From our aft cabin balcony we had a lovely view of Gdynia first thing in the morning under clear blue skies and with favourable light conditions. The first thing that struck me was how much the harbour master’s office in the port looked like a duck. Maybe it was designed that way; maybe it’s just a case of pareidolia.

We were docked alongside the Polish Emigration Museum and from our position could see across to the naval ships in the Oksywie area of Gdynia and a great deal of commercial docks almost spanning the rest of the horizon. Not far from the port there appeared to be a monument made of boulders although the reason for it being there was not one we discovered.

We’d picked an excursion into Gdańsk for a number of reasons (history and amber availability) and had pretty much discounted Gdynia as a location to explore but our coach ride through it showed off some fabulous modernist architecture and quite a lot of street art, and reading about the port city afterwards I’ve realised that it seems like it has a lot to offer a traveller.

At the conclusion of our excursion we were returned to the port to board the ship.

Back on Crown Princess there was time to gaze out of our aft-facing balcony once more at Gdynia and grab some more photos of the area. It was interesting to see how the movement of the sun and the changing light conditions affected the vibrancy of the photos and I pulled out my telephoto lens as well to see some more distant details of the port area at the expense of further picture quality degradation and narrower light range.

The presence of the naval vessels reminded me of our cruise on Star Princess to Chile where all the ports there seemed to contain representation from the country’s sea-going military power.

There was also a tall building in the port of Gdynia, appropriately named the Sea Towers, that brought to mind endless hours of time playing Half Life 2. I can only hope its interior is less heart-stopping.

It was quite interesting that while I was leaning out from the back of the ship to take photos of the area there were people in the area taking photos of the ship; whether they were locals or people from our cruise ship who hadn’t boarded or other visitors to the city I couldn’t say but one of the photographers was wearing socks and sandals and I’m only mentioning it because that’s a crime against humanity in my book.

For a port with a lot of commercial activity it was nice to be docked some way from the containers and cranes for a change. Neither the most attractive nor interesting of ports we’ve visited while cruising over the years but the city itself warrants some further exploration at some time.

Following on from our cruise stop in Poland we would have two days at sea returning home with a highlight to witness coming up of cruising under the Great Belt Bridge as we passed Denmark.