Har Matey

After breakfast we hiked up to the train station to buy our tickets for our trip to Warsaw tomorrow.   This time it was easy peasy.  Worked our way back to the riverfront, having decided to take a cruise on a pirate ship.  

Passing down a tributary of the Vistula River, we passed the sprawling shipbuilding complex.   Apparently they are building two ferries for B.C. but there must be one hundred ships that are being built or repaired in this amazing complex.   We got off for an hour at Westerplatte.  This is the place where the first shots and first casualty of WWII took place.   A brave band of some 200 Poles held off the might of the German armed forces for a week, before surrendering honourably.  Walked across the peninsula for our first view of the Baltic Sea.   Returning on a different pirate ship we cruised around and finally arrived back at the main town.   After a light lunch we strolled back to our room and put our feet up. 

After dinner we wandered along the river front, both sides, looking at the yachts and shops.  An interesting feature is the 15th century crane used for loading ships in those days.

The power for these cranes was applied by men in enormous squirrel cages which turned gears.  They could apparently lift 2 tons 90 feet or 4 tons 30 feet.  Quite a feat of engineering in those days.