We Had Plans To Go To Hel Today

We had waited and waited for decent weather here because we were wanting to take a boat to Hel. We finally have it! We decided that we would take a two hour boat ride to the city of Hel, Poland. It is a fishing village and tourist town at the tip of a peninsula about 17 miles out in the Baltic Sea. When we looked at the schedule of times for our boat, we misunderstood part of it. Luckily we realized our mistake before we set out on the journey. We decided that we did not want to spend an entire day in Hel since we are leaving in a week and still have a lot to do to prepare for our homecoming trip. Hel will just have to wait until another time we are in northern Poland.

We went to Gdynia instead. Gdynia is north of Gdansk and it takes about 30 minutes to get there by train. It is very scenic up there and we are so glad we visited Gdynia before we left. Of course, they have a John Paul II street.

We walked by a movie theater and I enjoyed seeing all the American movies with the titles in Polish.

We had gigantic hamburgers with cole slaw on them and all kinds of unidentifiable (though yummy) sauces for lunch. Our whole family ate for the equivalent of about $15, including drinks! Here are Natalie, Abbie and Trey enjoying their lunch by the big fountain in Kosciuszki Square.

Gdynia is a haven for tourists. Many cruise ships dock there for a day. We watched a huge one come into the port. That was pretty cool. The view of the Baltic Sea is stunning from the port in Gdynia.

There are many places where people can sit and watch the boats on the water. Of course, there is a beach there, but we did not go to that part. We stayed in the area where all the boats went by.

Abbie really liked this boat with all the mermaids carved on the side.

This warship was in many battles in WWII. It is now a museum. It is the only Polish ship that was built before the war to survive the war.

We have been seeing these waffle dessert treats (gofry) for months. Today we finally tried them. Seriously delicious! That is a Polish tradition that we will bring home with us for sure. Ben had his with chocolate and cherries. Yum!

As we were heading back to the train station we saw these funky trees all over the place.

Our trip to Gdynia was no trip to Hel, but we had a great day! We were gone only for the afternoon and were still able to get some more packing done at home.