Out and About in Wroclaw

Wednesday, Aug. 13, 2014--Wroclaw

We had some chores to do today along with exploring the city.  We put a load of laundry in the washing machine.  Then we went to the nearby Tesco store to buy sandwich/breakfast supplies while the wash was being done.  Back at the apartment, we hung our clothes on the line on our back patio to dry.  Of to town, our remaining chore was to buy our train tickets to our next town so we could inform the apartment owner when we would arrive.  On the way, however, we did some exploring.

Wroclaw has a river which splits and runs around several islands.  We walked across the pedestrian bridge to Sand Island.  Then we continued to Cathedral Island (which is no longer an island for some reason).  It's a bit unusual for a city as old as this to have its cathedral off to the side rather than in the middle of town.  But it is not just a cathedral.  It is surrounded by many other church structures to create an old, beautiful complex of buildings.  The cathedral itself was rather dark, but it has unbelievably bright, beautiful stained glass windows.  It also has a copy of the Shroud of Turin which Pope John Paul II gave to them.

We walked across the river from there to the Panorama of Raclawice.  It is the major tourist site in the city--a 360 degree painting that is 114 meters long and 15 meters high.  It illustrates a battle in 194 when the Poles defeated the Russians.  We arrived too late for the required tour, and the next tour that was not already sold out wasn't for 1 1/2 hours.  We looked at pictures of the painting in the gift shop and decided it probably would be of interest mostly to Poles rather than foreigners.

Before heading elsewhere, we completed two more chores--buying our train tickets for Friday and exchanging some remaining Czech currency for Polish zloties.  Then we were off to explore further.

We went to the Rynek, the main square of the city.  It is a HUGE square that has a smaller square inside it housing the City Hall.  We took photos of the nice buildings along the sides of the squares.  We toured the City Museum which consisted of the older rooms of the City Hall from the 1300s to the 1500s.  The best exhibit inside was a series of photographs of the city from 1961-63.  It was amazing to see how much of the city was still destroyed from WWII with the ruins still in place or with large vacant areas of the city that had been cleared. 

We sat on the square to watch people, including a man creating bubbles for children to chase and burst.  We walked into an adjacent small square which houses a flower market.  We walked down some of the side streets too see interesting arcitecture from the early 1900s.

We went into several churches during the day.  The last one was St. Elizabeth's Church.  As we entered, we could hear light organ music playing.  We looked to the balcony, and there was no organ.  We wandered trying to find the source of the music.  Finally, we found it--an old coin-operated music player with requests for donations for reconstructing their church organ.  Originally from 1500s, it miraculously survived WWII.  But it was destroyed in a fire in th 1960s.  The university took the pipes and restored it without giving it back to the church.  So they hope to build a replica if they can raise enough money.

When we came out of the church, there was a light drizzle.  It was already 17:00, so we rushed back to the apartment where I made dinner for us--pasta with a meat-tomato sauce.  After eating it, we sat on our front balcony and watched people as they came and went--dog walkers, people coming home from the day, etc.

I forgot to mention our dinner yesterday.  We found a neighborhood milk bar with a line of people in the late afternoon.  Milk bars tend to close by 18:00.  They have a cafeteria-style service, except in this one everything wasn't visible as it has been in similar places where I have eaten in Eastern Europe.  (Milk bars were a common thing in all the former communist countries, I think.)  Anyway, a young man in line behind me spoke English.  I talked with him and got him to help me order.  We had meatball with an onion gravy, mashed potatoes, and a plate of red cabbage.  It was a delicious meal--just like homemade.  We will go there again tomorrow or to a similar place.