July 28
Today we drove from Czech to Poland. It was a long drive. Our GPS took us on a crazy back-country route through farm fields and little tiny towns – I think it would have looked the same here hundreds of years ago.
We finally made it to the campsite in Wrocław – my mom said it was in a little bit of a sketchy area – but there was a big gate and inside the campground was beautiful!
There was a playcentre , a relaxing area with hammocks and picnic tables under the trees. It turned out that it was really nice. We were pretty tired so we just relaxed for the afternoon and then we went to bed.
July 29
Today we got up and took the tram into the city centre.
We went Gnome hunting in the town of Wrocław! Wrocław is actually pronounced Vraslav. I find it really hard to pronounce any of the Polish words. Wrocław is famous for its gnomes – they are everywhere.
Apparently, there are over 400 gnomes hidden around the town. We found 45 gnomes. All the gnomes were doing something different. Gnomes were baking, skateboarding, eating ice cream, robbing an ATM and even in prison. Each one was doing something near to where we found it.
It was the most fun ever. We literally ran all over the city and my mom took pictures of every one we found!
We also visited the Church of St. Mary Magdeline. It is one of the tallest churches in Wrocław. It was very badly destroyed during the war – you can see that it had two huge bell towers in the original image – then you can see the photo from after the war. If you look closely at the old picture you can see the bridge that connects the two towers.
Today the church is slowly being fixed – but most of the decorations were destroyed and lost.
We were able to walk up the tower to the bridge that connects the two towers. It was so high! We learned the story of the girl who was banished to live on the bridge – it was a really sad story.
Inside the church were reminders of the people who had lived in the area of Wrocław, we saw burials of young children from the early 1600’s. It was sad to see the young people that had died.
My mom found pictures that were posted throughout the city of what it looked like in 1945 after “Kristallnacht” and we were able to match up the buildings that remain and see the rebuilding. It was amazing to see. I was so sad to see how much of the beautiful city had been destroyed.
After that awesome morning, we had a big lunch in the city centre then we headed back on the tram to our campsite.
Wrocław is a really beautiful city, and it was quiet and peaceful – some of the other cities we have been in were so busy with tourists that we couldn’t even move – Not Wrocław. It was a really great city!
Poland is an awesome country to visit!!
Tia and Mari
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