Day 3 of sightseeing in the Tricity - Sopot

My Aussie friend and I had two days of sightseeing in Gdansk. One concentrating on the Hanseatic past of Poland and the other learning the modern history of Poland with Gdansk as focal point of the political changes. To create a more complete picture of Poland and what she is all about we still were missing many points. I was aware that I will not be able to show my friend all I consider important, good, interesting and characteristic to complete the picture. I had to put aside Polish literature, music, art, nature, our complicated history over the centuries. There was no time for that and we would have to explore as well other towns than the Tricity.

Sopot and Gdynia are the remaining two towns forming the Tricity. I had to chose one of the two as my friend had to continue her European trip further and leave Poland the next day. My choice was Sopot.

Lately I came across a comparison Sopot – Polish Monte Carlo. Hmm... I think that comparisons like Stockholm - Paris of the North or similar make it rather difficult for the pretenders to a higher standard. They simply do not measure up! The same is with Sopot but I thought that this comparison may help in understanding the flavour  of the place. Of course this is not Monte Carlo but it is an elegant town, with elegant society people walking down the main street and promenade – Monte Casino which is affectionately called Monty (in polish Monciak). And it has a casino situated next to  the sea shore like in Monte Carlo. So much for similarities.

the Monty

Crooked House

The town is ranked as #1 town in Poland with population only 38,000. During the holiday season, July – August, the population significantly increases. This is Polish  ultimate place for summer holidays. Walking down the Monty one sees VIPs passing by, beautiful people and aspiring personalities of the future. Quite fun. It has always been that way, even in the communistic times. Not that I ever saw the Polish Prime Minister walking down Monty even if he lives in Sopot so I hope I might one day. He may remember Palme's demise. 

While Sopot's architecture today is a mixture of  modern and 19^th century buildings it was mentioned in historical documents as a village in the 13^th century. From the 16^th century it started to operate as a spa. So much for history of Sopot today.

We started our Sopot walk from the top of the Monty passing the Crooked House, and many coffee places. We stopped for a while in at E.Wedel coffee place where we indulged in the speciality – drinking chocolate. It was not the most healthy or slimming stop but Wedel is considered the best Polish national candy brand so it was a must to have experience even if in fact it is Cadbury-E.Wedel now. Times change.

We continued along rather empty promenade, the season has not started yet, to the longest wooden pier in Europe – 650m. I remember few years ago I dragged my other Aussie friends to show them the pier and the reaction was not that of admiration but rather annoyance – we have piers in Australia you know! True, I did not realise that I was overly Tricity patriotic and my friends were already tired of sightseeing.  This time I was more lucky and we walked to the end of the pier admiring Grand Hotel which presents itself best from from the end of the pier called Molo.

                                            

Then it was time for a walk down another promenade stretching from Gdansk to Gdynia. It runs along the beach parallel to bicycle path and it is divided from the sea by dunes.  One has water views only when passing gates to the beach. Every 100 meters of so. Great walk and I plan many of them while in Gdansk

That what it looks like, the beach is 20 meters to the right. Difficult to believe looking at the picture