Yes it is wet and a cool 11degrees. However, it it the last day and I can not
let weather conditions deter me. As usual I wandered along the streets and took
photos as I went. Mostly shots including people with umbrellas.
Today the first aim was to inspect the old Town Hall. This goes back to the 13th
century and is considered to be the city's defining structure. I paid my entry
fee and a photography fee. Wow they wanted three times the still photo fee to
take films. I decided to use stills although in the end I did slip in half a
dozen video shots. It is an interesting building. The rooms all have a system
of stone arches curving up from the sides and meeting in the centre of the
ceiling. Usually where they met there is a carved stone shield or face or
animal. In some rooms there is also a supporting centre column. While the
original ceiling was wooden, at some time in the building's early history the
ceilings were sort of plastered over. In the great hall there was a art display
of modern water colour paintings. A sound system was quietly playing Chopin
piano music which I thought fitted in very well. Most doorways between rooms
were decorative – both the door itself and the surround frame.
Every room had at least one woman on guard duty.
One room retained much or all of its original wooden walls. They were made from
patterned panels and looked quite attractive. There were some wooden cupboards
floor to ceiling and a couple window seats. It certainly gave a good idea of
what rooms would have been like in the 13th century onwards. Of course this was
for the more wealthy, the city rulers and judges especially. One room, not
overly large, had been a courtroom with a raised platform at one end for the
justices to sit on.
One room contained cabinets of typical silver household objects such as mugs,
candle sticks and small bowls and containers. Some looked quite modern even
though the could be over 300 years old.
I took my time and lots of photos as it was something to do to stay out of the
rain. I did discover a side room or gallery which was actually a glass roofed
space between the buildings. Here there was an exhibition of recent etchings.
Interesting but not something I got excited about.
After the Town Hall, which outside has a decorative clock, I went to heaven.
Well to Coffee Heaven actually. It is a chain of coffee shops in Poland and was
my first visit although I had certainly seen them before. You had the choice of
two blends for them to grind for your coffee. Pleasant and nice to rest my feet
for a while.
Then it was off on a walk across town to a park. I wanted to see the memorial to
the Victims of the Katyn Massacre. This was when 22,000 Poles, mostly army and
POWs were mass murdered on Stalin's orders in 1940.
There is a big Angel of Death hovering over it and a woman nursing the head of a
shot soldier. You can see the bullet hole in the back of his head. Apparently
she represents the Nation's Mothers. There was a fresh wreath resting on the
memorial.
Nearby is a famous panorama of a battle several centuries back when a Polish
Army defeated a Russian Army. There were long queues to get in for the next
half hour tour and lots of school groups, which one guide book warns against
being in the tour with. So I went across the road to the National Museum –
more school groups but there was more space to fit them in. The guidebooks
suggest the main part to see is the 20th century Polish Art display but when I
got to the second floor to do that it was temporary closed. So I went into a
couple of short term exhibitions. One dealt with the history of some local
drama group which I would assume specialised in theater of the absurd and way
out productions. Each key stage in their history was matched by a sculptural
display to recreate the stage effect.
Then there was a small exhibition by some photographer who specialised in taking
a series of photos of the same subject over several minutes and then printing
them all on top of each other, creating a rather blurry effect. I can see how
this could work with moving subjects but stationery objects I think were take
at different zoom settings.
Time to leave as it was closing time. I did have a quick wizz around a small
collection of s cultural objects from old churches.
I decided to hunt out a milk bar. These are remnants from the Communist period
in Eastern Europe. They were set up as a sort of glamorous attraction for the
population and specialised in products derived from milk. Most have long gone
but a couple still remain in Wroclaw. I found it quite easily and as it was
about 4:30pm, they had begun serving fuller evening meals. I joined the queue
and tried to work out what I would have from the extensive but cheap, menu on
the wall. In the end I pointed to the thick slices of roast port, mashed potato
and a little breaded roll which I found had a finely minced white meat (pork)
inside. This was all covered in a ladle of gravy and with a glass of orange
came to 9.95 which would be less than NZ$5 for a filling meal. I had expected
workers or labourers to be the main customers but in fact it seemed to be a
cross section of the population. Students to professionals. I think I was the
only tourist there though.
Next to the University area again to hunt out a statue and the proper University
church. I went to the wrong one a couple of days ago. So I found the church and
went in. Wow! Was this a heavily decorated Baroque church. Nothing like it in
Wroclaw that I had found previously. Lots of marble columns and figures of
angles and Christ and Mary especial in the side rooms. The ceiling was covered
in paintings. Impressive. On the outside of the church I am convinced that I
spotted groups of bullet holes in the stonework. There was certainly lots of
fighting in the city during the last days of World War Two.
Then round the corner was the simple stature of the Male Fencer with sword and
nothing else. He was completely nude. He was the top of a fountain, the dish or
tub of which was held on the shoulders of a couple crouching women, also nude.
Ugly heads spaced around the dish spat out a steady stream of water.
As the dull skies looked like more rain and as it was getting cold, I made my
way back around the streets to the hostel. I paused in one side street to watch
a film lighting crew. They had spots and floodlights aimed at reflectors and
diffusing screens to provide light through the windows of a building. I assume
a film shot was underway inside. They had their own generator and a very quiet
one too. Plus a couple of large buses. One was converted to be a catering
kitchen and the other could have been costumes and or make up.
Back to a quiet and peaceful hostel. The school groups didn't get back for
another couple of hours.
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