Reflection - End of Trip

     Sometimes at the end of a trip, I collect a few random thoughts that occur to me but don't necessarily fit into a chronological travel blog. Here are a few for this trip:

• The older people of those nations who lived for years under the Communists are a cautious group. They do not readily make eye-contact or nod as you go by on a bike and it doesn't matter whether it is a city or a small village. They are wary. 
• This is a meat and dairy-centric part of the world: pork, duck, venison and beef are the usual offerings. If you are a vegetarian, you can find things to eat but it is easier if you can eat eggs and cheese.  
• Potatoes are served at least 5 different ways and often two ways are included in the same meal. 
• The houses in the countryside are all beige stucco with a red-tiled roof and each village has at least 2 churches - generally both Catholic.
• Beer is cheaper than water.
  
• The architecture in the cities is amazing and when lit up at night it looks like Disneyland. For us, Budapest was the most beautiful.
• The countryside is still very agricultural with field after field of crops: corn, grapeseed, winter wheat, grapes, and poppies. 
• Each city has a river: Krakow = Vistula, Budapest and Vienna = Danube, Slovakia near Bratislava = Moldau, Prague = Vltava, 
• The streets in the old parts of the cities are all made of cobblestone. They are lovely but hard on waling and rolling suitcases.  My left ankle was very unhappy with the unevenness. 
• Castles sit on top of hills surrounded by walls to keep out the enemy. This makes for wonderful views from the top.
• Churches are amazing testimonies to the power of the Catholic church in history. And in this part of the world, it was very powerful, therefore there are many, many churches. 
• You can only sustain interest in viewing every church for so long. Then you look at the outside and leave it at that.
• WWII was not that long ago and for many, it has not been forgotten.
• Everyone under the age of 40 speaks English well.
• No one who is a tourist here speaks Czech, Hungarian or Polish because it is impossible. Everyone speaks English. It is the Lingua Franca of the day.
• It is astonishing how few Jews are left in Central Europe. The buildings, synagogues and ruins from concentration camps remain, but there aren't very many Jews.
• Music is on the streets and concerts are in the halls everywhere. People appreciate music and musicians. 
• Austria was never behind the Iron Curtain. It is very different from those countries that were. It is also much more expensive. 
• All the cities we went to in the Austro-Hungarian Empire claim the major composers as their own because the composers lived and worked in all these cities. 
• It is easy to travel from place to place and withing cities (trains, trams, underground, buses). It makes flying on a plane feel even more uncomfortable. 
• European cafes are all they are cracked up to be - wonderful places to take a break and drink something delicious and eat something amazing and people watch.
• There are some people we should have learned about in our study of European history. One of them is Empress Elizabeth known as Sisi married to one of the Franz Josephs. She was a health nut, an athlete, an intellectual and hated the demands of court. She was not born at the right time.
• After talking at length with one of the young women who worked at the pension we stayed at in Krakow, I understand why so many young people from around the world want to come to the U.S. to study at the university. Universities here are very rigid and theoretical. 
• If you are into history, you need to visit this part of the world. We barely touched what is here.
  

Full Circle: Back to Prague where we began

     After a very comfortable overnight train from Krakow to Prague, we arrived at 6:50 AM at the Main Station bought a transit pass for the day and hopped the Metro to get over to the little hotel we stayed at three long weeks ago. Happily, thunderstorms had rolled through the night before and the temperatures went from 95 degrees to 65! Yay! The owners of the same hotel we stayed at when we first arrived in Central Europe, father and son, and their staff were incredibly welcoming, inviting us to sit down for a delightful breakfast and apologizing that our room wouldn't be ready for a few hours. We took the time to use their computer to upload all our photos from the GoPro and phone, check email and catch up. By 10:00 AM we were in our room showering and planning for the day.

     There are still so many things we can see and do in Prague. There is no way to do everything so we chose a combination of things we wanted to see and some unplanned wandering to allow for serendipity.

     We wanted to tour the Lobkowicz Museum in the Palace at the Prague Castle so we headed up the hill to the base of the castle complex. This museum is privately owned and filled with treasures that belong to the Lobkowicz family going back to the 16th century. Rather than a stuffy collection, it is a well-curated and maintained history of this family. There is a great audio tour narrated by the present direct descendant, William Lobkowicz, an American. All the property of this family including this palace was taken by the Nazi's and then by the Communists. When the Czech Republic became a democracy, President Vaclav Havel returned all the property to the Lobkowicz family and they in turn created this museum and three other castles housing collections and a vineyard. Each room had its charms including paintings by  Brueghel, Caneletto and Velasquez. But by far, we were most drawn to the orignial musical manuscripts by Beethoven, Mozart and Handel. One of the Princes Lobkowicz was Beethoven's patron back in the day. These were in a case in a room filled with priceless violins and clarinets.

Clarinets in the Music Room at the Lobkowicz Museum

The Eroica Symphony by Beethoven in his hand with notes written by him dedicated to Prince Lobkowicz

     That afternoon while walking across the Main Square we had one of those random travel events that seems to underscore how small a world it is. There are always live musicians playing but as we walked across this time, we notices a small group of brass players wearing T-shirts saying Boston Philharmonic Youth Orchestra. They were playing to advertise their upcoming concert the next two nights in Prague. As we walked by, I looked at the adult who was helping conduct and hold music and realized I knew him. He is a friend and colleague of my daughter Lauren whom I had met once at my house! At that moment, our paths crossed in Prague.

     Another night we chose something a little different that seems to be original to Prague. We went to a Black Light show where dancers wearing costumes that light up under black light dance to music. Interesting but since there was no plot, it did seem to go on a bit longer than our interest held. 

     While wandering around during the day, we came upon the  Jerusalem or Jubilee Synagogue. It was a beautiful combination of Moorish and Art Deco design. On the top floor, there was an exhibition that explained what happened to the Jews of Prague after WWII when the Communists were in charge. It was almost as bad as what happened under the Nazi occupation. 

Jerusalem Synagogue

     One of the final things we did in Prague before flying home was a hike. On one of the hills above the city and its river, there is a structure called the Petrin Tower. Originally built as a copy of Paris' Eiffel Tower it is much smaller but set on a high hill which actually makes it taller. Or at least that is what the people of Prague like to say. After a 30 minute walk through a forest, we climbed the 299 steps for a great view of the city. 

Petrin Tower

     On the way down, we stopped for bubble tea. Yes, we discovered a place that made tapioca pearls and popping flavored boba. Although they offered it in beer, I declined and just had it in green tea. We used it to wash down a Prague specialty of trdelnik which is a yeast dough sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar and wrapped around a wood dowel and cooked over a flame. Yum. 

     That evening we walked over to the Municipal House-Smetana Hall and heard the Boston Phil Youth Orchestra play Bartok, Dvorak and Shostakovich. They were very good and the hall was spectacular. Although it seemed that the audience had many family members, it did seem that the locals also come out to these concerts. 

     It's hard to believe it has already been three weeks of travel. This time, we must have planned it right because we were not anxious to return home. Except for the heat, this was a fabulous trip.