The crossing from Klaipeda to Gdansk is actually no problem, provided the sea is calm, if it weren’t for the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad in between – without this Russian bastion, Poland and the Baltic states would not have been able to leave the Warsaw Pact after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s.
So now we are allowed to sail a wide arc around Kaliningrad so that we don’t get caught in Russian territory – made more difficult by the fact that the Russian navy regularly holds manoeuvres and firing exercises out here… The sailors complain about mobile pontoons for target practice that are regularly ‘forgotten’ to be put away or are not towed back into the harbour after the exercises are over. We therefore decide to cruise far outside the 12-mile zone and keep a minimum distance of 30 km from the coastline. This makes the way and the sailing time longer, but as the conditions are decidedly good, the inner excitement before the trip was greater than during the crossing itself – as so often so far… On the other hand, the conscientious preparation also gives a feeling of security, and allows for spontaneous inspirations!
The entrance to the city of Gdansk is impressive. All along the estuary are extensive harbour facilities, dry docks, shipyards, tank farms… Everything that belongs to a real modern harbour city is to be found here in abundance – far more than one would assign to a city with just under 600,000 inhabitants. And suddenly, as we wind our way up the tapering river, we are surrounded by old-town-looking houses, which on closer inspection must be new and contain hotels, restaurants and offices!
Gdansk was almost completely destroyed during the Second World War and was nothing more than a pile of rubble afterwards. Today’s Old Town is an excellent ‘reconstruction’, which is still being added to and spruced up; behind the smart façades are large, complex structures filled by hotel chains in the higher price range – Gdansk is a pure tourist location in the centre, additionally lined with hundreds (!) of mobile market stalls during our visit, just like at our autumn fair, with tens of thousands of visitors strolling between them. In the evening, countless locals can also be found enjoying themselves in certain streets (restaurants, bars). – Once again we experience a warm summer night, interspersed with a short but even heavier downpour. Which does not dampen the mood, on the contrary.
Our marina is once again located in the middle of this historic or tourist centre – many tourists marvel at the yachts moored in the canal moat, suggesting the scent of the wide world. Funny, somehow, to be perceived as part of this dream.
So Gdansk has developed enormously. I would have loved to have followed in the footsteps of Pope Wojtyla and the Solidarność trade union led by Lech Wałęsa – an explosive mixture, as we now know, because this concoction challenged the Soviet Union for years and finally broke the camel’s back of the swirling ‘real existing socialism’. But time sometimes overtakes itself; my memories of this epochal turning point in contemporary history contrast with today’s self-image of Gdansk, which, with its chequered history, is not so easily put in a museum.
So here we are in the middle of Gdansk, Poland’s defining port city – we meander between relaxed yachting and diffuse everyday life… For example, we have lunch in a restaurant where only locals frequent, and for four francs we get a soup, a menu plate (very high in calories), a salad, a dessert and a drink: We experience another downward price slide here; in Estonia the cost of living is comparatively cheap, Latvia has even lower (food and petrol) prices, and next door in Lithuania everything seems to be cheaper again. But what we experience here in Poland (measured by the obvious quality workmanship, there is hardly any Chinese scrap to be found, and excellent service) is amazing! Accordingly, I was happy to fill up all the petrol tanks.
Side note: Despite the EU, Poland is the only low-wage country to keep its currency. A wise decision. It is better to make ends meet in the poorhouse of Europe than to emulate the debt economy of the southern European countries. To keep a healthy distance from the EU/ECB despite all the integration efforts. I wish this beleaguered nation, which has always had to serve as a buffer between the powers, that this attitude and work ethic will bear fruit. Before history strikes again and sets Gdansk back. – Gdansk is a highly recommended metropolis!