AnglOrony

Gdansk is Poland's principal seaport but you will not see the sea if you in the historic city centre. However, there is a lot of floating water to enjoy - rivers and canals that lead to the Gdansk Bay and then to the Baltic Sea .  After a few hours spent among the most beautiful buildings a city can produce, we took a walk through one of the gates onto the Mołtawa embankment . It is a marvel.  A refreshing breeze among a hub of various activities struck us straight into the face. We did not know what to look at first, so many things are going on there, so colourful, vibrant, energetic.  First, a proper river with proper ships, boats, water-trams, ferries , bustling happily, carrying passengers, fisherman, tourists. Absolute dazzle. The AmberSky Wheel on the horizon and the drawbridge immediately draw attention, as well as the number of restaurants, cafes, hotels, museums, historic places - everything that - more or less - a sophisticated visitor can wish for.  Gdansk is a  tou

For almost every Polish citizen, Gdansk has a deep and important symbolic meaning.  It is a city entwined with a historic fight for  autonomy ,  freedom ,  human rights .   Captured by the shady  Teutonic Knights  in the Middle Ages from the Polish king and Pagan tribes, with many reports of brutal massacres on the local Slavic population. After many years of  Polish-Teutonic wars , Gdansk claimed allegiance to the Polish Crown and gained autonomous status in 1457. The privilege gave the city many advantages in taxation, trade and law but perhaps most importantly - it tried to establish peace between its citizens - a mix of nationalities - with predominant Germans and Poles - also including Jews, Latvians, the Flanders, the Dutch and the Scots . Arriving at Gdansk . Above -  Gdansk Glowny  railway station and adjacent buildings in a mannerism style from the year 1900. The station stretches at the  Podwale Grodzkie , and  Wały Jagielońskie  a historic street that used to mark the end of