Art and culture – Poland tour

Afternoon: Arrival in Warsaw. Transport from the airport to the hotel.
Evening: Dinner.

Morning: Guided tour of Warsaw, focusing on the reconstructed Old Town and the former Ghetto, including the Monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto.
Afternoon: Visit to a renowned modern art gallery, such as the ‘Raster’ gallery. Followed by a visit to the ‘Ujazdowski Castle’ Centre for Contemporary Art – a venue for the creation and presentation of contemporary art in all its forms – or the Museum of Modern Art (depending on what is on display at the time).
Evening: Dinner.

Morning: Transfer to Łódź – a city once home to Poles, Jews, Germans and Russians, which owes its splendour to 19th-century industrialisation. Walk along Piotrkowska Street – the jewel of Art Nouveau architecture in Poland. Visit to ‘Łódź – OFF’ – Łódź’s vibrant creative scene housed in a former textile factory, featuring studios of architects, fashion designers and other designers, as well as music venues, restaurants, exhibition spaces, rehearsal rooms, showrooms, concept stores and cafés.
Afternoon: Visit to the Łódź Art Museum, which houses the finest collection of 20th-century Polish art in the country.
Transfer to Częstochowa – the most important place of pilgrimage for Polish Catholics.
Evening: Check-in and dinner at the hotel.

Morning: Guided tour of the fortified monastery of the Pauline Fathers, home to the famous icon of the Black Madonna. Also worth visiting are the Knights’ Hall, the Treasury, the Armoury and a museum housing the Nobel Prize awarded to Lech Wałęsa, founder of Solidarność
Optional: En route, a visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial – the former concentration camp. During the visit, you will see all the key sites of the former concentration camps: an exhibition in the buildings of Auschwitz I, the execution wall, the gas chamber and the crematorium (the only ones to have been preserved), and part of the Auschwitz II camp – Birkenau, the site of the extermination of the Jews: prisoners’ barracks, the ruins of the gas chambers and the memorial in honour of the victims.
Afternoon: Arrival in Kraków. Check-in at the hotel.
Evening: Dinner.

Morning: A walk through Kraków’s medieval Old Town with its Main Market Square (Rynek), lined with colourful 14th- and 15th-century houses, which is a fine example of original medieval urban planning.
Exploring the narrow streets around the Main Square, the Cloth Hall, St Mary’s Basilica and the medieval buildings of Jagiellonian University, where the astronomer Copernicus and Pope John Paul II studied. Walk to Wawel Hill, home to the Royal Castle.
Afternoon: Visit to an artist’s studio and/or the ‘Zderzak’ (‘Bumper’) gallery – discussion on the topic – Poland’s youngest generation of artists
Evening: Check-in and dinner at the hotel.

Morning: Visit to the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, situated in the former industrial district of Zablocie, which showcases contemporary art from around the world and, in particular, Polish art from the last 20 years in the context of current issues affecting society and the individual. Visit to the Tadeusz Kantor Museum – an icon of modern Polish architecture.
Afternoon: At leisure.
Optional:
- a visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mine
- a visit to the ‘Krakow 1939–1945’ exhibition at the Oscar Schindler Factory Museum
- Wawel Castle with its royal chambers
Evening: Dinner.

Return journey.