SPEND AN UNFORGETTABLE TIME BREATHING IN LAYERS OF HISTORY.
Let’s discover Gdańsk, an old port city, historically the richest city on the Baltic Sea coast. Let yourself be carried away by the smells, sounds, images of this city: I will show you the Middle Ages and modern times in all their glory.
And it is not all. I would also be happy to show you what’s around Gdansk, including the two neighbouring cities, Gdynia and Sopot, which together with Gdansk forms an agglomeration called the Tricity (in Polish: Trójmiasto).
Visiting the Tricity. Here is a brief description of the 3 cities:
● Gdańsk has a history of more than a millennium including history and wealth of Hanseatic city.
● Sopot is an all-green seaside resort: its quaint turn-of-the-century buildings are enveloped in gardens, the whole town covered in old trees. See Sopot through the eyes of this resort resident. Be amazed by its architecture, greenery, culture. Understand the phenomenon of this used to be called “the Monte Carlo of the North”.
● The port of Gdynia was suddenly built during the 1920s and thus the abrupt start of the city. Is Gdynia a “no corner city”? Get to know modernist Gdynia as the flywheel for the Polish economy of the interwar period.
● The coast is lined with sandy beaches.
● On the west side of the Tricity are tens of kilometers of magnificent forests set on picturesque hills formed at the end of the ice age and two regions, different ethnologically: Kashubia and Kociewie.
● On the east a flat and very fertile land: Żuławy with its own interesting history of acceptance of other cultures, rich agriculture and noble households. It is also the area where the Teutonic Knights settled down in the 13th c. and where the largest brick castle in the world has been built: the castle of of Malbork.
● and that’s not all, there is much more to discover 🙂
Discover more things to do in kayak.co.uk/Gdansk.20925.guide
ABOUT ME
My name is Agnieszka Lasota, which in english would be Agnes Lasota.
I am a graduate of architecture and urban planning, and work mainly in the field of education, now also as a guide as I love sharing how wonderful is this area and how interesting it is in terms of history and people who contribute to it.
I live in Sopot, a charming little town on the coast which is the town of my childhood.
Born in Poland, I also lived in France during the first half of the 1980s. It was in France where I finished my early education up until 1st grade. In 1986 when the whole family returned to Poland, Poland was in the middle of the biggest economic crisis of communist times. A few years later, it was the end of the People’s Republic of Poland, and a new era began.
And that’s how I learned to see the reality of different countries in contrast. I know a little about Italy, Sweden, Algeria – countries where I happened to work. I visited Cuba, Morocco, Thailand, and India. In the late 1990s I was hitchhiking a lot in Europe. I find the diversity of cultures fascinating.
All these trips gave me a certain perspective and made me able to recognize the beauty of Poland’s nature and its cultural heritage.
For a few decades I have been observing changes in Poland’s culture and its urban development: the country in general and most of all the area near where I live (the Tricity of Gdańsk-Sopot-Gdynia and the surrounding regions). These changes are often surprising and not always very easy for me to digest as for an urbanist, even if most people are proud of them (…) What can I say. That’s life 😉
Anyway. I offer guided tours for adults and children, business and post-conference clients. So take a tour! 🙂
SIGHTSEEING WITH GAMES
I encourage active exploring: I guide you along a chosen route and tell you stories about the place, while you, with the cards in hand with details of the surroundings, look around and find the elements depicted in the pictures.
Exploring with the cards stimulates you to discover things you might have missed. It sharpens the sense of observation. There are often architectural details in the pictures, and drawing your attention to them allows you to learn their name and what their function is.
HOW DO WE GET AROUND?
If not on foot, here are the suggested options: public transport or car. At our disposal there is a van of Polish invention and production (brand of communist times): a Nysa 522 or a modern van, a comfortable VW Transporter T5. Bikes? This is also possible.
PS. IF YOU ARE THINKING OF MOVING TO GDANSK OR, MORE BROADLY, TO THE TRICITY, I CAN ADVISE YOU ON WHICH NEIGHBORHOODS TO CHOOSE. I CAN SERVE AS A GDANSK CITY GUIDE. OBVIOUSLY, A NATIVE (AND AN ARCHITECT AT THAT) BETTER RECOGNIZES THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT PLACES.
AND IF YOU ASK ME MY OPINION: MOVING TO LIVE IN THE TRICITY, IT’S NOT A BAD IDEA 🙂
CHOOSE A CITY
Gdańsk
The commercial cradle of the Tricity and its stories
Sopot
The charm of the seaside resort
Gdynia
Courage and modernity and what it looks like today