The ship made a short stop in Gdansk, Poland today. Poland is about the size of New Mexico. Metropolitan Gdansk is home to a little over a million people out of the 37 million total Polish population. It is highly industrialized around shipbuilding and a container port. Gdansk is the site of the early 80s Solidarity Movement led by Lech Walesa. Through peaceful demonstrations it secured the right for trade unions for the shipbuilders of Gdansk. The movement soon spread to all of Poland. Walesa is a national hero. Many countries in Europe suffered during WWII, but Poland got a double shot whammy. Overrun by the Nazis at the start of the war, when the tide turned the Russians took it back and stayed. When it was all over, 6 million of Poland’s 36 million citizens had perished either in the conflict, concentration camps or starvation. And we can hardly comprehend what all this posturing today with nuclear weapons could lead to. Our guide’s family lost half its members. Destruction was immense and widespread. While Gdansk proper is not very pretty, the old town was quite beautiful with an interesting history.

Our stay was short because the Viking Sea must sail hard to reach Warnmunde, the port closest to Berlin, by morning.