The next part of our trip was through the area that most
Americans refer to as Eastern Europe – former Soviet bloc countries. I have divided this into two parts based on
the number of days we are spending in these countries, and have also included
Vienna Austria in part 2 for continuity based on the order of our trip even
though Austria was not part of the Soviet bloc.
I have also titled these sections “Central Europe” rather than “Eastern
Europe” since that is how these countries consider themselves. To them Eastern Europe is Belarus, Ukraine,
Romania, and Russia. Central Europe is
also geographically more accurate.
Vilnius Lithuania is the geographical center of Europe, and all of these
countries are west of Vilnius, so labeling these countries as “eastern” does
not make sense. Part 1 contains
primarily Poland and Hungary, while Part 2 includes primarily Vienna and the
Czech Republic.
Our plan included 8 nights in Poland and Hungary, 4 nights
each. We will primarily be visiting the
southern part of Poland, around Kraków (Cracow in Polish). We will spend three nights in Kraków, and one
additional night getting there near Warsaw since it is almost 470 miles (750
km) from Vilnius to Kraków. We picked
Kraków as our primary destination in Poland as it was barely damaged during
World War II, and its historic buildings have been well preserved. Kraków also is a good base to visit the Nazi
death camp at Auschwitz, for a grim reminder of how horrible people can be to
their fellow citizens. If we are to prevent
history from repeating we need to visit sites such as Auschwitz to learn and to
insure they are not forgotten. As Otto
Frank said, “We cannot change what happened anymore. The only thing we can do is learn from the
past and to realize what discrimination and persecution of innocent people
means.” In Hungary, we will spend 1
night in Eger, and 3 nights in Budapest.
In between Poland and Hungary we will spend part of a day in the Spiš
region of Slovakia.
Day 47– Friday,
August 2. Warsaw. After we left
Lithuania we drove southwest towards Warsaw.
Today was just a driving day, with about 300 miles (480 km) to
travel. Most of the distance was on two
lane roads, with lots of truck traffic, and going through small towns so it
required more than 7 hours of driving time.
We stopped for food, rest breaks, and at an ATM to get some Polish
currency (the Zloty), but otherwise drove.
The area of Poland that we drove through was very flat. It was mostly farmland, with a lot of corn
being grown which is something that we had not seen in other countries. We
arrived at our destination about 7 PM.
Our lodging for the night was just south of the Warsaw airport. It was in a residential neighborhood. The family that runs the place lives on the
ground floor, and upstairs they have 5 suites of various sizes that they rent
out. It was a fairly new building,
clean, and easy to drive to. The owner
recommended an Italian restaurant that was a couple hundred meters away, so we
walked there for dinner. The food was
excellent.
Day 48– Saturday,
August 3. Kraków. Today we drove from Warsaw to Kraków, about
190 miles (300 km). Most of the driving
was on slow 2 lane roads, although there were a few sections of 4 lane divided
highways with higher speed limits. We
arrived at our hotel in Kraków around 4 PM, checked in, and then headed to the Historical
Museum of the City of Kraków, located in the former administration building of
Oskar Schindler’s WWII factory. Many of
you have likely heard of Oskar Schindler from the Oscar-winning film,
Schindler’s List. Schindler ran a factory
in Kraków, using Jewish laborers from close by concentration camps. However, unlike other factory owners who
ruthlessly exploited their slave laborers, Schindler grew to sympathize with
the plight of his Jewish workers and to protect them. He was responsible for projecting more than
1000 Jews, many who likely would have died in concentration camps without his
help. The museum has a section on Oskar
Schindler and his factory, but is much more comprehensive than that. It chronicles the 6 years (1939-1945) that
Kraków was under German occupation during World War II, with an emphasis on the
persecution of the Jewish residents of Kraków that made up 25% of the pre-war
population (over 65,000 Jews lived in Kraków when the Nazis invaded. The museum opened in 2010 and reviews have
said it is one of Europe’s best museums about the Nazi occupation. It did not disappoint. The displays were excellent (all in English
as well as Polish), and there were many interactive displays. We spent 3 hours at the museum, remaining
until it closed at 8 PM. Once we are
home we will need to watch Schindler’s list again as I am sure we will get more
out of it. I highly recommend the museum
to anyone who is in Kraków or can free up a day in a central European itinerary
to come to Kraków. The museum is very
close to the Jewish Ghetto in Krakow where Jews were segregated prior to the
formation of the concentration camps. After the museum we had dinner and then
returned to our hotel.
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| Rest stop in Poland |
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| Schindler’s Factory Building |
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| Section of wall from Krakow’s WWII Jewish Ghetto |
Day 49– Sunday,
August 4. Kraków. We spent most of
the day on a self-guided walking tour of Kraków’s Old Town. Old Town is compact, which makes it fairly easy
to navigate on foot. We caught a bus into town just outside our
hotel. 10 minutes later we arrived
outside of old town. We estimated where
to get off based on where we had crossed the river, and did fairly well – about
a 500m walk due west brought us to Rynek Główny, the main market square. Kraków’s market square was established in the
13th century and is very large.
At the time of construction it was illegal to sell anything on the
street, so everything had to be brought to the market square to be sold. The square is dominated by two
buildings. In the center of the square
is the Cloth Hall, where in middle ages the cloth-sellers had their market
stalls. The current building is from
1555, and currently vendors sell mostly souvenir items. Since this large building is in the middle of
the square it makes the square seem smaller than it really is – almost like two
squares. The other large building on the
square is St. Mary’s Church. The church
is interesting in that there are two prominent towers on the main façade. However, only one belongs to the church. The slightly taller tower is the municipal
watch tower. Every hour a bugler plays
the bejinał song. Legend has it that
during the first Tartar invasion a watchman saw the enemy approaching and
sounded the alarm. Before he could
finish an arrow pierced his throat. Even
today, the bejinał stops part way through.
Other noteworthy buildings located in the square are the Church of St.
Adalbert (the oldest church in Kraków, from the 10th century), and
the Town Hall Tower. The Town Hall was
in disrepair in the 19th century and was torn down, leaving just the
tower standing. We enjoyed the sights in
and around the square and had lunch there before heading on to the other parts
of old town.
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| Rynek Główny (Krakow market Square) |
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| Elizabeth and Matthew in Statue at Rynek Główny |
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| St. Mary’s Church |
Our next stop was St. Francis’ Basilica. This large Gothic
church was the home church of Pope John Paul II while he was archbishop of
Kraków. Across the street is the
Archbishop’s Palace, and remained Pope John Paul II’s home away from Rome when
he became Pope. He used to spend hours
chatting with people assembled in the street below the window that is above the
doorway. Today there is a photo of him
in the window. Today, he (Karol Wojtyła),
is revered throughout Poland, and many consider him to the greatest Pole of all
time. He gave Poles hope during the
communist era, played a key role in helping challenge the communists, kept the
church alive, and indirectly helped to gain the freedom of his homeland. We worked our way through the streets to Wawel
Hill. It is located on a bend in the Wistula
River, and a castle has stood on this location since the beginning of Poland’s
recorded history. Today the hill
contains Wawel Cathedral, the Wawel Castle, and some of the old fortification
walls. The Cathedral is the most
important one in Poland, and nearly all of Poland’s most important rulers and
national historic figures are entombed here.
The Castle contains a number of museums.
We went through the Cathedral, but skipped the museums. We did enjoy the views of the river and town
from the castle walls, descended down to the river and walked along the river
before catching the bus to our hotel. We
had dinner at the hotel.
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| Archbishop’s Palace and Pope John Paul II |
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| Wawel Castle wall |
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| Wawel Cathedral |
Day 50– Monday,
August 5. Kraków. We spent the day
at the Auschwitz NAZI death camp. This
was a very sobering experience. There
were actually two concentration camps located near the city of Oświecim which is
about a 75 minute drive southwest of Kraków.
The two camps are Auschwitz I, and Auschwitz II – Birkenau. Both today are preserved as memorials to the
over 1 million people who were murdered here by the Nazis during World War
II. It is highly recommended to visit
both, which we did. The camp at Auschwitz
I is very well preserved, and the former barracks now contain displays and
museums chronicling the history of the camps and the atrocities that took place
there. Auschwitz II – Birkenau is a 5 minute
drive away and is mostly ruins, with some reconstructed buildings. It is at Auschwitz II that you get a sense of
scale that the killing took place on. It
is one thing to read statistics in the museum (or in books), but when you see
the rows and rows of foundation from the barracks that once housed 100,000
people at a time being held before they were murdered it really sinks in. The site is huge, almost 500 acres (1 square
mile is 640 acres). It is very hard to grasp how so many people could be
actively involved in such a horrific activity.
I can understand how one insane or severely disenfranchised person could
torture and kill other people, but how thousands of people (all the SS guards)
could actively participate in such horrific crimes is unimaginable. It is scary to think that so many people
could be convinced to participate in these activities, with many of them
appearing to enjoy the torture and killing.
It really makes you wonder how civilized mankind really is, and how many
of us could be convinced by a charismatic leader to commit unthinkable crimes. I would like to think almost no one I know
would do such things, but the fact that Hitler convinced so many people to do
these things makes you wonder. Scary
thoughts. That is one reason why it so
important to not forget what happened – we all need to remember what
discrimination, hatred, and unchecked power can lead to and do our part to
insure that it never happens again.
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| Auschwitz Entrance |
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| Fence and Barracks at Auschwitz |
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| Auschwitz II – Birkenau |
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| Auschwitz II – Birkenau |
One surprising thing at Auschwitz was the seemingly lack of
respect some visitors and tour guides displayed. The information given to
visitors at the site said to act as if you were at a cemetery, and there were
signs in some places asking for silence, and signs in other areas saying
photographs were prohibited out of respect for victims. While most people seemed to adhere to the
rules, a surprisingly large number of both visitors and guides did not. For example, outside the courtyard where
firing squad executions occurred there was a sign in multiple languages stating
that there should be complete silence in the courtyard. We saw some guides talk to their group
outside, and then let the group go in silently to the courtyard, while other
guides walked into the courtyard blabbing away loudly about the atrocities that
had been committed there. There was also
a man talking loudly on his cell phone in this area as well. Probably a third of the people ignored the no
photos signs, and even the couple of cases where we saw a staff member ask someone
not to take pictures the person resumed taking pictures as soon as the staff
member walked away. Very disappointing
to see so many people who think they can do whatever they want to do, and don’t
show respect. People also seemed
generally less courteous than people on the streets in the big cities, again a
surprise as you think people would be on their best behavior in such a somber
place. Overall I have been pleasantly
surprised that almost everywhere we go people move out of the way for me to get
by on my crutches, offer to help open doors, give up their seat, etc. At Auschwitz there were people trying to push
their way by as I went up or down stairs.
Somewhat ironically, the worst group in terms of being pushy was a
Jewish group that I think were from Israel.
After spending 5 hours combined at the two sites we drove back to our
hotel, had dinner, and reflected on what we had learned.
Day 51– Tuesday, August
6. Eger, Hungary. Today we drove
from Kraków to Eger, Hungary, a drive of ~240 miles (380 km). More than half this distance would be driving
through the Spiš region (pronounced “Speesh”) of Slovakia. Shortly after leaving Kraków and heading
south the terrain started to change from flat farm land to rolling hills with
more trees to mountains that were mostly covered with coniferous trees. There were the first mountains we had seen
since leaving Sweden. Finland, the Baltic countries, and most of
Poland were very flat, and geographically “boring” – lots of history and
culture, but not much pretty scenery.
The countryside we drove through on our way to Slovakia was very
scenic. Down in the valleys there were
small town as well as farms. The farms
continued half way up the mountain sides in many areas. Poland has lots of small farms. During the Soviet occupation they succeeded
in not being collectivized. However, the
farms are not very efficient, and after years of large subsidies they are under
increasing pressure to collectivize into larger more efficient farms, or make
some other change to adopt to the current market realities. While the scenery was very beautiful
between Kraków and the border with Slovakia, traffic was very slow. The roads were primarily narrow winding two
lane roads, with lots of hills and traffic, and a lot of small towns to drive
through. As we neared the border with Slovakia the
mountains became much higher, with jagged rocky peaks. We passed several areas with ski lifts, and
the buildings started to look like chalets that you would typically see in the
mountains in Switzerland. We crossed
into Slovakia shortly before noon. Total
distance driven in Poland, 570
miles (920 km). Total distance driven to date, 5890 miles (9470 km). Our favorite things in Poland were: Elizabeth
– Krakow market square, Karen – Polish pottery, Matthew & Mike– Schindler
Museum.
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| Mountains in southern Poland |
The beautiful mountain scenery continued when we crossed
into Slovakia. After about 30 minutes we
came out of the mountains and into a broad valley with lots of larger farms,
primarily growing grain crops. We had a
late lunch in the small town of Levoča. This
small town has a mostly intact medieval wall, and a town square surrounded by
Renaissance buildings. We went in the
Church of St. James which is a large gothic church that dominates the main
square in town. The church is famous for
the ornately decorated alters, including the tallest wooden altarpiece in
Europe. Most of the alters were created
by the sculptor Master Pavol in the 16
th century. Unfortunately the main alter is in the
process of being restored and was covered.
After Levoča we went to Spiš Castle, one of Europe’s largest
castle. The current castle was built in
the 15
th century, and destroyed in 1781. However, the ruins are very impressive, high
on a hill above the surrounding towns and valley. We hiked up the hill and went through the
castle, leaving there as it was closing at 6 PM. Many
castles we have been to seem like they would have been relatively easy to
conquer even with medieval weapons, but Spiš Castle seems like it would have
been impenetrable before the advent of modern canons. We still had more than 3 hours left to drive,
so we headed off to Eger. I had emailed
the place we would be staying a couple of days before to confirm that it would
not be a problem arriving late. The
owners live next door so they told us to go to their house to get the key to
our apartment. We entered Hungary at
about 8 PM. Total distance driven in
Slovakia, 125 miles (200 km).
Total distance driven to date, 6010 miles (9670 km). Our favorite things in our brief visit to
Slovakia were: Karen – LEKĂREŇ (a
pharmacy chain that she thinks is named after her), the rest of us, Spiš
Castle.
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Mountains in
Slovakia
|
Day 52– Wednesday,
August 7. Budapest. Budapest was
only a short 1.5 hour drive from Eger, so we spent most of the day in Eger,
leaving about 4 PM to head to Budapest. From
our apartment is was just a 5 minute walk down to the main street leading to in
the core part of old town. After
breakfast we started with a visit to the Eger Cathedral where we listened to an
organ recital. Next we went to the Lyceum. In the mid-18th century the local
bishop wanted to start a university, but Habsburg Emperor Josef II refused to
allow it. So, Bishop Eszterházy built
the most advanced teacher training college, stocking it with the best books and
astronomical equipment that money could buy.
The school is still active today with about 2000 students, but the astronomy
section is a museum. In addition to the
old historical astronomy equipment, there is a room with ~20 fun hands on
science exhibits where you can learn about different scientific
principles. Most unique is the camera
obscura, the oldest still operational in the word, dating from 1776. This “periscope” projects its image on a flat
white table about 4 feet in diameter under the cupula on the 9th
floor. Since this is the highest point
in the town, the operator can pan and zoom around the city, with the image
being projected. It is cool even today,
but in the 18th century (long before movies or even still
photographs), showing moving images was viewed almost as magical. Consider
it one of the world’s first video surveillance systems! As the operator panned over and zoomed in on
the police building she laughed and said “Who is watching who?” After the Lyceum, we worked our way through
town to the Eger Castle. The castle is
famous in Hungary as the location where Ustván Dobó held off the Ottoman’s in
1552 despite being severely outmanned.
The castle has a nice view of town, but is otherwise not very impressive
and was a mixture of fortifications from various dates, including some machine
gun “pill boxes” that looked to be of WW II era We finished out visit in town
at Dobó square. We then drove to
Budapest where we would spend the next 3 nights.
Since Budapest attractions are spread out and it was so hot
we decided to buy a pass for the hop-on-hop-off bus which stopped at 14
different sites it Buda and Pest. We used
the hop-on-hop bus to help orient ourselves with city. Instead of souvenirs, we bought bottles of
water, lots of bottles of water. J We
ended up spending our first day seeing sights on the Pest side of the river,
starting at Parliament. The main square
by Parliament was being reconstructed as was one end of the building. There were a lot of places we have visited on
our trip that have scaffolding and are supposedly being restored. Some of them have active work being done, but
others have no visible work being done. Our
theory is that the scaffolding was erected by postcard vendors to increase
business since tourists can’t get a good picture. J
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| Mike
and Matthew on the bus |
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| Drinking water |
After Parliament we went to St. István’s Cathedral, built
around 1896 to celebrate the 1,000
th anniversary of the Magyars’
arrival in Hungary. We enjoyed the Cathedral, but passed on seeing
the “holy right hand” of St. István. Not
sure why anyone would be interested in seeing a 1,000 year old withered stump
of a hand in a jeweled box. Several of
the Catholic Churches we have been to have had items like this – not sure if
this is something that many Catholics are interested in, or if most of them also
find it bizarre and not interesting. We then
went to Hero’s Square, and City Park. Hero’s
Square also built in 1896. There are a
large number of structures and monuments that were built for the millennia celebration. The square has a number of statues and is adjacent
to City Park. The park is very large,
and has a castle, a lake, an amusement park, and hot thermal baths. We went to the castle and strolled by the
lake where they had wake borde. We then
worked our way back down to the river. After
dinner we finished our day with a sunset cruise on the Danube River. It was still very hot even after sunset, and
while the lights along the river were pretty, there were swarms of small
bugs. I avoided eating any, but the rest
of the family was not as fortunate.
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| St.
István’s Cathedral |
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| St.
István’s Cathedral |
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| Monument
at Hero’s Square |
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| Parliament
Building from the River |
 |
Karen and Mike by Chain Bridge
|
Day 54– Friday,
August 9. Budapest. It was slightly
cooler in for our second day in Budapest, but only by a couple of degrees. However, psychologically we were better
prepared for the very hot weather. We
started our day with a tour of the Great Synagogue. This is the world’s
second-largest synagogue, built in 1859.
The Budapest Jews wanted to show they were well integrated in the
community, so the building was designed to resemble Christian churches of the
time. It was cynically labeled at the
time as “the most beautiful Catholic synagogue in the world”. There was an interesting museum in the
basement chronicling the early history of Jews in Budapest and the building of
the synagogue. We then headed over to
Buda. Our first stop was down by the
river, at the west end of the Chain Bridge.
Here the Zero Kilometer statue is located. This is the point from where all distances in
Hungary are measured. There is even a
town in Hungary named “Hatvan”, which means “Sixty” in Hungarian. This town is located exactly sixty km from the
zero point. Next we went up Castle
Hill. This area sits high above the west
bank of the Danube River, providing great views across the river to Pest. After lunch we went to Matthias Church. The walls inside the church are decorated
with symbolic motifs that represent the different eras in Hungarian
history. In the upstairs gallery there
is a small museum with historical pieces, and displays on the process used to preserve/restore
them. After the church we walked around
Fishermen’s Bastion, a Disneyland like Neo-Romanesque rampart that offers great
views of Pest across the river. We then
walked down to the Royal Palace, saw the changing of the guard (a nice 5 minute
ceremony), and the large statue of the Turul Bird that is visible from
Pest. This mythical bird supposedly lead
the Hungarian migration in the 9
th century from Central Asia to
their current homeland. After a quick
stop on Gellért Hill, which is crowned by the Liberation Monument, we returned
to Pest. After dinner we went to
Szécheni Baths for a relaxing soak.
These baths are located in City Park that we had visited the previous
day.
Day 55– Saturday,
August 10. Onward to Vienna. During
the night it was very stormy, with high winds and some rain. Refreshingly it was much cooler by
morning. We had only about a 2.5 hour
drive to get from Budapest to Vienna, so we decided to take a detour to
Bratislava, Slovakia. We had some rain on our drive from Budapest,
but only showers for the first hour and then it cleared up to become a nice
day. Bratislava is the largest city and
the capital of Slovakia. We spent a
couple of hours there doing a self-guided walking tour though Bratislava’s Old
Town. This area of town is very nice –
pedestrian only streets, lots of sidewalk cafes, and well maintained
buildings. There were also a number of
interesting statues in the old part of town.
Also interesting is the Old Town Hall tower. Part way up the tower there is a cannonball
embedded in the façade – left over from when Napoleon’s army invaded. This was our first visit to Bratislava, but
from what I have read even a decade ago the city would have been much less
inviting. It is great to see this place
recovering from the neglect that occurred during the Soviet occupation. We would have liked to have spent more time,
but were glad that we at least had a chance to spend a couple of hours in the
city – will definitely have to come back at a future time and see the city and
surrounding area in much more depth.
Total
distance driven in our second jaunt into Slovakia, 21 miles (33 km). Bratislava is located at the tip of Slovakia,
where Slovakia borders both Hungary and Austria so it was just a quick drive
north across the border from Hungary to get there, and a quick drive west to
cross into Austria on our way to Vienna.
Going from Hungary into Slovakia there were large trucks lined up for
several miles – hundreds of trucks.
First we thought it was for some type of border inspection, but later we
saw that the trucks in front of the line were just parked beside the freeway
well after the border crossing. Not sure
what the reason was.
Other observations:
In Poland and in Hungary we have found fewer people who speak English
well. This has led to more communication
with gestures including holding up fingers for numbers. We noticed something different in how they
communicate numbers than we do. In the
United States, most people extend the index finger upward to signify the number
1, the index finger plus the middle finger to signify the number 2, and so
forth. We found that people here start
with the thumb. The number one is just
the thumb extended horizontally, the number 2 is the thumb and index finder
extended at right angles, and so forth. A
quick internet search confirmed that most English speakers (especially North
America and UK) start with the index finger for the number 1, while most of
Europe starts with the thumb for the number 1.
I vaguely remember noticing this on prior trips to Europe, but hadn’t
observed this before on this trip since we were in areas where English was
spoken reasonably well and people just said “one”, “two”, “three”, etc. vs.
holding up fingers. Not clear how this
difference came about.
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