Trip to Poland, 1937 (An Ongoing Series): Gdynia, Poland

"Gdynia June 11

stopped for dinner at Dom Zdrojowny then sightseeing.

Coffee at "Cafe Baltyk

7.20 Train for Poznian

Stopped at Hotel

Bazar

Population 122,000 people"

The photo above is a picture of the tour group my Aunt Helen Bulak traveled with for part of her visit to Poland. The group was made up of 51 members of the Polish Merchants Association from America. The group traveled to Gdynia, Poznan, Katowice, Crakow, Zakopane, Czestochowa, and Warsaw. After leaving the tour in Warsaw, my aunt stayed with my grandfather's Szerejko relatives in Warsaw.

From what I've read, Gdynia was a relatively small fishing village until 1918 and is one of the more recently developed cities in Poland. After World War I, Poland attained independence, but did not have a control of the port of what is now Gdansk (then Danzig). The Polish government decided to build a seaport at Gdynia. Construction started in 1921. Gydnia quickly grew to the size of a major seaport.

While in Gdynia my aunt traveled to the seaside town of Sopot and had dinner at Dom Zdrojowy (Spa House). A lovely seaside resort, Dom Zdrojowy was destroyed by fire after being sacked by the Red Army in 1945 during the Soviet occupation of Sopot. After dinner and sightseeing my aunt stopped at the Cafe Baltyk in Gdynia before taking the train to Poznan. If you click on the link to Cafe Baltyk and scroll down to the bottom of the web page, you will see photos of the interior and exterior of Cafe Baltyk. The cafe was renamed Cafe Berlin during the German occupation of World War II. The link for Cafe Baltyk also provides interesting photos of Gdynia, the M.S. Pilsudski, and the Marine Station at the seaport.