POLAND - 2018

---

Today we met Mathias at 10 am for a walking tour of Wroclaw. We started by taking a walk through the “Shambles” a covered beautiful walkway that used to house all the butchers. Now there are art galleries along the way. We then caught a taxi cab to the cathedral island. This is dominated by several churches the most prominent being the Cathedral of St John the Baptist. The main cathedral was levelly bombed in WWII so it was reconstructed and furnished with parts from other churches. fFor instance the choir stalls which are beautiful, came from another cathedral. There were two parts that were not damaged during the war. The first was the Chapel of St. Elizabeth which was beautiful. The second was a chapel built by Jacomo sciaonzi, a very wealthy noble. this was quite heavy looking.

After leaving the cathedral we walked across sand island to the mainland. The Oder river forms 12 islands in this area. We walked then to the marketplace which now houses mainly florists. We stopped for a coffee and a doughnut. Rested our feet and continued on our way. We continued on into the University grounds. As we walked toward the University there were bronze plaques in the sidewalk commemorating important events in the history of Wroclaw. The University o Cracow is one of the oldest universities in Poland. We went into a beautiful Jesuit cathedral, the Church of Jesus Christ. This was a richly adorned church that emphasized the contrast between light and darkness. This was allegorical or the Christians that had left the catholic church and joined Lutheran churches. It was an attempt to win them back to catholicism by demonstrating the beauty of the catholic worshipping places as well as showing them that although they had been in the dark, by coming back to catholicism they could once again be in the light of Jesus.

From here we waked to the main entrance of the university and saw the magnificent assembly hall. This is where all honorary degrees are conferred as well as graduate degrees. It is a beautiful hall that is richly decorated. From here we walked to the main square of Wroclaw. It is almost as large as that of Cracow. We saw the old buildings and then the new building built in the old style. The old town Hall is there which is a beautiful example of high renaissance architecture.. By now we were hungry and our feet needed a rest so we stopped for lunch and then walked back to our hotel. Dennis has done remarkably well with his walking Today we walked 2.92 miles. By the time we walk to dinner, it will be a 3 mile day! Tomorrow we take the train to Warsaw.

---