Wrzeszcz

Sorry for two blogs in a day- but I was behind.

I just wanted to mention a little of the family surroundings in Gdansk.

We live in a district (neighborhood) of Gdansk called Wrzeszcz. It is part of the urban core and the most populated neighborhood (65,000 people). The first records of our neighborhood date back to 1266. Within 100 yards on the same block can be small houses, businesses, huge apartment complexes, grocery stores, etc. A true urban neighborhood.

What is really cool about Wrzeszcz is its central proximity to two different extremes.

On Friday, we took the tram South about 5 stops (less than 10 minutes) and were in “Old Town”. Old Town dates back to 990 and has many very old churches, buildings and cultural areas. St. Mary’s Church can seat the most people of any in Europe (25,000 seating capacity for Mass). You can see a 1000 year old buildings right next to a bank that was built five years ago. Lots of great restaurants, museums and places to see in this ancient area. We have only seen a fraction of what is in Old Town. We went to St. Catherine’s which was founded 900 years ago (in contrast- our church at home is celebrating 30 years since its founding).

On Sunday, we took the same tram North about 4 stops (again, less than 10 minutes) and we are standing on the beach of the Baltic Sea. These are the beaches where Hitler launched his first attack of WWII. It is a great sandy coast line with places to swim, play in the sand, scuba dive or deep sea fish. You can take a ferry directly north and end up in Finland or Sweden. Although it was chilly and windy, our family walked along the beach and pier. We even ate a “fish hamburger”.

Wrzeszcz is wonderful neighborhood, where you can travel a few minutes either north or south and be in two completely different type of places. Now, if we can just get Lisa an electric clothes dryer.....