The trail leads along the streets of the Old Town, starting by the Church of St. Adalbert, through the Main Square, St. Mary's Basilica, the Cloth Hall, historical buildings of the Jagiellonian University, Planty park and leads up to the Wawel Hill, with its castle and cathedral, as well as kings' graves and the Royal Sigismund Bell.
We visited the Bishops Palace and saw the “John Paul 2nd window”
"The window above the entrance is known as the "papal window", as from here John Paul II spoke to the crowds that gathered to see him." (Wikipedia)
By the end of the day, we were pretty walked out. But we had noticed announcements of Classical Music performances in the evening at the various churches. Lynn and Mark thought we’d go out to see a concert in a church, and we also wanted to purchase a wooden carved nativity set we’d seen in the Cloth Shop area. Since Michael knew the money system and how to spend it in Poland, he was the holder of all our financial instruments. We told him our plans and mentioned we needed some funds. He gave us 200 PLN (about $65) and and then admonishes us:
“Don’t spend it all!”
Talk about roll reversal... Lynn and I both laughed about his comment several times that evening.
We did purchase the Nativity, but decided we were so tired from walking all over town that sitting in a dark church listening to classical music would put us right to sleep. So we did not do the concert.
We spent a second night in the Sparz ApartHotel
8 May Wednesday: Krakow Poland to Wrocław Poland
One of Michael's goals in coming to Poland was to purchase some Blue Polish Pottery. He had heard that it was available in Krakow, but when we started to research it, the Polish town where it is made was just an hour west of our next destination.
Since we had a car and could go where we wanted, our itinerary changed just like that. We drove to Boleslawiec and bought some blue Polish pottery.
The factory outlet had lots of pottery; Michael was interested in plates, bowls and dishes, and found some very nice examples. Lynn, too, found some dishes she just had to have. Imagine that.
With our treasures in hand, we drove to Wrocław. Here we had our second meeting with the Polish Police. We again wanted to get to the center of town. I was following a small blue car, and we both made a left turn at an intersection with a thousand signs. Of course, one of them was a convoluted sign that said (in unintelligible picturegrams AND a long Polish disclaimer) that you could turn her and then make a right to the next little street but no admittance going straight unless you are a bus, tram, or in this case, an unmarked police car.
So they paddled us both over; of course the blue car got a Get Out of Jail Free pass. These officers weren't so nice. They wanted a 200 PLN (about $65) fine, payable immediately! Michael was not pleased. He had 100 PLN which he gave them, but when they asked if he didn't have an ATM card, he replied “I don’t have one.” They eventually paddled us away with just the 100 PLN fine.
We again routed ourselves to the Best Western hotel (Kiełbaśnicza 16, 50-110 Wrocław, Poland). It was a little pricey, but we were glad for a place to stay. We went out for a walkabout, and ended up in a nice Italian restaurant. Lynn mentioned that we hadn't seen any missionaries during our vacation, and sure enough, just as we left the restaurant, here come the Missionaries. They exchanged stories with Michael and then mentioned that Branch President Sebastian was still at the branch, which was just down the street.
So we walked on over and wandered on up. The branch met on the 2nd floor of an office building. Michael and the Branch President had a long talk about all thing Missionary in Poland. Eventually the Sister Missionaries stopped in and shortly thereafter everyone had to leave.
On our walk back to the hotel, we saw some of the famous Wrocław Gnomes throughout the centrum. Mark was surprised at how many people are out after dark.
