Poznan and Wroclaw, Poland

Poor Poznan.  It got to be a stopover city for us, chosen to break up a long train ride from Gdansk down to Wroclaw.  And we were tired, and it was rainy.  So I fear that Poznan was given rather the short shrift by us.  Upon arrival we checked into our hostel, where we miraculously had a room to ourselves.  We wandered the lovely old town and out to a monument (again, towering crosses) to the victims of various uprisings against the Soviets.  Later, we enjoyed a simple dinner of delicious soup in the old market square and a home-brewed beer at the Proletaryt Cafe, decorated with old Soviet kitsch, before heading off to an early bedtime.

We had grand plans to wake early the next morning and troupe several kilometers out of the center to a cathedral on an island.  Instead we slept, ate a leisurely breakfast, and enjoyed a left-behind magazine in the sun-drenched common room.  It was a good choice.  After this we visited the main square one last time for the daily goat display.  The church in the town hall has tiny mechanical goats that come out every day at noon and butt heads a dozen times, in memory of a local legend where two goats escaped from the nearby royal kitchens and fought each other near the town hall tower.  It was very cute.  There were also some fellows on horseback, bugling and chanting, so in all it was a very festive noon time.  Then it was off to the train station again and on to Wroclaw.

We arrived in the evening and danced our little hearts out at a retro party, enjoying watching the other dancers and their ridiculousness at least as much as the music and dancing ourselves!  It was a rather late night, but a lot of fun.  The city is lovely at night, all lit up.

Today we wandered the city, admiring the old town square (the second biggest in Poland).  The city has many small rivers and canals running through it and thus has dozens and dozens of little bridges to stroll across.  It's also a very green city, full of small and large parks.  We visited a cathedral and took an actual elevator up the tower to admire the view over the city.  We visited another church, and saw maybe the most bizarre thing I've ever seen.  There is a small chapel off to the side of this magestic church dedicated to the blind, deaf, and dumb.  Inside this chapel are thousands of small toys, all set up to dance, sing, and spin when you drop a coin in the collection box.  It was like the Christmas house in Scranton, only... inside a giant, old church.

Wroclaw is an impossibly charming city.  Almost every building has some unique ornamentation on it.  The bridges lead from one charming road to a magnificent church to a peaceful island and back again.  The city is also covered in small brass garden knomes, hiding in corners, hanging from lamp posts, peeking out of gutters.  It was a lot of fun to try to find them, and always funny to see what they would be doing.  Some rode pigeons, others ate pierogies... I loved it.