Pilgrimage Footsteps of JPII with Bishop Fernando Isern

Detailed Itinerary for Pilgrimage the Footsteps of JPII accompanied by Bishop Fernando Isern

10/17/2024, Thurday - Departure from Miami to Poland

10/18/2024, Friday - Arrival in Warsaw

• Welcome to Warsaw! Enjoy an orientation tour of the city, with an accompanying guide.
• Celebration of Holy Mass in Warsaw
• Arrival at the hotel. Dinner and accommodation.

10/19/2024, Saturday - Warsaw - Niepokalanow – Warsaw

• Visit the Capital of Poland: the Old Town with its picturesque Market Square, the Barbican, St. John's Cathedral, Castle Square where the column of King Sigismund Waza stands, the house of Marie Curie and the New Town District. Visit to the Sanctuary of Santa Faustina.
• Lunch at a local restaurant
• Visit the Niepokalanów Monastery, where Saint Maximilian Kolbe started the City of the Immaculate Mother of God.
• Celebration of the Holy Mass in the Basilica of the Omnimediatrix of All Glories.
• Return to Warsaw

10/20/2024, Sunday - Warsaw – Czestochowa – Krakow

• Breakfast and departure towards Czestochowa.
• Visit to the Monastery of the Pauline Fathers where the image of the Virgin Mary of Czestochowa is located, popularly known as “the Black Madonna”: the most important pilgrimage site in Poland.
• Celebration of the Holy Mass in the Chapel of the Black Madonna in the Jasna Góra Monastery.
• Lunch at a local restaurant and continue to Krakow. Arrival at the hotel, accommodation
• Dinner at the hotel.

10/21/2024, Monday - Krakow - Salt Mine – Krakow

• Breakfast at the hotel, enjoy a highlight tour.
• Visit of Krakow, one of the oldest and most beautiful cities in Poland.
• We will see the Wawel hill where the Castle with the Renaissance court is located, the Gothic Cathedral, the Ancient City (Stare Miasto), the largest market square in Europe (the largest medieval market of Europe – full of life all year round). In its central part stands the Sukiennice building (Cloth Market), whose history dates back to the end of the 12th century; Near Sukiennice we find the beautiful Gothic Church of Santa Maria with the Altar by Vito Stwosz, a brilliant sculptor. A brief visit of the ancient wall near St. Florian's Gate and the Barbican.
• Lunch at a local restaurant.
• Visit the oldest salt mine in Europe, and see the magnificent chapels and religious sculptures carved from salt.
• Celebration of the Holy Mass in the underground chapel.
• Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

10/22/2024, Tuesday - Krakow - Sanctuary of Divine Mercy – Krakow

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Visit to the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy, the most important sanctuary related to Divine Mercy in the world, a pilgrimage destination for millions of people. This place is related to the life and work of Sister Faustina Kowalska. The Sanctuary is made up of the convent (in which the saint lived and died), the basilica and the chapel, where the tomb with the relics of Sister Faustina and the famous painting of the Merciful Jesus “Jesus, I trust in you” is located. ” painted according to the vision of the Polish saint.
• Celebration of the Holy Mass in the Sanctuary of Divine Mercy.
• Lunch at a local restaurant. 
• Free afternoon to explore Krakow on your own. 
• Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

10/23/2024, Wednesday - Krakow - Wadowice - Kalwaria – Krakow

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Departure to Wadowice to see tourist sites related to the young life of Karol Józef Wojtyła.
• Visit of Wadowice: visit to the museum of Pope John Paul II, and the parish church from the 15th century, we will see the Church of Saint Peter, built as an offering by the city in gratitude for the Pope's recovery after the attack 1983. Celebration of Holy Mass in the Basilica of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the parish of the Wojtyła family.
• Lunch at a local restaurant.
• Visit Kalwaria, the Marian shrine where Karol's lifelong devotion to the Virgin began after the loss of her mother.
• Return to Krakow. Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

10/24/204, Thursday - Krakow - Auschwitz-Birkenau – Harmeze – Krakow

• Breakfast at the hotel.
• Departure towards Oswiecim.
• Visit of Auschwitz-Birkenau - the territory of the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp, built by the Germans during the Nazi occupation in Poland (the cell of St. Maximilian Kolbe). In this concentration camp, during the Second World War, the Nazis murdered more than a million people, the majority of Jewish origin. Today the former Auschwitz concentration camp is part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• Continuation to Harmeze, visit the Church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception and tour the Center of Saint Maximilian Kolbe.
• Lunch at a local restaurant.
• Return to Krakow. Dinner and accommodation.

10/25/2024, Friday - Krakow - Svatý Kopeček (Holy Mount) - Olomouc – Brno

• Breakfast at the hotel. Check out.
• Departure to Brno. Stop at Svatý Kopeček - Holy Mount About five kilometers from Olomouc is the Holy Mount (Svatý Kopeček), a large pilgrimage site, with the Basilica of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary.
• Celebration of the Holy Mass in the Basilica of the Visitation of the Virgin Mary. Stop in Olomouc, The baroque city Olomouc is located in the heart of the Moravian region.
• During the tour of the city it is essential to visit the column of the Holy Trinity, inscribed on the UNESCO Heritage list, built in 1740 in gratitude for the end of the plague epidemic in Moravia at the beginning of the 18th century.
• Lunch at a local restaurant and continue to Brno.
• Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

10/26/2024, Saturday - Brno – Křtiny - Velehrad - Svatý Hostýn – Brno

• Breakfast at the hotel and transfer to Křtiny Křtiny is located in the picturesque Moravian Karst, northeast of Brno. The place belongs to the most important pilgrimage sites in Europe. Since the Middle Ages it has had two churches, in the small one the 'mysterious painting' of the Virgin Mary of Křtiny was hidden. Jan Blažej Santini - Aichel carried out the reconstruction of the church in the temple in the baroque style, called the 'pearl of Moravia'. Transfer to Velehrad.
• Velehrad represents the spiritual center of the Czech Republic. The Velehrad Monastery and especially the Basilica of Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Cyril and Methodius are the most important pilgrimage sites in the country. National pilgrimages are held here annually, in which tens of thousands of people participate. Pope John Paul II visited the place in 1990.
• Lunch at a local restaurant and transfer to Svatý Hostý.
• Svatý Hostýn It is the most visited pilgrimage site in Moravia and the most picturesque after Velehrad (another pilgrimage site). Hostýn Mountain with its Basilica of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary is the goal of thousands of pilgrims.
• Return to Brno, dinner at hotel accommodation.

10/27/2024, Sunday - Brno – Stara Boleslav – Prague

• Breakfast at the hotel and guided tour of Brno, the capital of Moravia. We will pass the Town Hall, with a two-meter dragon, and the Villa Tugendhat, one of the jewels of functionalism. (exterior views).
• Departure to Prague Stop in Stara Boleslav: the city where Saint Wenceslas was killed.
• Lunch at a local restaurant.
• Visit The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Stará Boleslav . Celebration of the Holy Mass at The Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary in Stará Boleslav.
• Continuation to Prague, Arrival and farewell dinner with folk music and entertainment in a Prague restaurant.

10/28/2024, Monday - Prague

• Breakfast at the hotel and guided tour of Prague.
• Visit of Hradcany, the Prague Castle neighborhood. Highlights include the Basilica of San Jorge, the best preserved Romanesque church in the city. Visit of the Old Palace, founded in the 9th century and the seat of the Bohemian princes.
• Next, a tour of the Golden Alley and the castle grounds, with a visit to the main nave of St. Vitus Cathedral.
• Continuation of the visit to the beautiful Malá Strana neighborhood, an admirably preserved historical neighborhood that hardly seems to have changed since the 19th century. XVIII. Visit Church of Our Lady of Victory in Prague (statue of the Infant Jesus of Prague) and celebrate Mass.
• We will also see the Charles Bridge.
• Lunch at a local restaurant.
• Visit to the Staré Mesto neighborhood, the old town of Prague. We will begin the visit by walking through the Jewish quarter (Josefov), testimony to what was the largest ghetto in Central Europe.
• Continuation to the Old Square, where we can admire the Church of Our Lady of Tyn and the Town Hall, with the 16th century astronomical clock. XV
• Visit of the baroque church of San Nicolás, the Charles Bridge, the Plaza de la República with the Municipal House and the Powder Tower. (exterior views)
• Dinner and overnight at the hotel.

10/29/2024, Tuesday - Prague - Departure

• Lite Breakfast and transfer to Prague airport for the return flight.