Second Day in Main Square

---

Today was our second day in Rynek Glowny, aka Main Square. We went to St. Mary Basilica. It’s a brick gothic church that contains a famous piece of art by a sculptor, Veit Stoss. This altarpiece is the largest one in Europe. It’s made of several panels and stands 13 m high and 11 m wide. The parts of the piece were carved with two types of wood- oak and larch. The altarpiece shows pictures of various joys of Mary. The piece was so beautiful; I took at least 20 pictures of it! What was really funny was when the trumpet signal went off. It was being blown, but then it suddenly stopped and Abby and I were all confused. One of the guides told us that every hour, the trumpet is blown but stops mid-stream. This signal is called Hejnal (hey-now). It is blown from the taller of the two towers, and it is done to commemorate a famous 13th century trumpeter who was shot in the throat while sounding the signal before a Mongol attack on the city. When we found that out, we were just so amazed.
After visiting the church, we went out to eat. Today we tasted compotes which are pieces of bread that are topped with sausages. It was pretty good. We ate a little quick so we would have more time to walk. So we left and walked further down. Abby and I came upon another monument called the Adam Mickiewicz monument. It is one of the best known monuments in Poland. We asked these two guys to take our picture for us, and they were nice and said yes. After taking our picture, they introduced themselves to us. Their names were Tom and John. They were taking a similar trip that we were and so happened to be staying at the same hotel! So we hung around with them the rest of the day.

---