Gdansk

I know little modern history . I found today very interesting. Noel needed a break so did not come on the walking tour.

On the bus from the ship to the old town our guide told us a potted history. I may or may not have remembered the details accurately   - a prosperous city in medieval times,  a major Hanseatic league port, under the rule of Teutonic German knights for 100s of years, an independent free city state after WW1 overseen by the League of Nations, became communist 1933. Nazi controlled during WW2, u boats made here, city relatively unscathed till end of war when overrun by Russians who  destroyed most of the lovely old buildings. After WW2 Poland a communist country under strong influence of Russia until Gorbachev and in 1989 first free election. 

 It was decided that restoring all the old destroyed buildings in Gdansk would cost too much so only the facades were restored. So our tour leader told us many interesting stories of the rich people who lived in houses with magnificent facades but now these houses have been made into apartments with external staircases on the back. Mr Fahrenheit lived here. We wandered up and down the main street , along with many other tour groups, mostly from our ship.  It was a bit hard going, having an earpiece in one ear listening to our guide , but still hearing other loud voices in the other ear.

The last stop was a shop specialising in amber. We were to listen to a 10 min talk on how amber was made and then have some free time.  The shop was packed and noisy , I was tired so excused myself . I made a plan to go back to the church which had been pointed out to us via back streets and hopefully a coffee shop. It was a good day. I found a cafe where I had a good coffee and a large pastry tart with different apple stuff, I think this cafes version of a polish traditional desert , all for $aud 16. Much better than my experience in whatever city it was. What I  want to know is why there was a 23 % tax on the coffee and only a 5% tax on the apple tart thing.

The basilica of St Mary's is a huge Gothic church. Catholic, opened 1502. When Martin Luther came along and most churches round here changed to Lutherism, in this church the roman Catholics and Lutherans were able to come to an agreement and co-existed and worshipped on separate days. Now it has reverted back to Catholicism. It is supposedly one of the 3 biggest brick churches in the world. Unfortunately  many tour groups were visiting at the same time. But I still got to sit a bit.