Touring Wroclaw with a tour guide!

Touring Poland is pretty cool... I have to admit. But visiting its breath taking beauty, drooling over its lush landscape and flirting with its tasty foods don't make you a pro on Poland. There is a history seeded deep here... it is a treat to learn of its richness. We read things here and there... and typically try to get some info before we skip off to a new place, but we've never known how to get a tour guide. Well, Andrzej knows people... he has friends with friends that have friends... and so it is that he made a few phone calls and next thing you know we had an English speaking tour guide who wore us out in Wroclaw! It was AWESOME!!! to have little trivial facts as well as those with historical significance. Agnieska is her name. She brought her daughter Agata. They were delightful to be with... We are loving our new friends!

They took us on a walking tour of the rynek and then to a great Polish restaraunt for lunch!



This is an old opera house!
It is still is use today. Wroclaw is the cultural head quarters for Poland! I think we've run in to several Opera houses... but we typically don't know what they are and we certainly didn't understand their significance until we did a little research... The Mecham's aren't huge fans of Opera... even though we love musicals... we don't care so much for the drama in the opera... or the high voices.



This hotel is right across from the opera house. During the time when Adolf Hitler would come to Poland he had two favorite places to stay: (1) Krakow (2) Wroclaw. Now I am Hitler's least favorite fan... I assure you... but I love trivia... so here it is: This hotel was where Hitler stayed while in Wroclaw. And it stands pretty today! I understand it is ridiculously expensive to stay in... even in U.S. dollars.


We started noticing little gnomes all over. Agnieska made up a game. She explained that there were dozens of these gnomes all over the rynek. They are symbolic of an anti-communist movement from years past. The Polish citizens were not allowed to assault the Russian Police, obviously, or even be rude to them. However, they could give them flowers or something like that and they did it in a mocking way. This kept them from trouble. The gnomes are representative of this movement. The game was to see who could find the most gnomes in the rynek. We hunted nomes until long past sun set... what fun!



Nate with the professor gnome outside the University



McKay with the worker gnome



Cole with the sleepy gnome... he was very sleepy from walking all day and found it most appropriate to be photographed with this one! Cole also bought a gnome hunting map... we found almost 70 gnomes! There were still more to be hunted!



Bailey with the Piarogi gnome outside a restaraunt. This was her favorite... a gnome to represent Wroclaw and a piarodgi (polish dumplings) to represent Poland.



It sure made souveneir shopping a breeze... anything gnome. :)

The rynek is the town center. Each town has a center where you can find not only housing, but also a church, stores of every kind, a pharmacy and entertainment. In my humble opinion, Wroclaw has the best rynek so far... and I thought nothing could beat G'dansk! The German influence here is quite obvious.

Most of the pics I have in the rynek were of Bailey for two reasons: (1) she looks good. (2) The rest of the fam was far ahead while she and I were relishing every step of the way!



The rynek in Wroclaw is HUGE and the buildings are painted so beatifully! Appearantly, when the country was divided up Wroclaw became a part of Poland while the Ukraine was it's own country... and so all the Poll's who lived in the Ukraine were transported to Wroclaw and given an ugly old flat in the rynek. Today those same flats sell for top dollar and are definately not ugly. I guess there is silver lining in everything after all!



The rynek in Wroclaw is quite big compared to many of the other town centers that we have seen. This part is the "little rynek" which is a side of the rynek. And the colors and attention to detail is exquisit!


Bailey in artistic alley.


Bailey and McKay in the main part of the rynek.


Cole in rynek (old town)


This old cellar is in operation today and has been open since the 15th century! It was once a place mostly for people to come and drink Polish Vodka (the strong stuff!) but has been turned in to a restaraunt today.

The ornimentation on the side of the building was fabulous!


I don't know if I can ever love the southwest adobe homes again! This architecture has truely spoiled us!


This was my favorite building in the whole town square! It is nik-named "Hansel and Grettel." What could be cuter than that? The arch way leads to the cathedral.

Isn't that just story bookish?
Wroclaw will be continued...

On a seperate note:
It is getting dark early.

The moon out my kitchen window at 4:15 p.m. on 11 11 11...

Happy Veteran's Day to America!
Happy Independance day to Poland!