Gdańsk, Northern Europe

Having watched Jonathan Meade's excellent 2008 travel documentary, Magnetic North at least three times, I am convinced that the main division in Europe is no longer East and West, but North and South. And ever has it been thus, the 45 post-war years with an Iron Curtain having been a temporary anomaly.

 As Mr Meades points out, the wine-drinking South and the beer- and spirits-drinking North are two entirely different faces of our continent, sharing a common culture and history, but divided by climate - and therefore by attitude to life. Magnetic North is a journey starting in Northern France, through Belgium and Holland, along the Baltic Coast, and ending in Finland. While the South is pleasure-loving and soaked in sunshine, the North is grim and Gothic; austere and hard-working. For the North, strong alcohols chemically ease the existential and climatic angst of being. 

Gdańsk features prominently in the series; it bears the hallmarks of northern-ness. 

I am a fan of the Tri-City - Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia - a coastal agglomeration of three-quarters of a million inhabitants. Had I the choice of where to live and work in Poland today, it would be the ideal place, one where I'd be hard-pressed to find boredom. Gdańsk alone itself has much to commend it for - a historic centre, beaches, a national park, museums, universities, but when added seamlessly to the resort town of Sopot, the port city of Gdynia and attractive hinterlands in all directions, it makes for one of the great European locations.

Gdańsk is thoroughly European; as a former member of the Hanseatic League since 1358, Gdańsk or Danzig (or Gduńsk in Kashubian) became wealthy on Baltic trade. Houses, warehouses, mills, churches and markets were built within a fortified wall. In the churches, Latin abounds, bridging the linguistic divide between the Slavs  and Teutons. Although  heavily damaged during WW2, the old town was restored to reflect the Flemish, Dutch, French and Italian influence as well as the Germanic. The result is an extremely atmospheric mediaeval centre. Let's take a look...

Dominican monastery behind the Basilica of St Nicholas (1239). 

The Prison Gate, reminiscent of Glamis and Cawdor castles in Polanski's Macbeth

Fine Arts Academy in the Renaissance building of the Great Armoury

Hanseatic brick: warehouse converted into a hotel

Ulica Długa ('Long Street'); main route through the old town

Ulica Garbary ('Tanneries Street'). Note the eagle on the roof at no. 13.

'The Amsterdam of the North'; the old mill is now a chocolate factory

St Mary's Basilica; left, the high altar, right, the astronomical clock (1464)

Left: the Great Organ of the Archcathedral of Gdańsk Oliwa, 9km (5.6 miles) from the Old Town is well worth a visit, especially to take in a concert. Starting with J.S. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (sends shivers down the spine to hear its terrifying majesty blasted out on a 18th century organ of such as size), the concert reflects Northern Europe's culture and heritage including works by Handel and Gounod; familiarity across time and space. An Englishman, Dutchman, German, Dane or Swede would feel equally at home with the setting and the music, the Latin inscriptions and the architecture. The motto of the City of Gdańsk ("Nec temere, nec timide" - neither rashly nor timdly) is worthy of contemplation, and would not appear odd had it been the motto of  No. 167 (Gold Coast) Squadron, RAF.

Gdańsk, like Edinburgh, another favourite city of mine, merits many revisits - there are so many attractions, so much to see and do, that another journey beckons already. And like Edinburgh, it's one that works well in the dusk, in the wet and cold of a Northern European autumn, winter and early spring. Settling into a warm cellar bar down a cobbled side-street for a plate of herring with vodka shot followed by an amber Belgian monastic ale as the wind lashes rain onto mediaeval brick and slate is a comforting prospect.

⁶ But who is able to build Him an house, seeing that heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him? - 2 Chronicles 2, v 6.

This time last year:
Herons in Jeziorki, summer's end

This time two years ago:

Sublime September sun, Ealing

This time four years ago:
Stepping up the pace

This time five years ago:
Evolution of human consciousness

This time six years ago:
Farewell to Ciocia Jadzia

This time seven years ago:
By train from to Konstancin and Siekierki

This time eight years ago:
Summer's end, Jeziorki

This time ten years ago:
Ząbkowska, Praga's newly-hip thoroughfare

This time 12 years ago:
Catching the klimat

This time 14 years ago:
Road to Łuków - a road trip into the sublime