Gdańsk Poland & Rostock Germany May 8-9, 2018
The Green Gate
Bus ride and then short walk back to the 13th and 14th centuries courtesy of the rebuilding after extensive bombing during WWII. The Green Gate was once intended as the residence for Polish Kings. Although no King has lived there former Polish President Lech Wałęsa had his Gdańsk office in one of the rooms.
This is the Kings Gate or Gold Gate at the other end of the long street or long market. This was where royalty entered for visits to the city. Above the gate, the following is written: Es müsse wohl gehen denen, die dich lieben. Es müsse Friede sein inwendig in deinen Mauern und Glück in deinen Palästen “They shall prosper that love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity within thy palaces." – Psalm 122.
Walking the Long Market
City Hall straight ahead.
A few words about the Long Market Gate. Through this portal ride visiting Polish monarchs making their solemn entrance into the city. Both sides of the gate have attiques with figures symbolizing the qualities of an ideal citizen-freedom, wealth, fame, piety, agreement, Justice and prudency. Wow, a tall order. On the Long Market side the following in Latin: In agreement small republics grow, because of disagreement great republics fall. Timely advice, no?
14th Century town hall in the center of Long Street. If you look close up the left edge of the building you will see a sun dial.
Saint Mary’s Church. See inside of church slideshow below. Begun in the 13th century and finished in the 14th, Lutheran and Catholic Services were held at separate times. The church can hold 25,000 worshippers.
Neptune Fountain or Poseidon’s Fountain is a 17th-century symbol of the city. The bronze statue of the sea god has a story only a guide can tell. True story. Notice the fig leaf? In the 14th Century the mayor observed older maidens (over 23 years of age) climbing and then kissing Poseidon’s genitalia. The myth circulated that if a maiden did this she would get a husband immediately. The mayor had the organ fig leafed. Sometimes you have to save people from themselves, no?
Long Street was home to the most prominent and wealthy citizens of the Royal City of Gdańsk. It had a dark side-a place of executions of witches, heretics and criminals. This is the clinker or jail, your choice.
Former munitions building. A few pictures within and outside of the inner city follow.
Find Carol.
As we leave Gdańsk, you get it, yes?
Rostock Germany, May 9, 2018
Feuerwehr
Busy day today. Tour of the old walled city, surprise visit to a former exchange student, ride on the Molli train and visit to a Cistercian Abby, Whew! We wanted to visit Volker, Kate and daughter Lizzy in Berlin too but 6 hour round trip didn’t leave much visiting time and get us back to the ship before departure. We see a long weekend visit to Berlin in our future but I think we won’t try to make it a surprise. This Fire Department boat chugged past our stateroom this morning as we were getting ready for our tours.
The object of our surprise visit. Not sure if Andreas is home or in the country but we thought the surprise would be great if we could pull it off.
On the off chance he wasn’t home we prepared a envelope with photos, letter and slogans to help the Schuhhaus prosper: God made your feet, let Höppner put shoes on them and Höppner Schuhaus Where Small feet and shoes make big steps together.
The old city wall curves around the Höppner store.
Something very comforting about walls...thermonuclear devices not so comforting.
We visited many historical sites including Rostock University, one of the oldest in the world (1419) and Saint Mary’s Church. This is the street to the town square where we will get a 30 minute break.
And so we double quick marched back to the Schuhhaus hoping we would surprise Andreas whom we have not seen in 21 years. The race is on. We will have about 15 minutes for a surprise mini-visit. If we are lucky.
Success!
As we were leaving to hop aboard our bus Andreas phoned his wife Sonia and she was able to walk across the town square from her job at the hotel to meet us. As we were leaving Carol told her how beautiful she was and didn’t understand how he got so lucky.
We entered the store and in my best German I asked, können wir mit Andreas sprechen? ist er hier? She told me he was upstairs In German. That’s nice. Somehow the part about speaking to him got lost. Or, more likely I missed some of the response. I was going to say Können sie ihn für uns anrufen? But! Suddenly a loud bell went off in my head about the word anrufen. Is it one of those words you have to split? Damn bells! Would have been fine. I asked another person who may have been a supervisor if she would give the envelope to Andreas. She looked at the envelope and asked the first clerk to call Andreas. She called and told him there were two people from England who wanted to speak with him. That was a compliment. We weren’t dressed in tennis shoes and ripped bluejeans. He was totally surprised. Hugs and tears all around. We got to visit with his mom too. She visited with us in 1994. Wonderful visit. And so, mission well done. We were really happy.
This is getting a bit long. So our trip to the Doberan Minster Up Next.