What's Next?

We try to keep next year's destination a secret as long as possible. Plus, making concrete plans at this point just detracts from the fresh memories of the trip we just took. So I can't (and won't) go into specifics here. But here are the possibilities (purposefully not in any meaningful order);

The greatest hits of the USA: I have to admit I've felt a little guilty lately about the fact that it has been quite a while since we have taken a great American road trip. We did that many years in a row between 1993 (before children) and 2004 (when the children were much younger) - so much, in fact, that we ran out of places we wanted to go. But time has passed, and Joshua and Shelby at this point have little or no memory of any of those trips. It seems a little odd that Joshua has seen Budapest, but not New York; Prague, but not Washington D.C. Whether it's next year or some time after, we have to give some serious thought to seeing more of the great old USA. I wonder if it's possible to do 48 states in 48 days? Hmmm....

Ireland & The Scottish Highlands: This would likely be Michelle's choice. I'll admit I would enjoy this, too. But it seems so laid back compared to our recent trips - a nice contrast, perhaps - but I fear too laid back. We were in Scotland in 2007, but only around Edinburgh. So although it wouldn't technically be repeating any previous trip (which I definitely don't want to do yet with so many other places I want to see in the world), it would be culturally pretty close to repeating our 2007 Great Britain trip.

Italy: This is the elephant in the room, so to speak. We have not been there yet and it has always been #1 on my list of places to go. We purposely postponed this trip until the children were old enough to really soak it in. Are they old enough now, or do we wait another year or two? That is the question. There is no question that we are going, eventually (and soon). It's just a question of exactly when to pull the trigger.

Australia: As much as we love the history in Europe, it would be absurd to claim you are a world traveler without breaking away from Europe once in a while. I would love to see some of Australia (I say some because it's way too big to cover it all). There are two main obstacles, though; one is the airfare - typically 50% more than Europe, the other is seasonal - we have to travel in the summer, which means their winter, which means either we're chilly or we restrict ourselves to the more tropical Queensland/barrier reef area. One big selling point would be that it would be a great contrast to all the castles and cathedrals in Europe - a nice way to cleanse the pallet after four years of 1000-year history - before starting a new cycle of European visits.

Costa Rica: Would also be a great anti-Europe trip, and would be quite a bit cheaper - a great alternative if we run into trouble saving money for travel next year. Just how hot does it get there in the summer? Are all seasons the same so close to the equator?

Other: There are many, many more places we would love to go (In fact, a year ago I was reading guide books on Japan thinking that would be an exciting alternative to Europe). Among these, here are other top contenders: Spain/Portugal/Morocco, Croatia & nearby, Greece and Turkey, Brazil, New Zealand, Alaska and Hawaii. I'm pretty sure that we will make it to all these places eventually, but I don't think any of them are very likely for 2011.

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I'm not sure what is next for this blog. I've gotten used to writing every night and I would hate to break the habit now. But obviously, there is only so much that can be written about this year's trip and travel in general. I will give it some thought. But no doubt, this will not be the final entry. I will definitely be back, and soon. But maybe not tomorrow. Keep checking back, faithful readers....

A Look Back, part 3

Blogging was new to our trip experience this year, but so was carrying around a laptop computer, looking for wifi connections, and carrying around two iPod Touches along with smaller video iPods. This was by far our most intensively electronics-filled trip. How did that go?

For starters, I can't say enough in praise of video iPods for children. Sure, in an ideal world, those boring hours in a car or train would be filled by reading good books or doing other brain-enhancing activities. But remember, this is a 5-week trip and we are packing light. There is no way we could have carried enough stuff to fill those down times without leaning hard on the entertainment value of those iPods. As it was, the children went through about 10 sizable books (between them), so they did read a lot. But they also watched a lot of the movies we had on those iPods. When you need to spend three hours in the car with three children packed shoulder to shoulder in the back seat, those iPods are priceless for keeping the peace and making things sane for the adults up front. Some of those drives were so peaceful you hardly knew there were children in the car.

As for the iPod Touches; until last December, I had never used one (we like electronics, but we're not on the cutting edge, either). My first impression was that the 'net wasn't convenient enough to use on the Touch, so I was unimpressed. But after getting more familiar with the various "apps", I came to understand that they had tremendous value in addition to the ability to email and (awkwardly) search the Internet. We monitored the weather, exchange rates, and news from home. I took photos of the guide book pages we needed and put them on the Touch - over 700 pages viewable as photos on a cell-phone sized device, freeing my hands from looking like a dork carrying a guide book with me everywhere. But my favorite use for the Touch was the "Maps" app. While using wifi at home, I did a map route search for each of the legs of our trip that we had to drive. I then took a "screen-shot" of each step of the route. That gave us precise, and very detailed step-by-step instruction for how to get from point A to point B every day. We left our big floppy map at home and just used the Touch for maps, even without mobile wifi. As a back-up I took some photos of the relevant atlas pages we would have used and had those available on Touch photos in case we got off track. But it was amazing how often a drive from once city to another went exactly as the map app said it would, down to the exact wording of the exit sign we were looking for.

The key to the electronics all working seamlessly - the "mother ship", if you will - was the Apple Macbook Air laptop. It provided all the storage we needed (1000 photos, hours worth of music, and 60 full-length movies) for the iPods, all the storage we needed for photos we took on the trip (no more worrying about if we had enough SD memory cards or if we would lose them), and a fully-functional, full-sized, yet extremely lightweight computer. That computer was capable of surfing the web on a full-size screen, typing on a full-size keyboard, and keeping track of our expenses every step of the way. It was like having our home-office on the road with us, and it hardly took up any space at all. In fact, having it allowed us to leave many other papers at home plus gave us peace of mind knowing that we had every scrap of trip-related information at our fingertips and full connectivity to people back home.

The only glitch in this system was the availability of wireless Internet. I was surprised how often it was provided for free at our lodgings (18 of 34 nights) or for a fee (another 8 nights). But I was also surprised how often it was not available on the streets. I was led to believe that in urban areas you would be able to tap into a wifi hot spot just by walking down the street looking for a connection. When we were looking, we had no success with that approach at all. We wound up using McDonald's a couple of times, an upscale hotel lobby a couple of times, and a glitzy Apple store in Munich when we needed wifi on the run.

On future trips I fully expect to continue refining our electronics usage to make information storage and access even more wide-ranging, yet compact and efficient.

Speaking of future trips, that will be the subject of tomorrow's blog...

A Look Back, part 2

Here's a quick (I hope) look back at each of our stops;

Amsterdam: I heard so many people sing the praises of Amsterdam that I had imagined it as some sort of canal-filled nirvana. It didn't quite live up to that expectation. But it was nice enough, and unique when you consider the canals, bicycles and the red-light district. It's not a place you forget. But since we had seen cities on water before (like Stockholm, which is gorgeous) and we weren't interested in buying sex or marijuana, I just found it nice, rather than amazing.

Brussles & Bruges: Brussles "Grand Place" central square was breathtaking - worth the bother of stopping by itself. But the rest of Brussles was uninspiring. Bruges was a delightful place to spend a day and two nights. Seeing most of the sights only takes half a day, so the bike trip we took was the perfect addition to the sights. To spend more time there you would really have to like lingering or parking yourself somewhere comfortable and reading a good book.

Bacharach & the Rhine: We will remember the hostel in the castle in Bacharach for a long time. It was special. The two days and three nights we spent there was just the right amount of time for a quick look at the villages and castles on the Rhine & Mosel rivers. A person could easily fill another day or two by seeing more villages than we did, but we have learned from past experience that towns like that all start to look alike pretty quickly. The walk from the village of Moselkern, through the woods, to the Burg Eltz casle is a highlight that we will remember for a long time.

Rothenburg: Every bit as cute as it's reputation, but a place that you could easily see in a full day and two nights. We spent the full day away in Nürnberg (which was interesting, but not quite interesting enough, in retrospect to have spent an entire day there) and two evenings in Rothenburg. It felt like we didn't have quite enough time there. It's a great place to just stroll aimlessly. The night watchman's tour was a little cheesy, but delightfully fun. If I had it to do over again, I would sadly have to delete the day trip to Nürnberg and simply spend a bit more time lingering in Rothenburg.

Füssen & Mad Ludwig's castles: I actually came expecting to find the famous castles (Neuschwanstein, in particular) to be too touristy and over-hyped to live up to their reputations. But I was pleasantly surprised. All three were fascinating in their own ways. In particular, the walk up to Neuschwanstein, past it to Mary's bridge, and beyond that up the mountainside, was a highlight of the trip for me. It was like a fairytale. Okay, it had almost no relevance to real castle life, historically. But if you can accept it for what it was, it was delightful. The area around Füssen is full of nicely low-key sights and is a great place to call home base for several days. If the family had been more enthusiastic about hiking, it would have been worth spending a couple of extra days there, but they were not, so the five nights we had were adequate.

Salzburg: There is no question Salzburg has charm. Just hearing the bells ring every hour - sounding just like the opening scene on "The Sound Of Music" warms the heart. But without the movie connection, Salzburg would be worth just a short stop. There just isn't a lot to see or do in the town itself that is exceptional (though all of it is quite pleasant). So our two nights and one full day was adequate, I thought. Seeing Hitler's Eagle's Nest the afternoon before was a memorable experience - not for the "nest" itself, which is now just a restaurant with a great view - but for the whole switchback, mountain climbing experience topped with a view at the top that absolutely takes your breath away. Forget Hitler. It was worth it just for the view.

Vienna: This may have been my biggest disappointment. Not that Vienna was unpleasant, but we found the old town area to be disappointing historically. There simply were not enough architectural "wows" to match my expectations. Yes, there were palaces. But we had seen palaces before, so we chose to skip these. There is only so much ostentatiousness a person can take. We stayed in an area not far from the ring, but so full of graffiti and "grittiness" that I never would have guessed it could have been part of such a highly regarded city. To be fair, I expect that if I lived there, I would grow to like it a great deal more because I would know where to look for the little treasures. But for a tourist getting a quick overview, Vienna (without the palaces) was forgettable.

Budapest: Despite our overbearing B&B hosts, we found Budapest to be worth the extra time we spent there. The baths were a wonderful experience. The castle hill/fisherman's bastion area behind our B&B is a place we returned to each night and will stay in our memories for a long time. The daytrip to Szentendre was only mediocre and in retrospect, it would have been better to trade it for the ability to spend one night in Eger, instead of the long but rushed day trip we took there. We had no time to stroll Eger and I regretted that.

Krakow: This may have been the biggest surprise of the trip for me. Maybe it was just because I came into it with lower expectations, but I found it charming and welcoming. It was also a very good value. The hostel we stayed in was an incredible value (providing free meals, wifi and laundry!) and a fun place to crash for the night. The old town is small, though. So it does not take a great deal of time to see. The three full days we had there with one devoted to Auschwitz/Birkenau was perfect.

Prague: In the Prague blog posts I went into some detail about how Prague seemed to be too touristy, so I won't repeat myself here. Prague is lovely - among the most visually appealing cities I have ever seen. It is wonderful eye-candy. I just wish it had more soul. It seemed too much like one of the stops at Epcot Center in Disney World.

Cesky Krumlov: A fantastic way to see rural Czech Republic. The town is adorable. The food is good and inexpensive, and the river is a great float. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a great way to cleanse the pallet between big city visits. I would not recommend the Krumlov House Hostel, though. Stay somewhere else.

Munich: To be fair, we didn't stay long enough in Munich to see the city fairly. Also, being at the end of the trip, we were not in the mood to see the traditional tourist sights. We just wanted to relax. The "English Garden" bike ride was very nice, and the pedestrian zone passing the town square and glockenspiel was a fun place to hang out in the evening and hear great street musicians. But the city (having been heavily damaged during WWII) lacked historical charm. Unlike Prague, however, it was a city with a soul. It wasn't just for tourists. That was good to see.

Tomorrow I will add my final thoughts and then it's time to look forward, not back...

A Look Back, part 1

It's barely been 48 hours since our return and we're still not on central standard time. So maybe it's a little early to look back and judge how things went in detail. But I want to share some random thoughts anyway;

We always plan things early and in some detail, but this year was even more so. The trip was about 80% locked in six months before we got on the plane. That may sound a little extreme to some, but with children and all the changes of location involved, we wanted to remove as much uncertainty as we could from the trip. I have to give myself some credit for the fact that everything that could be planned ahead went pretty much exactly as planned. What we did on day 32 was exactly what we had planned months earlier. That's not to say everything was perfect, but the planning payed off.

That said, There were a few too many transitions on this trip. We stayed in twelve different locations. I thought that since we stayed at least two nights in each, and at least three in most, that each location would get the attention it deserved and we wouldn't feel rushed. To that extent, I was pretty much on target. I can't think of a location that I would have wanted to stay in longer than we did, except perhaps Amsterdam. One more day there would have been useful. But what I didn't expect was that by the time we got to location number eight, the memories of location number one began to get fuzzy. By the time we got to the end of the trip, much of the first half seemed like so long ago it might have been part of a different trip entirely.

It's would be easy to blame the length of the trip for this. But five weeks was only a few days longer than our trip to France last year and that trip did not feel too long. Why the difference? The month in France included three one-week stays. Although there were several other short stops, the three one-week stays gave a greater sense of stability and cemented the memories better.

It would be easy then to blame the number of stops, and to wish we had cut a few. But which ones? We could have cut out all of the stops after Salzburg and not gone farther east, but those stops were among the most interesting and meaningful since they are less commonly visited. Not seeing them on this trip when we were so close by would mean not seeing them at all for at least several more years. I can't go so far as to say I regret adding them to the itinerary. I think we made the best of the opportunity we had. If we got a little tired at the end and the memories got a little muddled, that may have simply been the price we had to pay. There are too many other places in the world we want to see to say we should have broken this into two or three trips instead of one.

I think some of the fatigue was simply caused by the weather. Amsterdam was a challenge because it was so cool and gloomy that it was not pleasant to linger outdoors. Then within a span of two days temps rose 25-30 degrees, the sun came out and the heat became borderline oppressive for most of the next 30 days. It takes a toll, and that is nothing that can be planned for or controlled.

More tomorrow...

Just The Bill, Please...

Before we get down to serious business, let me comment on the curious European restaurant tradition of making the customer practically beg for the bill. Oh, if you ask for it directly, it will arrive soon enough. But you have to ask. And that requires that you first find your server and catch their attention at a rare moment when they are not busy. If you don't ask for it, it may never arrive. The situation seems to stem from the way they approach dining out - as an event more than a meal meant to fill an empty stomach. So the event could last hours. That's fine for the locals who have no sightseeing goals. But when a family of five needs to follow some kind of timeline in order to see some sights, a three-hour meal is not an option. So we have to ask for the bill. We need to move on, and so do the faithful blog readers. Here is the bill;

(for comparison, see the blog "Expenses, part 2" in May)

Central Europe, 2010, 35 days, $1=.79 Euro, 224 HUF, 20 CK, 3.2 PZL

Airfare: 4,250

Ground Transport: 2,250

Lodging (34 nights): 4,070

Food: 1,940

Entertainment/Incidentals: 1,640

Subtotal: 14,150

House Sitter: +350

Away Savings: -1,200

Final Total: $13,300 ($380/day)

Airfare: We actually bought our tickets way back in late October. We saw that IcelandAir had fares for the open-jaw Amsterdam/Munich cities for a net $850 per person. The other airlines were over $100 more pp so it seemed more likely that IcelandAir would raise their fares soon to come closer to matching the norm, than any chance of fares getting lower. Besides, $850 was a good price. You don't want to play the waiting game with any fares under $1,000 during the high season. If you see one, take it. It proved wise since airfares only rose from that point onward. By March those same tickets were $300 more pp.

Ground Transport: We used a roughly 50/50 combination of car rentals and trains. The car rental prices we got were pretty ordinary. We saved a bit by paying for it right away instead of at pick-up time. We also saved a lot by renting the smallest car we could fit in and not buying extra insurance. Many people insist upon the piece of mind that comes with the insurance but that can almost match the cost of the car. So we rely on the credit card coverage and drive cautiously. As for trains; it was tempting to consider rail passes of some sort. But some further research confirmed that we could spend less simply buying point-to-point tickets. We could save even more by planning ahead and buying then as soon as they become available online. We got three legs of our journey this way, each for only $52 for the five of us. That's a steal. We payed much larger sums for the two overnight train legs in the east, which we could not buy ahead of time. But that cost was offset by the fact that they also served as our lodgings for those two nights.

Lodging: We kept our lodging costs very low (only $120/night) by using quite a few hostels and some carefully chosen B&B's, small hotels, and rentals that had "family" rooms that could accommodate all five of us. Any time you have to get two rooms, the costs soar. So we booked most of our lodgings six months ahead of our departure to ensure we could find those rare rooms for five. We had mixed luck with the hostels. Some were fantastic (Bacharach and Krakow), some were only mediocre (Bruges and Rothenburg), and some were questionable (Vienna and Cesky Krumlov). But all provided at least decent accommodation for a good price, and were family-friendly, too.

Food: In the past we have saved a great deal of money on food by preparing our own food in week-long cottage rentals. This time we were hampered by the fact that we only had one 5-day rental where it was practical to make our own hot meals. Instead, we made sure to eat a good, filling breakfast at each lodging, and then to either eat a small, snacky lunch or prepare a picnic lunch with grocery store food. Then we would try to find a reasonably priced place for a sit-down casual dinner. We managed to keep food costs to $55/day for the whole family. Pretty good considering we ate at quite a few more restaurants this year than in the past. Food was quite a bargain in Poland and rural Czech Republic. Prices were reasonable in most of Germany, too.

Entertainment/Incidentals: There are not many steps you can take to keep prices low in this category. After all, you are there to see and do things, so you are going to have to pay admission fees. Fortunately, most of the places we had to pay to visit either allowed children of a certain age for free or had "family" rates that were only slightly more than the price for two adults. We also enjoy seeing the sights that are free like (some) churches, parks and city squares and markets.

In Total: We benefited from good currency exchange rates. If the rates had been more typical of the last several years, we would have spent about $1,000 more. We were fortunate to keep the total cost of this year's trip the same as last year's even though it was five days longer (and even a bit under the costs of our trip to Scandinavia, even though this year's trip was 14 days longer). So overall, this year's trip was the best value, by far, when you calculate costs on a per-day basis. I'm pretty proud of that. It would not have been at all difficult to spend double the amount we spent simply by making different choices. Different, not fancier. Certainly, if fancy is your goal, the sky is the limit with costs.

Tomorrow I plan to do a blog entry about our overall impressions of the places we saw, what our favorite things were and what we think we will remember the most...

We're Home!

We’re home.

Our last day was a fairly ordinary travel day. We lingered in our hotel room until we were required to check out (10:30) because then we would have to deal with our baggage and doing anything while lugging the bags around would be too much. All we could manage was to gather at the plaza one last time for the glockenspiel show at 11:00. While we were there, I noticed the dragon sculpture I had not noticed before (middle photo) on the side of the city hall. These little charming surprises were all over central Munich. Then we headed for the U-Bahn and the airport. The airport is a surprising distance from the city. There must have been ten miles of farm fields before we reached airport – a very modern, clean, sprawling, and efficient facility (bottom photo).

Our IcelandAir flight left on time and our transfer of planes in Iceland went as planned. It is very odd to be so familiar with the little Keflavik airport. This was our sixth transfer there in three years. We know where the cool wooden Viking ship model is, where the bathrooms are, and where to get the best view of the unusual and bleak scenery surrounding it. We only fly IcelandAir because it happens to serve our local airport and because they tend to cost about 10% less than the major carriers if you buy early. But they also are a very efficiently run little airline and we have never had a single delay or glitch in any of our flights. We even recognize some of the flight attendants!

Coming home from a long trip is such an odd feeling those first few hours. There is a certain joy and relief at being around everything familiar. But you are also severely jet-lagged. We came home at about 6:30 local time, but in our heads it was 1:30 in the morning. Of course we didn’t sleep at all – partly because it is never dark on the plane ride back and partly because of the excitement to be home.

Then we had to deal with the immediate need of getting something to eat. We had nothing but munchies for the last 14 hours and we had almost nothing in the house. Meanwhile, everyone was doing their bit of unpacking, starting the laundry and trying to reunite with our neurotic cat, Simba, while also trying not to freak him out. Just when he was starting to accept his new life with the quiet house-sitter, suddenly the loud family of five returns! While we did all of this we also tried to avoid being noticed by our neighbors. As much as we like them and love talking about travel, the last thing we wanted to get into under the circumstances, was any “So how was your trip?!?” conversations. What do you say, beyond “fine” or “great” when you are exhausted and just want to get your life back to normal as quickly as possible?

Tomorrow will be the day to collect the mail from the post office and start making phone calls to people and letting ourselves be seen outside. Tomorrow I will also do a blog entry talking about how the costs of the trip worked out…

English Garden

This was our last day of our summer adventure, 2010. Tomorrow we have a full day spent getting home, so that day doesn’t really count. Once we are home, I will do a few more blog entries with some reflection on what went well and what didn’t, what the final cost tally was and how that compared with other trips we have taken. It’s always good to reflect on what you might have done differently if you had known then what you know now. It’s good to do that right away, while the memories are still fresh, but it’s also good to consider that question after some time has passed, and the mental toll the trip has taken has faded.

Today we wanted to keep things open and casual. So we slept in a little, had a huge breakfast, and walked to a bike rental shop we had a brochure for. Then we biked to the “English Gardens” – Europe’s largest city park. It truly is huge, and the edge is located just a few blocks from the city center. We biked there for two hours (with just a couple of short breaks) and hardly saw a single building. It was just trees, streams (top photo) and meadows for as far as the eye could see. There were plenty of people there, but in a park that size, even thousands hardly seem like a crowd at all.

Apparently the Germans are rather fond of the “natural” lifestyle and enjoy being unclothed outdoors. The guidebooks warned of naked locals sunning themselves in the park and sure enough, there were a few. We even ran across a small heard of sheep (middle photo) and stopped for a break at the Chinese Tower restaurant area (bottom).

After returning our bikes, we were a little tired and hot, so we went back to our hotel to rest a little before going out again in time to see the Glockenspiel chime and find some food. One final stroll around Munich was all we had time for before coming back to do a final packing of our stuff, including finding ways to pack the childrens’ souvenirs so they would be safe. At least our little one-quart baggies of liquids will be a lot lighter on the way home!

I think we all miss home a little. Five weeks is a long time to be away. We used to think three weeks was an exceptionally long trip. But none of us has suffered from much homesickness either. The children spent very little time pining for the conveniences and familiar things of home. They new this was a grand adventure and that they should be getting as much out of it as they could. We will all be happy to see home again – our cat, friends and relatives, familiar food and creature comforts. But we will also be sad to see the adventure end…

Our Last Location

(I am sitting here at 10PM in front of a giant Apple store in the center of Munich - the only place I am aware of in town with a free wifi connection, and it's blazingly fast, too. Bless you, Apple)

The little rural Czech town of Cesky Krumlov has a train station with service that ultimately leads to cities in every direction. Oddly, though, the station is a 30-minute walk from the town center. Also, the service requires you to begin by taking local trains that travel slowly and stop at every nearby town. The end result of all this is that most people avoid taking the train to or from there. So many area hotels and local entrepreneurs have started up shuttle bus businesses that will drive people to the major cities within a few hours drive or the 90-minute drive to Linz, Austria where you can catch a fast train to just about anywhere. That is what we did.

Our Czech shuttle-bus driver was having a bad morning. He actually called our hostel where he was supposed to pick us up at the front door, to tell us he would be two hours late. When we told him we would miss our train if he was, he grumbled and said he would be there shortly. He was, but he was clearly unhappy about it. A while later he calmed down enough to tell us what his troubles were and the ride became more pleasant. In short, a combination of vehicle troubles and mis-schedules had made him want to make one less road trip that day, but he did it anyway when he found out our timing was critical.

After about an hour we crossed the border into Austria. We saw the now-defunct border crossing stations and our driver joked that the roads were already better, the houses larger and “we sometimes say even the weather is nicer” when you cross the border. He had a point. The Czech Republic (as well as the other formerly-Communist-controlled countries) have done remarkably well in just 20 years of freedom, but you don’t have to look hard to find rough areas. It was immediately clear after crossing the border into Austria that there was more money to spend on personal property and public infrastructure.

Our train trip from Linz to Munich was very pleasant (on an amazingly smooth and quiet modern train) and we arrived by 3PM, found our hotel quickly, and checked in. I then asked the family “Do you want to rest here for a while, or do you want to go out and have a look around”? The answer was a pretty emphatic “Rest”. You can tell we are near the end of our trip and the tolerance level for the typical sights is wearing thin. Almost everyone napped and we didn’t get out until 6PM. Not much accomplished today except changing locations and getting some rest, but that’s okay at this point. The top photo is of the children playing games at the communal table in our funky hostel in Cesky Krumlov. The bottom photo is of the town hall in Munich with it's famous glockenspiel in the center.

Tomorrow we have our only full day in Munich and I think it’s going to be another warm one. We may keep things pretty low key then, too. We didn’t plan anything, knowing that we would want the flexibility to do only whatever we had the energy for. We’ll see what happens…

Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov is a delightful little town in the southern Czech area called “Bohemia”. But before I say anything else, I have to admit that it is a very touristy town. Since I complained about Prague’s character in my previous entries, I can’t very well let little Cesky Krumlov off the hook completely. The old town center here is 100% tourist zone, too. With lodgings, restaurants and shops filling every building. But here the effect is a little different. First of all, you don’t have to look far to find where the locals live – it’s just a few blocks away, up the hill in the c.1970’s apartment buildings. Secondly, you have to consider what the alternative would be if there were no tourism here. Likely the town would have faded to almost nothing years ago. Also, there is no “crush” of tourists here. The number of tourists is a manageable amount. There are no traffic jams of bodies on the narrow streets like Prague. Here, you still feel like you are in a place that is a little bit off the beaten track. So, all things considered, the buzz of tourists here is not bothersome.

And it doesn’t hurt that the town is as charming as can be – but charming in a way that is natural and real, not prettied-up by a “what will make the tourists happy” city council design committee. The look of the buildings and streets is delightfully quirky.

We spent the morning at the castle. Even though the interior was closed because it was a “blue” Monday (common all over Europe – if a place is closed one day a week, it is often Monday), the courtyards and grounds were open. Although not lavish, they were pleasant and interesting. In the back of the castle gardens was an outdoor theatre set with a strangely modern and circular stadium-seating set-up. Looking more closely, we figured out why – the seating is designed to rotate (like those rotating restaurants on top of tall buildings) so that instead of changing scenes on a stage, the scenery literally changes as the audience rotates. In one place, there is a building that can function as a set interior. In another, a clearing in the woods. In another, an outdoor set.

After a light lunch at our hostel, we set out to do the main activity of our visit here – canoeing down the Vltava River. Rafting, would be a more accurate description, since we all fit together in an inflatable raft, but you get the idea. The day started out quite cloudy and chilly, but by the time we set off for our 3-hour tour (think Gilligan’s Island theme song here) the weather was perfect. The river was calm enough that we didn’t have to worry about safety too much, but swift enough – even with some mild “rapids” and lots of curves – to be interesting. The children had a blast and we returned pretty tired from rowing and exposure to the sun and fresh air. It was good to get out and see the countryside. There were times when we didn’t see another soul or sign of humans anywhere. We even saw a deer in the woods.

I should say a few words about our accommodations. The Krumlov House Hostel is one of those small, independent hostels like the one we stayed in in Krakow; that is, simply a small-business venture. You buy a big apartment (like in Krakow) or a house (like here) and turn the bedrooms into hostel rooms and the kitchen, dining & living rooms into common rooms. Put a receptionist near the front door and you have yourself a private hostel. The prices are very reasonable and the atmosphere is charmingly homey. In Krakow, however, at least your room was completely private, with a lock and key. Here, the Krumlov house is run a little like a hippie commune. There are no interior locks and everything is so casual that it verges on shabby. It is alright for a couple of nights, But if I had it to do over again, I would choose a different place.

After a hearty traditional Czech dinner, we walked up to a hill behind our hostel to take in the sunset over the town with the rolling hills in the background. It was a short stay, but a worthwhile one. Tomorrow we move on to our final location...

Rain, Gardens and Krumlov

Finally the weather broke - in a big way. It rained last night and much of the morning, but gently. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees, though. We actually wore pants today. Despite the rain, we had a great day. The first half was spent in Prague and the last half in the southern Czech town of Cesky Krumlov.

We spent the drizzly morning in Prague looking at St. Nicholas church (top photo & right outside our front door) and the palace gardens (middle photo). The gardens were interesting in the way they stepped down the steep hillside. They were mainly green (could have used some more color, in my opinion) but it was sort of enhanced by the effect of the water making everything glisten. We had about four hours to kill before our bus left town and so we had the rare opportunity to linger. It's a very different experience to be at an enjoyable site and be thinking "I wonder how long I can make this last" rather than "I wonder how quickly we can move on to the next thing?" I wish it were practical to approach things that way more often, but it's not.

The little Czech town of Cesky Krumlov was relatively important about 400 years ago, and then it's power and wealth faded, and the town was mostly forgotten and left in tact. This has made it a wonderful time-in-bottle sort of place (much the same story as Bruges, Belgium).

We got there on a bus. It was an odd experience. The bus was very modern and included an attendant serving drinks and free wifi. We had trouble finding finding free wifi service of any kind in Bavaria and here we were in the Czech Republic on a bus surfing the net!

The town of Cesky Krumlov is absolutely adorable. Our hostel is a quirky, hippy sort of place with a carved wooden dragon on the front door (bottom). We'll have more on the town and the hostel tomorrow. It's late and we're all pretty tired...

A Tale Of Two Cities

Today was a much better day. The temps were just a bit cooler. We were a bit more rested. We were able to judge the city more fairly, and here is my impression:

Prague is a tale of two cities in one. One city is absolutely stunning. The level of pristine and history-infused detail on practically every building on practically every street is amazing. I can't think of another city I have ever visited that is absent urban eyesores to the degree that Prague is. The only physical blemishes we ever came across were some slight signs of age, or renovation underway.

But there is another story here, too. A city has to be more than a showpiece. It has to have a character independent of tourism and it has to be home to a thriving community of locals who live a life independent of tourism. Otherwise, it is little more than a carnival ride. Here Prague fails. In a day and a half, I literally could not identify a single Czech-speaking person who wasn't working in the service of tourists. I saw no evidence, whatsoever, that work was being done for any purpose other than the advancement of tourism. Each beautiful building lining each beautiful street has at least four floors of living space above the street-level shops, yet I saw no evidence of life in those windows. I have no doubt that there was some life going on that I did not notice on such a brief visit, but I also cannot think of another city I have ever visited so completely dependent upon tourism and so devoid of a living character of it's own.

This bothers me because I want to like this city very much. Certainly the beauty of it makes it desirable. I suppose if I left the city center for the c.1950's suburbs, I would find the real Czech neighborhoods (just as you would in any large city in Europe - that's where the people with families and not a lot of money live) but then that wouldn't be the attractive and historic city we envision, either.

Today we visited the castle hill area and say the sights there including the castle gates (top photo - just before I snapped the shot I told Annie to kiss him on the cheek - notice her big smile and the guard looking at her out of the corner of his eyes), St. Vitus Cathedral (second photo, with a nice, quirky character all it's own), and some castle apartments (third photo). While up on the hill, we also saw Strahov Monastery and it's library, and the Loreta Church.

Then we came back to our hotel, had a light lunch and a rest. In the evening we returned to the old town across the Charles bridge and wandered some of the same streets that we stumbled through in a sweat-mired haze yesterday. We also walked through the Jewish quarter a bit and saw this amazing block of buildings which included a synagogue (bottom photo).

Walking across the Charles Bridge in the evening means running a gauntlet of souvenir sellers and street performers. It is festive, entertaining and charming, and entirely devoted to tourists. It is such a double-edged sword. We are tourists, after all, so it is a little unseemly to be complaining about other tourists. But when tourists are all you see (except for the vendors selling to tourists) you feel a little like you might just as well have visited Disney World...

Saturation Point

We have reached a saturation point. It is day 30 tomorrow – the same day we went home from France last year. We are saturated with cathedrals and castles, parks and playgrounds, Jewish memorials, Nazi sights, and leftovers from a Communist past. But most of all, we are absolutely saturated with sweat. Today was 93 degrees and no one here uses air conditioning. There is nowhere to go for relief except the shade and even the shade offers no relief unless you are motionless. There is not a lot of sight seeing you can do while motionless in the shade.

Prague is as lovely as you may have ever read about. It did not suffer the bombs of the world wars or much communist concrete redevelopment. It is as it has been for centuries, and you can tell on every street. But you also see repair and construction almost everywhere. It is truly dizzying (and frustrating) to see the sheer number of projects underway in almost every place we have been so far. Will there every be a year when things are finished – when scaffolding is the exception and not the rule?

The guide books say Prague is still a relatively inexpensive city. I see no evidence of that. We ate $3 worth of eggs for breakfast and paid $60 for it. A $5 foot long at Subway costs $8. Every church has a small fee (while they are almost always free in the west). Climbing the tower in the main square cost us $21. In many other cities, a tower climb is just a token fee. And it has proven almost impossible to find a place to pee for free. I am strongly considering starting an internet campaign to get everyone visiting Europe to pee in public until they start making basic toilets available without the correct change (and currency!).

So anyway, pardon my rant. We are tired of being hot and tired of being tired.

Last night was our second night train ride in 4 nights, and we actually slept a little better this time, though not well (top photo). Those little cabins are amazingly cramped when the beds are down and that certainly doesn’t help with the heat. Since the train arrived at 6:55 AM we had a lot of time to kill in the city before our room was ready, so we dropped our bags in storage and saw a bit of the old town including the outside of the Tyn Church (middle photo). The church was closed when we got there which I found disappointing mostly because it would have offered the usual cave-man style air conditioning all big piles of stone do (again, the saturation point with sights like this). Then we climbed the tower for views and slumped back across the Charles Bridge (bottom).

One thing you really notice about cities like this on a hot day is the lack of green anywhere. Trees, and the shade they provide are almost nonexistent. Buildings and cobblestones, that’s all there is. It is charming on a comfortable day and downright oppressive on a hot one.

It is too early in our visit to offer fair comparisons, but Krakow was everything I hoped it would be – historic, charming, inexpensive, and with plenty of green space – and with people who are very happy you are there. So far, my impression of Prague is that it is historic and charming, and that’s it…

Thief!

A couple of days ago Michelle found a man's wallet left on a table outside a restaurant. She went in and gave it to the owner (who didn't seem very interested in getting it). Today someone found Michelle's digital camera in its bag hanging from the back of the chair we had just walked away from on a neighborhood square a couple of minutes earlier. He/she took it and kept it. We asked everyone we could think of asking. No one saw anything. The only bright spot in this sad tale is that I also have a camera, as do the children. So we didn't completely lose the photo record of any of our locations. But of course, Michelle had some unique shots, as well as a nice camera she liked.

We started the day by packing up our stuff and checking out of our room after breakfast. But the hostel not only let us store our bags there for the day, but also invited us to join them for dinner again at 7PM. Our night train doesn't leave until 10PM so that was a great deal. We walked through the old town oval to the Wawel castle hill complex. There we saw the national cathedral (top photo) and some grand stone architecture. Most of the interiors are supposedly mediocre, though, so we skipped them. Then we walked on, out of the old town ring to the Kazimierz neighborhood - the old Jewish area, but now with some 200 or so Jews remaining, I don't think the description still holds. There we visited both the old (pre-1800) and new (post-1800) cemeteries. Both were vandalized by the Nazi's during the war. Headstones were broken or taken away for building projects elsewhere. Now many have been returned. The ones too damaged to identify were used in reconstruction of the cemetery walls (middle photo). Both cemeteries, however, still show major signs of damage and neglect. There are simply too few people (or funds) remaining to care for them.

Then we had a small lunch on Kazimierz's Place Nowy (market square) and that is where Michelle's camera was taken...

After spending some time trying to hunt the camera down and then process the loss, we walked on to the bridge over the river that marked the entry to the Jewish Ghetto created by the Nazi's in Krakow and depicted in the movies "Schindler's List" and "The Pianist". There is nothing there noteworthy to see that connects with the movies, but it was clear from the newer buildings surrounding some weeded, unused plots of land, that this area was partly destroyed and not refurbished, but simple rebuilt in a modern, but haphazard style.

Then we returned to the hostel for some refreshment (bottom photo) and rest before going out again souvenir hunting. I cannot say enough about the friendly and generous atmosphere of Greg and Tom's Hostel in Krakow. What an amazing bargain! The only thing that could have been an improvement was air conditioning...

Auschwitz/Burkenau

Auschwitz/Burkenau

I will keep my comments brief, as there is little I can add to what is already widely known. No words can explain the immensity of the horror and insanity involved.

From a purely touristic point of view, we found the smaller Auschwitz camp tour to be exhaustively informative (we were guided by a woman who clearly felt very deeply about what she was describing, but her tour took over two hours on a very hot day). With hoards of tourists just like us milling around in our brightly colored summer vacation clothes, digital cameras and bottled water, it took away much of the solemnity of the site. If I were to do it again, I would come later in the day when tours are optional and it is less busy.

Birkenau, however - ten times the size, and purely a camp of death – was big enough and stark enough that a couple of hundred tourists didn’t alter the effect. Walking along the train tracks you felt the need to weep but it doesn’t happen. There is no sense to it all. The immensity is too much. Without something tangible to focus on, the tears never come.

In Auschwitz there are several walls of photos of prisoners, the date they entered and the date they died. Early on, they took photos to identify prisoners in case of escape. Later, they stopped bothering because after a few weeks in camp, none of the prisoners would be recognizable anyway. Many are older and look as if they have already lived a good part of their lives. But one photo I noticed was of an attractive young woman who looked as if, in another time and place, she could have been passing me on the sidewalk. She entered camp in late November, 1942 and died just six weeks later. It doesn’t say how. It doesn’t really matter. It doesn’t say why. How could it?...

Welcome to Krakow

In theory, night train travel is very efficient. You get to sight see in one city all day, then just about when you would be settling in for the night, you go to the train station instead, board your train, sleep, and wake up ready to hit the streets sightseeing in a brand new city, without the cost of a day of transport. Unfortunately, it isn't quite that simple sometimes. between the heat and the noise from the open window, we slept poorly. The result being that we had to spend about four hours in the middle of the day today (when it was hottest) showering and napping. Not that it was a total loss, but we didn't accomplish as much today as we had envisioned when we made up our itinerary. It wasn't really the fault of the train. It was the heat.

Fortunately, Krakow is the perfect place to visit if you want to see the old town sights quickly and efficiently. I don't think I've ever seen a city with as much packed into a very small, yet quaint and thoroughly enjoyable area. The old town is surrounded by a ring-shaped park where the old city wall used to be. In the very center is the market square and the spire of the St. Mary's cathedral. So you don't even need a map to avoid getting lost. You can head for the square and the cathedral spire, see what there is to see there and in the market hall, then wander in the charming side streets. Once you hit the park, you know you are on the edge of the old town and you turn back toward the center down a different street. It really couldn't be simpler.

Krakow (and other Eastern cities) is also a haven for private or "boutique" youth hostels - meaning they are not part of the worldwide hosteling organization, are small, and not always grimly institutional looking. We are staying in the cleverly-named "Greg and Tom's" hostel, just a block outside of the ring. The building is a bit ramshackle, but the atmosphere is charmingly homey, they provide great service, and have food and refreshments (and wifi) available for free, which is rather stunning. We just returned from spending $50 on dinner and ice cream (not a bad price, either) to find that we could have eaten at the hostel for free! Tomorrow...

So we did a great deal of wandering it what remained of today. We saw much of the old town streets (top photo), St Mary's Cathedral (middle) and lots of funky civic artwork (bottom). We also took care of getting our train tickets to Prague two days from now (another night train, this one with AC, I hope {fat chance}), and our bus tickets for tomorrow's excursion to Auschwitz. It will be another day of hard lessons for the children, but worth it, I hope...

Last Day In Budapest

It’s 10PM and I’m in the top bunk of our 6-bed night-train couchette in the dark (except for the glow of the computer) and it’s probably 90 degrees up here. We’re also low on water and there is no source of extra water on the train. Michelle and the children are below me, tucked in and ready for sleep. The children think this is a wonderful adventure. Our train arrives in Krakow at 6:30AM and we have to be ready to depart right away. The train goes on to Moscow after that!

Our last day in Budapest was kind of a catch-all of the various activities we had not done already. We started (after stowing our bags in the B&B owner’s garage for the day) by going to the grand Parliament building. We had seen it from across the Danube River several times each day, but not yet up close. Unfortunately the tours we all sold out for the day when we arrived there at 10AM. Up close, the building actually looks less interesting. The stonework is stained and the details look a bit less artistic. Like almost every big public building in Budapest, it was built around 1896 and probably in a bit of a hurry to get it ready for the millennium birthday celebration.

After that we walked a short distance south along the river to a place where a monument of sorts was recently added; along the very edge of the embankment were about 50 pairs of bronzed shoes of a style worn in the 1940’s. These represented the Jews who were killed here by the Arrow Cross Nazi Police in the waning days of the war, when it became obvious that Germany was going to lose and there was not enough time to transport all of the remaining Hungarian Jews to Auschwitz for extermination. Here, along the river, they were simply lined up and shot – their bodies left to float away. There was no plaque to explain the meaning or name the dead. The shoes were enough. Joshua, age 7, naturally asked what this was about and we told him the simple truth. He was quiet for a while. When I asked him if he was alright, he started to cry. Later he told us that he had seen a pair of shoes that was small…

We have tried several times to try to explain what happened in a way that could possibly make any sense to a 7-year-old, but it is difficult. It makes very little sense to me. But we talked about how this part of the world used to be a very angry place, and that these reminders of that time exist so that we can never forget what happened, and never repeat it again. It is impressive, if you think about it, to recognize how far Europe has come in the last generation or two, toward a more harmonious coexistence, and that the other nations of the world could learn from their example.

After that we went to the Great Market Hall to see all the meat, produce and souvenirs for sale. It was quite a spectacle. We bought things for a small lunch there and each of the children found a souvenir they liked to remember Budapest.

The day was hot again, and the sun was beating down in a way that makes you just melt in moments. There were other things we could have seen at that point, but there was only one thing that any of us would have truly enjoyed, so we returned to the baths (pools) for the rest of the afternoon. The children had a blast (and got nice & tired) and we all cooled off...that is, until we got on this train…

Urban vs. Rural

Way back in the May posts I may have mentioned the urban vs. rural question a bit, but I would like to elaborate a little here. Many people, with limited time, only visit where the concentration of sights is the greatest, and that's in the major cities. So many 10-14 day trips are entirely urban. That's too bad, I think, because no country is defined by its biggest cities. In order to get some semblance of balance you need to step out into the countryside at least a little.

But that ideal was a challenge to keep during these last two weeks of our trip. We are doing a relatively quick tour through the cities of the formerly "Eastern", and now more accurately called Central Europe. We don't have a great deal of time to spend away from the cities, but more importantly, there are a limited number of reachable rural sights that are of any tourist interest. Some (but certainly not all) rural areas are still far removed from the progress made since Moscow ruled.

While visiting Budapest, we did a short side trip to the village of Szentendre yesterday. Today we did a longer, more distant day trip to the college town of Eger. It was a long day with 2 1/2 hour train trips each way. This made our actual time there frustratingly short, but still worthwhile.

Our first stop after we arrived was the cathedral (top photo) which was unusually large and ornate for a town this size because it was the seat of the Bishop. In the 1780's the Bishop wanted to establish a great university in Eger (he was a progressive who valued knowledge). Emperor Joseph II in Vienna said no, and the frustrated Bishop decided to build the finest teacher's college around instead, with a first class library (middle photo), science labs, and astronomical equipment.

Next we did a quick stroll through the market square where we saw some treats (bottom photo) and had some ice cream. It was a hot day.

Tomorrow we have another full day in Budapest, but then we leave in the evening on a night train to Krakow. It is likely that the next blog entry will be delayed for a little while. I'll do my best. Wish us luck on the night train. Sometimes those are good experiences and sometimes they are very bad. Let's just hope that we can get a reasonable amount of sleep.

Tonight, as I sit here, Annie is watching her favorite team, the Netherlands endure and endlessly scoreless finals match in the world cup. Is it any wonder Americans have not fallen in love with soccer?...