Gdańsk and the Baltic coast, from Malbork to the Łeba dunes

From Gdańsk to the Łeba dunes

The journey starts in Gdańsk and follows the coast, from the Vistula Lagoon to Łeba. The old town is best seen on foot: the Długi Targ, a long square lined with merchants’ houses, then the quays of the Motława. Here stands the Żuraw crane, completed in 1444, the largest port crane in medieval Europe. Almost the whole district was rebuilt after 1945.

To the north, Sopot is a seaside resort with a wooden pier. Then a single road runs the length of the Hel Peninsula, a strip of sand and pines 35 kilometres long. In places, you can see the bay on one side and the open sea on the other. You pass through Jurata, a smart resort between the wars, before reaching Hel.

Further west, the road goes from lighthouse to lighthouse as far as Łeba. You leave the car at Rąbka and continue on foot, by bike or by electric shuttle to shifting dunes more than 30 metres high, which move a few metres a year. The way back crosses Kashubia, with its lakes and wooded hills. The western coast, from Kołobrzeg to Wolin, is another trip.

Like Malbork, the castles and towns that the Order built in the region are of red brick. It founded Elbląg in 1237. South-east of the town, on the Elbląg Canal, boats cross the hills on carriages that run on rails.

In Frombork, the cathedral looks out over the Vistula Lagoon. Nicolaus Copernicus was a canon there and wrote his book on the movement of the Earth around the Sun. His remains, identified by DNA in 2008, were buried there again in 2010.

Gdańsk, from 1939 to Solidarność

On 1 September 1939, the German battleship Schleswig-Holstein opened fire on Westerplatte, a Polish military depot at the entrance to the harbour. Westerplatte, it is said, is where the Second World War began. The garrison held out for seven days. In the city, the Museum of the Second World War, opened in 2017, tells the story of the fighting and the lives of civilians. At Sztutowo, around 65,000 people died in the Stutthof camp, opened as early as 2 September 1939.

In August 1980, the workers of the Lenin Shipyard went on strike, with Lech Wałęsa among them. They won the right to form a free trade union, Solidarność. In front of Gate No. 2 of the shipyard, three steel crosses remember the workers killed in 1970. Next door, the European Solidarity Centre tells the story of the movement up to the end of communism in 1989.

What not to miss

1. 1St Mary’s BasilicaOne of the largest brick churches in the world; its tower rises above the rooftops.
2. 2The Oliwa organAn 18th-century organ with moving angels, played during short concerts.
3. 3Sopot pierThe longest wooden pier in Europe, running 458 metres out into the bay.
4. 4The Dar PomorzaA three-masted ship from 1909, the “White Frigate”, moored in Gdynia.
5. 5The Hel FokariumGrey seals cared for by the University of Gdańsk’s marine station.
6. 6Kartuzy and SzymbarkA church with a coffin-shaped roof, then a house built upside down.

Gdańsk and the Baltic coast in pictures

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The wooden pier at Sopot, reaching out into the Bay of Gdańsk.

The Baltic table

On the coast, people eat smoked fish: herring, flounder or sprats, sold at the smokehouses of Hel and Łeba. In Kashubia, the cooking is based on the potato and on goose.

In Gdańsk, try Goldwasser, a herbal liqueur with flakes of gold floating in it, created in the city at the end of the 16th century. On Mariacka Street, shops sell Baltic amber.