Day 31 - Krakow, Poland - The City of Pope John Paul II

Joan's View

It was an early start to a full day. We boarded the train to Warsaw at the train station after Tony, Bud & Theresa picked up some McDonald's food there. It was probably the nicest train that I have ridden (the bullet train in China was the fastest though).

Our guide, Alex, toured us around some key locations in Krakow. The first was St. Florian's church. St. Florian was a Roman legion officer and is the patron saint of Krakow and firefighters. A portrait of a young Pope John Paul II was there because he served as a vicar there.

As we were walking to our next stop, the Polish army was serving traditional army food and sharing the civilians. We got some free soup typical of what the soldier's eat. It was really quite tasty.

The soup trailer

Free Polish army soup

Next, we stopped at the courtyard next to St. Mary's basilica to see the trumpeter come out at 1:00. His trumpet call is always cut short to commemorate his death when he was shot in the neck with an arrow alerting the townspeople to approaching warring people. He always waves when he is down.

the trumpeter

the wave

Inside St. Mary's basilica a huge gold wall.

We then went to view the magical musical clock at the former building of Krakow University once attended by Pope John Paul II.

Following the Pope John Paul II trail, we stopped outside of the window of the building where he would talk to people when he was bishop of Krakow. The one window is covered in his image. Our guide was present many times when bishop Karol Wojtyla was talking to people.

One of the churches on our stops was celebrating a wedding between a Catholic and Jewish couple. We stayed to watch for a little from the back.

Many other stops and many other churches. These are a few more places where John Paul II lived. 

More reconstruction

We visited the old Jewish section of Krakow that was formerly on the other side of the river to see the few synagogues that are left here. It was getting late and on our walk back we stopped at another Polish restaurant. Theresa had a pigeon sit near her on the floor the entire time we were there.

Finally, we headed back to our Airbnb through market square. We caught sites of a King and Queen parade that was happening soon in the streets.

Day 30 - Warsaw, Poland - Bud Returning to his Grandparents Homeland

Joan's View

Bud has grandparents that lived just outside of Warsaw so for him it was a special tour. Our day started with a Bolt ride to the airport for our flight to Warsaw.  We waited a tad at the Warsaw airport for our guide, Sebastian, to pick us up. He picked us up at 12:26pm and dropped us off at our place for the night at 8:30. We are all tired.

Warsaw was about 80 percent destroyed by the Germans in World War II. There was so much rubble that it was piled into mounds around the city. Those mounds were turned into parks.

The top of the Mount of the Warsaw Uprising

The base of the Warsaw Uprising Mount

In the nearby park to that mount, there is a musical bench that plays an excerpt from a Chopin piece when you press a button on the bench. Chopin was born and grew up in Warsaw. He left Warsaw for Paris when he was 21 to escape war in Warsaw. He was never allowed to return to Warsaw. He is buried in Paris, but his heart was in Warsaw. After he died, his sister smuggled his heart under a large dress back into Warsaw.

The king's palace modeled after Versailles.

Lunch, which was more like dinner for us, was at a Polish restaurant. Lots of pirogies at the table.

Traditional Polish artwork

Traditional Polish artwork

Thanks Bud for these pictures!

After eating, Tony got a "Drunk Cherry" drink from the Ukrainian bar next to the restaurant. 

The drunk cherries are added to the liqueur. 

From there we went to the tomb of the unknown soldier and watched the changing of the guards. The tomb rests under a small section of what is left of large building of what was once Saxon Palace. 

The captain escorting the next guards

The large square called Victory Square next to it was where Pope John Paul II held mass for about a million people when he came to Poland as his first papal visit. It was a pivotal point that helped pave the way for the fall of communism. The large cross marks the spot of the altar where Pope John Paul II said mass.

We passed some vintage "cucumbers" taking people around the city. These are old buses were made in Poland during the communist control. Sebastian said that they are loud and hard to drive, but they sure look fun.

I forgot the name of this church but loved the choir loft.

We also made a quick stop for some traditional Polish pastry.

At another square, traditional says that if you walk around touching the bell 3 times, your dreams will come true. Somebody had to do it.

Mermaids are the symbol of Warsaw. This mermaid is a sister to the one in Copenhagen.

Marie Curie's childhood home.

Support for Ukraine is widespread here.

Day 29 - Vilnius, Lithuania- Waving Goodbye to Vilnius via the Portal

Joan's View

We ventured to a new bakery today, Crustum. The DeLands got some quiche pastries along with everyone's sweet pastries.

From there we walked to the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights. It was the former building of the KGB. We learned about the Soviet occupation of Lithuania and the methods used by the Soviets to try to control the Lithuanian people.

The numbers tell the story

Bud & Tony doing their time

Bullet holes in the wall of the execution chamber

Our first church for the day was St Philip and St Jacob Church. There was a large portrait of Bishop Teofilius Matulionis on a side altar depicting his time in a Soviet gulag spent there because of his faith.

Bishop Matulionis 

Another beautiful pulpit

Listening to the 1:00 carillon of bells

From there we did our next stop on the Catholic World tour at St. Francis of Assisi Church. This modern sculpture of St. Francis stood out in that older gothic church.

In between planned sightseeing, the DeLands also got their first Lidl experience when we walked by one. We are now stocked for tomorrow's breakfast. 😃

We next made a stop in a square that we pass often to do some greeting to another city. It has a "portal" where the screen is shared between different countries. The city that you interact with changes after several minutes. I taught the DeLands how to do the "Peterson Wave."

Waving at some city in the US

We proceeded to the next church, St. Therese. It had a beautiful Madonna.

Our last stop was the Gates of Dawn. It is considered the holiest place in Vilnius. It is really one of the old gates to the city and has been there since the 1700s. Many miracles are attributed to this shrine. Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis have also visited this site.

The shrine inside the gate

Dinner tonight was at Socialinis Restauranas where they focus on social integration. They aim to keep it simple for the servers, so one person fills out an order form for your meal. Their potato pancakes were very unique.

A few other noteworthy photos:

The wording displayed on most buses sends a clear message.

One of Nick Balog's friends is in Vilnius!

 

Theresa's Extras

Ditto

Day 28 - Vilnius, Lithuania - A Tour with Ignes

Joan's View

Bud guided us to our Bolt pickup place on the rear of the building. We waited a tad in the chilly morning air until the driver pulled up a little late. He drove us to the house where Saint Faustina lived while in Lithuania. There we met Ignes, our guide for the day. Saint Faustina had a majority of her visions in this house and received the message to paint the Divine Mercy painting there. The relics in the picture are St. Faustina's and Father Sopoćko's.

 The next stop was the Church of Saint Peter and Paul. The ornate ship hanging over the aisle was so unique.

Beautifully baroque

Saint Peter was a fisherman

The next stop was the Vilnius Cathedral with its impressive columns.

Inside the cathedral is the chapel of St. Casimire. The story of the three handed painting is that the artist painted two hands of St. Casimire and decided to change a hand, but every time he painted over a hand to change it, that original hand came back. Thus, St. Casimire has 3 hands.

Three handed St. Casimire

The highlight for the day was mass at the Shrine of Divine Mercy. We were invited to join the group from University Heights yesterday, so we asked our guide, Ignes, to change our schedule to allow us to go to their mass. The other Ohioans got there a little late, but the mass was beautiful. Father Lukas had a moving homily and spoke it in two languages so that his Lithuanian family, that surprised him to be there, could also hear it. He got a little emotional because the Shrine was also where he held his first mass. Ignes even knew Father Lukas and served the mass. We got more pictures after mass.

From there we went to the Sisters of Divine Mercy house. This is the room where the Divine Mercy painting was actually painted. 

It was past 3:00 so Ignes took us to a Lithuanian restaurant/bar for a late lunch.

With our tummies full, we did a few more stops before we said goodbye to Ignes. He is going back to his country home to work on his dissertation.

Artwork in the stream

St. Anne's church

A few more fun sightings along our tour:

Another friendly Lithuanian

More thoughts about Putin

Theresa's Extras

Beautiful day we had so many blessings. Our tour guide was wonderful and very informative.  The mass at the Chapel of Divine Mercy was so spiritual and moving. The churches and cathedral were all unique in their architectural design and art. amazing talent!  Bud and my highlight of the day was Joan's evening dessert. She experienced a delicious apple pie from a complete stranger when she stopped to comment on how good it looked. The kindness of strangers never fails to amaze me as he shared his pie with her.