enthusiastically working through the bar on board. As I thought a trip to Westerplatte would be interesting for the group, I thought it would be rather pleasant to go back on it. I was slightly alarmed to read in the promotional material that there would be sea shanties, but Bev promised not to sing so I decided to risk it.

Here’s Captain Pugwash and the rest of the crew.

They’ve got two of these galleons which go to numerous destinations, but mostly Westerplatte and Sopot.

I took my place at the front of the ship. I don’t know the nautical terms.

Look at the eager anticipation of the crew members. Ross was wondering when he would next look at this phone, Bev was planning her next sea shanty, Richard was getting ready to provide IT support to the captain and Susanna had fallen asleep. I thought that the galleon operators were very lucky to have us on board with such a range of talent ready to help them.

The 50 metre high Amber Sky ferris wheel which was installed here in 2018.

The bascule foot bridge opens for us.

A Hurtigruten cruise liner. Susanna mentioned these to Richard a few years ago and he rushed to book one before she could. Or something like that, I get muddled up with the exact facts.

The football stadium that Ross and I had walked to earlier on during the week.

There will be the delight, at some stage, of a longer video that I took on this outbound expedition, but that’s realistically going to have to wait until my return to Norwich. For the moment, the above is a snippet of what I had to deal with, with Bev breaking her promise that she wouldn’t sing shanty songs. Fortunately, they stopped playing them when the galleon set sail, but on the return they were playing for the entire voyage, but more on that later. There was also a loud group who I think Bev wanted to be with as they were singing shanties, but I had deliberately walked to the other end of the ship. I think of my friend Julian during situations like this and think what would he do. He’d deliberately walk to the other end of the ship, he’s an inspiration.

The weather was good for us, actually too hot but I enjoyed the breeze when we got out to open water. The trip to Westerplatte takes just over twenty minutes and I enjoyed standing at the front pretending that I was an admiral, as I’m easily pleased like that. It’s also a tour through the history of Gdansk, starting in the historic Hanseatic centre before going through the still operating industrial area and dockyards. Dotted along the riverside are modern constructions, part of the rapid growth which Gdansk is going through.

I’m also pleased to report that none of the group fell overboard or anything similar, so we were then ready to explore Westerplatte.