” Let me – before I leave..look once more at Krakow, at the Krakow where every stone and every brick is dear to me, and I will look from here at Poland…“

John Paul II Krakow, 1979

1st Day

Warsaw
Arrival at Warsaw Airport. Transfer by bus to your hotel and check in. Dinner and overnight stay in Warsaw.

2nd Day

Warsaw – Niepokalanow
After breakfast, we will visit the House of the Congregation of the Divine Mother of Mercy. We will attend Mass at St. Stanislaw Kostka Church, where you will see a special exhibition devoted to Father Jerzy Popieluszko, brutally murdered by militant security police in 1984. We will continue our tour to the Old Town and we will visit the Church of St. Anna, where John Paul II celebrated a mass for the young people of Poland. Walk along the streets of Old Town. We will go the Pilsudski Place where Holy Father celebrated his famous mass during the first pilgrimage to Poland. Afternoon we will depart for Niepokolanow, home to St. Maximillian Kolbe who was brutally murdered in Auschwitz concentration camp. We will visit the Franciscan monastery where he lived and worked. Dinner and overnight stay in Warsaw.

3rd Day

Warsaw – Czestochowa – Krakow
Breakfast and check out. We will drive to Krakow via Czestochowa – Jasna Gora Monastery which is next to Fatima in Portugal and Lourdes in France, one of the most vivid and important pilgrimage sites of the entire Christian world. Every year millions of pilgrims come to the Jasna Gora Sanctuary to pray before the miraculous picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa – one of the small group of Black Madonna’s identified from around the world largely due to the recent manifestations of public faithfulness shown by Pope John Paul II. We will see not only the famous Black Madonna but also the monastery premises. The tour will be led by a resident Pauline monk. After the visit we will continue to Krakow. Dinner and overnight stay in Krakow.

4th Day

Krakow
Today we will show you: the Bishop’s Palace with the famouse window from which he talked with young people who came to see him is located above the entrance to the building. Karol Wojdyla moved in here on 10 August 1944 as a student. He was ordained to priesthood on 1 November 1946 by Cardinal Sapiecha. St. Florian’s Church where he was a vicar, beautiful Franciscan Church – his favorite praying and used to have his “own”pew in this church, the largest Market area in Europe with St. Mary’s Church. In the center of the Main Market Square is shopping mall – Sukiennice with which housing souvenirs shops with amber and leather things. In the afternoon we will visit the Wawel Hill, where Royal Castle and Cathedral are situated, where on @November 1946 Rev. Karol Wojtyla said his first holy mass in the 12th-century Crypt of St. Leonard and Kanonicza street where Father Wojtyla lived here as a bishop in the years 1958-1967. Before that (from 1951 till 1958) he lived in a neighbouring house under no.19.Currently, these two houses are turned into the Archdiocesan Museum of Cardinal Karol Wojtyła which exhibits the church art. Dinner and overnight stay in Krakow.

5th Day

Lagiewniki – Wieliczka Salt Mine
In the morning we will drive to the Congregation of Sisters of the Divine Mother of Mercy in Lagiewniki, to visit the tomb of Sister Faustina. She worked and died here. We will see convent chapel, and the Shrine of Divine Mercy with the new basilica. We will visit the shrine and we will celebrate holy mass. John Paul II visited the Sanctuary twice – in 1997 and in 2002. Also visit the Sanctuary that houses the image of Merciful Jesus and the relics of St. Faustina. The sanctuary is situated close to the former soda factory – Solvay, and the quarry, where young Karol Wojtyła was employed as a manual worker during WW II. In the afternoon we will go to Wieliczka Salt Mine for 3,5 h tour of UNESCO`s listed, the only one salt mine in the world preserved in this condition, visited by more than 1 million tourists a year. Visitors may take a walk of 2¸5 km through 3 levels in the Salt Mine down to 135 meters below ground level (400 steps), through underground lakes, various interesting geological forms, galleries, chambers and St. Kinga’s Chapel where everything is made of salt: crystal chandeliers, altars, sculptures and floor paving carved in the layer of salt. Dinner and overnight stay in Krakow.

6th Day

Kalwiaria Zebrzydowska – Wadowice
After breakfast we will visit Kalwaria Zebrzydowska – Poland’s 2nd most popular pilgrimage centre. In 1999 the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO, unanimously inscribed the breathtaking Mannerist Architectural and Park Landscape Complex as well as Pilgrimage Park into the World Heritage List. Near the Bernardine Monastery are the famous Calvary paths, with churches, chapels and wayside shrines imitating the topography of Jerusalem. We will visit the church and we will celebrate holy mass. Next we will continue our tour to Wadowice – the birthplace of the Pope John Paul II, visit the Pope’s house, which is now a museum. Return to Krakow. Dinner and overnight stay in Krakow.

7th Day

Auschwitz – Birkenau
After breakfast we will depart to Auschwitz-Birkenau – concentration camp, symbol of horror, inhumanity and the Holocaust. In 1979 former concentration camp was entered on the UNESCO World Heritage List. We will visit St. Maximilian Kolbe’s cell. We will visit to barracks in Auschwitz I, and the extensive, depressing area of the large wooden the extermination camp at Auschwitz II – Birkenau. The biggest impression is made by the shocking gas chambers, the crematoria, death cells, barbed wire and the creepy, silent watchtowers. After sightseeing, we return to Krakow. Afterwards you have free time for relax and shopping. Dinner and overnight in Krakow.

8th Day

Krakow
After breakfast check out of the hotel and departure for the airport. Have a nice flight!