The Pope Beat us to Poland

Tom had been to Krakow about three years ago and fell in love with it so he really wanted me to see it. Less than a week before we left I heard on EuroNews that the Pope was going to be there, too. As we flew over Krakow I looked out my window and I could see a very large area that at first I thought was a park full of flowers. Turns out it was people! Tens of thousands of people who were all there to see the Pope.
The airport was interesting. As we arrived inside the terminal we were met with a couple of hundred people with flowers. Since we knew the Pope was already there, we couldn't figure out if there was some other celebrity they were meeting or what. We went to exchange some money and the guy there told us that all those people were there to meet a plane full of people from Chicago. The city with the second largest number of Poles is Chicago and there is a direct flight several times a week during the summer.
We got a taxi and on the 20 or 25 minute drive to the city center we saw literally hundreds of Polish police officers who were posted about every 100 meters. So we assumed that the Pope was leaving town as soon as he finished whatever was going on out at that park I had seen from the air. As it turned out, he didn't leave until almost 12 hours later so those poor guys had to stand around for hours, doing what I don't know.
We arrived at the hotel and got what we figured was the last room in Krakow. When Tom had originally tried to get a room he was told that there wasn't a room available. We didn't know then that the Pope was going to be there at the same time. But he went to his trusty travel agent and they secured this room for us.
We walked about a mile to the main town square and had lunch at a place where they had traditional Polish food and it was really good. Before we finished we couldn't help but notice that thousands of people all of a sudden flooded the square. The park where we had seen all the people with the Pope was a short distance away and the benediction or blessing or whatever was going on there was over.
Here's a picture of him that was plastered on the side of the building next to our hotel. I don't know about you, but he looks kind of sinister to me. And get this: when he was at Auschwitz the day before, he addressed the crowd of people there in German. I know he is German, but doesn't he know another language??? Somehow that just seemed all wrong.