 |
| Polish Merchants Association |
Gdynia June 11 /
stopped for dinner at / Dom Zdrojowny then / sightseeing / Coffee at "Cafe Baltyk / 7.20 Train for Poznian (sic) / Stopped at Hotel / Bazar (sic) / Population 122,000 people
(Image in the Collection of Cynthia Shenette; Text Copyright (c) 2017 Cynthia Shenette) 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. The cafe was renamed Cafe Berlin during the German occupation of World War II.
No comments:
Post a Comment