Gdynia is one of Poland’s main ports and worth a side trip from Gdansk or the seaside town of Sopot. It is a relatively new city, developed after WW1 to provide a modern port for the recently re-independent Poland. It has a modernist and art deco feel from it’s largely 1920’s creation, which was critical because neither of the other two Polish ports of today were available at the time – nearby Gdansk was an international city after WW1 and Szczecin was in German territory and called Stettin. Gdynia and its maritime heritage has plenty to keep you busy for a day or two.
Waterfront. Gdynia’s waterfront is nicely set in a large bay that hosts regular sailing events, and the main pier (along Jana Pawla II) is capped with a Soviet-era stainless steel maritime memorial – the Pomnik Zagle (Sails Memorial) – representing masts and sails as a memorial to Polish mariners.
Pomnik Zagle with the Kepa Redlowska Park Beyond
Joseph Conrad – Mariner and Author. Also see the memorial to the Polish-British author Joseph Conrad (1857-1924), so versatile that he was first an accomplished merchant navy officer, who gained material for his second career in writing. He captained a Congo river steamer for three years, and so we have Heart of Darkness. He was born Jozef Konrad Korzeniowski in Berdichev, located in today’s western Ukraine, which at the time was an ethnically Polish area in the Tsarist Russian Empire. He went to sea in 1874, aged 17, first in the French merchant marine but later for the British, where he spent most of his 19 years at sea and whose citizenship he took in 1886. Net, while it’s unlikely Conrad ever spent much time in Gdynia, a small fishing village until the early 20th century, he would probably have appreciated a memorial set amongst other seafaring icons. Conrad had health issues throughout his life, which in part forced him to retire from seafaring at the age of 36. At which point, he turned to writing in his second language. The pier also hosts the Gdynia Aquarium and science center.
Polish Warship Lightning. You can experience a slice of Polish naval history by visiting the Polish Warship Blyskawica (Lighting). Built in Britain in 1937, it was a fast and heavily armed destroyer of the time and served throughout WW2 in the Free Polish Navy.
Sail Training Ships. Equally impressive is the sail training ship Dar Mlodziezy, built in 1981 at the Gdansk Lenin Shipyard. Used for merchant marine training, she is the sister ship to six other vessels built for the Soviet Union at the time. You can also visit her predecessor nearby on the main pier, the Dar Pomorza, built in Hamburg in 1909, acquired by the Polish merchant navy training school in 1929, and operational until her retirement as a museum ship in 1982. (https://en.nmm.pl/dar-pomorza).
Just south of the main pier is Gdynia’s city beach, and beyond that the Kepa Redlowska nature preserve, which is nice for a hike which gives you both woodlands and the beach.
Film. Gdynia hosts the annual Polish Film Festival in September and film enthusiasts can check out the year-round screening program at the Gdynia Film Centre (Plac Grunwaldzki 2) http://www.gcf.org.pl/kino_studyjne/
Emigration Museum. Further north of the main pier is the Emigration Museum (http://www.polska1.pl/en/ Polska 1), which documents the Polish emigration story in a converted 1930s passenger terminal building from which many emigrants departed. Look out for the monument commemorating deportees after the Nazi occupation of the city in 1940 (plac Gdynian Wysiedlonych 56 – in front of the train station).
Logistics. Gdynia is a compact city that is quite lively and considered an attractive city to live in, with its proximity to the Baltic beaches and the major resort at Sopot. The train station is right in the center and the main pier about a 15 minute walk east. Some good food options include: Tawerna Gdynia (Jana Pawla II 11), a popular pierside bar/restaurant serving Polish standards; Pierogarnia Pierozek (Kościuszki 15) because Pierogi, F Minga (Bulwar Nadmorski Im. Feliksa Nowowiejskiego) on the waterfront for modern Polish, and finally Moje Miasto (Kosciuszki 15) which is more European.
Polish cities have great craft beer these days and places worth trying include Morze Piwa (Kosciuszki 13), and AleBrowar Gdynia (Starowiejska 40B), which also features its own beer. Further south and beachside is the Browar Port Gdynia brewpub/restaurant (Bulwar Nadmorski im.Feliksa Nowowiejskiego 2 – browarportgdynia.com).