A weekend visit to Lower Silesia, including its capital Wroclaw.
Wroclaw - Tumski ostrov
The Leo Express is actually responsible for this trip. A few months ago, it opened a direct line from Prague to Wroclaw, Poland. When checking the special offers, one trip cost 4 Euro. That was an irresistible offer. We decided to cast our nets of interest and my colleagues at work Marek and Martin caught on. We arranged March 6 - 8, 2020 as the date for 2019. In between, a lot of things changed. The main one was the fact that Leo Express stopped offering direct connections in the month of March. Why that was we never found out. For this reason, we opted for a car as a means of transport. The second change was the beginning of the Coronavirus epidemic. It was just getting going in Italy and so we set out on a trip when it was still possible to travel to Italy and when the day before we left there was one confirmed case in Poland compared to our twelve. As we all know, a week later everything was different.
Day 1.
We're not guaranteed anything until the last minute. All we know is where we want to go. We will spend Saturday in Wroclaw and on Sunday we will move to the Czech border to the town of Valbřich, where we will visit the mysterious underground passages under the Ksiaž castle and also visit the German underground factory in Wlodarz. But back to the organisation. We are waiting until the last minute to see if anyone else will join us. When it is certain that we won't, I book a room at the Sudo Rooms hostel an hour before departure. As is the custom in this area. You pay in advance and I receive an email with instructions such as the room number and password to unlock the main entrance. Again without physically meeting anyone except other tourists. A brilliant solution in this day and age.
At 4 pm after work, my colleagues pick me up and we get on the road. This time we choose a longer but faster option via Liberec and Zhořelec on the motorways. The Polish motorway is free in this section. The worst part of our journey is probably the Frýdlantský výběžek section, where the road drags endlessly. After the border it is faster and we find ourselves in Zhořelec quite quickly, where we take a break to buy supplies in the local Biedrunka. In addition to food, a carton of Polish beer and a bottle of Zubrowka land in the basket as a precaution against Koronavirus. The highway from Zhořelec to Wrocław is a solid hell at this time. The right lane is full of trucks and the left lane is full of wild Poles, so it's a dodge-the-Pole-and-curse-the-trucks-style journey. At least the road is made more pleasant by a Polish radio playing Czech songs. Even one we've never heard before. We're also not too happy to hear that the first infected person who flew in from England tested positive that day in Wroclaw. On the other hand, by this time the advertising spots were already telling us what the symptoms were and what to do if necessary. I did not see anything like this here until much later. But back to the journey. We arrive in Wroclaw after eight o'clock. First we wander, because the GPS takes us to an industrial zone where our hostel was not really standing. Next was the unforgettable wait of about ten minutes at the railway crossing, with the only train crossing after those ten minutes. After half past eight, but finally we successfully arrive at our destination. We have a beer each and during the second one I successfully fall asleep in bed in front of the TV. But I didn't spill. I was only woken up by Martin, who went for a walk around the city at night. So that's how my first day in Wroclaw looked like :D.
Day 2.
All three of us retirees are up at 7 am. We have breakfast and by 8:30 am we're in front of the hostel. How unusual in the context of past trips.
Wroclaw - Our hostel building
The weather's not great today. The rain has held off, but it's drizzling at times and it's quite cold. We walk along Robotnicza Street to the city centre. The environment of this street is not great and reminds more of war movies than modern Poland.
Wrocław - Robotnicza Street
On the way we come across the former railway station Wroclaw - Swiebodzki, which in its appearance and technical condition resembles the Masaryk railway station in Prague. The only difference is that the tracks have been torn up. Today, the station building houses a model railway Kolejkowo. There is also a theatre and a hostel.
Former station building Wroclaw - Swiebodzki
We are approaching the historic centre, as evidenced by the first of the water canals that give Wroclaw its nickname, the Venice of the North. In the park on Tadek Jasinski Boulevard we come across the first Krasnale, which are bronze statues of dwarfs scattered around the city. They are depicted in a variety of positions and at a variety of activities. There are now around 380 of them in the city. If you want to find them all, they have a website with a map of their location. In addition to the dwarf, there is a nice prison building at the end of the boulevard in front of us, which looks more like a castle than a prison.
Wroclaw - Our first Krasnale
Wroclaw - Prison
Moving on. We are now heading to a small square called Plac Solny, which gently connects to the square called Rynek. The architecture here reminds me a lot of České Budějovice. How much is influenced by the fact that for a long time Wroclaw was an important, and even the second largest Czech city, is the question.
Wroclaw - National Music Forum Building
Wroclaw - Pilsen tram Škoda 19T
Wroclaw - Plac Solny
Wroclaw - Rynek
It should be noted that at this time of the year it is Saturday, it is pretty dead and most of the businesses are still closed. This was one of the reasons why we didn't get to St. Mary Magdalene Church, which is famous for its bridge between the towers and a nice view of the city. They were still closed at 9:30.
Wroclaw - Church of St. Mary Magdalene
Continuing on, we find ourselves on Wita Stwosza Street, where the smell of fresh pastries from the Georgian bakery Glodny i Zly hits our nose. Here I have a delicious Ser stuffed with chicken, which is both filling and warming.
Wroclaw - Snack in the bakery Glodny i Zly
Having had our fill, we arrive at a building called Hala Targowa, which serves, as the name suggests, as a marketplace. Inside it sells everything from vegetables, flowers, clothes to erotic paraphernalia, which is sold by a vending machine in one corner of the building. The Poles are moving with the times and here you will also find Korona for sale for a beautiful 6 Zloty.
Wroclaw - Hala Targowa
From Hala Targove we cross the bridge over the Oder to the Piasek Island and then over the Tumski Bridge to Tumski Island, which is no longer an island today because the Oder riverbed was modified as part of the city's development so that the island lost one arm. In 1315, the island was sold to the church, which is why there are many church buildings and churches here today. The two most prominent of these are the Church of the Holy Cross and the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We also went to see the Church of the Holy Cross. What struck me most was how the local church is moving with the times. For a fee you can have a candle lit here, which you think is normal everywhere, except here the candle is made of LEDs. You can't stop progress even in the spiritual world.
Wroclaw - Tumski island
Wroclaw - Tumski Bridge
Wroclaw - Tumski island
Wroclaw - Cathedral of St. John the Baptist
Wroclaw - Tumski island
We leave Tums Island by the Pokoju Bridge and walk along the Oder riverbank to another dominant feature of the city, the Grundwaldz Bridge.
Wroclaw - Tumski island
Wroclaw - Grundwald Bridge
We cross it and go to the tram stop. We buy a day ticket for 11 Zloty at the machine and take the tram to Hala Stulecia station. We are interested in the building of the same name, which was built in 1913 to commemorate the centenary of the victory over Napoleon at Leipzig, but above all, this building has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2006. In the meantime, we thought we would warm up in the tram, but it was slowly getting colder in the old vehicle than it was outside.
Wroclaw - Hala Stulecia
In the area of the building that now serves as an exhibition centre there is also the Vratislav Fountain, which should be playing, but at this time of year it was still winterized.
Wroclaw - Fountain of Wrocław
Wroclaw - Hala Stulecia
This exhausted our list of sights we wanted to see and moved on to the tasting list. In other words, everything we now want to taste. Hubsi's Streetfood Blog served as our inspiration. It may have been twelve o'clock, but we started with the breakfast paragraph, namely Cafe Znasz Ich and their renowned stuffed and baked Rogal (a sweeter and larger version of our croissant). Unfortunately, it was so nice and warm in there that we stayed sour until four.
Wroclaw - Corona is just everywhere
Wroclaw - Caffe Znasz Ich
Wroclaw - Baked Rogal
That said, as quickly as our gastrotour started, it also ended quickly :D. All we could do was to go shopping at the supermarket and relax with a beer and Zubrowka in our room. But that's not how desperately the night ended. At ten o'clock we decided to go for a beer. I personally didn't feel like it anymore, but I let myself be talked into it. We took a bus to the city centre and took the nearest possible route to the Rynek. It looked like Wenceslas Square in Prague in the evening. Full of people, noise and guys luring us to local brothels. We reached the end of the main street and wondered where we would fit in. In the end, instead of beer, we ended up having a brew at a place called Pjana Višnja (drunken cherry according to the English translation). The range of this Ukrainian place is just sour cherry wine and a vodka made from it. One cup of mulled wine for about 100 CZK. Then the suggestion was made to go to a disco. We were assured that there is no entrance fee in HAH club. What an unpleasant surprise awaited us when it turned out that the entrance fee was 20 Zloty. The icing on the cake was the observation that there were too many men dancing with men :D. In the morning we read on the reviews that it was a gay club. However, I lasted about half an hour, then I decided that I was too old for this. I let the guys keep having fun and went to sleep at the hostel. The rest of the crew didn't arrive until 5am.
Day 3.
Although not everyone wanted to, we got up at eight in order to leave the hostel at ten. As the more respectable one who went to bed first, I was the only one able to drive, so I was given the keys and was responsible for transport. On the way, we popped into a Georgian bakery for some more Ser and then followed the road on Route 35 to Valbrich. The destination was Ksiaz Castle. We left the car in the car park for 10 zloty and then walked straight through the castle park to the ticket office. Admission quite expensive at 29 Zloty to enter the castle and another 29 Zloty for the underground. Even though Martin wanted to go into the castle as well, we figured it wouldn't work out time wise with Wlodarzi. For this reason, we only went to the underground, with the tour not starting until 1 o'clock. We spent the time until then exploring the area around the castle.
Ksiaz Castle
Ksiaz Castle - Castle gardens
In 1942 it was decided that the Ministry of the Interior would be moved from Berlin to the castle due to the Allied bombing and that Hitler's headquarters would also be located there. For this purpose, a network of underground tunnels was built here by the prisoners of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp. Before the arrival of the Red Army, some of the tunnels and entrances were deliberately filled in. There is even speculation that the legendary Golden Train, sent from Wroclaw full of gold, diamonds and art objects stolen from the East during the war, was hidden here. The train was supposed to be heading through Czechoslovakia to Germany. However, in Valbrich, it allegedly turned off into one of the underground tunnels of the so-called Riese project. Its existence and possible location are still disputed and conspiracy theories are still held today.
After the underground tour, which lasted about an hour and was more about the audio visual presentations in different parts of the tunnels rather than the underground tour, we returned to the car with a detour for a panoramic view of the castle.
Ksiaz Castle
We get into the car and drive towards the village of Jugowice and the top of the Wlodarz (Wolfsberg) mountain, where the remains of the former German complex of the same name are located. The Wlodarz complex was part of a project to build underground factories called Riese (pic). This complex is the largest of the whole project. The length of the tunnels is said to be up to 4 km, much of which is flooded. Approximately 1.5 km of tunnels are accessible to visitors, some of which are accessible by boat. The complex was minted in the shape of a chocolate bar and was two-storey high. Once these injection tunnels were completed, the main squares were to be picked out, creating huge halls that would be virtually indestructible. Before the end of the war, all entrances to the complexes were carefully camouflaged, and it has been theorized that construction was to continue after the war. Unfortunately, it was not envisaged that the area would newly fall to Poland.
We arrive at the site and we have one problem. We don't have cash and unfortunately for us, they don't take cards. Then someone thinks of trying to pay with Czech money. The lady at the counter doesn't want to do that, but offers to take Euros. Luckily Martin had some on him, so we were lucky to get our tickets. The tour lasted about an hour, we were shown an instructional video and were guided through the corridors including a cruise through the flooded sections. It's definitely a good idea to wear appropriate clothing as city shoes and light coloured trousers were not really suitable as it's quite wet, lots of puddles and mud.
Wlodarz - Entry number 4 and inappropriate equipment
Underground of the Wlodarz complex
Wlodarz - Nazi runes in the only completed room of the complex
After the tour we get in the car and we are going to drive home through Vabřich with the intention of shopping and eating somewhere. But of the few restaurants there, all were closed and the shops are closed on Sundays with a few exceptions. For that reason, we took our cue from the KFC in the mall, which was the only one open. Then it was on to the Czech Republic. We got home around 8 pm.
Lower Silesia has a lot to offer. Especially for history and World War II lovers. In terms of sightseeing, Wroclaw is only for one day, but if you want to be a café lounger, you will definitely find entertainment for the whole weekend.
