Eastern Europe

 Karlštejn, Czech Republic

Our trip to Eastern Europe was the longest of our overseas trips - a little over eight weeks.  We bought a one-way ticket to Prague so that we could come home whenever we wanted and from wherever we were.  The rules of the E.U. allow tourists to stay for up to 90 days - we didn't have to go home, but we couldn't stay there.

It was cold!  But no surprise.  Fortunately for us, it was warmer than usual.  And we brought warm clothing.

I'm sure that you know a lot about the places we visited, so no long, boring descriptions of the history of Eastern Europe, specifically the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Poland.  Instead, I wrote long boring descriptions of what we did there.

Some of our discoveries are too personal for a blog post, so you'll have to get the details and see the photos in person.

Please note that items in this post are not always mentioned in chronological order.  Maybe a bit of James Joyce rubbed off on me when I was standing next to his statue in Dublin last year.  Or maybe it was the moo-cow.

Click on a photo to enlarge.

 

We flew into Prague, traveled around by train and bus and flew home from Warsaw.  The major cities we visited were Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Krakow and Warsaw.  Some minor cities that we visited were Pilsen, Kutna Hora, Karlštejn, Český Krumlov, Třebíč, Szentendre and Oswiecim.  The cities may have been minor, but some were very important.   Several cities that we visited are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

Our compartment on the ten-hour night train from Budapest to Krakow.

 

An Arte Nouveau door

At the turn of the 20th century, the big cities of eastern Europe tore down their old buildings and replaced them with Arte Nouveau edifices.  

Of all the cities we visited, Prague had the greatest proportion of Arte Nouveau buildings and they were well maintained.  Vienna had more newer buildings because they were heavily bombed during WW II.  Budapest's buildings were in good condition on the main streets, but on the side streets formerly beautiful buildings were often dirty and in disrepair.  Also, many buildings in Budapest were pockmarked with bullet holes: in Buda, from the battles between the Soviets and the Nazis (right); in Pest, from the battles of the Hungarian Revolution a decade later.  

Oops, history crept in.

Okay, the place is filled with history.  There is no getting around it.  We'll have to deal with it.  To keep this brief, I'll separate out Jewish history from civil history (although the two become more intertwined in the 1930s and 40s) and put it in a subsequent post..

The ancient wall separating Old Prague from not-Prague was torn down a long time ago and the city just continued  to grow.

Old Český Krumlov (left) was separated from the surrounding area by a river so, as the city grew, the historic center was left to decay until 'discovered' in the 1980s, fixed up and is now a popular picturesque weekend vacation site.  

Krakow tore down the wall, turned the moat into a park and expanded without changing the Old Town, which is very old.  Krakow also filled in a branch of the Vistula to incorporate the Jewish island community of Kazimierz and also stretched across the river.  Still, one could walk from top to bottom of the historic area in about an hour.   [Longer in the snow.]

Warsaw's Old Town is unusual. The Old Town (right) was completely demolished by the retreating Nazis.  After the war, it was rebuilt using old photographs and paintings for guidance.  It's new, but looks old.  Sort of like Epcot, but with cheaper food.  

It's the only UNESCO World Heritage Site that is a re-creation.

The Nazis destroyed 90% of the rest of the city.

Třebíč , in the Czech Republic, was described in our guidebook as a Jewish ghetto which looked just the way it did when the Jews left in the 1930s.  I envisioned the Lower East Side.  I was wrong.  The Jews may have left in the 1930s, but the buildings hadn't changed for centuries.  The newer of the two synagogues (left) was built in 1268.   [Speaking of the Lower East Side, the Jewish ghetto in Budapest looks like the LES, but with arte nouveau buildings and bullet holes.]

We took the light rail north from Budapest to the small town of Szentendre (St. Andrew), a town settled by waves of Slavs in the 17 and 18th centuries coming to the Hapsburg empire to escape discrimination.  

It was written that the town layout is very Balkan.  'Balkan' appears to mean that there are many over-priced souvenir shops on every block.  I told Sarah to look past the merchandise to the buildings.  A lot of good that did me.  (We had to buy an extra suitcase to take our purchases home).  

Photo:  A Serbian church.

Lots of monuments.  More than one to the U.S.

The Czechs didn't forget.  After the Soviets left in 1991, the Czechs built the "Thank You, America" monument for liberating Pilzen in 1945.  It's at the foot of Amerikanski Street.

We visited many churches on our trip.  Many were immense and most were elaborately decorated; one with bones. 

   

This one's a synagogue (Budapest), but it's built like a church.  

It's the second largest synagogue in the world; the largest is in NYC. 
 

The trip was hectic.  We didn't take a day off.  Not for rain; not for snow.  Although we did go to the opera in Vienna.   I didn't go for the cheap seats.  We bought standing room.  Standing for an opera is good.  It keeps one from falling asleep.  It was at night and there was nothing good on T.V., certainly not in English.

 Also in Vienna, we went to an upscale buffet.  Sarah got a real "Viennese Table."

Castles and palaces galore...

Prague Castle

Schonbrunn Palace

Cesky Krumlov Castle

Karlstejn Castle

Wawel Castle

Buda Castle

Zamek Królewski w Warszawie

...and a salt mine

The Wieliczka salt mine near Krakow is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  There are more than 100 miles of tunnels, several thousand caverns and a complete cathedral.  There are many salt sculptures along the three-hour tour route.  Click the link for some more photos.

These men were the salt of the earth.


To see the personal part of our trip, Jewish Eastern Europe, click here.