Wrocław, formerly Breslau, has changed its identity many times. Over the centuries it has been part of the Crown of Bohemia, the Polish and Silesian realms, the Habsburg Monarchy, the Kingdom of Prussia, the German Empire, Weimar Germany, Nazi Germany, before becoming Polish once again after the Second World War. Theirs is a story of displacement and reclamation: of populations uprooted, borders redrawn, and a city repeatedly reinventing itself.

As someone from Leicester, one of the most multicultural cities in the country, and one of the first cities with no ethnic majority, we can also see how post-war migration reshaped the city. Whilst England at least was in dire need of a workforce, calling for migrants from across the former British Empire, by 1951 Leicester had more than a thousand Polish-born people living within its boundaries; displaced from areas annexed by the Soviet Union. In fact, we’d even got a Polish Saturday school founded by a former resident of Kraków.

Wrocław was in a similar position - although on a far greater scale. With the forced expulsion of Germans after the war, the city was repopulated by Poles from elsewhere in the country. The city had to become Polish again, even as much of what had made Breslau German was deliberately removed or concealed.

They covered the traces with fresh coats of paint; paint which is now flaking away to show what came before. Where Leicester’s need was for a workforce, Wrocław’s was one of identity. Our sightseeing today might help us understand that. To start with, this was an early run that took us from the Market Square to Stare Jatki: a medieval cobbled street with wooden awnings, and the Memorial to Slaughtered Animals bronzes. The street was closed though, so we made our way to the River Oder.

We passed the Most Pomorski, and crossed over the Most Piaskowy (Sand Bridge) and followed the coast there to Tumski Bridge onto Cathedral Island. This area is quite scenic, but we didn’t linger long as we made our way to the Peace Bridge, and from there passed the Museum of Architecture, Hatzfield Palace (covered in scaffolding), the Bridge of Penitents, and then a few more dwarf statues near the market square before passing through the Salt Market to the City Museum of Wrocław. We’d only done 5K, and we’d seen pretty much everything of interest in the town.

Once we’d showered and had breakfast, we headed back out to retrace our steps in part, to photograph the dwarves we’d passed, and to look for more. Everywhere we went, we found more unexpectedly on doorways, on benches, on walls, and even up a lamppost. There was an adult dressed in bright colours as one too around the market square - as entertainment for some children that seemed to be on a school trip.

Our run had missed Stare Jatki, so this ‘dwarf hunt’ also included that as a stop. The first place we actually went inside was a Jesuit Church which looks quite plain on the outside, but is quite nice on the inside with most of it being covered in artwork.

For lunch, we stopped by the Market Hall which had a large portion of the ground floor given over to food. We looked around first, and then decided to eat at the Milk Bar due to the selection they offered. We were both keen to try so many things, thinking they were small plates. It may have been a case that our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, but it was lucky Carmen had realised the cutlets came with other things too. I had a chicken cutlet with sesame seeds, mashed potatoes, and a choice of salad, whilst Carmen had something similar with her pork cutlet. We also had a plate of eight cabbage and mushroom pierogi’s to share. All this for just 79 PLN between us.

There had been a lot of food, and we felt full, but the food didn’t sit ‘heavy’. We were able to continue on our walk to Wyspa Piasek (Sand Island) and the sculpture of the Nave. It’s a large reflective metal sculpture that you can walk through. This took us back onto Cathedral Island, where we thought we’d go inside the cathedral, but ultimately decided it wasn’t worth it.

Instead, we backtracked to the ‘mainland’ and walked along the Xawery Dunikowski Boulevard to find another dwarf, and then to Bastion Sakwowy. We did however find that the bastion had been closed off for refurbishment. There are some stairs where there’s a restaurant for part of it, and I ran up those stairs to see if it was worthwhile, but it wasn't really. Whatever dwarves were in this area we wouldn’t get to see.

There were two more places we’d got left on our itinerary for the day. Carmen had read about an ‘I Love Wrocław’ sign outside the main station, so we were heading there next. Unfortunately, at some point in the last month or so it was removed, so we couldn't do that. There is however a sign not far from where we’d been that just says ‘WRO’. That could be something to potentially find later, but first we needed to get the LEGO portion of the day done.

From the station, the easiest way to then get to the Westfield shopping centre is to go through the station and out the other side. We did this to get our LEGO passports stamped at the LEGO store there.

We really hadn’t had much ice cream on this trip so far, so we bought a cone for 7 PLN each, and sat down whilst we thought about what to do next. We’d spotted there was an exhibition of LEGO bricks not that far away, which we could either take public transport to in fifteen minutes, or walk to in a little over twenty.

The walk there wasn’t too bad, but once we got there we didn’t really know where we were going. I’d expected us to see some sort of sign to make it obvious, but could see nothing inside. We went back outside the Sky Tower, and still nothing. I looked at Google Maps as we wandered back inside, and happened to spot that underneath the address it said “Wystawa Budowli” just as I’d read that on a sign.

This sent us up to the third floor, where everything seemed closed, and nobody was around. Still, we followed the signs around, past a dance school, and found the entrance to the exhibition. They have two exhibitions, but only one is LEGO, so we paid 43 PLN each for that - we were the only ones there! There’s a lot of large scale LEGO exhibits such as a very tall Shrek and Donkey, but also displays such as one of the Rynek in Wrocław. I think for the size and quality, it’s priced about right, so it was worth the walk there.

We’d spent a lot of time on our feet though, so took the tram to a stop near Maria and Lech Kaczyński Boulevard, and headed to the sign. It’d got a group of teenagers sitting on it however, looking comfortable, so we were unlikely to be moving any time soon.

We could have waited, but fortunately, Carmen had remembered about the Wrocław gas lamp lighter, who would be lighting the gas lamps of Cathedral Island manually, starting from a little before sunset. On our route there, I recognised from photos I’d seen months ago, the location of where he’d be parking his van. I looked up what his route normally is, and we headed outside of the cathedral ready for him to start.

It was starting to get cooler as we waited, and the number of people gradually increased. When he pulled up we could see him put on his cloak, and eventually began his walk, flanked by tourists that were following him to the start. That bit of knowledge about where he parks is definitely not-so-secret.

We watched as he lit the first two lamps, one above the above, and decided that we’d now head over to the Franklina Delano Roosevelta neighbourhood for some graffiti Carmen had read about. It was good we’d both done research and found things that each other might be interested in seeing. By the time we got there, the sun had set, and the light was quickly leaving the sky. We went down one alleyway and found the back of the buildings to be covered in all sorts of murals, and over the road was another alleyway with even more in a different style.

One thing that seems to be very common in Poland is the number of Zabka stores you’ll come across. On that one road we’d walked down there must have been at least four stores, all within a few minutes walk of each other. We went in one to get some juice, placki ziemniaczane (potato pancakes) to have with the noodles we’d got from the race, and some butter for Carmen to use with the bread we’d got leftover from Berlin.

By the time we’d finished, it was pretty much dark. That was perfect for what I’d got in mind next. On our way back, we took a small diversion to where the Botanical Garden is located, as outside one of the entrances is what the locals refer to as “The Green Dementor”. It’s a lamp post that has had creeping vines growing up it, and hanging where the light is, giving it a ‘creepy’ feel.

Once finally back at the apartment, we cooked the noodles and potato pancakes, and started our packing for tomorrow.