Thursday, March 10, 2016

Gdynia, Poland

Gdynia isn't far from Gdańsk.  It is home to over 248,000 as is the 12th biggest city in Poland.  Along with Sopot it makes up a tri-city area of over a million people.  It was a small fishing village for hundreds of years until it became a seaside resort and eventually became a city in 1926.

Today the port is stopover for luxury cruise ships and hosts the Gdynia Film Festival, the country's main film festival.  In 2013 it was ranked as the best city in the country to live.



The Displaced Gdynian monument was unveiled in 2014.  It commemorates the 120,000 - 170,000 people who were deported following the Nazi invasion in 1939.

Antoni Abraham was an activist who fought for Pomerania to be included in the Polish state that came out of WWI.


Abraham's House is one of the oldest cottages in Gdynia.  It was his home until he died in 1923.  As a museum it only takes about 10 minutes to see everything.



Dar Pomorza is a three-masted ship built in 1909 and was used as a training ship before WWI.  Today it is a museum ship.



Błyskawica (Lightning) was a launched in 1936 and at the time was the fastest destroyer in the world.  Part of the Polish Navy, it was under the command of the British Royal Navy and saw action in the Mediterranean, Normandy and as an Atlantic convoy escort.  Today it is the oldest preserved destroyer in the world.



The Joseph Conrad monument was unveiled in 1976.  It donors Poland's most famous sea-faring author.



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