Ferry to Hel

June 10, 2022

Across the bay from Gdansk at the end of a long thin peninsula lies the town of Hel. The seasonal ferry began running this week (1). As the boat cruised from Gdansk to the sea, the enormous scale of the busy shipyards was revealed, with extensive repairs both in the water and in dry dock. The boat reached the sea at Westerplatte, where the first shots were fired in World War II (2), before proceeding up the coast to Sopot and across to Hel. 

A lively group on deck were engaged in some sort of drawing game, trying to copy a very angular picture of a cat. As we approached Hel, one of the group members (many of whom had orange bells suspended from their belts?), dressed as Neptune to welcome the group to Hel. Copious quantities of the local beer enlivened their spirits (riding a ferry is thirsty work, even at 9:15 a.m.)

Ordering fish and chips at an a oudoor restaurant in Hel, I asked for a glass of red wine. "No" the waitress replied peremptorily "you're eating fish, you need white wine: Pinot grigio." I agreed (I don't think I really had a choice).

A stroll to The Plaza (as the very end of the peninsula is called) was through a more honky-tonk part of town, with game arcades and bars. Along the way, a number of military installations dating from the 1950s are preserved, built to repel a Capitalist/ Imperialist American invasion (3). Just over the horizon from the point (about 35 miles due east) is the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad (4). 

Unlike the ferry to Hell, the ferry to Hel permits return journeys. I had planned to take the train back to Gdansk (the longer but quicker way), but the trains were running late, so I returned by sea. 

(1) The geography is similar to the  relationship between Boston and Provincetown at the end of Cape Cod.

(2) The German city of Danzig (Gdansk) was declared a free city after the first World War, and was phyisically separated from the rest of Germany by a strip of coastal Poland (a), known to the Germans as the "Danzig corridor" (b). On September 1, 1939, the German naval training vessel Schleswig-Holstein, which was in port for a "friendly visit," opened fire on the fort at Westerplatte, firing the first shots of WWII (c).

(a) Poland had ceased to exist as an independent nation in 1795, being divided between Russia and Prussia until the end of World War I, when many nation-states emerged or reëmerged upon the dissolution of the German and (especially) the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

(b) Hitler's unmet demand for the return of the coastal territory (the "Danzig corridor") to Germany was one of a main pretext for the German invasion of Poland.

(c) Some historians argue that the Second World War began with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria almost a decade before. This was more of a bilateral war. The Asia-Pacfic theater of WWII (as a large scale war involving many nations) began with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and subsequent invasion of British territories in Asia in late 1941.

(3) The defense pact of the former communist bloc countries was named after the Polish capital: Warsaw. After communism collpased, Poland joined the NATO alliance in the 1990s; they had been Russia's neighbors for a long time and still had a sense of mistrust. 

(4) The city was called Könisberg until the end of WW II. Part of the German exclave of East Prussia, the territory was taken by the Soviet Union in 1945. Wedged between Poland and the Soviet Republic of Lithuania, the territory was assigned to the Russian Soviet Socialist Republic. Kaliningrad thus stayed with Russia upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 (d). The exclave is physically separated from Russia, with NATO territory between the exclave and the rest of Russia.

(d) The area is believed to be heavily armed. The proximty of the Kaliningrad exclave to Swedish territory is one of reasons commentators have given for long-neutral Sweden's recent request to join NATO.

The ferry to Hel

The Gdansk Shipyards

Channel entrance lights at Baltic Sea Entrance

Configuration is opposite North America's Red/right/return system

Stop in Sopot, touted as the "Polish Riviera"

Welcome to Hel

Scenes in Hel

Communist-era fortifications to protect against American Imperialist agression

Leaving Hel

Port Captaincy at entrance to Gdansk from the Baltic Sea

From the Black Sea to the Baltic, it's always easy to spot monuments to the workers' revolution

Sunset Paddle on the Motlawa

June 9, 2022

The Vistula River drains much of Poland. At the Vistula estuary, the city of Gdansk developed around the Motlawa River where goods were trans-shipped from river boats to sea-going vessels. The city was at various times controlled by Polish Monarchs, Teutonic Knights, The Hanseatic League, etc. Eventually, the city became part of Prussia, and thus became part of the German Empire in the late 1800s in the province of Pomerania (1) (2).

The kayak tour starting point was in a rather derelict part of the shipyards that developed here (3), about a 20 minute walk from town. I was rather uncertain about the whole endeavor as I approached, but eventually saw a shipping container with the company logo. The view was of heavy industry and thenm noise was the racket of loading ships. There were two of us on the sunset tour tonight, myself and a woman from Belarus who had never kayaked before (4).

In about 10 minutes (quicker than the walk), we were paddling on the Motlawa River through Gdansk's revitalized old town (4). Each of the town's waterfront buildings was adorned with a symbol to help the mariners find their way (5). The town's most iconic building, with a hook to move goods between vessels is adorned with a weathervane shaped like a crane (the bird) (6). The story goes that the seamen referred to the building simply as "the crane" which came to mean both the bird and the hook apparatus to move goods, and this practice of referring to the apparatus by the same name as the bird spread throughout Europe.

Heading back, the guide asked if we were afraid of swans. While they can be nasty if they feel threatened, I have no particular fear of them. We poked under a low bridge into the Stepce canal and soon encountered a very puffed-up (7) cob (male swan) that chased the guide's boat for quite a while to protect his pen (mate) and their cygnets. This happens every night apparently; you would think the swan would be used to the kayaks by now.

A apocryphal story is told of 2 boys playing on the Baltic Sea Ice in the communist days. The boys became separated and one began to float away on a piece of ice. The coastguard and local fire and rescue were called; "We're sorry he's too far out, there's nothing we can do." The boy's friend knew what to do. He called The communist government's Border Patrol: "A boy is trying to escape from Poland to Sweden across the ice." The border Patrol had the boy back on land (and in custody) within 20 minutes.

I walked back to town with the woman from Belarus, which I had visited. "Before 2020?" She asked. "Yes" I replied. While living and working in Poland now, she had been very active in the 2020 movement protesting the claim of electoral victory by Alexander Lukashenko, Belarus' leader since the 1990s (8). She was visiting the Polish coast from her home further inland for a Ukraine benefit concert (9) by exiled bands from Belarus (10).

She explained my confusion about the Belarus flag, which I thought was horizontal stripes of red, white, and red. That was the official flag in the 1910s, but was changed to red and green during Soviet days. Back to red, white, red in the 1990s, but Lukashenko then changed the flag back to the Soviet colors (red and green). Nowadays, the red and green are seen as the symbol of the regime, while red/white/red is the symbol of the anti-Lukashenko movement.

(1) When trying to dissuade Russia and The Austro-Hungarian Empire from going to war in the 1800s over a dispute in southeastern Europe, Chancellor Bismarck is reputed to have said: "The whole of the Balkans is not worth the bones of a single Pomeranian Grenadier," reflecting both his disdain for the Balkans and respect for Pomeranian soldiers

(2) The area is still known as Pomerania, "Pomorse" in Polish, which adorns the local trains in stylized script.

(3) Lech Walesa founded the independent trade union Solidarity (Solidarnosc) in the shipyards here, challenging communist rule and eventually becoming president of post-communist Poland. The local airport, to which I flew from London this morning, is named in his honor.

(3) She took to the paddling well, and we had no incidents. The guide said he had pulled four people out of water already this year.

(4) There had been a heavy downpour this afternoon (as I was walking from the train), so the water was turbid from the runoff.

(5) The city (then called Danzig) was almost completely destroyed by the Soviet Red Army in the Second World War. Unlike many other cities, which were redesigned and rebuilt, Gdansk tried to maintain the pre-war plan and architectural feel of the city.

(6) On a train ride across Panama a few years ago, I unexpectedly sat in a rail coach filled with building contractors from New York State. I remember one of the contractors excitedly saying "look at the cranes." I scanned the skies and the water to no avail. The contractor was referring to the construction equipment, not birds. Definitely a busman's holiday.

(7) Puffing oneself up to look bigger seems to be a common defense strategy in the animal kingdom.

(8) Sometimes known as Europe's last dictator, although Russia's Putin might dispute the title.

(9) Poland has accepted more Ukrainian refugees than any other country. In a show of solidarity, buses and trams in Gdansk fly both the Polish and Ukrainian flags. 

(10) I made the mistake of saying "Belarussian." She chided me. "Don't say it that way, we are not Russian, say Belarus" with a long u. To emphasize the point, she said the Belarus language is much closer to Polish than to Russian (a).

(a) The idea of national languages with fixed boundaries (i) is a relative modern invention. Many nation-states picked the dialect from a certain region to be the official language (e.g., Florentine for Italy, the Gabrovo dialect for modern Bulgarian).

(i) In contrast to more fluid boundaries as the local dialects (*) gradually changed from one language to another as one moved across geographic space. Such an effect can still be heard today in Corsica, which still uses a distinct dialect combing elements of Tuscan and French.

(*) The French have a word for the concept of a local dialect: patois.

The crane

On the Motlawa

On the left, one of the buildings for which most of the original materials were recovered

Sunset in the shipyard

Night in Gdansk

Mahler's Resurrection Symphony in London

June 8, 2022

Lille is in northwest France, not far from the English Channel. My original thought had been to travel to London old-school by ferry from Calais to Dover. I soon discovered that since the channel tunnel opened, this is no longer a realistic option for a foot passenger (1). Perhaps kayak across (2)? Not allowed due to heavy freighter traffic, fog, and strong tides in the channel. So, a train through the tunnel to London it would be (3).

After eating some bangers and mash at a pub, I headed to the Charles Dickens House Museum (4), poked about the museum, and had tea and scones.

Like Lille, London has a simple bike share system (5). Wending through Wednesday rush hour traffic (6) in a general southwesterly direction, I came to the Thames, and cycled around Westminster.  Buckingham Palace was not reachable due to street closures associated with the  Queen's Platinum Jubilee Celebration this month.

The Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank was the venue for the Philharmonia Orchestra's performance of Mahler's Second "Resurrection" Symphony. The performance was sublime and chills ran down spine toward the end when the combined musical forces sang the text with power but restraint:

Aufersteh'n, ja aufersteh'n wirst du,

Mein Herz, in einem Nu!

English translation:

Yes, you shall rise again 

My heart, in an instant

The Orchestra's new 33 year old (!) conductor made the familiar piece sound fresh (7). I walked, rather than cycled, the few miles back to the hotel to slowly savor the performace.

(1) Back in the day, the trains connected with the ferries directly (a). Since the tunnel opened, the ferry ports have moved outside of town to more readily accommodate cars and trucks. Foot passengers now are not even allowed on most of the crossings.

(a) Many were even labelled "boat trains."

(2) Twenty miles of paddling would be a stretch for me, but doable with a good boat and a local guide (b).

(b) While comfortable setting out on my own on a bike or a hike, local knowledge of the sea conditions is necessary for kayaking.

(3) The Eurostar train was cheaper and much faster than the few cumbersome train/bus/shuttle/boat options available, which would have taken all day anyway.

(4) I read my first Dickens novel (Bleak House) as an undergraduate to vary my reading while taking an intensive economics course. It was so good, I proceeded to read all of Dickens' novels.

(5) Pop your credit card in, get a code, take a bike. Some cities (e.g. Brussels) require emails, app downloads, passwords, authentication, etc. Not worth the hassle for a visitor.

(6) I generally stuck close to other cyclists when I could. Many of the bike lanes double as bus lanes. While the bus drivers respect the process, the double decker buses are much bigger than the bikes. Very different riding style than in the Belgian countryside yesterday.

(7) One of the percussion players performed on the xylophone and tubular bells. She walked over at one point to play one of the two timpani drum sets (c) with one of the timpanists. So, two sets of timpani drum and three performers, simultaneously (d).

(c) That's serious cross-training.

(d) There was a third timpani set offstage (with some more horns also).

Typocal Belle Epoque architecture in Lille

The Dickens House Museum

Italian illustrator's depiction of a  chair come to life from Dicken's first novel The Pickwick Papers:

"The chair was an ugly old gentleman; and what was more, he was winking at Tom Smart."

Inspiration for window Oliver Twist was pushed through to rob a house:

"Sikes ... put Oliver gently through the window with his feet first; and, without leaving hold of his collar, planted him safely on the floor inside."

The gate from the Marshalsea Debtors Prison, which features prominently in Little Dorrit

"It is gone now; and the world is none the worse without it”

Bust of Dicken's father who was held in the Marshalsea when Charles was a boy

Dickens welcomes you upstairs

The servants quarters downstairs

Riding through Lobdon

Sunset on the Thames

Cycling to the Christmas Truce Memorial

June 7, 2022

On Christmas Day 1914, the first year of World War 1, there was an informal truce among the British and German troops who sang carols to each other and eventually emerged from their trenches to play soccer. My favorite Swedish Metal band: Sabaton released a video last year of their new song Christmas Truce, with a rather elaborate reënactment of the event: https://youtu.be/HPdHkHslFIU 

One of the locations of the truce is about 11 miles (as the crow flies) west of Lille, France (1). Getting there by bus would require three buses and more than an hour and a half of time. A bicycle would be quicker, so I grabbed a bike from the Lille bike share system (2) and headed west amid rain showers. Lille is a small city (3), and I soon left the city behind and was cycling in rural Flanders.

While the road had a bike lane for portions of the way, both the rain and the traffic became heavier. I pondered turning around, but glimpses of brighter skies ahead were encouraging. Crossing the Leie River at Frelinghien, France, there was not even a sign on the bridge welcoming you to Belgium. After a few false starts where the map was inaccurate, I crossed under a motorway and took a series of paths and narrow country lanes, sometimes shared with horse riders, to the northwest and the site of the Christmas Truce. There is a small memorial here where people leave soccer balls as momentos. 

I returned to Lille via a different route, where I found quieter roads, but larger towns with shops. I got some chocolate in Belgium, then stopped at a French Patisserie in the pleasant little French town of Houplines. The sun came out, and I was now heading downwind (4), so the ride back through Flemish villages was very pleasant. I guesstimate about 25 to 30 miles in the saddle today.

(1) Why go to Lille? There was a really cheap flight from Varna in Bulgaria to Lille today.

(2) The heavy bikes are designed for last-mile rides in the city, not for sojourns to another country. But, any port on a storm; the bikes were readily at hand.

(3) On the plane this morning, the crew proudly announced that the airline specialized in "connecting Europe's medium-sized cities." (a)

(a) Varna is also not a large city either. 

(4) Both of which helped my wet clothes dry off on the ride back.

WWI Memorial at Frelinghien, France near the Belgian border

Crossing into Belgium

No "Welcome to Belgium" sign, but Dutch on Police cars

The narrow roads of Belgian Flanders

Soccer balls at the memorial site

Pluigstreet Cemetery

Last stop in Belgium

Crossing back to France

Back in France

The patisserie on the corner had a tasty concoction of puff pastry filled with coffee-flavored cream

Good cycling roads

Hippodrome, Western Lille

Lille at dusk