Gdansk, City Hall

The Gdansk city seal includes two lions facing each other, one from each side of the seal. The street that leads into the city (from the far side of this photo) to the City Hall is narrow, so when the King of Poland came to visit, he approached the City Hall from the side. The copy of the seal over the main entrance has both lions looking toward the city gate, so they were both looking toward the King as he approached.

In 1980 in the campground in Vienna we met a Polish family. The next year they escaped from Poland during the Solidarity “uprising,” and we helped them move to the USA. In 1985 we went to Poland to visit their friends and relatives in Wroclaw, and in the campground in Warsaw met Henryk and Irene from Gdansk. A few years later they visited our home in the USA, and in 1991 we visited their home in Gdansk. Home-to-home visits, 6,000 miles apart, from adjacent campsites. Bet that never happens from adjacent hotel rooms!