Wanderings: The Amber Museum

June 4, 2022

I set out this morning to spend a couple of hours at the World War II museum in Gdansk, which opens at 10:00. Unfortunately, a pedestrian drawbridge near the museum also opened at 10:00, remaining open for boat traffic from 10:00 to 10:30 (1). While watching the boats go by, I decided to visit the smaller Amber Museum instead, given my limited time.

The Amber Museum is housed in the reproduction of a large mill dating from circa 1350 that was destroyed in 1945 (2). The museum was laid out simply. The first floor (3) presented the science of amber. Amber is preserved resin from ancient pine trees that fell into rivers flowing into the Baltic Sea. The wood rotted away, but the resin was preserved by the cold water temperatures (4), preserving many ancient bugs and leaves in the amber. The second floor presents the cultural history of amber, from pre-historic trade routes to modern jewellery.

This afternoon's flight to Burgas, Bulgaria boarded on time, but there was a 2 hour hold due to heavy air traffic over southeastern Poland, resulting from the closure of Ukrainian air space (5). The pilot decided to follow a more westerly (and less congested) route, which required more fuel to be loaded (6). The revised route took us directly over Budapest, from which we followed the Danube on the west/south bank of the river over Serbia (7), then the spine of the Balkans (8) to the Black Sea coast, where we landed only about 20 minutes late (9).

(1) If I had known, I could have taken an alternative route to the WWII museum.

(2) Gdansk was known as Danzig and was part of Germany when the Soviets invaded.

(3) Known as the second floor in North America. What's known as the first floor in North America is considered floor 0 in most of Europe

(4) A very simple, but very effective, cartoon movie targeted to kids (and unsophisticated adults like me) explains how amber was created.

(5) All flights from Northeast Europe to southeast Europe, the Middle East and Asia now pass through this choke point. As we passed, there were numerous thunderheads over Northwestern Romamia, further explaining the delay.

(6) Aircraft generally load enough fuel to get to their destination on the intended route, plus enough to get to the closest alternative airport, plus 10%.

(7) Mark Reisner, in the preface to his book Cadillac Dessert (a), mentions how cities and mountains are dimished from the air, while rivers become grander as you get to see more of them. While I agree about rivers, I think mountain ranges also have a grandeur to them from the air.

(a) About dams and other water projects in the American Southwest.

(8) While also giving its name to the penninsula, the Balkans mountain range (b) runs west to east, dividing northern and southern Bulgaria.

(b) Known locally as Stara Planina (the old mountains).

(9) At immigration in front of me, there was a young mother with a baby, who apparently did know have his/her own passport. I noted that the mother had a Ukrainian passport, so she and the baby were probably refugees (c).

(c) Most countries in Eastern Europe have a very welcoming policy to Ukrainian refugees. The National railway companies are also offering free rides.