The first day of our visit in the glorious, magical city of Gdansk was heralded by unbelievable good weather which is a bit unusual, but really nice. We proceeded on buses through a really new, wonderful tunnel which is under Vistula River. Before this tunnel, the two sides of the river remained separate. We also saw great stadium for UEFA soccer. It’s very nice and can hold 40,000 people. The colour we see everywhere is a beautiful shade of amber. Gdansk is very famous for the amber shade, which comes from resin in the ground.
We arrived in the old harbour area full of shipyards. Ships and yachts built here start at a million dollars. The popularity of this shipyard area has been wonderful and the main reason why there are great renovation plans in place for the whole city. This area is also well known for making turbines.
Finally, ladies and gentlemen, we arrived at the European Solidarity Center. My goodness, it was a great, wonderful building built by two Polish architects who had won a competition. It was built with a special steel, called corten steel. It looks like rust, but it isn’t, and in fact it doesn’t rust. The inside is more steel covered in thin layer of varnish.
There is also the monument. It’s not a monument for the strike of 1980, it is for another strike in 1970 when many people were killed and wounded. It is here that a simple electrician, Lech Walesa, became leader of the strike that would change not only communist Poland, but the world. It is a great story: how they founded a new union called Solidarity or in the Polish language, ‘Solidarnosc.’ Right here! You can see the gate. There were still flowers, as we were very lucky to visit only two days after the commemoration of the signing of the agreement with the trade unions and Lech Walesa. It was such a sight – built like a ship, complete with water flowing from the fountains.
