Westerplatte Monument

Battlefield from September 1939

The Polish Baltic coast has much to offer between the Szczecin Lagoon and the Bay of Danzig: pure nature, rugged cliffs and shifting dunes, as well as seemingly endless beaches. Above all this towers Gdansk, Danzig, the jewel of the Baltic Sea cities. This mighty trading center is over a thousand years old and has grown through everything, albeit often through pain: under the Teutonic Order and as the Lion of the Hanseatic League, during the time of Poland's partition, and later as a Free City. On September 1, 1939, Hitler's Germany unleashed World War II here with the shots fired by the battleship "Schleswig-Holstein" at Westerplatte, at the end of which Danzig, too, lay in ruins. The city rose again, like a phoenix from the ashes, now called Gdansk, Polish and socialist – but still on the Baltic Sea, close to the winds of freedom. In August 1980, 16,000 shipyard workers, led by Lech Walesa, went on strike to establish a free trade union. This marked the beginning of the end of the Eastern Bloc under Moscow's thumb. Today, Gdansk presents itself as a cosmopolitan Baltic Sea metropolis. Every day, tourists throng the city's Long Lane, the High Gate, and the Crane Gate.

Nice description of Ulrike. It would be to Poland and Gdansk if membership of the EU (since 2004) would also make the language more cross-border. EU is more than money! Minimal translation of Polish public and historical information into eg English is a must! Apparently it is possible to keep the zloty. Danes also do it with their crowns. But a little more outward looking through language is necessary to be able to take European membership seriously.