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On April 4th, Suzanna and Richard, accompanied by LeBron and Libby Williams, arrived in Wroclaw, Poland, formerly called Breslau. In Wroclaw we visited with Scott and Jackie Newman who are serving as short-term missionaries to the university students.
LeBron “reading” a Polish newspaper, traveling by train through Poland
Rather than pay for meals in the restaurant car, we brought along our own picnic lunches. Here are LeBron and Libby dining on the train from Berlin to Poland.
Missionaries Scott and Jackie Newman with Libby and LeBron Williams in train station at Wroclaw, Poland. The train station is over 150 years old.
View from our hotel room in Wroclaw. The city is full of Roman Catholic cathedrals.
Below are pictures of the City Square in Wroclaw. It was a bit cool and windy.
In the City Square are some modern fountains. The air was cool and nippy, and the splashing fountains made it seem colder.
Near the city square was an outdoor market. It sold everything from horseshoes, flowers, jewelry, clothes, food, and wood works to live chickens. You can tell that it was cool from the way that Libby is dressed.
On our fist night in the city, we had dinner in a Polish restaurant, which was located in a former underground bomb shelter
One of the most interesting places in the city was the Panorama. it was a gigantic 360 degree painting. The figures in the painting were life-sized and it was designed to look absolutely real. Your eyes had trouble convincing your mind that it was only a painting. The painting depicted the time in Polish history where Poland successfully won their independence through a peasant uprising.
Here is the street in front of the University in Wroclaw. Once again the tour guide needs to consult the map in order to traverse the streets of the city.
In front of the university is the famous naked swordsman statue.
Suzanna in front of St. Elisabeth Cathedral
Poland’s “Hansel and Gretel” houses
Here is one of the streets leading into the City Square. (That’s Richard holding up the lamppost)
Scott Newman is standing outside the university building where he works with students in English-speaking classes.
St. Elisabeth Convent straddled the street. The buildings on both sides of the street were connected by an arched building that extended over the street.
We took pictures of a church and convent that had Mother’s name, Elizabeth.
When touring Wroclaw, it easily becomes quite apparent that Poland is a Roman Catholic country. Church Island in the middle of of the city was filled with Catholic churches.
To get to Church Island we had to cross one of the numerous bridges. Only Venice, Amsterdam, and St Petersburg have more bridges than Wroclaw.
One of many old churches in Wroclaw
Suzanna stopped to see the shopping selection along the street while we were at a tram stop. At this street vendor, all merchandise was ladies underwear.
Here we are dining in a Polish restaurant again. Notice that in Poland the servings are not skimpy.
Late in the evening of April 5th, we received word that Suzanna’s mother had passed away. She indeed became a saint, like the name of the church and convent we’d seen that same day, as she was promoted to Heaven.
We canceled the last 2 weeks of our trip and spent the next three days traveling to West Virginia for the funeral.
We returned to Heinzberg, Germany from Poland, for a night before catching our flight back home for the funeral. It was like “camping out”. The Williamses were selling furniture, preparing to move back to the USA, and “making do” with temporary sitting and sleeping accommodations. We are so appreciative of their hospitality.
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