From Sex Shops to Spirtuality in Gdansk, Poland

Welcome marching band in Gdynia, Poland

Street along the way to Gdansk

We were met by a marching band when we arrived in the port of Gdynia, Poland on our Baltic cruise. We left the port for our excursion to Gdansk. Along the way, we saw McDonald's hamburger shops, lots of traffic and a peep show and sex shop. Our tour guide gave a running commentary all the way to Gdansk and back, explaining to us about the "exploding balls" (cannon fire) during the war, and a few other things that made us chuckle.

Traffic and our guide going to Gdansk, Poland

We arrived in Gdansk and bus loads of people got off. It had a Disneyland feel and doing further research when I got back home, I found out that Gdansk was mostly destroyed by the Second World War and rebuilt after. It was definitely rebuilt for tourists as every imaginable flavor of ice cream, type of souvenir and amber jewelry was available here. The amber is especially nice though and reasonably priced.

I found the tourists of particular interest and even more astonishing, there was a woman who sat in a cotton candy booth in the hot sun all day. She was barely visible behind the spun confection.

Tourist in front of fountain in Gdansk

Cotton candy lady

But by far, the best part of our tour in Gdansk was St. Mary's Church. Touted as the largest brick Church in the world by our guide, I was not that impressed by the size. Supposedly 25,000 people fit in this Church at one time, but I would have hated to be in the crowd on the day that many were there. What I loved about the Church was the gargoyle effect. It is loaded with both spirituality and medieval touches.

Also inside St. Mary's Church is the tomb of Maciej Plazynski, a revered leader of Poland.