From Kraków to Wrocław

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Sunday, June 11 – after breakfast at Hotel Fortuna, we had a walking tour of old town Kraków. We had a very passionate and knowledgeable young guide, Alicja. We started at St. Florian’s Gate (the only remaining gate), where a small part of the adjoining wall still stands, dating back to the 1300s. In the 19th century, the moat was filled in and made into a park - a green ring all around the old city, measuring about 4 km. Kraków has a long and storied history dating back to the 900s. We saw the Rynek Główny (main square), which dates to the 13th century and is the biggest open square in Europe. We saw the remaining tower from the town hall, St. Mary's church, which was built in the 14th century by the people of Poland. We also saw the Jagiellonian University, one of the oldest universities in the world, founded in 1364 by Casimir III. There are 40,000 students at the university, and a total of 230,000 total in the 23 universities in Krakow, making up 1/3 of the population. We saw the building where Pope John Paul II (former archbishop of Kraków, Karol Woityła) would stay when he came to visit, and the window where he held his "window meetings" with the people who came to see him.



After lunch, we traveled by bus to Wrocław (about 3 1/2 hours northeast of Krakow), where we are spending the week. We had a nice dinner, a quick team meeting, and off to bed to get ready for our first day of work tomorrow!

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