17/09/2026
Day 28. Sep 17. Krakow/Wroclaw.
We arrived in Wroclaw about noon. 275 km drive. Heavy rain early morning but clear and top of 20 all the rest of the day.
One day is enough in Wroclaw, although the few things to see are spectacular. The huge main town square with its wonderful Old Townhall, and equally wonderful New Townhall, were great. The main Wrowclaw Cathedral, and several of the other religious buildings on “Catholic Island”, and the River Ober, were wonderful too.
Probably the outstanding highlight though is a panoramic painting 15 m high and 120 m long that is set up in a circular pavilion, so you see the painting all the way around you on the wall. It’s lit in such a fashion that it looks to be three-dimensional. It depicts a battle in 1794 of an uprising by the Polish peasants and army against the Russian occupying forces. Interestingly, the leader of the Polish forces was General Kosciusko, of Mount Kosciusko fame. The Poles won that battle but they eventually lost the overall war.
And an equal highlight has to be “The Lamplighter” (in the photos and videos). Wroclaw is one of only two European cities that still have gas street lamps that have to be lit each night and extinguished each morning. This has been going on since 1846. That's 180 years! There are either 102 or 103 lamps to be lit. Amazingly, Google didn't know which. WTF Google! You only have to count them. I suggested to Melinda that I might follow the lamplighter and count them for myself. It takes over an hour. Seeing it was 6.45 pm she suggested the result would be divorce. I decided against it. And she is still carrying the rolling pin in her backpack. So there you have it. It's either 102 or 103. You'll have to settle for that. And nerds like me will have to live with it, although it's very tough.
Random stuff
I did forget to mention a great highlight from yesterday. The Lord’s Ark Church in Nowa Huta. Built in 1977, largely driven by JP2 when he was still the archbishop of Krakow, before he became the pope. It was still communist days and the communists refused to put any money towards it. (It was before Putin and Trump realised that “religion is the o***m of the people” as Karl Marx famously said.) So the people built it entirely themselves, with donated materials and labour. It’s a really extraordinary Church. If you didn’t look at the pictures yesterday, you should go back and have a look. It’s a beautiful piece of modern architecture. Not like a church at all. (I can feel the hopes of our dear religious friend Gillian rising again. Forget it, Gillian. I’ve told you before, probably in one of my previous blogs as well, but it’s worth repeating, I never had an imaginary friend as a kid and I’m sure as hell not gonna start as an adult. But I can admire the architecture).
We struggled with the GPS to get out of the old town of Krakow this morning. After going around for about 10 minutes, imagine my feeling of hopelessness when I came past the front door of our hotel, again!
Today I heard one American guy say to his mate “Where is she?” He answered “She’s over there giving the $20 bill I gave her to some homeless man”. I thought to myself “Come off it mate. It would be a 20 zloty note. That’s a few bucks”. But it doesn’t sound as generous. I don’t think the homeless man would have any idea what to do with a US $20 bill.
As a matter of interest, ci******es here are about 8 to 9 dollars Australian per pack of 20. That’s about 1/10 the price they are in Australia. No wonder so many people smoke.
And purely on another matter of interest, there is an amazing scheme in Poland where the government pays every child, until the age of 18, 800 zlotys per month. No strings attached. No means test. Every child. That's nearly 300 Australian dollars per month until they are 18 years old. And in terms of real buying power, in the Polish economy, that is the equivalent of over $A500 per month per child, for 18 years. If the parents invested this money wisely, every kid at 18 years old would have the equivalent of over 300,000 Australian dollars and could probably buy a house. Extraordinary.
Getting out of an underground park car park in Poland is more difficult than you think. We were on level minus three, so we figured to drive up to the highest level, which was level one, and there would be an exit. On level one I did happen to find the machine to pay for my ticket at least. So after multiple attempts with a couple of credit cards and my phone, I finally got the machine to accept my payment. I thought the frustration was over. I thought it would be simple to find the exit. I'm sure in outer Mongolia, in underground car parks they write the word “Exit” in English somewhere in the car park, but not in Poland. So we drove around level one again and could only find ramps going down. I did find a Polish word “Wycieczka” on the wall with an arrow. Google translated it to “Trip”. I figured that it was either an exit or an invitation to do some magic mushrooms but I thought “What the heck? We either die in here high as a kite or we get out”. We took the risk and escaped.
I battled gastro all day today😩. Stopping for a late lunch, the blaring music in the restaurant, playing Crowded House, was enough to upset my stomach again. I thought I would go and sit on the loo for a bit of peace but, much to my chagrin, I found that the cubicle had a loudspeaker right over my head and one of those bloody Finn brothers was still giving me grief. At least it helped with the job I had to do. Luckily the awful dross was cleared from my head by a great Nirvana song straight after, “Heart Shaped Box”. Sheer relief on two counts.
On to Warsaw tomorrow. Two nights. Today’s clips and videos are at;
https://photos.app.goo.gl/quthLiYayrZdtR1r7
Csy ktos to przettumaczyt.
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