Gdynia is the youngest large city on the Polish coast, and its story is unusually clear. In 1920 Poland regained access to the Baltic after more than a century and found that its main port, Danzig, was a free city under League of Nations control. So the new state built a port of its own at a small fishing village here, and in about fifteen years Gdynia grew from a few thousand people to over a hundred thousand. The architects of the day built in the style they knew, the modernism of the 1930s, with white walls, rounded corners, ship-like balconies and flat roofs, and the city centre still has a streak of that confident, optimistic look.
The best way to see it is on foot around the main avenue, the Świętojańska, and out along the pier at the Kościuszko Square, where the waterfront has been laid out as a promenade. Alongside the pier lie two museum ships, the destroyer Błyskawica, which served with the Royal Navy in the Second World War, and the tall sailing ship Dar Pomorza. Behind the town the wooded hill of Kamienna Góra gives a view over the harbour, and the cliffs and beach of Orłowo to the south are a favourite place for a seaside walk, with a long wooden pier.
As the middle one of the Tricity, with Gdańsk and Sopot, Gdynia sits in a dense strip of urban land, and the roads around it can be congested, particularly in summer. The ride to Malbork leaves along fast main roads, then drops onto quieter lanes across the flat farmland of the Vistula plain. The surface is generally good, with some patched sections and many speed cameras in the villages. Baltic weather is changeable and a stiff onshore wind can make the coast cold even in July.
Fuel is plentiful, and the big stations on the ring road make it easy to leave with a full tank. Smoked fish from the harbour stalls is the local lunch, and the cafes on Świętojańska are good places to rest. If you have time, a short walk along the beach is a fine way to clear the head before you ride.