How to pronounce Wroclaw?  Vrote-swaaf

8 days in Wroclaw gave us plenty of time to explore the downtown area, eat more kilbasa, look for gnomes, take an extended bike ride, and give Susie a trip to Boleslawiec. And the correct way to pronounce Boleslawiec ? It’s like this. 

Wroclaw

Like so many cities in this region of Europe, the churches and town halls have their roots in the 15^th century.  There are dozens and dozens of churches scattered throughout the old town area including a small island in the river called “cathedral island”.

Also like so many cities, the city suffered significant damage in WW 2.   The churches and cathedrals were repaired, and the building on and surrounding the main square were rebuilt in a more traditional Polish style than the former buildings, and the results are charming and beautiful. 

There are small statues of gnomes all through the city.  Why gnomes?  This is a reference to an anti-communist group called the Orange Alternative.  They staged protests, but in a clever way that avoided arrest.  Their slogan was “there is no freedom without dwarfs” and they staged marches in Wroclaw and other cities agitating for the rights of gnomes, while wearing orange gnome hats.  On walls where more direct anti communist graffiti had been painted over by the authorities, a simple gnome drawing would appear.  Who is going to paint over a gnome?

After the fall of communism, a moderately large statue was created to commemorate the movement.  Then businesses started commissioning small gnome statues to place in front of their place of business, attracting potential customers.  Now there are over 800 of these statues in Wroclaw.  There are walking tours dedicated just to visiting some of them.

Pottery of Boleslawiec

Boleslawiec is the center for production of Polish pottery, about 90 minutes away from Wroclaw by train.  Susie spent two nights and a full glorious day there visiting the factory stores and choosing pottery for us and friends and family.   It is truly beautiful pottery, so for the rest of the trip, we have carry-ons full of pottery and we bought a large suitcase to use as the checked bag full of our clothes and shoes.

An afternoon bike ride

While Susie was buying pottery, Dave took a 20 mile ride on a cheap three speed city bike.  Unfortunately, a short sprint up a steep 10 foot hill stressed the worn chain, which stretched the chain enough to be loose, so the chain dropped about 10 times in the last few miles.  Otherwise, it was nice to be on a bike again and see a bit of the outskirts of Wroclaw.  And do you remember how to pronounce it?  Yeah, for some reason it took me most of the week to finally remember how to say Wroclaw.

Next up, Copenhagen!