Wednesday, July 15, 2015
We moved the clocks back an hour last night. Well, some of
them. But, not the one that was set as an alarm to wake us up at 5:30am. So, we
got up at 4:30am anyway, then Clay realized his mistake and we tried to go back
to sleep for our extra hour. We had an early start this morning in Gdansk.
Contrary to our published schedule of docking in Gydnia, we docked in Gdansk.
It was just as well since it was closer for us. We had our last Alla Tour here
today. We did not get off to a good start. Our directions were clear to go meet
our guide/driver at the main exit from the port 15 minutes prior to the
appointed time, so 7:15am. Now, as far as I can recall we have not had a single
Alla rep meet us at the bottom of the gangway. So, 3 of us were out there. We
didn’t think Alla would even run the tour with only 3 participants and we were
right. I offered at 20 of 8am to go back to the ship to either find someone
else with Alla or the guide/driver or to reboard and ask the tourism rep
onboard to try to call the local number since we just kept getting a few rings
and then a hang up. The walk was about 3 football fields and it was hotter and
sunnier than the forecast predicted. So, I was already pretty hot and bothered
when I got back to the gangway. There was a woman right at the foot of the main
gangway with a handwritten sign in ballpoint pen and one of the names was B D
Burch. I didn’t recognize anything else as she had Alla/ some other tour
company name written there. I didn’t even know the initials and last name of
the other man in our group who was out at the port gate with Clay. The 2 women
working there, our guide Evelina and her tour company boss started to berate me
and I went off. I whipped out my directions and told them we had been outside
the gate for almost a half hour as instructed. They finally agreed that was
what my paper said and the 2 of them had intercepted everyone who came down the
gangway later than instructed. We loaded a car and a van and set off again for
the gate. The whole thing started all over without the boss lady. Evelina told
Nate and Clay that guides are required to wait at the foot of the gangway.
Evelina was shown the instructions again by someone else not me because I was
in the back seat of the van and she agreed that it was not correct. She assured
us that we were still on schedule and we were, but I don’t know what would have
happened if I hadn’t gone back and found them. We were only a group of 7 today,
5 in the van and 2 in the car. We only had the one guide so she had to meet up
with the other 2 everywhere. Our itinerary was to travel to Marlborg (or
Marlbork) Castle for a tour. It was a 50-minute drive and we went through a
former wetland that is now agricultural land and a breeding/nesting area for
storks who migrate from Africa annually. That was interesting. We were in
Marlborg Castle for 2 full hours. It was originally built by Teutonic knights
which was a religious/militaristic organization which began with the Crusades.
They built a series of castles/fortress towns in Europe after losing Jerusalem
in the 1200s. Marlborg castle was abandoned with the end of the order and
rebuilt at the end of the 19th century. It was destroyed during WWII
and is continuing to be rebuilt to this day. It was built almost entirely of
red brick. We drove back into Old Town
Gdansk by 12:15pm for a walking tour with a stop in St. Mary Cathedral. We
drove back to Marina at 1:45pm and we back aboard by 2pm. All aboard was 2:30pm
and we sailed away from Poland at 3pm.
We will probably just veg and nap this afternoon. We will go
to Terrace for dinner and go to bed early. We have a tour tomorrow in
Warnemunde of Mecklenburg with Friends of Dave. Alla Tours referred them and we
used Alla the last time here to go to Berlin. I only hope this tour is as good
as Berlin was. There were people on this tour for our last time at this port and
they liked it and the guide, Christian so fingers crossed.
I’ll go ahead and post this now and if anything else notable
happens, I’ll come back and edit the post.
