Falling for Gdansk charm: A vibrant city of old and new

She visualised a bleak industrial metropolis, but was met by a vibrant cosmopolitan city of old and new, says Isabel Conway

The city stretches out in perfect symmetry along the charming water front of canals and river

Grainy black and white TV images of vast shipbuilding sheds, hulking steel cranes, factory chimneys belching out smoke, workers on sit-in strikes, demanding improved wages, and the lowering of astronomical food prices. That was my first glimpse of a faraway, repressed, eastern European city called Gdansk back in the mists of time.

Those of a certain age will remember the Solidarity movement, led by a charismatic shipyards electrician Lech Walesa. It was a monumental struggle in which murders, torture and repression by the Communist regime lasted almost two decades, until the birth of a free Poland in 1989.

I visualise a bleak industrial metropolis, high rundown brutalist apartments dominating dreary suburbs. So, to put it mildly, I am astonished to be met by a vibrant cosmopolitan city of old and new stretching out in perfect symmetry along the charming water front of canals and river. Gdansk is more affordable and unspoilt today than Krakow, until now Poland’s star tourist attraction, it’s said.

Add some world-class museums, such as the outstanding Second World War museum, churches and other impressive landmarks, lots of budget-friendly restaurants and bars plus the proximity of nice seaside resorts on its doorstep. Compact historic Gdansk deserves to be on more weekend break bucket lists and little wonder that my early summer direct Ryanair flight from Cork was full.

On the return leg my neighbour told how herself and three friends paid €400 each that including four nights’ accommodation each with their own bedrooms in the heart of old town, with taxi transfers and their return flights. “I would have paid that for two nights in a hotel at home”, she said, "we couldn’t believe how affordable and charming Gdansk has been”.

Gdansk’s historic centre was reduced to rubble in bombings during the Soviet takeover after the end of the Second World War in 1945, though you’d never suspect that whilst walking around her splendid cobbled streets. Drawing heavily on the Dutch renaissance style the elaborately embellished gabled townhouses might have stood here for hundreds of years.

Gdansk is a vibrant cosmopolitan city of old and new.

The Old Town is one of the largest and most-unique historic centres, not only in Poland, but in the whole of Europe, says Roscommon man Michael Gannon, who works as a tour guide (www.toursbylocals.com). We chat over a local lunch staple, a hollowed-out round of bread filled with soup made from pickled cabbage and white sausage — definitely an acquired taste, he agrees.

Michael also introduces me to one of the city’s better ‘milk bars’, cheap as chips subsidised cafeterias but don’t ask for milkshakes or ice cream. Think hearty dumplings, and thick stews served up in substantial helpings but setting you back no more than about €6 at Turystyczny on Szeroka street. “Good authentic food at reasonable prices”, Michael declares.

What were once warehouses, workshops and state-of-the-art factory spaces in their time are now museums, restaurants, cafés and shopfronts along islands divided via interesting swing bridges. Mariacka (St Mary’s street) is nicknamed 5th Avenue locally, lined with artisan retailers selling Baltic amber. To marvel at the best examples and hear the story of how this 40 million-year-old fossilised tree resin, that originated in coniferous forests was created be sure to visit the Amber Museum on Dluga Street, an amber-filled work of art and one of the city’s leading attractions. I notice that the prices of amber jewellery in its shop are competitive enough.

Mariaka Street in Gdansk.

Crowds of amber hunters descend on Baltic beaches in hopes of finding some. Wading knee high, poking the seabed and combing through seaweed along the Baltic Riviera, my own search for even a tiny piece of the precious resin came to nothing. The weather — sunny, calm and warm — was all wrong for an amber hunt.

My best chance of finding amber will be to turn up just after dawn, wearing a head lamp with a net to aid my trawl through the sea in the wake of a storm, our guide Izabela Daszkiewicz says. According to the Polish Geological Institute annually approximately 5.5 tons of amber are found on their beaches, compared to only one ton extracted from underground deposits. Poland is currently the largest producer of Baltic amber jewellery in the world.

Once you get your bearings — easy enough in Gdansk — you can’t miss the former shipyards, where history-changing events led to the birth of Solidarity, (Solidarnosc) and much later the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The gates to the European Solidarity Centre at the old Lenin shipyard are a shrine displaying photos of slain activists, flags and bunches of flowers tied on to the railings. Pictures of Pope John Paul II and the Black Madonna are also reminders of the important connection between Catholicism and politics in Poland. The most visited museum in Gdansk is ‘Roads to Freedom’. The superb permanent exhibition explores the first cracks in a system that would come crashing down, the birth of the Solidarity movement, and the road to freedom.

Our guide stops at an old television newsreel when the imposition of martial law was being announced in December 1981, crushing the hopes of millions of Poles who campaigned for democratic change. She recalls “I cried because they were showing a man in a uniform with big black framed glasses instead of my favourite cartoons. My parents also cried, but for a different reason”.

Another exhibit shows a mock-up of a grocery shop, from the Soviet era, of empty shelves, except for a few stale loaves and wilted vegetables.

“I remember my mother buying one banana a month”, Izabela says, “we had to collect three kilos of newspapers to hand in for one roll of toilet paper back; those were very harsh days”.

On your Gdansk visit don’t miss a boat ride from the quayside — there are water taxis and also short cruises aplenty. Cross the water to the site of heroic resistance Westerplatte where the Second World War began on September 1, 1939 after Germany launched a battleship bombardment. Two hundred, heavily outnumbered Polish troops held out for a week against the invading Nazis.

The Baltic Riviera is another must-do, in summer for sunbathing and people watching and in winter in hopes of scavenging washed up chunks of amber. Sopot has the longest wooden pier in Europe and good nightlife.

Gdynia has a quieter vibe, sandy beaches and a big emigration museum. Both Sopot and Gdynia are close by train and tram.

Sopot pier is the longest wooden pier in Europe.

Travel Notes

A 3-course meal is around €20; €2 beer. €3 glass of wine. Restaurants specialise in farm-to-table food and fresh Baltic fish.

For high-end dining check out Fino (www.restauracjefino.pl) and Filharmonia overlooking the water (www.restauracjafilharmonia.pl) for venison and wild boar from the forests of Pomerania.

• Isabel was a guest of the Polish Tourism Organisation and Pomorskie Regional Tourist organisation. For more details, see www.poland.travel www.pomorskie.travel and www.visitgdansk.com

• She stayed at historic Almond hotel (www.hotelalmond.pl) a 10 minute stroll from old town, renowned for its extensive breakfast buffet, nice pool and spa; doubles from €68 pn.

• Direct flights with Ryanair from Dublin four times weekly and from Cork twice weekly on Thurs and Mon until Oct 31. Ryanair flights on Fri and Mon from Nov 1 onwards. See www.ryanair.com