Gdansk: My Phoenix City

We walked off into Dlugi Targ and the colorful merchants' houses looked freshly painted – hard to believe 95% were rubble in 1945. The Amber Museum inside a medieval gate tower showed insects trapped 40 million years ago still perfect. St. Mary's Church climb (408 steps) gave us views over red roofs to the shipyards where Solidarity began.

We had lunch at a milk bar – pierogi ruskie and żurek soup in rye bread bowls that tasted like grandma's hug. In the afternoon we went to Oliwa Cathedral for the organ concert – 7,000 pipes playing Bach while wooden angels danced on cables. The pros: beautiful, meaningful, and incredibly warm people. The cons: some post-war architecture, but the rebuilt center is flawless.