Today was another long day of travel. But it's funny....we talked about this this afternoon and at dinner. Unlike most Viking adventures, even with a pre and/or post extension we've had about half a dozen days where we've spent four to seven hours on the bus during the day. But what we agreed on was that despite that we'd strongly recommend this itinerary - the whole thing has been great. And today, like the other long days of travel, was very well planned out by Viking. Had a break after the first 90 minutes. Then we had an excursion stop that was about two hours of touring the Jasna Gora Monastery - a very significant and important place in Poland and Polish history; then a lunch stop; and finally the last leg to Warsaw today, arriving about 4:30pm. The most interesting thing about the monastery tour was getting to see and learn about the Our Lady of Jasna Gora, created in the late 1300's. For over a century pilgrims would come to pray to the image and then would attach items to the painting. Eventually this became too much and for the last several centuries it is a tradition that once a year they change her attire. This is done by suspending the outfit over the Virgin Mary & Baby Jesus just millimeters from the painting in it's protective case. We got to see the icon and several of the "outfits." The day of the unveiling is Easter Sunday and it's quite the event - our guide was quite enthusiastic about it and mentioned he would be at the monastery at 6am that morning for this year's unveiling.
Tomorrow we get to sleep in, the tour not starting until 9:15am - our last excursion of the trip. We'll be finished by 12:30pm and have the afternoon to ourselves. Nearly all of the fourteen of us on this extension have departure times from the hotel between 3:15am and 3:45am on Friday as we all begin our long journey back home.
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