Wednesday, May 11
I’ve been trying to understand something. Why, in a British pub stocked with the usual dozen or more carefully-crafted cask ales and draft beers would these places also have a cooler full of Bud and Corona? I believe the Budweiser part is an artifact of Anheuser-Busch being acquired by Inbev, brewers of Leffe, Stella, etc. The Corona part I completely don’t understand. According to a few barkeepers I spoke with though, the C brew is a very big mover. Go figure.
Yesterday was our last in London for a few weeks and prior to heading for the airport and Gdansk we walked across the Themes, stopped by the Southwark Cathedral, made a pass through the Central Market and had lunch at Anchor Pub. The Anchor was supposedly a favorite of William Shakespeare, but these days it’s a big hit with tourists and it reminds me of a pub you might find on Main Street in Disneyland—not terribly authentic.
The bus trip from London’s Victoria station to Luton airport was an almost two hour stop-and-go, gas-and-break jerk-along, but that’s London traffic. What I perceived as Wizz Air’s open hostility towards its passengers had me a bit concerned about the flight and the recorded “if you have more than one carry-on item, including a purse, you will be denied boarding…” recorded message playing at the check-in counter didn’t help. The Wizz flight crew, though, was a most congenial group and the air trip was totally uneventful.
London was mostly about being a tourist; Gdansk is where we get down to some traveling. Exiting the main doors at the airport, the first sensation was that of a low-rise quiet and calm—serious culture shock when arriving from 24-hour a day, go, go London.
We didn’t arrive at our hotel until shortly before midnight, and by then a little refreshment was sounding pretty good. The desk clerk seemed to think a few places might still be open in the Gdansk Old Town so out the door we went. To my surprise, we quickly found a restaurant with its OPEN sign illuminated. Inside, there was but one group of diners who were most definitely enjoying their evening. The group was composed of six middle-aged men and six women, most of whom were considerably younger than the gents and, to understate things a bit, dressed rather provocatively. As I later learned, the men were there taking part in a company celebration recognizing their success in the ship building business. I believe the ladies had been employed by the ship builder to provide scintillating conversation, make sure the guys didn’t talk shop and perform other tasks as needed. Anyway, we ordered a couple of Ballentine’s and soon after settling in with our drinks a couple of the girls seemed overtaken by the music on the CD player and began to dance. Judging by their obvious ability to capture the beat and even employ props such as the metal poles supporting a mezzanine, I’d guess they were terpsichorean professionals. The party progressed, the front door was closed, there was a bit of singing, the dancing continued, wardrobe modifications were made and we had a few more Scots whiskeys. At one point, a police car stopped out front. The proprietor went to chat with the officers and for a brief moment I had visions of spending my first night in Poland in some Soviet-era jail remnant. At about two, the day for us had grown long enough and we surrendered. Our newfound Polish friends did not. Let the traveling continue.
Given our late evening, things moved a bit slowly this morning, but we made it down to the hotel’s enormous breakfast spread and then spent the day exploring the streets of this lovely port city.
During WW II, Gdansk was effectively leveled. Most of the city has been restored to the way it looked before the war, but the work continues to this day and you can find buildings that look much as they must have in 1945.
At dinner last Saturday, I found out our server was Polish. When I told her we were on our way to visit her home she asked “why are you going to Poland?” I will admit, she had me second guessing our travel route for a bit. Dancing with the Stars, Polski style is over so it’s time for Z’s. Tomorrow afternoon we’re on the train to Warsaw.