I somehow seem to find myself in university towns on a disproportionate number of my journeys.
I don’t seek them out – maybe it’s just the type of town I look for. Or maybe I don’t have a bias toward university towns at all, and I’m just aware of the universities when I get there.
I knew nothing about Wroclaw (pronounce vrots-fahv) before arriving here, and the guidebook really didn’t offer much in the way of assistance. It listed a few things to see and towers to climb, but Wroclaw is the third largest city in Poland and there was a strange paucity of sights listed here.
In a sense this makes me think of Bologna, where the guidebooks were limited during my first visit over 15 years ago. Yet today they are still discovering new sights to see and places to entertain visitors.
Wroclaw seems to be best known for the brass dwarves they have hidden all over the place. They are rather cute, and visitors flock to see them.
And of course they have grand Roman Catholic cathedrals, in a more sharper, sparser, and airier, Northern European style.
The guidebook also listed four towers, of which I climbed three today, including that of St Mary Magdalene Church. At the top, I found more dwarves.
They have a National Museum, which was closed today (I would have gone yesterday had time allowed). Instead I went to the University Museum, which barely merited mention in the text.
In that museum, I found sundials in the Mathematics Tower.
And I also found the old baroque lecture halls, such as Aula Leopoldina.
And on the ground floor, I smiled when I found this small collection of glassware, reflecting on my own time in college, where I majored in chemistry.
Later in the day, as the shadows lengthened from afternoon toward evening, my steps wandered onto quiet, serene Cathedral Island, where time felt slow.
And I thought about a brief moment today, gazing down the spare university hallway, with its institutional lighting. There, I saw students ducking silently into and out of lecture halls.
It was at once completely new to me, and yet entirely familiar.
And in that instant, that barest breath of time, it almost felt like I had found my place here.
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