Trip Report - Globus Legendary Danube Cruise
May 29th, 2005, 08:01 AM
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Trip Report - Globus Legendary Danube Cruise
TRIP REPORT – GLOBUS LEGENDARY DANUBE CRUISE
Why we chose this particular trip:
When my husband Ray and I decided that we wanted to vacation in Europe, we knew our time would be limited. We did not want to spend it packing and unpacking every day, struggling with a language barrier, or filling out forms to drive on foreign soil. A cruise seemed the ideal way to go. The Legendary Danube cruise encompasses an area whose history and culture is of interest to both of us. In addition, the trip begins with three days in Prague, a city virtually untouched – at least physically – by World War II.
Getting to Prague:
The British Airways overnight flight to Heathrow was, in a word, horrid. Neither one of us slept. They served dinner around midnight (just when I was hoping to doze off). The seats were designed by a sadist – no back support and no leg room for anyone taller than a midget. I turned on music in an attempt to relax. The fellow next to me, a burly football player type, tried to sleep with his arms crossed, but every so often his left arm slipped and his elbow hit my volume button, jolting me to full wakefulness. So off with the headphones.
Our flight from Heathrow to Prague was delayed an hour because they had taken on too much fuel and had to dump the excess. But at least the seats were bigger.
Prague and the Czech Republic:
Globus met us at the Prague airport and drove us to the Hilton, where we met Robert, our cruise director, and did a minimum of unpacking for the next day. I decided to take a shower before going to bed. Jet lagged and brain dead, I dislocated my toe trying to figure out how to turn on the shower.
From this point on, our trip took a dramatic turn for the better. I got my toe back where it belonged, figured out the shower, took my shower, and we both slept soundly.
The buffet breakfast at the Hilton is included in the tour, and we enjoyed this excellent meal. We were then taken on a tour of the city of Prague, along with other members of our group. As with most of the tours on this trip, it lasted about three hours and included both walking and being driven in a coach (bus). Our guide did a superb job of introducing us to this magical city.
Neither Ray nor I are particularly interested in architecture, but this city is visually stunning. A riot of styles, shapes, and colors greeted us at every turn. Narrow cobblestone alleyways huddle in the shadows of soaring, buttressed cathedrals built in the 13th century or earlier. Statues guard municipal buildings, churches, and, most famously, the Charles Bridge which crosses the Vltava River. (The story of one such statue is told in the context of the Nazi occupation of Prague in the powerful novel Mendelssohn is on the Roof, by Jiri Weil.)
Our guide recounted her memories of life under the Communist regime, which ended only 15 years ago. We strolled on Wenceslas Square, where massive, nonviolent demonstrations in 1989 led to a peaceful transition to a democratic government. Here, as everywhere, there was music. It’s easy to see why Mozart, Dvorak and Smetana called this city home.
Seeing Prague’s Jewish Quarter was a must for me, and we did not know whether to buy a block ticket (which allows you to see several sights on your own) or go with the Globus tour (with fewer sights but a good guide). We chose the Globus tour, which was probably the better choice.
Although the Jews of Prague were ghettoized centuries ago, Hitler had a special plan for the ghetto. He decided to establish a “Museum of an Extinct Race” in Prague’s Jewish Quarter. Artifacts were collected from the liquidated Jewish communities of Europe, even as almost all of Prague’s Jews were shipped to their deaths.
Today the Jewish Museum consists of several synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Pinkas Synagogue is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The names of 77,297 Czech Jews are handwritten on the walls, and there is an exhibit of children’s drawings from Terezin, the nearby concentration camp. The Cemetery is multi-layered because the Jews were never allowed to expand it, nor were they allowed to bury their dead anywhere else. Today the gravestones are a crowded, crooked jumble, and a sad reminder that discrimination can exist even beyond the end of life.
Our day ended on a joyful note, with an optional concert of Czech and Slovak folk music. The Gypsy violins accompanied singers and dancers in colorful costumes, who entertained us with much leaping, twirling, and foot slapping.
The next morning we took an optional tour to Terezin, about an hour north of Prague. The larger part of this camp served as a ghetto, concentration camp, and transfer station to the death camps for those Jews who did not die from the harsh conditions in Terezin. In addition, Hitler spruced up the camp, shipped off the most pathetic of the inmates, and invited the Red Cross in to make a film showing how kindly he treated the Jews. We took a brief tour of this part of the camp, and a more detailed tour of the “Small Fortress”, which was the Gestapo prison for Jews and other “criminals”. Here we walked under the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, and stood in a room which once held 100 prisoners who slept standing in their own filth because there was no room to lie down.
On the way back to Prague, our guide talked about life under the Communists. People constantly bucked the system in order to get the basic necessities. Yet 20% of the people still vote Communist today, saying they miss the cradle to grave security.
Once back in Prague, we walked to the Charles Bridge and crossed to the Castle District. This was the only time during the entire trip that we felt truly crowded by tourists. We walked back via the back streets, which were quite deserted.
The next morning we had to be out of our rooms by 9:30. The busses were scheduled to pick us up at 1:30 for the drive to Nuremberg, Germany. They took our luggage, but we had to hold onto anything we thought we might need or anything we didn’t want to pack (such as the marionette I had bought). This put a bit of a damper on any sightseeing we might have done, but we were probably all ready for a break anyway.
The Czech and German countryside was lovely. We passed green, rolling hills, tiny villages with huge onion-dome churches and neat gardens. At the border there was a quick passport check and a bathroom break. As Ray and I had gotten rid of all our Czech crowns, we had to borrow money from another passenger to pay the attendant. The drive took about five hours.
The Poetry:
The ship was docked on the Main-Danube Canal, which connects the Main and Danube Rivers. We were shown immediately to our cabin and our luggage arrived about 10 minutes later. The cabin was small but not cramped. There was plenty of storage space, though I was glad I had brought extra coat hangers. Everything on the ship was spotless – except the windows on the bottom deck (our deck, which we lovingly named the “bilge deck”). We were occasionally under water level in order to pass under certain bridges, and it was actually kind of fun to peer out into the murky Danube, which is neither beautiful nor blue. They did clean the windows – on our next to last day. However, we spent so little time in the cabin that the window was not an issue.
We left for the safety meeting and Captain’s Dinner with our suitcases and stuff strewn all over the beds. When we returned, the suitcases were stacked in a corner, and everything else was neatly placed on the counter tops. The beds were turned down, there were chocolates on the pillows, and Ray’s crossword puzzle book was next to his chocolate. This thoughtful gesture set the tone for the entire cruise. Every crew member truly walked the extra mile for us. All were fluent in English, and eager to help in any way.
Food was excellent – especially the desserts. Breakfast and lunch are buffet style. Dinner consists of several courses and usually lasts from about 7 to 9 pm. We thought this would take some getting used to, but dinner is light enough that you don’t go to bed with a full stomach. The meals are where you get to know your fellow passengers. Most on our cruise were retired Americans, though there was a good age-nationality mix. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a number of people. We were among the few who were not seasoned cruisers.
The Poetry has a small workout room with two bikes, a rowing machine, and hot tub. Several of us grumbled that it would have been nice to have a treadmill. The only other amenity that I believe was missing was an elevator, which would have benefited a number of our passengers.
Germany:
The following morning we toured Nuremberg. A chilling sight was the Nazi Party rally grounds, and the podium from which Hitler made his speeches. We then had some free time in the old town, much of which was bombed during the war but has been nicely restored. The medieval castle and stable were not damaged in the war.
That afternoon we set sail and passed through the first of many locks. We stood on deck and watched the whole process, which took about a half hour. Later we attended a lecture in the lounge on the lock system and history of the canal.
Regensburg was our first stop the following morning, and at that point we were off the canal and on the river. One of the things we liked about this cruise was that we visited several small medieval towns that are off the beaten tourist track. Regensburg is such a place. Like Prague, it was virtually untouched in the war. It was originally a Roman camp, established to protect the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. That frontier was the Danube River. It was interesting to look across the river to the “land of the barbarians”, and to view ruins almost 2,000 years old.
That afternoon we headed via coach to Kelheim, where we boarded a boat and cruised through the Danube Gorge to the Weltenburg Abbey, which supports itself in part by brewing and selling beer.
Austria:
We had decided to take the optional day-long trip to Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart. “The Sound of Music” was also filmed here. Salzburg has the highest amount of rainfall of any city in Austria, and not surprisingly it poured while we were there. Umbrellas obscured our views of the lovely old buildings, the mountains were nowhere to be seen, and we could not hear our guide. Lunch was not provided, so Ray and I shared a soggy cheese pretzel from a street vendor. The WC police were out in force, making sure we paid for the use of the bathrooms.
We did, however, pay homage to Mozart by touring his birth house. I wished that my mother could have been with us – she played the piano, and always said that you have not learned to play the piano unless you have learned to play Mozart.
The next day was just as pretty as the Salzburg day had been miserable. It was the perfect day to visit the Melk Abbey, which sits high on a bluff overlooking the river. Melk was probably the most visually stunning of all the religious buildings we visited on the tour. An amazing library containing books hundreds of years old and what I refer to as the world’s first psychedelic ceiling were among the many wonders in the Abbey.
After lunch we sailed through the Wachau Valley, with its terraced hillsides, vineyards, and castles large and small, in ruins and restored, and one with a large sunroom added to the front. Apparently some of the castles are restored and used as vacation homes. Often there are small villages nestled just outside the castle walls. In medieval times, the villagers could make a hasty retreat to the safety of the castle if need be.
That evening we arrived in Vienna and attended the optional Strauss-Mozart concert in the Kursalon, which is where the Strauss family performed its greatest works. The show consisted of a small orchestra, vocal works, ballet and waltzes. Afterwards there was a midnight snack of goulash soup, which is the traditional way goulash is served in Europe.
The next morning we were off to tour Vienna. This was probably our least favorite city. The city suffered heavy damage during the war, and modern buildings sit next to medieval ones. Johann Strauss’ apartment, for example, is above a McDonalds. We spent most of our time in Saint Stephan’s Cathedral, which is typical of most of the cathedrals we saw in that it was built and rebuilt over a period of several centuries. Often a cathedral would suffer fire damage, or need to be enlarged or modernized. The repairs or changes were usually made in the current architectural style, so that the building today represents a mixture of styles.
Slovakia:
From our least favorite city we went on to my favorite city – Bratislava. This is a small, untouristy city with a charming medieval center, the requisite castle on the hill, and, for a change of pace, no huge cathedral to dominate the scene. We also saw here the leftovers of Communism in the form of hundreds of drab, concrete block apartments. The Slovaks are working hard to bring their tiny country into the modern world of democracy and capitalism.
Budapest:
The ship sailed around the Danube Bend on Saturday morning, the last day of our cruise. The views of the city as you approach it from the river are magnificent. After docking, we were face checked by the customs people and then had some free time on shore. Ray and I did a self guided walking tour of the Jewish Quarter. The Dohany Synagogue is still in use after having been desecrated by the Nazis. Eichmann set up his office there and used the synagogue as a holding area for Jews waiting to be shipped out to the death camps. There is a mass grave in an adjacent courtyard holding the bodies of thousands of Jews who died of starvation and disease in the Budapest ghetto. Many others were thrown into the Danube by the Hungarian Nazis, while the Soviets held the city under siege during the last months of the war. As we were there during the Jewish Sabbath, the Quarter was very quiet. It is quite dilapidated, and I am hopeful that someday it will be restored.
Our city tour of Budapest reminded me of Prague – it’s just not quite as big or showy. Many of the Communist era buildings are in varying state of repair or disrepair.
After the Farewell Dinner, we enjoyed some time on the top deck. Lights illuminated the Parliament and Chain Bridge, and a full moon shone on the Danube. A perfect ending to a wonderful cruise.
Sunday morning we were driven to the Budapest Airport, where I encountered some difficulty with the security check. I had followed others’ advice and packed all my souvenirs, together with their receipts, separately. Among my souvenirs was a metal star-shaped Christmas ornament with a picture of Mozart painted on it. The two neo/pseudo/KGB type security guards discovered the ornament, turned it over and over, passed it back and forth, muttered and whispered in a language I could not understand, and glanced at me repeatedly and furtively as I smiled wanly at nothing in particular. The female KGB type pronounced the ornament a “dangerous object” and ordered me to throw it in the box, which I of course did without hesitation.
Our trip back to the States was uneventful. I spent much of the time trying to figure out how one might hijack a plane with a Christmas tree ornament - especially one with a picture of Mozart on it.
Why we chose this particular trip:
When my husband Ray and I decided that we wanted to vacation in Europe, we knew our time would be limited. We did not want to spend it packing and unpacking every day, struggling with a language barrier, or filling out forms to drive on foreign soil. A cruise seemed the ideal way to go. The Legendary Danube cruise encompasses an area whose history and culture is of interest to both of us. In addition, the trip begins with three days in Prague, a city virtually untouched – at least physically – by World War II.
Getting to Prague:
The British Airways overnight flight to Heathrow was, in a word, horrid. Neither one of us slept. They served dinner around midnight (just when I was hoping to doze off). The seats were designed by a sadist – no back support and no leg room for anyone taller than a midget. I turned on music in an attempt to relax. The fellow next to me, a burly football player type, tried to sleep with his arms crossed, but every so often his left arm slipped and his elbow hit my volume button, jolting me to full wakefulness. So off with the headphones.
Our flight from Heathrow to Prague was delayed an hour because they had taken on too much fuel and had to dump the excess. But at least the seats were bigger.
Prague and the Czech Republic:
Globus met us at the Prague airport and drove us to the Hilton, where we met Robert, our cruise director, and did a minimum of unpacking for the next day. I decided to take a shower before going to bed. Jet lagged and brain dead, I dislocated my toe trying to figure out how to turn on the shower.
From this point on, our trip took a dramatic turn for the better. I got my toe back where it belonged, figured out the shower, took my shower, and we both slept soundly.
The buffet breakfast at the Hilton is included in the tour, and we enjoyed this excellent meal. We were then taken on a tour of the city of Prague, along with other members of our group. As with most of the tours on this trip, it lasted about three hours and included both walking and being driven in a coach (bus). Our guide did a superb job of introducing us to this magical city.
Neither Ray nor I are particularly interested in architecture, but this city is visually stunning. A riot of styles, shapes, and colors greeted us at every turn. Narrow cobblestone alleyways huddle in the shadows of soaring, buttressed cathedrals built in the 13th century or earlier. Statues guard municipal buildings, churches, and, most famously, the Charles Bridge which crosses the Vltava River. (The story of one such statue is told in the context of the Nazi occupation of Prague in the powerful novel Mendelssohn is on the Roof, by Jiri Weil.)
Our guide recounted her memories of life under the Communist regime, which ended only 15 years ago. We strolled on Wenceslas Square, where massive, nonviolent demonstrations in 1989 led to a peaceful transition to a democratic government. Here, as everywhere, there was music. It’s easy to see why Mozart, Dvorak and Smetana called this city home.
Seeing Prague’s Jewish Quarter was a must for me, and we did not know whether to buy a block ticket (which allows you to see several sights on your own) or go with the Globus tour (with fewer sights but a good guide). We chose the Globus tour, which was probably the better choice.
Although the Jews of Prague were ghettoized centuries ago, Hitler had a special plan for the ghetto. He decided to establish a “Museum of an Extinct Race” in Prague’s Jewish Quarter. Artifacts were collected from the liquidated Jewish communities of Europe, even as almost all of Prague’s Jews were shipped to their deaths.
Today the Jewish Museum consists of several synagogues and the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Pinkas Synagogue is a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. The names of 77,297 Czech Jews are handwritten on the walls, and there is an exhibit of children’s drawings from Terezin, the nearby concentration camp. The Cemetery is multi-layered because the Jews were never allowed to expand it, nor were they allowed to bury their dead anywhere else. Today the gravestones are a crowded, crooked jumble, and a sad reminder that discrimination can exist even beyond the end of life.
Our day ended on a joyful note, with an optional concert of Czech and Slovak folk music. The Gypsy violins accompanied singers and dancers in colorful costumes, who entertained us with much leaping, twirling, and foot slapping.
The next morning we took an optional tour to Terezin, about an hour north of Prague. The larger part of this camp served as a ghetto, concentration camp, and transfer station to the death camps for those Jews who did not die from the harsh conditions in Terezin. In addition, Hitler spruced up the camp, shipped off the most pathetic of the inmates, and invited the Red Cross in to make a film showing how kindly he treated the Jews. We took a brief tour of this part of the camp, and a more detailed tour of the “Small Fortress”, which was the Gestapo prison for Jews and other “criminals”. Here we walked under the infamous “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign, and stood in a room which once held 100 prisoners who slept standing in their own filth because there was no room to lie down.
On the way back to Prague, our guide talked about life under the Communists. People constantly bucked the system in order to get the basic necessities. Yet 20% of the people still vote Communist today, saying they miss the cradle to grave security.
Once back in Prague, we walked to the Charles Bridge and crossed to the Castle District. This was the only time during the entire trip that we felt truly crowded by tourists. We walked back via the back streets, which were quite deserted.
The next morning we had to be out of our rooms by 9:30. The busses were scheduled to pick us up at 1:30 for the drive to Nuremberg, Germany. They took our luggage, but we had to hold onto anything we thought we might need or anything we didn’t want to pack (such as the marionette I had bought). This put a bit of a damper on any sightseeing we might have done, but we were probably all ready for a break anyway.
The Czech and German countryside was lovely. We passed green, rolling hills, tiny villages with huge onion-dome churches and neat gardens. At the border there was a quick passport check and a bathroom break. As Ray and I had gotten rid of all our Czech crowns, we had to borrow money from another passenger to pay the attendant. The drive took about five hours.
The Poetry:
The ship was docked on the Main-Danube Canal, which connects the Main and Danube Rivers. We were shown immediately to our cabin and our luggage arrived about 10 minutes later. The cabin was small but not cramped. There was plenty of storage space, though I was glad I had brought extra coat hangers. Everything on the ship was spotless – except the windows on the bottom deck (our deck, which we lovingly named the “bilge deck”). We were occasionally under water level in order to pass under certain bridges, and it was actually kind of fun to peer out into the murky Danube, which is neither beautiful nor blue. They did clean the windows – on our next to last day. However, we spent so little time in the cabin that the window was not an issue.
We left for the safety meeting and Captain’s Dinner with our suitcases and stuff strewn all over the beds. When we returned, the suitcases were stacked in a corner, and everything else was neatly placed on the counter tops. The beds were turned down, there were chocolates on the pillows, and Ray’s crossword puzzle book was next to his chocolate. This thoughtful gesture set the tone for the entire cruise. Every crew member truly walked the extra mile for us. All were fluent in English, and eager to help in any way.
Food was excellent – especially the desserts. Breakfast and lunch are buffet style. Dinner consists of several courses and usually lasts from about 7 to 9 pm. We thought this would take some getting used to, but dinner is light enough that you don’t go to bed with a full stomach. The meals are where you get to know your fellow passengers. Most on our cruise were retired Americans, though there was a good age-nationality mix. We thoroughly enjoyed getting to know a number of people. We were among the few who were not seasoned cruisers.
The Poetry has a small workout room with two bikes, a rowing machine, and hot tub. Several of us grumbled that it would have been nice to have a treadmill. The only other amenity that I believe was missing was an elevator, which would have benefited a number of our passengers.
Germany:
The following morning we toured Nuremberg. A chilling sight was the Nazi Party rally grounds, and the podium from which Hitler made his speeches. We then had some free time in the old town, much of which was bombed during the war but has been nicely restored. The medieval castle and stable were not damaged in the war.
That afternoon we set sail and passed through the first of many locks. We stood on deck and watched the whole process, which took about a half hour. Later we attended a lecture in the lounge on the lock system and history of the canal.
Regensburg was our first stop the following morning, and at that point we were off the canal and on the river. One of the things we liked about this cruise was that we visited several small medieval towns that are off the beaten tourist track. Regensburg is such a place. Like Prague, it was virtually untouched in the war. It was originally a Roman camp, established to protect the northern frontier of the Roman Empire. That frontier was the Danube River. It was interesting to look across the river to the “land of the barbarians”, and to view ruins almost 2,000 years old.
That afternoon we headed via coach to Kelheim, where we boarded a boat and cruised through the Danube Gorge to the Weltenburg Abbey, which supports itself in part by brewing and selling beer.
Austria:
We had decided to take the optional day-long trip to Salzburg, the birthplace of Mozart. “The Sound of Music” was also filmed here. Salzburg has the highest amount of rainfall of any city in Austria, and not surprisingly it poured while we were there. Umbrellas obscured our views of the lovely old buildings, the mountains were nowhere to be seen, and we could not hear our guide. Lunch was not provided, so Ray and I shared a soggy cheese pretzel from a street vendor. The WC police were out in force, making sure we paid for the use of the bathrooms.
We did, however, pay homage to Mozart by touring his birth house. I wished that my mother could have been with us – she played the piano, and always said that you have not learned to play the piano unless you have learned to play Mozart.
The next day was just as pretty as the Salzburg day had been miserable. It was the perfect day to visit the Melk Abbey, which sits high on a bluff overlooking the river. Melk was probably the most visually stunning of all the religious buildings we visited on the tour. An amazing library containing books hundreds of years old and what I refer to as the world’s first psychedelic ceiling were among the many wonders in the Abbey.
After lunch we sailed through the Wachau Valley, with its terraced hillsides, vineyards, and castles large and small, in ruins and restored, and one with a large sunroom added to the front. Apparently some of the castles are restored and used as vacation homes. Often there are small villages nestled just outside the castle walls. In medieval times, the villagers could make a hasty retreat to the safety of the castle if need be.
That evening we arrived in Vienna and attended the optional Strauss-Mozart concert in the Kursalon, which is where the Strauss family performed its greatest works. The show consisted of a small orchestra, vocal works, ballet and waltzes. Afterwards there was a midnight snack of goulash soup, which is the traditional way goulash is served in Europe.
The next morning we were off to tour Vienna. This was probably our least favorite city. The city suffered heavy damage during the war, and modern buildings sit next to medieval ones. Johann Strauss’ apartment, for example, is above a McDonalds. We spent most of our time in Saint Stephan’s Cathedral, which is typical of most of the cathedrals we saw in that it was built and rebuilt over a period of several centuries. Often a cathedral would suffer fire damage, or need to be enlarged or modernized. The repairs or changes were usually made in the current architectural style, so that the building today represents a mixture of styles.
Slovakia:
From our least favorite city we went on to my favorite city – Bratislava. This is a small, untouristy city with a charming medieval center, the requisite castle on the hill, and, for a change of pace, no huge cathedral to dominate the scene. We also saw here the leftovers of Communism in the form of hundreds of drab, concrete block apartments. The Slovaks are working hard to bring their tiny country into the modern world of democracy and capitalism.
Budapest:
The ship sailed around the Danube Bend on Saturday morning, the last day of our cruise. The views of the city as you approach it from the river are magnificent. After docking, we were face checked by the customs people and then had some free time on shore. Ray and I did a self guided walking tour of the Jewish Quarter. The Dohany Synagogue is still in use after having been desecrated by the Nazis. Eichmann set up his office there and used the synagogue as a holding area for Jews waiting to be shipped out to the death camps. There is a mass grave in an adjacent courtyard holding the bodies of thousands of Jews who died of starvation and disease in the Budapest ghetto. Many others were thrown into the Danube by the Hungarian Nazis, while the Soviets held the city under siege during the last months of the war. As we were there during the Jewish Sabbath, the Quarter was very quiet. It is quite dilapidated, and I am hopeful that someday it will be restored.
Our city tour of Budapest reminded me of Prague – it’s just not quite as big or showy. Many of the Communist era buildings are in varying state of repair or disrepair.
After the Farewell Dinner, we enjoyed some time on the top deck. Lights illuminated the Parliament and Chain Bridge, and a full moon shone on the Danube. A perfect ending to a wonderful cruise.
Sunday morning we were driven to the Budapest Airport, where I encountered some difficulty with the security check. I had followed others’ advice and packed all my souvenirs, together with their receipts, separately. Among my souvenirs was a metal star-shaped Christmas ornament with a picture of Mozart painted on it. The two neo/pseudo/KGB type security guards discovered the ornament, turned it over and over, passed it back and forth, muttered and whispered in a language I could not understand, and glanced at me repeatedly and furtively as I smiled wanly at nothing in particular. The female KGB type pronounced the ornament a “dangerous object” and ordered me to throw it in the box, which I of course did without hesitation.
Our trip back to the States was uneventful. I spent much of the time trying to figure out how one might hijack a plane with a Christmas tree ornament - especially one with a picture of Mozart on it.
May 29th, 2005, 09:07 AM
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Sounds like a great trip. I had wondered about this tour before we went on a self-planned tour of Germany recently.
PS: Sorry about your ornament loss. Reminds of early post 9/11 security when they took my tweezers. Tweezers - I mean, really, am I going to tweeze someone to death??
PS: Sorry about your ornament loss. Reminds of early post 9/11 security when they took my tweezers. Tweezers - I mean, really, am I going to tweeze someone to death??
May 29th, 2005, 11:21 AM
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I was happy to hear that you liked Bratislava. We lived there for a year three years ago and thought it had potential. As more and more old buildings are spruced up, it gets better and better. There is a cathedral there, although on the river, not on the main square. It was most interesting to me, because it was the coronation church of many Hungarian kings and queens when Bratislava (then called something like Posony (sp?) by the Hungarians) was the Hungarian capital for many years after the Turks had taken Budapest.
May 29th, 2005, 11:39 AM
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nanray, thank you so much for your beautiful report! There is another thead here on Fodor's regarding trip reports. So many of us here so enjoy reading about travellers adventures. I especially enjoy reports that are about places I have never been.
Between your report and the Egypt report that I just read I feel like I have been on two trips this morning.
A question, did you feel depressed after visiting the ghettos and seeing all the horror inflicted on the Jews? I have always wondered if that would be something I could mentally handle.
Thanks again for sharing your trip.
Between your report and the Egypt report that I just read I feel like I have been on two trips this morning.
A question, did you feel depressed after visiting the ghettos and seeing all the horror inflicted on the Jews? I have always wondered if that would be something I could mentally handle.
Thanks again for sharing your trip.
May 29th, 2005, 11:47 AM
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nanray - I enjoyed reading your trip report and will pass it on to my friend, who has been thinking about doing a river cruise.
Sorry to hear about your Christmas ornament. It's a shame that "zero tolerance", instead of common sense, has become the rule. Peace.
Robyn
>-
Sorry to hear about your Christmas ornament. It's a shame that "zero tolerance", instead of common sense, has become the rule. Peace.
Robyn
>-
May 29th, 2005, 01:15 PM
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cobbie - yes, the plane was a 747, & we were in coach. We did get aisle seats so could stretch one leg out. Got up & walked several times. Hopefully your flight will be better.
LoveItaly - I'm not sure how to describe how I felt about the ghettos. I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood & knew a few Holocaust survivors & children of Holocaust survivors. Have read a lot about the Holocaust, so these places were very familiar to me - exactly as they have been described in some books. Going there wasn't something I wanted to do, but felt I had to do. It was more sobering than depressing. What's depressing is that there are so few Jews left in Central Europe, but I knew that already. If I had not gone there, I would have felt afterwards that I neglected to do something that I should have done - and that would have been depressing.
If anyone has any other questions, just ask!
LoveItaly - I'm not sure how to describe how I felt about the ghettos. I grew up in a mostly Jewish neighborhood & knew a few Holocaust survivors & children of Holocaust survivors. Have read a lot about the Holocaust, so these places were very familiar to me - exactly as they have been described in some books. Going there wasn't something I wanted to do, but felt I had to do. It was more sobering than depressing. What's depressing is that there are so few Jews left in Central Europe, but I knew that already. If I had not gone there, I would have felt afterwards that I neglected to do something that I should have done - and that would have been depressing.
If anyone has any other questions, just ask!
May 29th, 2005, 02:51 PM
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nanray, thank you for your answer. I too have personally known Holocaust suvivors and know a lot of the history. Perhaps sobering is a better word. And I understand why you felt that you needed to visit, I would have felt the same way. I have just always wondered how I would handle it emotionally. Thank you and best wishes.
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