For our last port day on this trip, we were back in Poland at the port of Gdynia. This is a triple as it almost seamlessly joins Sopot and Gdansk. We docked abut 7am presumably, as the tannoy was blaring in the corridor. We have no idea what they were saying, as there isn't a switch to be able to hear those internal announcements in the cabin. The captain's announcements however, do come to all stations including the cabins – and we had one of those at 7:25. At certain times of the day or night, we have often had the opening 'ding-dong' in the cabins, but no announcements. Weird.
The ship berthed on the Starboard side.
No Ho-Ho buses dockside - but there was a HoHo in Gdansk.
There were taxis both on the dock immediately alongside the ship and also just outside the dock gates just beyond the bow.
No passports or ID required. Just a walk off.
Poland only accepts local currency in many establishments, but some will accept Euro or USD. Taxis we are told, accept $US.
Our meeting was for 9:15, so time for a bite first then somewhat unusually, we walked out of the meeting area at 9:14 and straight to the coach – orange #24. Our guide was a lovely young lady, but mmm, she, mmm, had an annoying speech habit mmm before many sentences mmm that even had Paula cracking up mmm before I started taking the mmm mickey. She was another non-stop talker too, so it got a bit wearying after a while, as we headed for Gdansk – which is where just about all the Princess tours were heading, sooner or later.
As before (we did this same trip a year or three ago remember), we were led to the green bridge over the canal, then left to our own devices for about 90 minutes.
We walked through the arch and headed to the far end of the pedestrianised cobbled street for a comfort stop, only to find they were now coin operated - and we had no Zloty. (There are several money changers around, just in case future visitors are heading that way.) Not only that, I realised then that I'd left my wallet in the room safe along with cash, debit card, credit card and Costa coffee card. Lo and behold, there was a Costa coffee shop – with a free toilet, free Wi-Fi and they also took Euro – but any change would be in Zloty. Paula managed to hang on to her €20 note and scraped up a €5 note and a €2 coin, for the €6 bill and a group of good busking musicians gained the €1 worth of Zloty we got as change. 
This is a great old town area to walk about and there is an amazing mix of old and new buildings side by side in places, without the character being destroyed. An influx of what we assume were several gypsy/Romanian beggars, including children, doesn't do the town any good, but seems to be a feature of several European countries now.
The canal has a mix consisting of tourist boats, yachts, a galleon, kayaks and some small hire boats with outboard motors, that look like VW convertibles. Totally out of place somehow, yet still fun, as they were all make believe police cars, fire engines or taxis.
We met at the green bridge 12:35 and as a group, walked for five minutes to where the bus was parked, then headed back towards Gdynia but with a stop at Sopot, where we walked for five minutes, to the sandy beach and the same café as last time, where the tables all had cups with Dilmah (tea) on them, a chunk of apple cake and a notice saying which coach they were for. Our group was all seated out in the sun and the manageress was most reluctant to let us be seated inside in the shade. The waitress happily brought our cake supply and also a jug of water, as neither of us wanted tea or coffee. With about 7 coachloads of Princess cruisers, say 250 people, they would do OK.
We headed back via a short photo stop for a monument but then we all got stuck in slow moving traffic, past some roadworks. The Princess list of all tours showed every one of them to be scheduled back at 3:30pm. (You'd think they'd at least stagger the times.) The Princess patter and gangway notices all said 'all aboard 3:30pm'. As we circled the dock buildings, there was no queue to board. By the time we got off our coach (we were at the rear) there were 5 coaches disgorging passengers and the usual queues, but this time, 2 scanners in operation on board.
We missed trivia (OK, our team still didn't win) and I kept up to date with the blog, (yesterday's) but didn't publish it until much later in the day, when most passengers would have been in bed.
We opted for the 6:15pm show in the dark Explorer's Lounge, a comedy mind reader(!), Mike McClean from Manchester. We thoroughly enjoyed his show, though once again, a couple of old jokes and he did the David Copperfield (the English one) trick of voice throwing – even to the extent of some of the same lines. A heap of laughs though and I'd give him 9/10. We chatted to him afterwards when he was relaxing between shows and a nice guy to talk to. Apparently he has just written his autobiography (he'd been on British breakfast TV) and that should be a decent read. I asked what it was called – 'I Remember Him" is the title.
Dinner with Alan and Sheila of course and another nice meal – and even a chocolate dessert. They decided they'd see Mike perform so we went along for the almost identical second show. We still enjoyed it.
Bed was 12:10 and that is the last port done (on this leg), so 2 sea days ahead – one being another formal night and the Captain's meet for the top 40 travelled – which we are in of course.
Whether or not the next published blog is of one day or two, remains to be seen.
No comments:
Post a Comment