Back from Central Europe
Jun 25th, 2005, 02:09 PM
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Back from Central Europe
Us two oldsters have returned this week from Central Europe. Sure good to be back in your own bed, and not wrestling with those comforters. Our tour schedule had me celebrating my birthday at Auschwitz which was something different (but did have a party at Krakow Jewish restaurant later). Here's a summary without comments (but I do have many impressions for sure).
In Warsaw area: reconstructed Old Town Sq., Lazienki Park with Chopin memorial, dinner in a country home, visit to a ballet school, the Royal Castle, Heroes of the Ghetto monument, Chopin piano recital/dinner in a manor house, checking genealogy records
In Krakow area: Wawel Castle and Cathedral, old Market Sq. with Cloth Hall, St. Mary's Cathedral with Stwosz altarpiece, Jagiellonian Univ. courtyard, art in Czartoryski, the once thriving Jewish ghetto in Podgorze, Old Jewish Quarter with dinner at ul Szeroka, Schindler's factory, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps incl. interivew with survivor Mr. Smollen, university lecturer on "Krakow in the Time of Copernicus," dinner at Radisson Hotel with folk group and at Pod Anilolami, Zakopane village near Tatra Mnt. with lunch at Ziebel's Ranger Station, Sacred Heart Mass with procession at Chocholo village, Czestochowa shrine and Jasna Gora Monastery
(to be continued)
Ozarks Bill
In Warsaw area: reconstructed Old Town Sq., Lazienki Park with Chopin memorial, dinner in a country home, visit to a ballet school, the Royal Castle, Heroes of the Ghetto monument, Chopin piano recital/dinner in a manor house, checking genealogy records
In Krakow area: Wawel Castle and Cathedral, old Market Sq. with Cloth Hall, St. Mary's Cathedral with Stwosz altarpiece, Jagiellonian Univ. courtyard, art in Czartoryski, the once thriving Jewish ghetto in Podgorze, Old Jewish Quarter with dinner at ul Szeroka, Schindler's factory, Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps incl. interivew with survivor Mr. Smollen, university lecturer on "Krakow in the Time of Copernicus," dinner at Radisson Hotel with folk group and at Pod Anilolami, Zakopane village near Tatra Mnt. with lunch at Ziebel's Ranger Station, Sacred Heart Mass with procession at Chocholo village, Czestochowa shrine and Jasna Gora Monastery
(to be continued)
Ozarks Bill
Jun 26th, 2005, 03:46 PM
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not queer, not always agreed on as there are no official boundaries, only a shared history, but not 'queer'.
for example:www.answers.com
Central Europe includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and
Hungary.
for example:www.answers.com
Central Europe includes the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Poland, and
Hungary.
Jun 27th, 2005, 05:40 AM
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Jun 27th, 2005, 09:06 AM
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Hey, thanks for your responses! Our tour was labeled actually as sights in Eastern Europe but on reflection I have called it Central Europe, especially with Austria included. I know this has been a prior Fodors debate. But we didn't travel to Bulgaria or Romania.
Comments on this part one of our report:
Which city did we like the best? Tough to say. Likely Warsaw and Poland is an overlooked destination. It is amazing how Warsaw's old square was recreated to its present charm from what was
rubble...and to me the horrors of the ghetto uprisings is still haunting.
Sadly today's Jewish population is very, very small compared to pre WW II.
A highlight, though, was a special Chopin piano recital by Eugeniusz Chudak-Morzuchowski in a country manor house.
Czectochowa en route to Krakow is a crowded tourist shrine not to my taste but still intriguing. As for Krakow, an undamaged and charming old town. We did love it incl. shopping in the former Cloth Hall (amber, etc). Also side trips into the country to Zakopane in the mountains and also Auschwitz death camp deserving deeper reflections on its own. (I now have added a rock to my collection from the death camp pathway).
Then there's Prague, its charm oft mentioned on Fodors. Who can forget the Castle and Charles Bridge and Wenceslaus Square with an added dash of a beer hall and a concert treat. Great place to wander. Our group took in the Dvorak's summer home and visit to Naslov village as well.
As for Budapest, definitely a city to see with its specacular structures on both sides of the Danube, the Castle complex and the Parliament building
both deserving a tour. Budapest seemed more like a bustling city than Prague, but we used the subway (incl. the little train which is the oldest in Europe, 1896). Here we found museums and concerts and added a Danube Bend cruise to Szentendre...amazing sculpture museum of Margit Kovacs there. Also see unique Holloko village.
Vienna is a class act all its own, big and bustling but with an old world charm. For sure museums and concerts here, with our last night at Vienna Opera House (cheap standing room very adequate). Nothing like Schoebrunn and the Beledere and Hofberg palaces reminding us of the splendor of the Habsburg era. Good trip to Vienna Woods as well which surrounds Vienna on three sides.
Well, can't really say which is an outright favorite city. Getting out of the cities is a good idea, too.
See comments on socioeconomic and other questions in the part 2 of my report.
Ozarks Bill
Comments on this part one of our report:
Which city did we like the best? Tough to say. Likely Warsaw and Poland is an overlooked destination. It is amazing how Warsaw's old square was recreated to its present charm from what was
rubble...and to me the horrors of the ghetto uprisings is still haunting.
Sadly today's Jewish population is very, very small compared to pre WW II.
A highlight, though, was a special Chopin piano recital by Eugeniusz Chudak-Morzuchowski in a country manor house.
Czectochowa en route to Krakow is a crowded tourist shrine not to my taste but still intriguing. As for Krakow, an undamaged and charming old town. We did love it incl. shopping in the former Cloth Hall (amber, etc). Also side trips into the country to Zakopane in the mountains and also Auschwitz death camp deserving deeper reflections on its own. (I now have added a rock to my collection from the death camp pathway).
Then there's Prague, its charm oft mentioned on Fodors. Who can forget the Castle and Charles Bridge and Wenceslaus Square with an added dash of a beer hall and a concert treat. Great place to wander. Our group took in the Dvorak's summer home and visit to Naslov village as well.
As for Budapest, definitely a city to see with its specacular structures on both sides of the Danube, the Castle complex and the Parliament building
both deserving a tour. Budapest seemed more like a bustling city than Prague, but we used the subway (incl. the little train which is the oldest in Europe, 1896). Here we found museums and concerts and added a Danube Bend cruise to Szentendre...amazing sculpture museum of Margit Kovacs there. Also see unique Holloko village.
Vienna is a class act all its own, big and bustling but with an old world charm. For sure museums and concerts here, with our last night at Vienna Opera House (cheap standing room very adequate). Nothing like Schoebrunn and the Beledere and Hofberg palaces reminding us of the splendor of the Habsburg era. Good trip to Vienna Woods as well which surrounds Vienna on three sides.
Well, can't really say which is an outright favorite city. Getting out of the cities is a good idea, too.
See comments on socioeconomic and other questions in the part 2 of my report.
Ozarks Bill
