Deb Travels the World

As we’ve all been hearing, travel through Canadian airports is painful, but ours worked out fine despite hiccups with my passport (finally picked it up on Friday afternoon for travel Sunday- phew that was close) and delays in both Ottawa (1hr) and Montreal (2 hrs). Our 5-hour layover in Frankfurt only ends up being 2 hours, which we happily spent in a nice lounge with lovely food and wine. We arrived in Gdańsk on time and easily navigated the purchase of SIM cards and an Uber to our apartment (Maya’s Flats).

The one-bedroom apartment is nice and clean with a kitchen and decent living areas including a very nice balcony and a good sized tv, on which Steve is currently playing an Xbox game

Here are some pics from our walks in Gdańsk. A very pretty city.

There’s a festival on, so lots of little market stalls and chickens.


And this stall where we bought traditional fried bread(I think, Ukrainian).

Also learned that we are on the Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage trail!

We enjoyed a nice lunch of polish stew and dumplings, accompanied by very good beer - dark for me and red for Steve. Both this brand:

The Amber museum was interesting, as was the monument to the fallen from the shipyards uprising in 1970.

Price is Right fans, we enjoyed seeing this collection of grandfather clocks (that must be why they aren’t prizes on TPIR any more - they’re all here!)

Looking forward to more exploration of the city and its history tomorrow.

Great trip, from the Confederate capital (Richmond) to DC, from steel town (Pittsburgh) to nickel town (Buffalo); three hockey and two baseball games; Long Island Sound, Chesapeake Bay, Lake Erie and the Erie Canal, the Ohio, Allegheny, Monongahela, and Buffalo Rivers; and battlefields and museums of the civil war, as well as air & space and PEZ!

My last morning walk was canal-side in Buffalo and I found the infamous shark girl, just by chance.

The sculpture of the “French Connection” was inspired by a game photo. 1970’s Buffalo Sabres from Quebec.

Followed two self-guided walking tours found on-line from Explore Buffalo. A wide variety of architectural styles and lots of interesting buildings and art.
Easy to tell where we are:

From our walks. The first pic is a building by Yamasaki, built while he was working on plans for the World Trade Center. Easy to see the resemblance.

I liked this sculpture

The glass wall on the courthouse contains the full constitution written out

And I liked the stone structure of this gas station

We ended the day out with a great meal at Giacobbi’s Italian restaurant. We shared the lasagna and a really yummy pasta dish called Penne pPnk Vodka “Al’s way” - best meal and best service of the trip.

Heading home tomorrow.

On our way to Buffalo, we stopped as planned at a beach and lighthouse on Lake Erie

And at the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Graycliff house near Buffalo.

Some distinct features include:
Iron oxide in the stone to bring out the rust colour:

Water features incorporated- if they were functioning, it would appear as the water flowing through and from the house

Bringing the outside in with lots of windows and rooms flowing into outdoor terraces

A flower arranging sink

Unusual for the time, the house had an open concept

The small structure housed the boiler heating system, reducing the chance of fire. Another feature seen here are the cantilevered balconies.

Hockey night in Buffalo; finally, a home team win!

This was the last regular season home game and the Sabres announcer, Rick Jeanneret, retired after 51 years, so there were post-game celebrations. You can see players that have already taken the jerseys off to give to lucky fans (seasons ticket holders).

And from the walk home

Just some quick pics in the downtown area. I walked all the streets on the map this morning, stopping finally at a Forbes St bakery fore ham & cheese croissants, almond-chocolate pastries and a chocolate eclair. With our own add-water oatmeal and a banana, it was a great in-room breakfast with lots leftover for tomorrow.