Gdynia, a thriving port city on the Baltic Sea in northern Poland, has evolved from a small fishing village into a dynamic urban center with a maritime heart. Established in the 1920s as a strategic response to Poland’s need for a modern seaport, Gdynia quickly became a key player in the economic and cultural landscape of the country.

As professionally, I deal with transport and transport infrastructure, I have been there many times but only to visit the port premises. I remember once climbing a ship-to-shore gantry to observe how the containers were loaded onto a container ship. I know the port area from the landside and seaside, probably better than any other port in Europe, although I have been in many of them. In some distant past, I remeber participating in a conference on a ferry heading to Sweden. My only recollection is that during the dinner, the waiters started to quickly grab glasses and everything that was on our tables. The dinner was short-lived. As we left, walking the corridor, I felt like I would not be able to stand on my feet. We just got in the middle of a storm, a hard storm. The rest of the evening I spent on the lower deck in a disco area. We were served some alcoholic beverages so that we do not think too much about what was going around us on the sea.

But this time we were there with the family just for leisure purposes. Our hotel was located not that far away from the port, but this time I was not thinking about getting there. We were just walking alongside the seaside, enjoying the late Summer in September. It was so warm that on one day I caught myself just resting and sunbathing, which I do really very rarely. As the city has in fact no old city or like in other seaports the old port where ypu can nejoy medieval buildings the only photos I made are about the sea and the coast.

It is rather unusual weather for the end of Summer. Last couple of days was about walking alongside the Baltic coast, sunbathing and delicious food. Gdynia, Poland.

The city’s maritime history is prominently displayed at the Gdynia Naval Museum, which boasts an impressive collection of naval artifacts, historic vessels, and exhibits narrating Poland’s maritime heritage. As we were there, some work had been done on its exteriors to accommodate an old submarine and open it for visitors. Visiting an old submarine can be interesting. I realized it a month earlier, as I was visiting a naval museum in Tallinn, Estonia. In fact, in Gdynia, you can already visit the inside of two ships legendary for the Polish maritime traditions. These are the Dar Pomorza and the ORP Blyskawica are permanently moored in Gdynia.

The two ships on display in Gdynia