Hel and Hel
Hel is a name both for all the peninsula (rightly speaking - spit) and the town located on the tip of the Hel peninsula.
The peninsula has about 35 km lenght and from 100 meters to 3 km width. It partly devides Puck Bay from the open sea. The northern shore, on the side of Baltic Sea, is rather plain, while the southern one has many little bays and creeks.
There are a road and the railway (without electric traction) along the Hel peninsula.
In town of Hel live about 4,5 thousand people. Many of them are soldiers or their families, because Hel for a long time was beeing used as a military base. There was strong garrison there - during 2nd WW Polish troops in Hel defended for the longest time against German nazis. But it is not only the history from the half of century. Yet till a few years ago there were many restrictions that not allowed you to go where you wanted because of "military area".
Actually things about Hel (peninsula) and Hel (town) are not so easy. Hel is a name of town, that is for sure. But when tourists and people from rest of Poland often say "Hel" meaning "Hel peninsula", the local inhabitants usually name it just "Penisula".
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