We started off the morning a little early for some of us jet-lagged folks with an absolutely exquisite breakfast. The breakfast consisted of a plethora of fresh fruit on pastries, fresh sliced vegetables, raw salmon, and any type of coffee imaginable, (I had two espresso shots to wake myself up.) Soon after breakfast we left the hotel and began our march towards the Krakow city square. Our tour guide gave us quite a bit of information on the history of the square, the buildings all around us, and even a little bit about Polish architecture.
After leaving the square we traveled to the oldest college in all of Poland, Jagiellonian University. Jagiellonian University was founded in the year 1364 and since then, has educated a couple influential people in history. The college had pupils such as Nikolaus Copernicus and Pope John Paul the 2nd.
After leaving the college we walked to a very old church in our vicinity, and admired the beautiful architecture and the award- winning huge Nativity scene. From this church we walked to the Wawel Cathedral, which is considered the holiest of shrines in all of Poland. In the cathedral we were not allowed to take any pictures but between the 15th-century tombs, silver plated altars, and beautiful architecture, it was all quite breath taking. The cathedral is home to two saints in their sarcophagi. Up until the end of royalty in Poland, between the 14th century and the 18th century, this cathedral was where the King and Queens of Poland had their coronations.
We then headed to Schindler factory museum, where we walked through in two different groups with tour guides. This museum held more WWII history than I had ever seen in my entire life. Within our 1 hour walk through we saw enough history to spend an entire day in there still learning.
After a couple hours break, we put on our tuxes and dresses and rode the charter bus to the Church of the Virgin Mary of Lourdes for our first European concert. There was a little bit of confusion with logistics, but we made it finally to the altar area and sang our concert of sacred music. Many of the old ladies in the audience had very large grins on their faces and looked so happy that we were there to sing for them.
For being our very first full day in Poland we saw enough history to last us a week. The day was an outstanding success and we are ready for the rest of our trip soon to come.