It’s a beautiful day for a walk to the sea. Join us!

Above: This is what we see when we step out from our apartment. We’ll be taking a left between those two apartments in the first picture.

Above: We go down the hill on this pedestrian path through some trees, then we cross this park, until we arrive at quiet Ulica Weherowska (Weherowska Street).

Above: This is the SKM (pronounced es-kah-em), our local train station. When we go into Gdansk, we grab the train here. It costs about $2 and on weekdays comes about every 10 minutes. Potok-Kamieny (Stonybrook) is our neighborhood in Sopot. Today, we are not taking a train; we are going to the sea. So, instead of climbing the stairs up to the platform, we’ll go under the tracks through the tunnel.

On the other side of the tracks, we run into a four-lane road. It seems to have two names: Aleja Zwyclestwa and Aleja Niepodleglosci. The Polish word for surprise is “niespodzianka” (pronounced nee-spo-jahn-ka). It is a fun word to say, with a fun meaning. In my head, I call this the “niespodzianka” street, since one of its name is close to that word. The green “balls” in the otherwise brown trees are mistletoe. You see mistletoe everywhere here.

Now that we’ve crossed the busy areas, it’s down to the sea. The tri-cities have done a great job of keeping development to a minimum along the coast. In most areas, there are trees and pedestrian/bike paths between development and the sea.

We’ve made it to the Baltic Sea! It’s a lovely day. Let’s sit on the sand for a bit and soak up the sun.

Instead of returning the way we came, let’s walk along the pedestrian path toward its starting point. It’s a pretty walk and popular with cyclists. The large picture is where the path begins/ends.

It’s a steep climb up, then the land levels out. Here we are at busy “Niespodzianka” street again.

During our walk we left Sopot and entered Gdynia. In the large picture, you can see the sign welcoming us back to Sopot. We’ll cross the road at the light. You can see a Lidl grocery story. That is our 2nd choice for grocery shopping. The next picture is us coming out from under the train-track-tunnel. Biedronka, our 1st choice for groceries, because of its cheap prices and friendly employees, is the house-like building on the corner.

Across from the Biedronka is my favorite piekarnia (bakery). The women here are friendly and seem to enjoy our attempts at speaking Polish. I eat their rolls for sandwiches for lunch nearly every day. What will you buy today?

Getting home means climbing the hill. It’s really steep and keeps me in shape. In the final picture, you can see our apartment. That last bit is one of the steepest parts, though it’s hard to tell in the photo.

Phew! We’ve made it up the hill. Here we are back, at our apartment.

And now we’re home!

Thanks for joining us on our walk.