Enormous cranes tower over...

the adjacent berth as we arrive at Gdansk, Poland, the largest shipyard on the Baltic, and one steeped in recent world history (click to enlarge):

I didn't expect my powerful reaction to the Solidarity Museum, our first stop of the day.  It told the story of repressive life under communism, and the inception of the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa as it unfolded in the shipyards of Gdansk in the 1980s, culminating in the breakup of the Soviet Union a little more than a decade later:

Once outside the museum we took a short walk, crossing several streets, and emerged at the gate where the historic conflict began:

Today, a proud monument towers over the historic plaza, now named Solidarity Square:

It was impossible not to be moved by our experience this morning.