EXPLORING WROCLAW

Tuesday 11^th May

Visiting the local market. What on earth are the bundles of white objects/vegetables on sale here?

As you can see I visited the local enclosed market. It is a daily activity with vegetables, meats and poultry, mostly fresh. Also a range of processed saussages, hams and salami.

There were several bakers, grocery supplies such as teas and coffees, and lots of flowers. Upstairs were a mixture of stalls such as toys and dog food, clothing and household fittings and decorations. All very interesting to wander around.

As you can see it could be quite easy to get a bit lost wandering around the stalls. Prices were pretty close between the various stalls and they mostly had the same or very close range of items.

In one corner was a small be very busy food stall which I guess we could call a cafe but which they called a bar. However the only drinks they seemed to have were glasses of milk and orange. Separate glasses, not mixed. I decided to have lunch here and had 8 dumplings – four had a cheese filling and the rest had something like spinnich. As well I had some potatoe pancakes all for NZ$3.75. A very filling lunch.

The market building is a red brick construction with a glass roof. It has a sort of tower as well. The guide books suggest it as a tourist visi ting spot but I may have been the only one there today. The books suggest getting supplies for a picnic beside the river, which is just across the road – a busy road. Personally I would cross the bridge and find a more park like setting around the churches which are there. 

This is the view you would get for your picnic. The twin spires of the cathedral dominate the skyline and can be seen from many parts of the city.

 Crossing the iron bridge you can look down river and see locks for launches and barges I expect, to pass through.

The bridge takes you across on one of several islands in the river. They seem to be largely filled with churches and the associated seminary and living quarters as well as lots of church offices. Around one corner was a large convent with an enclosed bridge crossing above the road at first or second floor level. This gave a private access between the two large buildings on either side of the road. At one door, I notices a line of, I assumed, homeless men queing up, some with bowls in hand, to get a charity meal. I had passed a fence a hundred meters back which had a few sheets of iron up against one side and a scattering or clothing and bags around it. Also the various obvious smell of human excrecia. It pongged!

I visited the catheral which had the usual items around it. Once it apparently had a great baroque organ, but this had been lost in a marjor fire during the 1970's. Now there is a big fundraising project on to get the money to rebuild it. In the photos on display, it certainly looked impressive.

In the area around the cathedral and the two ajoining churches, each large, there were lots of priests moving around busily. A TV crew were doing an interview and a couple local radio staff pulled up and went into a building. Plenty of rennovation work going on around the place as well.

Now this is interesting. I went into yet another church on the island and discovered in a side chapel this toy set up. It was a chapel for blind and deaf children and had this great display beside the altar. Mostly wooden toys and lots were moving and animated. Lots of bright church music was being played and I am quite convinced that there was the Polish version on one or two Hillsong type songs which are popular in NZ. 

There was a family in there and the little children were just so enthrawled. It was however, an odd mixture with the Pope standing on one side of Joseph's house and a bishop on the other. There were all sorts of sizes and a sense of scale didn't exist. Along the altar rail they had gued on small plastic figures. But it was fun! And so unexpected in a church!

Temperature wise a bit of a mixture. I noticed early this morning everyone had umbrellas up, So I went out in fleece jacket and raincoat. The Internet said that it was 11 degrees C. Hoever as the day wore on the raincoat came off then the thin marino layer, then the jacket and I ended the day in short sheleved shirt walking the streets. Well not quite ended and by the time I got back to the hostwl it was fleece jacket time again.

This bridge was interesting. Along the railings on both sides people had attached hundreds of padlocks. All shapes and sizes, keyed and combination. There were layers of them on the parallel railings. In some places chains had been wraped around the uprights and padlocks were attached to the various links of the chain. Unexpected and I have yet to find out the background to this. I guess it's a bit like those fences in NZ which have shoes attached – an wasn't there a fence which had bras tied onto it?