Gdansk, Poland; August 12-15

On our first day in Gdansk, we hit the old town for the St. Dominic's Fair.  Up there with Weihnachtmarkt and Oktoberfest, it's one of the biggest trade and open-air cultural events in Europe.  A prime opportunity to buy anything from local foods such as bread with lard and pickles, fried cheese with cranberry sauce, pierogis, sausages and beer.

Many vendors were also selling jewelry featuring the locally famous amber…there is even an amber museum in Gdansk.  As a medieval town, there were also lots of weapons for sale. Michael learned that while you can't embark the MV Explorer with a wooden sword, you can in fact, get defensive weaponry such as a shield on the ship.

Riding the ferris wheel at St. Dominic's Fair, Gdansk

View of Gdansk from above

Exploring Gdansk with Ryder

Now THAT's a souvenir! And, it did make it on the ship and home to New York.

Next it was off to Torun, about 2 hours south of Gdansk, and home of the Museum of Gingerbread, where learned about how to make this tasty treat!  It was a fun day out with most of the kids from the ship participating.  The town of Torun was fun to explore and we found a Lego store!

"I'll pay attention, but DON'T take my picture"

Making gingerbread

"Can we fit this in our suitcase?"

If there is a LEGO store in town, you can be sure we will find it!

On our third day in Poland, Michael and I adventured on our own to the seaside town of Sopot, home to the longest wooden pier in Europe.  We bypassed the expensive entrance fee for the pier and went straight to the bike rental to explore the coastline.  Of course, we didn't make it that far before we found ice cream….who cares that we hadn't had lunch yet!  After a beautiful ride along the coast and a stop at a playground in Ronald Reagan Park (seriously!) we did finally have lunch on a smaller (free) Brzezno pier.

Ice cream on the beach

Mommy & Michael

We never did figure out why the Pope and Ronald Reagan are featured together, but both seem to be well loved in Poland!

On our final day in Gdansk, I went Kayaking through the downtown in the morning and then met up with Michael, Meme and Pop downtown to cheer on our friends who were running in the Gdansk marathon!

The Gdansk marathon was Mikki Hebl's 66th! Way to go mother of three!

Finally, not to be missed…a ride back to the port on a pirate ship.