To use some free days, we decided on a short trip to Gdansk and surroundings. The idea had originated from the positive reporting about the town and the media presence shortly before the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of the Second World War. The conversion of the idea was made easier by the fact that there is an everyday air connection from Dortmund, Germany, to Gdansk. The connection is pursued by the budget airline Wizzair and the journey to Dortmund cost us more than the flight to Gdansk. Wizzair used a modern A 320 and the one hour 10 minutes flight passed in lightning-speed. I had the luck to sit on the left side in the machine. Therefore I could overlook the coastal line of the Baltic Sea and the hinterland very well.
Poland belongs since 2004 to the EC and thera are no customs controls at the entry. We exchanged at the airport some Zlotys to a bad excange rate. Unfortunately, we needed some change on the way to the hotel. In the small airport the man of the car hire company already waited for us. We had booked ahead from Germany and received a brand new Ford. The conversation with the man took place in very good English.
However, our aim for the next days was not Gdansk but the nearby health resort Sopot (German: Zoppot). 
The journey there was adventurous, because the sign-posting was more than poorly. Instead of going on the highway, we landed in the suburbs of Gdansk where we had to orientate ourselves in the absence of signs by the sun to get the direction. Finally, after a longer journey over a wide feeder road which was lined by historical and apparently newer houses (all not especially attractively) we reached Sopot. In dreamlike weather with 27 deg. C on this Saturday there were many people on the roads. Finally, we found our hotel, the historical Grand Hotel built in 1926 which now belongs to the Sofitel group. We were received exceedingly friendly and the hotel turned out as excellent. To our astonishment we saw in the garden restaurant of the five-star hotel the former Polish / German boxer Dariusz Michalczewski. Astonishment, because a few months ago it was written in the German press that the ex-pro is absolutely broke.
To the hotel is attached, as well as already till 1945, a rather small casino. This was frequented apparently also by German players as the cars with Hamburg signs showed in front of the door. Just as, however, in Germany the admission is allowed only after presentation of an identity card.
We used the rest of the day for the first investigation of the surroundings. Between the hotel and the extremely wide sandy beach was only a kind of seafront path with many people walking. Also the beach was visited very well. We turned at the end to the right in the direction of one of the longest moles in Europe with more than 500-m of length.
Sopots rise began in the 19th century. The doctor Jean-George Haffner serving in the Napoleonic army fell in love with the area as well as the mild climate and established after the war from 1823 a bath institution, an office house and a sea footbridge from which the today's mole arose. Still more known and more popular the small place became after the connection with the railroad network, among the rest, to Berlin and Warsaw from 1870. Many fin de siecle villas which exist even today were established in that time. A whole series of historical buildings were renovated meanwhile.
One must pay a low entry fee to enter the mole. All around the cash house numerous stands were built up for amber as well as child attractions. The mole itself which offers a fantastic view of the Bay of Gdansk was full with people. Our other way led us in the pedestrian zone. Immediately in the eye the renovated Bath House (Zakład Balneologiczny) of 1903 with connected observation tower stung. Opposite is the former Health Resort House (Dawny Dom Zdrojowy). The old building was integrated at the time of our visit into a modern building which was established in a historicizing style. Immediately behind the bath house is the South Park with the only Protestant church of Sopot today. We further went along the pedestrian zone Monte Cassino which was extremely visited. The street was lined by many, meanwhile renovated buildings still coming from German time in which ground floors often street cafés were accommodated. These were booked without exception up to the last place. At the end of the street one reaches a small place where the Saint George's Church was built in neogothic style (Kościół św. Jerzego, German: St. Georgskirche). Till 1945 it was a Protestant church.
Malborg (St. Mary's Stronghold, German: Marienburg)
The next day was dedicated to the visit of St. Mary's Stronghold about 90 km from Sopot. It took some time, until we had found the feeder road of Sopot to the motorway. Unfortunately, the sign-posting also was here more than meagerly. Directly near the exit a big apparently only recently established trade area and shopping area had settled. The motorway presented itself as new and very good. The speed limit lay, nevertheless, at 110 kilometres per hour. Possibly on the same latitude as Gdansk there is a tollstation behind which the "real" highway starts: brand-new and in considerably better state than in Germany. Because of the fee duty here ruled only low traffic. To reach St. Mary's Stronghold we had to turn from the highway on the left on the high street 22. 22 is one of the aortas in the north of Poland. She leads from Szczecin along Malborg to Elblag. From there it further goes to the Russian border to Kaliningrad (German: Königsberg) with connection to a street to the Baltic states. The street part to Mary's castle was of different quality. To our astonishment there were several kilometres still in the original state of 1945, that is paved with cobblestones. I might not fancy at all which dramas had happened here during the last months of the Second World War!
In Malborg the infrastructure was completely aimed on the visit of St. Mary's Stronghold, parking lots were announced early. The park fees were impertinent for Polish relations and lay only a little below the entry price of the castle itself.
St. Mary's Stronghold, a building established from the 13th century of the Teutonic Order, is the biggest brick castle of the European continent and counts to the most famous architecture monuments of Europe. In the years from 1309 to 1457 Mary's castle was the capital of the cross knight's state and seat of the Grand Master. After the peace of Thorn in 1466 the castle fell to Poland. Among the rest, West Prussia, and with it Malborg was annexed by Prussia through the First Polish Division in 1772. In the Second World War from January to March, 1945 heaviest fights for the castle took place. Because the Soviet army attacked from the southeast, above all this area of the castle was destroyed most seriously.
When we wanted to visit the stronghold on a Sunday at 27 degrees C, we did not trust our eyes: we did not see the castle because of all the visitors! Irritating was also the fact, that a visit could take place only within a group with a tour guide. These also in German and English available tours should last already three hours, but however, were even longer because of the masses of visitors. This was unambiguously too long for even historically interested visitors, specified too much and to detailed. A pity, actually.
The stronghold itself, jointed in Low Castle (German: Unterburg), Middle Castle (German: Mittelburg), Grand Master's Palace (German: Hochmeisterpalast) and High Castle (German: Hochburg) is more than impressively. Moreover, in the castle are an amber museum and a weapon museum. The restoration of the whole castle is concluded predominantly, only St. Mary's Church (German: Marienkirche) still lets assume how the whole complex of buildings were destroyed during the war.
Oliwa (German: Oliva)
Possibly on half a distance between Gdansk and Sopot there lies the town quarter belonging to Gdansk, Oliwa. One says, it is the best residential area of Gdansk and in one of the patrician's villas also lives Lech Wałęsa, founder of the Solidarność. However, main attraction of the place is the wonderful cathedral which is in the midst of a cloister complex. This complex is the work of the Cistercian's monks who came in 1178 to the country to civilise the "moors". After the First Polish Division in 1772 all Cistercian's goods were confiscated by the Prussian state, and in 1831 the cloister was lifted totally.
The cathedral whose oldest parts come from the time about 1200 impresses by her size and the filigree appearance. We had the luck that at the moment of our visit just an organ recital took place. The acoustics were impressive! The the Abbots' Palace (Palac Opacki), the Abbots' Granary (Spichlerz Opacki), an orangery (Palmaria) and an extensive park belong to the area.
Gdańsk (German: Danzig)
We had laid our visit of the Old Town of Gdansk specially on Monday, in hope not to find the town completely congested because there still was dreamlike weather and temperatures of 27 degrees C.
On advising of the hotel concierge we resolved to go not by the car, but by train to town. In the railway station of Sopot we had to orientate ourselves first of all, because the tickets for the city railway SKM are not sold in the regular counters. Short time later the old train operating in short distances rumbled in the small railway station and only 20 minutes later we reached the central station from Gdansk. This shone in old splendour of the time of the last German emperor. Counterpoint was after the untercrossing of a wide street a modern film complex and shopping complex. Only few steps farther we had reached the so-called Old Town.
Gdansk is a town with rich history. The historical centre of the town is made up of several areas which formed earlier independent quarters. In the north lies the Old Town (which was inhabited till 1945 originally by Slavs). To the south adjoining is the Rechtstadt earlier predominantly inhabited by well-to-do, mostly German businessmen. Even further to the south lies the old suburb. Once in it were mostly commercial firms, warehouses and numerous crafts enterprises. The biggest attraction for tourists has the "Rechtstadt". This had been destroyed in the Second World War to more than 90%, but already in 1952 the Polish state began with a faithful restoration of the whole quarter. In the Old Town, however, only well-chosen objects were reconstructed and in the old suburb one still finds less restored buildings.
From the railway station we reached in few minutes the old-urban city hall (Ratusz Staromiejski, German: Altstädtische Rathaus) which was just renovated at the moment of our visit. Within sight of the city hall by the rivulet Radaune lies the Big Mill (Wielki Młyn, German: Große Mühle), established about 1350 by the Teutonic Order and till 1945 working. Today a shopping centre is accommodated in there. The medieval Small Mill (Mały Młlyn, German: Kleine Mühle) which counted, at least, still five milling wheels, is only few metres farther on the other side of the street. In immediate neighborhood of both mills rises the St. Catherine's Church (Kościół św. Katarzyny, German: Katharinenkirche), in 1185 donated and with it one of both oldest churches of Gdansk. The church had a tragic destiny. The original equipment evacuated during the war took considerable damage in an immense roof framework fire some years ago. In the shade of St. Catherine's is St. Bridget's Church built in the 16th century (Kościół św. Brygidy, German: Brigittenkirche).
The visit of the Polish Post (Poczta Polska) situated not far was unforgettable, because our visit took place only 14 days before the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War. Here on September 1, 1939 the Polish employees of the post defended themselves against German attackers (Gdansk stood since the end of the First World War as a "free town" under the protection of the League of Nations and disposed of a German and a Polish Post). On the same day a German warship also fired at the Polish ammunition depot on the Westerplatte, a peninsula in the mouth of the Vistula.
We turned to the "Rechtstadt". After the crossing of the former old-urban ditch (Podwale Staromiejskie, German: Altstädtischer Graben) one already saw one of the towers of the old city fortification as well as the covered market built in the neo-Gothic style (Hala Targowa). Private individuals had built up in front of the church on the sidewalk small stands and sold fruits and vegetables. Regrettably, we were not able to visit St. Nicolas' Church (Kościół św. Mikołaja, German: Nikolaikirche) directly situated behind it , because a service took place. It is one of the few churches which have got undestroyed over the inferno of 1945. Completely a contrast was St. John's Chruch (Kościół św. Jana, German: Johanniskirche) situated in the same street , which was destroyed very strongly. A visit is not possible because of the still taking place renovation work. The back wall of the church situated to the river Mottlau bends, quite obviously the subsoil does not carry here the heavy building. Only few steps farther one crosses St. John's Gate (Brama Świętojańska, German: Johannistor) and stands abruptly at the banks of the Mottlau.