The Final Catsup
Another disclosure--this is being done on November 1. There's a lot to cover but like the earlier catch-up, I will make each day a separate post instead of a very long one.
Our first full day in Wrocław we walked across the street to the monastery we could see form our hotel room--the Church and Monastery of St. Adalbert. It's a huge medieval church and I was eager to see inside since we didn't get to it the evening before.
The entrance and tower. The link above has better photos.
The Altar
The alabaster casket of St. Ceslaus, the patron saint of Wrocław.
Next was a tram ride to Cathedral Island. It's the oldest part of town and since the Oder River has shifted over time, part of it is no longer an island.
Closeup of the altar and stained glass window in the Church of St. Mary on the Sand. It's called that because it's on Sand Island.
Riverside View
The bridge in the picture above is the Trumski Bridge, which had been loaded with love locks. For those who don't know, these are padlocks with lovers' names put on bridges, fences, or other public locations. While the sentiment is fine, hundreds of them can add a lot of weight to a structure and are periodically removed. We saw the gnome below right at the edge of the bridge.
Love lock gnome
Right on the border of the cathedral area is the Market Hall. We had to get to a walking tour later, so we unfortunately could not stay long. It was built between 1905-1908 and was one of the first buildings to use reinforced concrete as part of the construction.
The outside view
Inside the hall
We headed back to the Old Town Square after this and had a quick lunch before our walking tour. This was a free one I signed up for while we were still in Kraków, called Gnomes and Communist Poland walk. You can see how I was hooked.
You've seen the gnomes (or dwarves) earlier, but I don't think I explained why they are here. There is no exact count--I've heard somewhere between 600 and 3,000--but there are many commercial ones and there is no "official" count. The first one (which you'll see later) was installed in 2005 to honor those who resisted the Communist regime. The protesters often dressed up as gnomes to increase publicity and news coverage of what they were doing.
This one is near to my heart.
Working at the computer.
Pierogi gnome
Statue of Liberty
The first gnome. I'll admit they've improved a bit.
The tour we used was named Walkative and our guide was terrific. The company has tours all over Europe and it was easy to schedule. I said it was free, but there is a time to tip at the end. I really learned a lot about Poland and Wrocław, so we tipped pretty well.
Lastly, a couple of pics from the Old Town (again):
This building caught my eye.
Again, this was a busy day where we did a lot of walking--according to my iPhone, 5.95 miles. So after this we went back to the hotel and had dinner and some souvenir shopping at the mall next to our hotel, the Galeria Dominikańska. Then it was packing up for the trip to our last city, Łódź.
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