Travel

Gdansk to the music of time in an historic Polish city

Renowned as the centre of Solidarity’s resistance against Poland’s communist authorities in the early 1980s, Gdansk is today a scenic and beguiling place suffused with youthful energy

Gdansk: the old town is incredibly easy to navigate

I am walking on hallowed ground in the port city of Gdańsk that straddles Poland’s Baltic coast. This is where two of the 20th century’s most important historical events began – the outbreak of World War II and the end of the Cold War.

Those of a certain age will remember grainy black and white TV images backed by industrial greyness, hulking steel cranes and communist repression. Lech Walęsa, the charismatic Gdańsk shipyard electrician with ...