Gdansk

Gdansk needs 2 days: Long Street (Dlugi Targ), with colorful Hanseatic facades rebuilt after World War II, on one, and the European Solidarity Centre, a museum dedicated to the Solidarity trade union movement that helped end communism in Eastern Europe, on the other. May-September is best. It's inexpensive for Europe. It was the epicenter of the Solidarity movement led by Lech Walesa at the city's shipyards in 1980, a milestone that accelerated communism's fall across the region, and its Hanseatic historic center, rebuilt almost entirely after being leveled in World War II, is one of Europe's most notable examples of heritage reconstruction.