After another peaceful night Aurora approached Gdynia. This would be our first time ever in Poland.
The excursion organised by the ship would be taking passengers to Gdansk further down the coast. We decided to stay in Gdynia and to have a restful day wandering around the town.
Our Baltic cruise on P&O Aurora would take us to Poland, Lithuania, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Germany, Denmark and Norway.
On Tuesday 16th May we stopped for the day in Gdynia before visiting the first of the Baltic states.
Aproaching Gdynia
As we approached Gdynia we watched a couple of Polish Navy ships leaving the port.
As Aurora entered the breakwater we were ready for breakfast which was just after 8.05 am. The next boats we could see were fishing boats as Aurora turned towards her berth.
We were promised a cool day but with lots of sunshine and a minimal chance of rain.
Once we were docked the view from our balcony was across the busy port.
We caught the shuttle bus into the city. This dropped us off at the top of the promenade on the cross street of Kosciuszki.
We walked down the promenade towards the breakwater. On our right were souvenir shops, cafes and amusement stalls. After a block of containing a cinema and retaurants were two ships. These were from the Naval Museum.
The Blyskawica
The first was the ORP Blyskawica. She is a World War 2 veteran of the Polish Navy. She was built in Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, before the war. She fought in many campaigns throughout the war. A couple of weeks earlier she had been on the local news in the South of England celebrating her role in the war. This was one night when she was tied up in Cowes undergoing repairs and she was the main source of anti-aircraft fire that broke up an air raid on the town.
The second ship was a retired sailing training ship that was ex-German navy, Dar Pomorza.
Further along the dock were the local ferries to Gdansk, a restaurant boat and finally a replica pirate ship. On our right at the end of the promenade was the aquarium building. Boats were passing between the end of the promenade and the breakwater and we stood and watched the activity before turning back towards the city.
Back into town
We walked back up the promenade past all the stalls and went into the first building that looked like a bank to change some Euros. After a ten minute wait we discovered that this bank didn’t change currency.
Then began our search for somewhere to change money especially as by now nature was calling. On the cross street we went into a bureau-de-change at the back of a jewelers and after waiting no one came to serve us. We had tried to buy coffee at a couple of cafes but they couldn’t take euros or credit cards but one looked the other way when we used their loos – thanks!
Up the street we went into a busy bureau-de-change. We watched as piles of pounds, dollars and euros were all changed by the preceding customers. Our transaction for 10 euros was definitely small change in comparison. In the next block was a bread shop and coffee shop and we had excellent lattes and our first sit down of the morning.
From the coffee shop we followed the signs for LIDL at Baltic Square up a cross street.This walk took us past shops, blocks of housing, a small park and eventually to a street with lots of shops with the LIDL down steps underneath the other shops.
Plus we did see some street art.
Behind the Aquarium
We continued walking down this street and it lead us back to Kosciuszki Street. We walked back towards the promenade and went behind the aquarium building. This was the statue out in the harbour on a rock.
And way up on a building I noticed this street art fish.
It was time for a beer and we stopped at a cafe to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine.
The marina was accessible from the promenade and we walked along the quay past this stencilled streetart.
The boats around the marina were very impressive.
There was a Whitbread Round the World yacht out of the water being maintained along with lots of power boats, gin palacesand other yachts.
Walking through this hive of activity lead us lead us inevitably lead us back to Lutego Street. We went back to our friendly coffee shop and spent our last zloty on pretzels and a doughnut – a light lunch.
The shuttle pick up point was a roped off section of road at the top of the promenade and there we caught the shuttle back to the ship. The bus was in a one way system at the port and had to drive by the heaps of coal. The clouds of black dust left in our wake were impressive.
Our cabin looked out onto the railway sidings where more coal was being unloaded. The bangs and crashes echoed across the port as the cranes did their work. This is the view of the working port as Aurora left.
Dinner and then a quiz
Dinner was our first in Aurora’s Beach House on Deck 12. The meal was excellent and the service impeccable.
The evening’s syndicate quiz was again in the Vanderbilt Room at 10.30 pm. This evening we were not very good with the answers as well as being handicapped with a ‘-1’ for being the winners the previous evening.
The clocks went forward another hour to match the local time in Klaipedia.
The postage for postcards back to the UK was only £1 from Gdynia.