Footsteps of John Paul II - Poland Tour
8 Day Tour
DAY 01:
BEGINNING OUR PILGRIMAGE
Depart North America via jet service to Warsaw.
DAY 02:
WARSAW
Arrival in Warsaw. Dinner and overnight.
DAYS 3:
WARSAW / CZESTOCHOWA / WADOWICE / KRAKOW
Black Madonna, Częstochowa
Departure to Kraków via Częstochowa. Tour of the Black Madonna Shrine – the holiest pilgrimage site in Poland, frequently visited by the Pope, also during his apostolic travels to Poland. En route stop at Wadowice, the Pope's birthplace. Visit his family house (museum) and the church where Karol Wojtyla was baptized and attended masses as a child and later as a teenager does. Dinner and overnight Krakow.
DAY 04:
KRAKOW
Wawel Cathedral, Krakow
Full day tour of Krakow including the Wawel Cathedral (diocesan museum) and Castle, John Paul II Institute, Archbishop's Palace, St. Mary's Church, Collegium Maius well as the Old Town Market Square. Visit to International Shrine of Spirituality inaugurated by the Pope on his last visit to Poland in 2002, seen as a farewell visit to his homeland. It is here that Karol Wojtyla came as a young man to study and spent his life as a priest, bishop and archbishop of Krakow before he was called onto the Peter's throne in Vatican. Dinner and overnight Krakow.
DAY 05:
ZAKOPANE
Fatima Church, Zakopane
Full day excursion to Zakopane, the winter capital of Poland. Devout hiker, Karol Wojtyla often climbed the trails in the Tatras as a student, teacher and later as a professor of the KUL (Catholic University of Lublin). The tour of Zakopane includes the beautiful, wooden Fatima shrine church. It was built by the local people to thank God for saving the Pope's life. The church was blessed by John Paul II during his meeting with the highlanders in Zakopane in 1999. Continue to the typical highlanders' village of Koscielisko and visit the local timber church and then to the Morskie Oko Lake, nestling deep in the mountains, where the Pope spent some time during his stay in Zakopane in 1999. Dinner and overnight Zakopane.
DAY 06:
KALWARIA ZEBRZYDOWSKA / KRAKOW
Kalwaria Zebrzydowska
Return to Krakow via Kalwaria Zebrzydowska, one of the most impressive passion and Marian sanctuaries in Poland. Karol Wojtyla visited the place with his father as a boy and later many times during his priestly life. During his first pilgrimage to Poland in 1979, the Holy Father said: "And I would like you to pray for me here, both during my life and after it." Dinner and overnight Krakow.
DAY 07:
KRAKOW / WARSAW
DAY 08:
WARSAW / NORTH AMERICA
Transfer to the airport for your return flight to North America. Arrival in the afternoon local time.
