It looked to be a promising day. He co-founded the Solidarity trade union, whose membership rose to over ten million at its peak. We were booked to do a half-day tour of the city and we looked forward to seeing the shipyard and the area where the Solidarity movement was started. After breakfast we went down to the Neptune Lounge to check in for our excursion at 9.
We could proceed ashore more or less straight away, and we looked for the coach bearing our tour number and had our names ticked off the list.
After about 45 minutes, we arrived at an impressive-looking church, its twin steeples outlined perfectly against a clear blue sky. Our guide told us it was the Katedra Oliwska , a catholic cathedral dating from He said we could go inside for a short while, but we had to be quiet and discreet entering the building because an organ recital was in progress. It was like something from the Phantom of the Opera. The rich sounds soared and echoed around the vaulted ceilings of the building, filling the space with its powerful and exuberant music.
I had to record it! Afterwards, we had a look around the cathedral which was light and airy; the architecture was not overly ornate, although there were several impressive stained-glass windows. Our next visit was to the European Solidarity Centre. The outside of the building was very interesting, because it was shaped and designed with steel panels of the types used to build ships, complete with rivets.
It evoked the hulls of huge ships. Nearby was a monument which consisted of three tall steel crosses, each one containing an anchor. First of all though, we decided to go and look for another geocache. From a small kiosk by the riverside, someone was selling tickets for boat ride as well as hiring colourful pedalos that were shapred to look like cars driving along on the water.
