Gdansk and Gdynia, Poland – July 20

Out a bit too late last night - luckily today’s tour isn’t until after lunch. We have a Bloody Mary reception for booking through a particular tour group in the morning where I have a Caesar although I could have had a Mexican Mary (tequila), English Mary (gin) or a Bloody Mary. I end up explaining what a Caesar is to a bunch of people who aren’t at all familiar with them but who can’t get enough of them.

We spend our day touring the concentration camp of Stutthof a 2 hour drive from where we are docked where 65 000 people were killed. The tour brochure described this tour as ‘not for the faint of heart’ which concerned me a bit. Of course I knew what a concentration camp was and what happened there, but I thought actually visiting one would be unnerving. It wasn't as emotional as I expected. It was staggering to visit a place where such horrific things happened, but mostly on an intellectual level, not so much emotionally. When Chris visited Dachau in Germany he remembered it as more impactful than this visit. A horrific place full of horrific memories that maybe I’m not so regretful that wasn’t as graphic as it could have been.

The tour ended with a quick walking tour of Gdansk. Unfortunately we didn’t have the time for a beer or shopping that we should have. There was more traffic on the Polish roads than expected so after a quick stroll we were back to the ship. We did stop at an amber shop where we had a brief history and demo of amber but no time for shopping.