Sunday 3 June
Curiously, Mate’s recovery seemed to stem from clearing four loads of laundry for very few Euros, so it was another day of Yorkshire bunting decorating my decks. Meanwhile, Skipper washed me down and filled my water tanks – it is believed the last batch of water taken on, even filtered at source, may have contributed to mild ‘unhappy tummy syndrome’ on board.
In the cooler evening, they stretched their legs with a stroll to a kiosk nearby for what seems to be a local speciality, a very tall soft ice cream of chocolate and vanilla swirled together. This was enjoyed on the city beach, where Mate decided it was just too over-used to be an attractive place to paddle, and they meandered instead among street entertainers and musicians along shady tree-lined boulevards.
Gdynia is a very young city: it was granted city rights on 10 February 1926, having been built by workers from all over Poland (before they emigrated to the UK) in the five preceding years. It offers numerous examples of Art Deco and Modernist architecture, as well as buildings from the Socialist era of post-war Europe and a rash of new builds in the modern post-communist Poland. It has a wide central avenue, reminiscent of Barcelona’s Las Ramblas, that leads down to the yacht harbour and aquarium, and is laid out with attractive planting and interesting sculptures.