In the late Summer of 2024, we travelled to Eastern Europe, a bush camp in Zambia and then Greece for a bike trip. Eastern Europe was designed to be week long stops in the major city of 4 countries with the idea that we would return on another trip to favourites with a rental car to explore the countryside. (Aug 26-Oct 31, 2024)
Budapest, Hungary (Sept 18 - 26/24)
What an extra special evening! We were fortunate enough to get tickets to the Hungarian State Opera for a performance of Carmen. In 1875 its premiere caused quite a stir for its scandalous theme with Gypsy Carmen calling her own shots and jumping from man to man before she is finally murdered by one of her lovestruck suitors.
The opera house was purposely designed to ensure the box seat patrons wouldn’t have to mix with the commoners. After entering the building, ushers pointed the box seaters to the left up the red carpeted stairs while we and the rest of the riffraff were shown the righthand staircase.
Although we still haven’t found a wall or shelf piece during this trip, I did get a smart looking leather backpack purse (eek another purse:) in this historic Central Market Hall to remind me of Budapest. The locals come early to do their perishables shopping and then the tourists follow to buy mementos and have a hardy local meal. Because we’ve been staying in apartments it’s always a treat to access produce and cheeses as the little markets in the tourist areas generally seem to specialize in junk food.
If you search ‘the most beautiful cafe in the world’ the New York Cafe Budapest tops the list. Knowing my coffee shop affinity, Rick bolded this item on ‘the list’. It truly was decadent with the decor, live music, stylish coffee and mouth-watering desserts.
It was a cavernous place, so we were fortunate to have a good view of the musicians that played sets on one of the staircases and to sit by the piano player. He played us a romantic piece by Mozart and in return we bought his CD.
By contrast, it's humbler cousins took advantage of small ledges outside coffee shops for patrons to sip and people watch up close.
City Park offered walking paths, the iconic Szechenyi Bath (above) and museums including the House of Music.
Budapest is synonymous with thermal baths fed by natural hot springs. The Szechenyi Thermal Bath looked like a castle from the outside and was surprisingly huge inside with 15 indoor baths and 3 grand outdoor pools. For us, it was a clandestine picture from a side door. I’ve been fighting some mystery infection, and we decided not to risk basically an oversized shared hot tub when we will be in a Zambian bush camp where we’ve been told there won’t be medical help for hours away.
A booth allowed you to replace a famous opera character’s face with your own. Of course, I chose Carmen and it came back with a creepy facsimile of the vixen.
At a time when mass tourism is under scrutiny I have to vent. I understand that each of us chooses the style of travel that works best for us and over time our personal choices may change. A pet peeve is when any tour group (including those we participate in) takes up all the space whether lingering at each site or moving between them. I think each of us needs to be a respectful traveller to both the locals and fellow travellers. Above: a large tour group spanned the whole sidewalk leaving a pedestrian to use the street to get around them.
A month before we arrived in Europe a law had passed making it mandatory for bottle and container caps to stay attached. Not knowing this, Rick arm wrestled with a bottle cap trying to remove it without success. It took longer than they expected to design the cap so that it couldn’t be detached yet open in 3 different positions to allow easy drinking and pouring from the bottle. It’s expected to reduce beach litter alone by 10%! We loved it and hopefully the concept will come to North America – such a small thing that will make a big difference. When we left Europe, we immediately noticed the inconvenience of returning to holding caps.
Built at a time when Hungary’s footprint on the world map was significantly larger, the parliament building was as imposing as one would expect of a superpower.
A tour of it included the Parliament chamber. The red velvet curtain is where the stenographer would enter the chamber. Their job is to capture every word, whisper, whistle, etc. How accurate they are is highly valued. Several world champion stenographers (who knew) have worked in this building.
As blue hour set in, we raced to get a view of the parliament building from across the Danube.
Mozart's piano in the National Museum. The pic is of a pianist who was a great fan of Mozart and bought his piano to play at concerts. It was surprisingly moving being so close to a piano with such a rich and enduring history.
The magician Harry Houdini was originally a locksmith. The skill he acquired along with diligent training and a knack for self promotion rocketed him to the top of the world of magic. He never wrote down how he did his tricks and some of them went to his grave with him.
When he first came to a new town, he would challenge the local police department to handcuff him and keep him in a jail cell. When he invariably escaped, word of mouth travelled fast, and his shows sold out. For his breakout stunts, Houdini partially swallowed his handmade escape keys/tools & stored them in his throat to be brought up later when he wasn’t being watched.
Plan A was to ride to adorable Szentendre mostly along the usually easy bike path beside the Danube River.
With the floods it turned into plan B with several detours. The final straw was being turned around by the military from a too good to be true bike path. We decided not to ask them for a picture :) With only 3km to go to the village there wasn’t another bike option, so we had to turn back. Because much of the flood had receded, we were given teaser views of the awesome riverside path that cyclists can use.
As it was, we were able to cycle 60km through cityscapes and outside Budapest.
Nine days after the flood began (& the day after our biking) the flooded roads and paths were exposed and cleaned up after what appeared to be an overnight, all-out clean up effort. In the afternoon the river boats came out in full and by evening the lower roads and multi-use paths were open. It was like watching a transformation seeing the active people reclaim their space and the bonus was the cars weren’t on the roads yet.
A few street scenes to remind us of Budapest's charm and ornate architecture from a bygone era.
We found another restaurant that swooshed their fresh made pasta in a grana padana cheese bowl. This server flambéed the bowl at first – presentation and good taste!
A block wide pedestrian walkway was lined with restaurants and one night, in the middle of the path, locals came out to dance.
Knowing we had 2 days of travel starting tomorrow we spent a leisurely day wandering the city's jewel, the Buda Castle District.
Fisherman's Bastion in the Buda Castle district.
Vienna, Austria (Sept 11 - 17/24)
Our 6 days in Vienna will leave an indelible memory for the weather and the challenges it presented. Hard and relentless rain impacted Eastern Europe, including Austria. Floods wreaked havoc while the high winds added to our personal sightseeing adventures. We dug into our sense of spirit and slogged from one ‘must see’ place to another, wearing every layer of clothing we had. By the end, we’d seen and done everything we wanted to except for bike riding alongside the Danube River. Above: Our first hour on our first day set the stage for the duration. (Vienna, Austria, Sept 11 - 17/24)
In the late 1800’s Franz Joseph was the emperor of Austria and the king of Poland. He married Empress Elizabeth (Sisi), considered the most beautiful princess in Europe. It was a story Hollywood couldn’t ignore – in the 1950’s, 3 films were made about her and her popularity grew. Today a large part of the Hofburg Palace highlights her life, rooms, letters, etc. Above: their home, The Hofburg Palace. It was a multi-building complex, with this one building as part of it.
Sisi’s private room was the most fascinating. Unlike the norms of the day, she exercised daily, practiced good dental hygiene and watched her diet. It took 2-3 hours per day for styling her voluminous hair. But she put the time to good use learning languages and the classics. Above: rings hang from a doorway and 2 strength training structures sit to the right.
The family dinner table. Over 45 minutes, there were 9-13 courses, and you could only talk to neighbours directly beside you.
This was on our bucket list. We watched the famous Lipizzaner Stallions move through various dressage and “higher-level classical dressage” movements. Their stunning white coats and grace were such a treat to experience. No photos were allowed once the horses came into the ring, so this one from the riding school’s website will serve as the memory.
The stallions are trained and perform in this Spanish Riding School. As part of the Hofburg Palace, the arena dates to the mid-1700’s. It was almost Olympic sized, however this picture makes it look small.
A fellow traveller recommended trying one of the Aida Cafes, noted for their pink decor, pastries and Viennese coffees. The pastries in so many coffee shops and bakeries have been divine – no pedestrian piece of banana bread at a coffee shop here.
Street scenes above and following. A popular walking street with high end stores in historic buildings. On the final day of our visit the rain paused occasionally. We loved putting the umbrella away and enjoying the reflections in the water.
Like cobblestone streets, the sculptures on buildings, in fountains or on the street added magic to the daily wanderings.
Another park with a castle (Belvedere)□ On a beautiful day you’d see the building’s reflection in the pond.
Our apartment was in a local neighborhood only a short tram from the tourist part of town. Below us sat an Albanian bakery. We loved this little place, so warm and cozy, delicious lattes and flaky pastries.
Off to the side of the serving counter the baker tossed and swirled the impossibly thin layer after layer of pastry before laying them flat and filling with cheese or meat. We became regulars for this mouthwatering treat!
It was difficult to capture the damage the river had done. Roads, pedestrian paths and tram lines at the edges of the river were underwater. Above: a bridge torn apart.
As the rain persisted, river cruise ships 3-deep were stranded on the Danube. If the passengers were lucky, the river would be safe enough for the ships to continue passage after the unplanned sojourn in Vienna. (Footnote, at day 9 we were in Budapest and still no boat traffic on the river).
The Schonbrunn Palace faced a long row of garden beds with wide paths that allowed for the horse drawn carriages of the day to roll along for an afternoon in the gardens. We had the grounds to ourselves. The palace used to be a hunting lodge and was later expanded to become the Imperial summer residence of the court.
Inside the palace, we toured a blur of lavish rooms, each with their own stories. Balls were held in the Great Gallery. Just picturing yourself in the ballroom, all dressed up, the room visually stunning and then the choreographed dances added to the mix. Heady days.
The Carousel Room was named for this 1743 painting of horses & carousels in the same Spanish Riding School that we saw the Lipizzaner stallions perform earlier.
We were always drawn to the ceramic stoves used to keep each room warm. The house was designed so that the royal court didn’t have to see the staff stoking the fire – there was a corridor behind each room that allowed access to the back of the stove.
The Imperial Furniture Collection is a furniture museum that houses one of the most important collections of furniture in the world. A collection of commodes showed how they were often disguised as a piece of furniture when the lid was down. We were surprised to see that at as early 1835 one company presented a toilet with a water reservoir and pipe insert around the top of the bowl - similar to today where water swooshes around the top and cleans the bowl.
We tried to get tickets to an opera in the Vienna Opera House, but we should have thought of that weeks before.
As a consolation, a tour of the 1860’s beauty took us to places we wouldn’t have otherwise seen. There is a different production each night with a total of 50 that they rotate. That means sets change every day. They are so elaborate that they extend the same distance under the stage as the curtain height above the stage - 11m. Above: the view from the best box seats.
Every year the stage is set for the prestigious Vienna Opera Ball. The opera house floor level seats are replaced with a large dance floor and fresh flowers abound in the grand staircases, ballroom, etc. Couples apply to participate in the opening ceremony Viennese Waltz, a privilege they can only experience once in their lifetime.
Only in retrospect does challenge become comedy. After 6 days of mean weather, we arrived at the train station excited for the 3-hour ride to the sunshine in Budapest. Minutes before our train was to depart, we learned that the tracks were damaged by the floods and the route was cancelled. Chaos reigned at the train station. Eventually we and others were directed to the above kiosk to sort out refunds and alternative tickets. The kiosk representative had worked through her last nerve - after she yelled at all of us, she left for her lunch break and the group shuffled out pondering the next move. Nearby, a young dad took charge and convinced us and another couple to share a ride with them. After 2 hours of him hustling for options, we all stepped into a Mercedes Benz van and breezed through to Budapest. What a day - it was a 2-drink dinner □.
Krakow, Poland (Sept 5 - 11/24)
Our Eurorail journeys are the only way we're able to travel first class :) … the 6 1/2hr train from Prague to Krakow passed through the bread baskets in both countries, easy on the eyes and the ride was smooth and comfortable. If given a choice we’d prefer to train from place to place rather than fly. Above: the dining car. The tasty sausages belied their humble appearance. (Krakow, Poland, Sept 5-11, 2024)
The Main Market Square in Krakow’s Old Town dates back to the 13th century and was ideal for lingering. At 10-acres, the square is referred to as the largest in any of Europe's medieval cities, even though Prague’s Charles Square is twice the size. But because Krakow sees fewer visitors, we found its square relaxing and not cramped. The plethora of flowers and plants bordering restaurants gave each an intimate feel while making it easy to people watch and admire the architecture of the public buildings and townhouses that surround it.
St Peter & St Paul’s Church on a side road of the Old Town. One evening a street performer sang opera just outside the church. Her voice carried all the way to our restaurant, and later we joined the crowd listening to her performance… lovely.
Near the end of our stay, it rained. With a fire beside us in one of the restaurants we sipped Aperol Spritzs and took turns taking pictures of the town square at sunset. With the crowds thinned out it was a cozy way to reflect on our 6 days in this special, not overly touristed city.
The above series of arches lined both sides of the Cloth Hall. Dating back to the 1500's, these covered stalls formed an important trading hub for neighbouring countries.
Today the Cloth Hall serves up a plethora of tourist trinkets and a few quality Polish items. The Baltic countries are known for their exceptional quality and supply of amber. I'd like to think that the silver bracelet I purchased, with an amber honey bee, is the real deal :)
What was once a large moat around the Old Town was converted in the mid-1800’s into a series of parklands, flower beds and restaurants, with several interconnected multiuse paths and benches. We’re always thankful for the prescience of local leaders the world over for saving land for day-to-day quality of life, national parks, UNESCO sights, etc. for future generations. The 3.5km oval made for a shady and picturesque path to move between destinations.
In 2005 a large site was excavated under the old town square as shown in the above photo. The result was a stellar Underground Museum showcasing Polish history and layer upon layer of prior roadways, graveyards and buildings dating back to the 11th century.
Each roadway was designed a unique way and with different materials based on lessons learned about the durability of each and how to manage rain runoff. Bones found in the graves indicated the early citizens were a generally a healthy bunch with a good knowledge of medicine. They also believed in vampires. The latter were buried in symbolic positions and sometimes headless so they couldn’t return from the dead to terrorize people.
Bliss - bike rentals for the day took us along the Vistula River from the developed shoreline through to parkland and later farmland. Lots of dedicated bike lanes beside the roads made riding off the river path enjoyable as well. The drivers in this city were exceptionally bike and pedestrian friendly. Even the taxis would stop to allow you to cross the road without light signals. Across the river sits the Wawel Castle.
A side-of-the-trail cabin surrounded by forest was a bonus near the end of the path - big cold beers to cool us off. A 50km day in all, with the best part being the half on the south shore across from Old town and heading west.
The Wawel Castle (14th century) sat atop a hill by the river to make it easiest to defend. A number of rooms told Poland’s history through collections. Porcelain was first discovered in China 2,000 years ago, and was brought to Europe 600 years later. Because it was valued for its beautiful white and the cost to import, it was referred to as ‘white gold’. The wealthy showcased their collections of figurines, flatware, serving dishes and porcelain embellished silverware.
After seeing quite a few suits of armour this one took the prize. The Polish elite calvary between the 16th and 18th centuries were hussar knights - ‘winged horsemen’. Not only would the hussars have to wear kilos of metal and chainmail, they sometimes also wore wings – metal frames with predator bird feathers attached – and have a tiger or leopard skin draped off their back. The effect was fierce and intimidating - the skins spooked the enemy soldiers, and the wings frightened their horses.
The food – I loved the perogies (dumplings) and the fresh pasta added to a cheese wheel of grana padana with butter.
Below: Rick tried his best to have one of Krakow’s signature donuts daily. Yum!
The Wieliczka Salt Mine supplied table salt for 700 years, from the 1200’s to the late 1990’s. So valued, the root for the latin word for salary is sal, meaning salt. In the mine’s earliest days, brine bubbled up from below. When that dried up various technologies, from pick and ax digging, machine drilling and later blasting were used to extract the salt.
Salt oozed out everywhere, preserving the log clad passageways and structures throughout the mine. Over it’s 7 centuries operation, it expanded to a mind boggling size - we walked and took stairs for 2.5 hours and we only covered 1% of it.
Now a museum, it is decorated with various sculptures cut out of the salt veined rock, from the modest to 4 chapels and a reception hall. Couples join the 2-year waiting list to be married here.
Two back-to-back days were spent learning about the fate of the Jewish people and others during WWII. Although we took a few pictures as memories, scenes were often too disturbing to capture. It was important to visit the sites, but not to sensationalize them.
Oskar Schindler’s WWII deeds went mainstream with Steven Spielberg’s movie Schindler’s List. Today, his former enamel factory is a museum focused less on Schindler’s work than on the Krakow experience during the war. The guide explained how the German occupation of Poland unfolded, with the highly educated killed early on and the segregation of the Jews into a ghetto where they lived before being sent to camps. The swastika tiling on a portion of the museum’s floor allowed visitors to symbolically step on the Nazi legacy.
In the museum this room is called the Room of Choices - decisions can be black for bad, white for good or shades of grey for somewhere in between. This symbolizes that our choices may not necessarily be absolutely right or absolutely wrong, but enough right is still a good choice.
At the time, Germans were being offered confiscated Polish businesses and Oskar Schindler came to Krakow as a German opportunist. After working with the Jewish people and starting to learn about the extermination camps, he decided to help as many as possible from being taken away. His actions saved 1,200. As the war progressed Schindler had to pay higher and higher bribes to protect the Jews he employed. Thirty years after the war he died penniless. Above: Some of those he saved.
We have had 2 weeks of brilliant sunshine but today the temperature dropped 10 degrees and the rain was constant. It was a fitting way to experience Auschwitz, and its far larger neighbouring Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Within a year of WWII ending, these two concentration camps were converted into memorials and museums by a group of their survivors under the direction of Poland’s Ministry of Culture and Art in conjunction with Jewish delegates. Rather than destruction they chose education, with the hope that history does not repeat itself. The design was intended to present what happened in the camps but in a way that respected those who were imprisoned or died there and to avoid the macabre.
It is an emotionally exhausting day going from one building to the next hearing about what happened. The statistics are staggering. The scenes haunt. Yet it’s something as many people as possible should experience. To date 25 million have visited.
Prague, Czech (Aug 30 - Sept 5/24)
Our Uber rumbled along narrow cobblestone roads to arrive at our hotel (Boutique Hotel Constans) with each room assigned names - ours Velvet Voyage. Each day we would leave our quaint place and I’d want to take a picture. Each night the Gypsy restaurant across from us played live music until 10pm, a beautiful sound to return home to at night and fall asleep. (Prague, Aug 30-Sept 5/24)
What a welcome to this charming city; within hours of arriving, we snagged the last al fresco table at a close-by restaurant and then a passerby heard us speaking English. She offered me a bouquet of roses and tulips, explaining she had to leave them behind and didn’t want to waste. Seeing that, our server put them in a water goblet and the restaurant allowed me to borrow it for the week we were there.
“Prague Castle was most likely founded in around 880. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, it is the largest coherent (unified whole) castle complex in the world, with an area of almost 70,000 m².” We wandered it for hours. Above & below: 2 churches on the castle grounds.
The Golden Lane was a series of small homes attached to the castle walls. They were so small even I dwarfed them. Court artisans and others once occupied them and later they were rented out. In their heyday there was 1 tavern for every 7 houses - a lively neighborhood. The last was occupied in 1942 and today they offer either a glimpse into the past’s living conditions or the occasional gift shop.
The following evening, we returned to a basilica on the grounds for a concert by the castle’s Prague Royal Orchestra. It was an odd setup - we had a front row seat but the musicians sat at the top of the stairs behind the apse’s wrought iron grate. Happy Birthday Rick xo
An exhibition showcased a familiar favourite and a new one for us - Salvador Dali and Alphonse Mucha. In the Dali section there was a playful chair beside a print we have at home (far right) - ‘Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening’. It was a definite favourite as visitors lingered the longest at it, so we had to wait a while to get this shot.
Alphonse Mucha was an early 1900’s Czech artist whose decorative style was used to promote everything from performances to countless everyday products; tins of biscuits, champagne, decorative panels, calendars, postcards … Many of the designs remain popular in gift shops today - I bought a perfect-fit case for my eyeglasses.
The trams were easy to figure out and convenient. Most of them were new, but we liked to take the older style just for fun. On another note, the sidewalks were so often a mix of light and dark stone in patterns. It was like you were walking on art.
The temperatures are averaging 8-10C over normal in much of Europe so the >30C days are hotter than expected. And it stays hot well into the evening. A perfect excuse for Aperol Spritz breaks in the shade. These quickly became a daily refresher.
Visiting an exhibition or performance is almost always enhanced by the building itself, a common thread through the old world. We savour the staircases before ever getting into exhibition rooms. What follows is a few of our favourites; Above, the Museum of Decorative Arts is no exception.
Above, The Municipal House and below, The National Museum.
The Charles Bridge was built in the mid-1300's to connect the Prague Castle with Old Town. Each day, crossing this pedestrian only bridge was an opportunity to admire the 30 statues along its sides and views up and down the Vistula River. Above: one of the 3 bridge towers used to protect it in centuries gone by. Below; the view west and north - postcard pretty and boats for rent to paddle on the river and around a small island.
The National Museum covered the gamut of history in yet another artfully designed building. Favourite sections included the pre-history of the Czech Republic (from the Kingdom of Bohemia to Czechoslovakia near the end of World War I and in 1993, the Czech Republic). A huge collection of stuffed creatures added a sense of realism to the animal history section. Many came from private collectors who long ago purchased what would have been exotic animals in the 1800’s. This picture doesn't do the museum justice but it will jog our memories one day.
The Museum of Decorative Arts celebrated all things considered decorative as opposed to being merely functional. Around the “mid-1950’s Czech glass work inspired the development of decorative glass aboard.” It continues to be a significant part of the cultural identity.
A ride up the funicular took us through lands that used to be the castle vineyards, now orchards. At the half way point was a casual place to have a drink and dinner with views of the castle and the west side of the city. We lingered for quite a while over a couple of beers and mused about how besotted we were with Prague. We tried for a selfie, but as usual it was a dud :)
The Old Jewish Cemetery dates back to the 1400’s, but is longer being added to. It is up to 12 layers deep and some of the jumble of gravestones you see at the top belong to people buried layers below.
There were so many street scenes or gorgeous buildings that compelled us to bring out our phones to take a picture. These are just a few.
Ungelt Courtyard - this 12th century oasis of calm in the city is the oldest part of Old Town. Starting as a customs house for early merchants, by the end of the Middle Ages, homes were built around it.
The Old Town Square is the oldest in the city, first starting out as the central marketplace. Today it's a tourist hot spot and a lovely location to wander the wide open space and have a coffee.
A Tim Burton exhibition was exceptional. The breadth of his imagination and the volume of artwork he has produced was impressive. Work that has resulted in movies or books and work from his private collection were displayed. Above: titled “Surrounded”. Below: some doodling.
Fun with expressions.
And finally, a little poetry.