Jul 27

Jul 27 Day 5 - Gdansk, Poland, on Viking Mars

Today, Viking Mars is docked in the city of Gdansk, Poland. This is our first ever visit to Gdansk and our first visit to the country of Poland! We pre-booked the City of Gdansk On Foot excursion. This is one of Viking’s included excursions (no additional charge).

A quick walk around the top deck reveals that we are docked within view of the Westerplatte Monument. This war memorial commemorates the Polish defenders of the Military Transit Depot, one of the first battles in Germany’s invasion of Poland at the start of WWII.

It is clear, cool and windy when guests begin disembarking for the morning’s excursions.

Viking also offers guests a complimentary shuttle bus that goes from the pier into the city center for those who wish to explore on their own.

*Viking offers complimentary shuttle from pier into town*

Our excursion today requires the use of the QuietVox communicator. These listening devices allow us to hear our local tour guide easily, even if we are up to 75 yards away.

All Viking excursions are identified by numbers. Our tour group is number 11. This makes it easy to find the correct motor coach when returning to the ship.

Our tour group was unusually large with 50 guests! I suspect that one of the local guides did not show up making it necessary to combine two groups into a single group. The larger group did make for some logistical challenges along the way.

We stopped on the bridge into town for a view of the canal and the architecture of Gdansk.

One of those “logistical challenges” was evident when everyone tried to pack into a local amber shop for the amber demonstration and bathroom break.

The Town Hall clock tower looms large over the large pedestrian street that was filled with tourists this morning.

No visit to Gdansk is complete without a visit to the iconic Neptune’s Fountain.

Our tour lasted about 3 hours and, once we were back on board, we rested most of the afternoon. We enjoyed a nice sail-away cocktail in Explorer’s Bar before our evening dinner at The Chef’s Table.

The Chef’s Table is an alternate dining venue on Viking Ocean ships featuring a fixed tasting menu that changes every three days. Tonight’s menu is Xiang and is one that we have never tried before. We were not disappointed. We have reservations for another meal here to try the California Cuisine menu in a few days. Of course, we will do a full review video of Chef’s Table once we return.