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WIZZ MAGAZINE
JUNE-JULY 2012
FEATURE
BEACH BREAKS
B
EACH BREAKS – AN ESSENTIAL
ingredient of any major football
tournament, surely. In recent years,
even sports fans some distance from the
coast have found a way to enjoy a break from
post-game hangovers and the stress of ticket-
hunting by heading to urban beaches in Vienna
and Berlin. But Gdansk, one of the eight venue
cities hosting this summer ’s Euro 2012, is
right on the coast and its seafront has been
attracting Polish holidaymakers for decades.
The Polish Riviera, as it is known, stretches
from the historic port hundreds of miles to the
German border. It generally offers undiscovered
beaches and low prices. But there’s one stretch
of sand that fills up with families year after
year – the Trójmiasto, or Tri-City.
Leaving from Gdansk railway station, the
suburban electric train line SKM takes you
along the coast to the near neighbours of Sopot
and Gdynia that form the Tri-City. This year, it
runs all the way to Wejherewo. While no swish,
state-of-the-art monorail (and some of the
stations you’ ll pass could do with a clean-up),
the SKM is still cheap, quick and reliable. It
does mean you can base yourself pretty much
anywhere and visit any attractions further away
for less than the price of two ice-creams.
You can spend the morning in museums,
the afternoon on the beach and the nightly
carousing in Gdansk or Sopot – no taxi required.
There are even connecting ferries in high season.
In fact, Gdansk, Sopot and Gdynia provide
enough variety for a week-long visit.
Of course, Gdansk by itself packs hefty
cultural and historic wallop. As you ride the city
tram from the centre to the newly built PGE
Arena, you cannot fail to notice the scores of
cranes puncturing the skyline. These are the
former Lenin shipyards, the scene of some of
the most significant moments in modern Polish
history, when the then head of Solidarity Lech
Wałesa bravely challenged Communist bosses
to reverse a number of unpopular decisions. The
story is brought dramatically to life by a moving
exhibition, Roads to Freedom, at the Solidarity
Centre at ul. Wały Piastowskie 24. The original
local TV news footage and radio broadcasts
“Gdansk, Sopot and Gydnia provide
enough for a week of musuems,
beaches and nightly carousing”
Sopot’s 640m pier
is the longest in
the Balkans, and
ideal for strolling
ALAMY