Hotel Grand Czestochowa

This video shows the viewer our tour guide, Father Simon, as he let us into a private tour of the several centuries old monastery library at Jasna Gora.  He is explaining that the book he is paging through is a 700 year old bible translated into Polish by monks from the monastery.  We also got to sign the guest book there, and saw the guestbook with many signatures of some pretty impressive historical figures.

Czestochowa – July 15, 2009

We left Wroclaw this morning by bus and it was to be a long day. I went for a run along the Oder River just before 6 a.m. and returned to the hotel and had breakfast. We loaded the buses and departed at 8 a.m. and took a "shortcut", as Andrejsz told me in jest, to the town of Czestochowa, to the northeast of Wroclaw. Our schedule had us going on a tour of the Jasna Gora Monastery, lunch, and then we would spend the ...

... go on to Auschwitz.

The drive here is on a busy highway until the end when traffic thins out. We pass the museum entrance and find the information office. He tells us where a campground is and we walk in about 30+ heat to find it. We can find the signs, but no campground, we go back and get the car and drive to it. We just didn’t walk quite far enough.

It is a ...

... visited Auschwitz later that day. I believe it is the most interesting and soul-moving stations I have every seen. I then had time to do a holy-half hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament before going to mass. Fr. Brad celebrated mass for us on the alter below the image of the Black Madonna--so cool. The walls of the shrine were covered in gift/offerings in thanksgiving for miracles that have happened in people's lives that they attribute to praying to the image for Mary ...

... over the lines around curves and sometimes your choice is to jam the curb or jam the truck tires. Motorcycles zip though stopped traffic inches from car mirrors. Kind of like driving in downtown New York or Chicago all the time. Best thing to do is match the agressiveness with the same. David has done most of the driving so far, (he hates it, but prefers it to sitting in the front seat helpless while I drive). I have done the map ...

Today I was going to go to Czestochowa by myself. But I convinced my aunt to go with me because she never really gets out of the house. So off to Czestochowa we went by bus. Czestochowa is known for it's painting of the Black Madonna. This painting was brought from Jerusalem to Czestochowa in the 14th century. She is known as the one who protects Poland and is a huge icon for the Polish people and their ...

We departed at 7:30a to visit the monastery at JASNA GORA that stood against Swedish forces during the 17th century religious wars. It was beautiful inside with much gold decoration and had so many rooms to see and we were guided by a monk. We saw the Black Madonna which has become the national symbol of Poland. What I didn't like about it here was how commercialized it was for ...

... famous "Black Madonna" portrait, believed to have been painted by St. Luke. The monastery was beautiful and boasted a lot of art and architecture. When we arrived, there was a Mass in process and we learned that they continue throughout the day in different languages.

... on Justyna & Gregory's doorstep. So great to see them again, and so surreal that it was in their home town of Poreba. We took it pretty easy that night, it had been another 35+ day and we were all buggered. We met little tiny Michael, he is just so gorgeous and such a good baby. So first things first, we went shopping!! It was great, really cheap, and the air conditioning was a relief, another 35 degree day out there. Then just chilled at J & G's flat for the ...

... beggars asking for money and if you refused they sometimes stabbed you with a needle infected with HIV! The worst we got was a drunken man trying to sell Ritchie a hat...... We got on the train, which was a nice new Intercity beast which was very comfy, although no correlation between the standard of the train and the standard of the toilets as me & Ritchie found out. Finally, about 10 in the mornin after very little sleep, we made it to Kraków