Day 1: In Transit to Program Tuesday, October 15
Photos might be better reviewed after the context of the reading.
Fran took us to the airport at noon. Our plane was delayed in Winnipeg, so we ate at Freshi at the airport. Our switchover in Toronto was very smooth and easy with Wade Miller filling the seat behind us. We left on time from Toronto, but it was a long difficult flight with an unimpressive meal. Nice African steward and bouncy attendant doing the announcements. Knees rough. No sleep. I watched about 2/3 of a recent Bob Marley biopic which I would describe with the word “dutiful.”. Alex watched a couple of movies to make it through the night. Not even close to making the connection, mostly due to the long wait at immigration. Followed by a long wait to get a new ticket. Then a long wait for the flight.
Day 2: Arrive Krakow, Wednesday, October 16
The plan was to arrive at Krakow's John Paul II Balice International airport (KRK) and have a rest before our orientation at five. I would have learned that “Krakow is truly a romantic city with a labyrinth of charming restaurants, coffee shops, and museums and is the first European city to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List” As it was, Alex got a short version of the orientation from our guide the next morning when I chose to sleep in.
Our flight was changed to fly via Warsaw because the plane we were on hit a bird, which knocked out an engine and we had to turn around. This meant we had a 12-hour stay at the airport after our combined 10 hours of flying. The airline gave us a coupon, so we had beer on them at Goodman and Fillipo - DER Hotspot für genussliebende Menschen aus aller Welt.” When we arrived, we were greeted at the door, given a full meal to eat and were able to have a scotch (duty free) I had not heard of but was priced well and tasted fine) before bed. A good start with the way the hotel greeted us and with Ilona waiting.
Day 3: Wawel Castle & Cathedral, Chopin Thursday, October 17
The Novotel in Krakow had the best Breakfast buffet of the trip, although we did not know it at the time, I spotted who I guessed was our tour guide, by her professional look, as she may have been eating breakfast with her mother.
The 16th century brought Krakow to a state of unprecedented splendor and there was a 8:00am lecture about what a center of art and culture it has been. Alex got up and went to take notes. I slept. Izzy, our Krakow guide, was a highlight in herself. Knowledgeable, passionate, fun, present, accessible, patient and more. Clearly, she loves Krakow and her job.
Following the lecture, we walked to Wawel Castle (this is the time stands still moment of realizing we were really there and soaking in the beauty of the walk along the river Vistula) and Cathedral, a symbol of national pride and a testament to the golden times in the “City of Kings.” We explored the unparalleled collection of magnificent 16th-century Flemish tapestries including works by Michiel van Coxcie, the “Flemish Raphael,” and the breathtaking interior of the cathedral, which stands as a collective work of Italian genius.
After lunch (which we recall as the best pierogies that we have ever eaten in our lives- Pierogi Mr. Vincent, we continued on foot to the Old Market Square, one of the largest medieval European squares in existence. Its surroundings have remained unchanged for almost 700 years.
Our group was 17 which included a 42-year-old employee of Road Scholar as they send their employees on trips periodically to make sure they are grounded in reality. We had one tour guide throughout the whole trip and a second one in each city. I figured with a group as large as 17, there would be at least one person who would regularly bug me or make it plain and obvious that I bugged them. I can only speak to the former and I got on fine with everyone having no “you wouldn’t believe the person we had to travel with” stories. And while I hoped I would feel a better connection with one or two people and indeed within a couple days it was clear that Alex and I were on the same wavelength as one other couple. More on them later. We were the only Canadians, and the rest ranged from southern California to Maine and many points in between. A few identified, in conversation, as Republican but quickly added something like “the Republican party I joined doesn’t exist anymore.”
We were provided a concert of Chopin’s music at a nearby hotel entitled "Frederic Chopin, a Poet of the Piano." In Poland, They say that “Chopin’s music defines a nation and the country's long struggle for independence" and that his music is "the quintessence of Polish romanticism.” And we heard that “no one before Chopin, nor anyone since, has been able to create a sonic universe from the melodies and rhythms.” I did not go because my friend Mark had a court hearing regarding his civil case, and he asked me to join in. Alex liked it but it did not have the “wow” factor that some of our later concerts had. When Alex got back to the hotel, we ate at the restaurant there. I had Guinea Fowl; it tasted like chicken.
Day 4: Auschwitz & Birkenau Friday, October 18
The coffee at all the hotels came from machines that offered eight choices, and every sip of the trip was phenomenal. We had very little coffee that did not come from these machines, but there was little reason to.
We departed after our 6:30 breakfast, by motorcoach, to visit the Auschwitz & Birkenau Museum. It is, as you can imagine, hard to describe the experience. To begin the tour, you walk down a long sidewalk with 8-foot barriers on each side while a recorded list of names of people who died is played. I felt weak and sick just by that. Even though we were “off season” it was very crowded, and I am pretty sure that having a guide is not an option but a requirement. This meant walking (marching) with long lines and while I don’t believe this is intentional, I imagine it is not lost on many either. There was not a lot of new information except for some of the details, but just to be walking through the buildings, by the fences and through the gas chamber remains is very different from what you would read in a book or see in a movie. I am glad I went but enjoyed is hardly the right word. The remaining images are the “standing” cells used for punishment or to extract information, collection of peoples’ hair and piles of shoes and personal possessions taken when people were sent to their execution. Our guide was both knowledgeable and hit the right tone. It was certainly more of an experience of pause and feeling more than knowledge. Birkenau is all just ruins (foundations) whereas Auschwitz is preserved and where need be, restored. Our guide put on the movie Schindler’s List to watch on the way home, mostly because we were going to see places where it was filmed that evening.
On the way to our restaurant for dinner, we led through the Kazimierz Jewish District including the Jan Karski Memorial Bench, erected in honor of the legendary emissary of the Polish Underground, known for his efforts to alert the Western Allies of the Nazi genocide during WWII. We also went to the Jewish ghetto where they have a memorial of 58 chairs for the 58,000 Jews living in Krakow at the time of the Nazi invasion. Each chair had the name and picture of a holocaust victim. And a recent addition was on the back side of each chair, recent pictures of those who were kidnapped in the October 7 attack on Israel. When we asked and were told there were only a matter of hundreds (well under a thousand) Jews currently living in Krakow, I felt an awareness of the holocaust that I had never had before. I have resolved that if I ever meet a holocaust denier face-to-face, I’ll try to beat the crap out of them!
We ate at the Klezmer Hois restaurant that supplied a klezmer trio rotating room to room. The first dish was matzo ball soup, and it was new to me that they used a giant matzo ball that had been cut in cubes and slices. And a lovely plate of salmon for the main course. The music, the food and the décor were all wonderful. Every day breakfast was provided as part of our package and most days, so were lunch and dinner but often one of those we would be on our own.
When I got back to the hotel, I went to the bar to get ice to take up to our room. There was a guy on the tour who had been a forensic DNA expert for the FBI, and he had told people he was not much interested in talking about his work. But someone told him that I had missed the Chopin concert to attend court, virtually, of a civil case arising from a wrongful conviction due to falsely presented DNA evidence. He was in the bar where I was getting the ice and came up and “insisted” that I join him and his wife for a drink. He started with a cynical comment that lots of “wrongful convictions” are not convicting the wrong person but just cases where the prosecution made big mistakes. But, when I told him who the two defence witnesses were, one from Harvard and another from Texas, both who were FBI consultants, he said he knew them both very well and said, “they are both straight shooters, whatever they said in court was the truth.” I then explained how they had testified that the lab that did the DNA work in the case was the worst they have seen and had the most blatant violations of the SWGDAM protocols that they had ever seen. At this point, his wife smiled and nodded towards him and said to me “he wrote the SWGDAM protocols, he wouldn’t say that because he worked with others, but he is the one who led the team and did the writing.” Kind of a cool moment.
Day 5: Art Nouveau, Collegium Maius, Icons of Polish Modernism Saturday, October 19
We walked from our hotel to see the Franciscan Basilica, which was across the street from where we saw the “Popes Window” and then toured the ancient Collegium Maius with a very dry tour guide. who we enjoyed. He said their most famous graduate was some guy named Copernicus; he seemed to like globes. The school’s motto "Plus ratio quam vis,” which means "Reason over force,”
And before lunch, I must admit it started to feel a little rushed, we went to the Czartoryski museum to see what we were told was one of the 16 remaining da Vinci portraits in the world. We walked home alone getting a picture in front of Andy Boardman‘s school. We rested a bit after enjoying our meandering walk home and went out for our farewell to Krakow dinner at a local restaurant.
*****
Day 6: Welcome to Budapest Sunday, October 20
Photos might be better reviewed after the context of the reading.
On the bus pretty early and zoomed along a variety of scenery that we compared to Cape Breton, the Okanogan and more Canadian locales. This took us through part of Slovakia, so if I was counting countries that I have visited I could have added one. We had profoundly fatty barbecued pork and beer at a ski lodge along the way as soon as we arrived, some of went running away to see the largest synagogue in Europe, where we had a neat little tour from a guy whose name was, ironically, he said, Christian. It was quite stunning sight, and he explained to us that it looked like a Catholic Church on the inside and a mosque on the outside, which he explained as gestures to fit into the community. From there, we went to the restaurant where I sampled a couple of nice wines along with a fish with no name dinner. This included a little talk by Eva, our Budapest guide. Like Izzy, she was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, caring, tireless and approachable. We were amazed to find out that she loves doing these tours and does them when she wants a break from her regular job managing a big four start hotel in town.
Day 7: Heroes' Square, Andrassy Avenue, Pest Monday, October 21
We took a bus to another hotel as our hotel had all the meeting rooms booked. There, we had a lecture by an economist and a gender studies professor, Malek Attila and Zizka Dorota. They spoke about the contemporary political climate and some of the policies and results. 98% of the people who live in Hungary are ethnically Hungarian! Both the professors are vehemently opposed to Orban Viktor and his policies. Yet Atilla said he considered him to be an ideolog and Darota considered him to be an opportunist.
We left the hotel and went by bus and explored the city park and Heroes Square area where many of the museums are located. We had a coffee break, and I had already been a little overwhelmed by being shown a raft museums that I could not visit. I sat by myself and drank water to try and cleanse that experience.
Next was a visit to the Franz Liszt Museum in where we also had a concert. The guide wonderful and talked about his amazing childhood achievements, his unique way or working, refusing payment when he accepted students and myths, such as the idea that his hands were massive. They weren’t and they had the casting to do it. The piano recital was from a performance student near the end of his doctoral work who transformed as he played becoming less tame and progressively wilder both in h is playing and appearance (lost his glasses and his hair seemed to have a mind of its own) as he worked through the compositions. Of the many good things I could say about the Road Scholar experience, the private concerts really sets it apart from your average tourist experience. We also had a brief Question and Answer session after.
From there we were driven around a bit more and finally ended up at the central market. I have never seen so much paprika in my life! After a loop of the market we walked home, going by the Calvinist church, where I took pictures as I had supervised a Hungarian Protestant Church in Winnipeg for several years, and it was a must do to see one of the churches they would have known. After a short break in our hotel we then walked out to the restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, On the way, we stopped at a ruin pub, a thing that is hard to describe but basically as if a bunch of restaurants set up in a huge, abandoned apartment building. I suggest looking at this link for a better sense. We were all offered a choice between pear brandy or Unicom, which is a national icon and much like the stomach bitters I would drink in my pretentious twenties. We were told that there is no such thing as a Hungarian who cannot tell a story about getting into the family Unicom as a child. Then we went to a Gastropub for dinner, where we had five or six local young people join us and we were able to ask them whatever we wanted. I was across from a recently graduated 19-year-old woman who I spoke four or five languages. I asked her if she was originally from California, and she laughed and asked, “Would you like to hear my valley girl accent, people say it is really good.” She had gone to an international school and loves and must be very adept at languages. She said her Korean was better than her English and that she was a giant fan of K-Pop. I asked her for other bands she liked and of the four I liked the Bagossy Brothers Company the best. She is working in a souvenir shop but is trying to work her way into the movie business. I did not note her name, but wish I had because her talent and energy went well beyond her linguistic skills, and she seems destined to do great things no matter what she choses.
Day 8: Szabó Ervin Library, Downtown Pest Tuesday, October 22
We used the trolley, or streetcar, I can't quite remember, maybe a streetcar. And walked through the Palace District a phenomenally great tour of the Metropolitan Szabó Library by another woman named Eva. Then we went to the Kossuth Lajos Square in Buda. [Little reminder: Bumpy Buda and Plainlike Pest.] This is where we saw the Hungarian parliament then we walked through the Liberty Square and got some more history. We had lunch in the Strudel Haus which included goulash and a demonstration of making strudel. And then got to eat the strudel. We had a very short visit at the basilica where there was ridiculous loud organ notes being tuned. But we did see the mummified right hand of the King Stephen (975-1038) I walked back with John, while Alex went off with his Karen wife for a spa, and I dropped off the laundry before having a Thai massage in the hotel.
At night, we said, “No, thank you” to the organ concert that was offered, even though it had works by Bucha, Handel, Vivaldi, list Schubert and Mozart and decided to go to a jazz club. It was very local, no English spoken by the trio and the leader Vázsonyi János had several (apparently hilarious) long introductions to their songs, Romani Jazz covers of everything from Bach to TV themes. And was the last week of a long-standing club. A highlight was the waitress who had already started her new job, and therefore working two jobs every days said, “I am sorry I am just too tired to speak English” and “I don’t know the price of that dish, nobody else seems to either, what do you think is fair?”
This is where we cemented our friendship. With John (a retired judge) and Karen (a retired social worker) both from the Great State of Maine. Karen is warm, present, caring, wise, witty, beautiful and more. John is a bit of a buffoon. Does this sound like any couple you know? Or maybe I am projecting onto them?
Day 9: Castle District, Royal Palace Wednesday, October 23
We went by public bus to the Castle District (bus is free for seniors- they love the mayor there is who is conservative but not yet an autocrat like Orban.) where we had an expert-led tour of Hungarian National Gallery located within the Royal Palace. My favorite pieces were Throne of Fire by Servatius Tibor, The Cellist by Berény Róbert, Self Portrait and the Wanderer by (Galimberti) Lanow Mária, and Ironing Bear (also known as Life is Hard) by Kelemen Károly.
We walked through the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church (I think this was in the one two many churches category and with no mummified hand, it just came up a little short.) I loved seeing houses built in the 1300s where people still live and apparently it is one of the more affordable parts of the city (that is already quite affordable.) We had lunch with a small salad and a huge array of tortes to choose from. We were both happy with Dobos torte.
It was a national day of Independence which of the three we celebrated during our 16 days. So, either revolutions happen in October, or each country has had so many that they have several Independence Days. It came kind of a running joke as driving into Prague we asked if we would have a national holiday and when the guide looked it up, she started laughing because yes, three out of four!
Road Scholar covered our taxi home where we rested up for a dinner cruise on the Danube. We had two such cruises on the trip. There were a few nice sights, but the food was perfunctory. It id allow us to linger and talk over dinner and I can saw I have “steamed” or “sailed” or “desieled” down the Danube.
*****
Day 10: Welcome to Vienna Thursday, October 24
Photos first?
As we left Budapest, I was reflecting on the heartfelt reasons to go to all the cities but Vienna. A good friend had studied in Krakow, and I was curious to see it, I had been the supervisor of an ethnic Hungarian church in Winnipeg so had always wanted to get to Budapest and Milan Kundera’s writing had a profound impact on me, and even though he was not from Prague, it played in his books. Turns out he is not beloved there, but it still motivated me. There are lots of reasons to admire if not love Vienna (and it surely was distinct from the other three cities- way more immigration and way more graffiti so it looked and felt differently, but I just did not have the same “I get to go there” feeling. I made up for this by seeking out a Quaker connection and we met up with her and had a great visit in a Viennese Café.
We spent the morning in transit driving by both industry and agriculture with villages along the way. We had the worst meal of the trip upon arrival: paper mâché soup followed by slab of tasteless beef with overcooked vegetables. We were given an overview lecture by our guide. She lacked the verve and passion of our true previous guides, and I found her English hard to understand. Given that cathedrals were on the agenda for the afternoon and that it just did not feel fair to my Budapest experience to not savor it, I begged off and rested in our hotel room. It was touching how just about every person in our tour checked on my wellbeing, and I was able to thank them and say that I was not feeling ill, but just reacting to the compression of the trip which is not the way I like to travel and that I had planned on giving myself time when I needed it. And for whatever reasons, I think of the Habsburgs as “the bad guys.” We are watching The Empress on Netflix now so at least that fills them out for me.
All to say that the day was a needed “reset” for me and I started the next day ready to go. All of our hotels were both full of character, high quality and just slightly nicer than we might have chosen on our own. All of the cities were “cheaper than Winnipeg” with Vienna being the closest and Prague being very affordable. Not like it was a generation ago when prices were about 1/10 of what you would pay in North America but still consistently well below what I would expect to pay anywhere in North America. Perhaps going in October helped, all are big tourist havens and likely have higher prices in the summer.
Day 11: Understanding Austria, Imperial Vienna Friday, October 25
After breakfast, we heard a lecture titled Understanding Austria by a local geography professor Karl Husa. He lived up to my experience that professors are often either well published and good lecturers or not particularly able in either. He has a great CV and was both entertaining and informative. He began his lecture saying, “We hate The Sound of Music, we are not part of Germany, and we do not have any kangaroos.”
We had a bus tour along the ring boulevard which included seeing modern Vienna, the UN building which employs 4000 people and various parts of the Danube, the ubiquitous graffiti beside and where Freud ate breakfast every day and eventually stopped at Hundertwasser Haus. We had vegetable tartar (kind of like guacamole) for lunch and then went to Schönbrunn Palace which really was magnificent. Rich with history, beauty and art and magnificent grounds on which to stroll. While only the external establishing shots for The Empress were shot there, it helps one imagine what it may have been like during the length of the Habsburg Empire. And has hosted some of the most important peace talks in history.
After dinner, we walked to the Kursalon Music Hall. This concert hall, designed by Johann Garben in the style of the Italian Renaissance, is where Johann Strauss II used to charm the crowds with his outstanding compositions. It was kind of a “greatest hits” of Austrian classical including ballet and opera. It was a sellout and runs 365 days a year. I sensed that if they were any locals there, they were bringing guests with them, but I gave over and enjoyed it. A personal highlight was watching just how much one of the members of our tour group loved it, beaming and bopping through every second.
Day 12: Treasures of the Habsburgs, Free Time Saturday, October 26
We were given a bit of a later start, which we appreciated. It is a bit of a theme that as much as we enjoyed this trip and wouldn’t have gone on our own, the pace was too fast, so I appreciated our scheduled breaks and took a few of my own. When the trip was labeled “keep up the pace,” I took that to refer to the amount of walking, not the density of activities and speed with which they were accomplished. A local history professor gave us a lecture on the collection of the Hapsburgs and some of their history. We then went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, which included wonders such as automated toys, and then to the paintings where she also provided good explanations of context and history.
From there, we were left on our own, and Alex and I went to a café that has been open since 1903 and met with a local Quaker. Marina was filling in for a Friend I had met during an on-line conference, who had arranged to meet us for coffee but was out of town. Marina was a fascinating young woman who worked in the independent movie industry and shared about her transition from Jehovah’s Witness to Quaker.
With the afternoon free we took a long walk home meandering and taking in the city at our own pace with zero expectations. We considered going to an independent movie festival, but moved on, went out around the corner for wiener schnitzel and the like. It seems when it comes to wiener schnitzel, size matters.
Day 13: Great Musicians of the Vienna Classic, Belvedere Palace Sunday, October 27
We had a lecture on the diverse lives of three of Vienna's most famous composers during this morning's lecture. While Mozart initially enjoyed great success as a freelance composer and then struggled, Franz Schubert led a rather introverted life, only known for his renowned "Lieder" to his contemporaries. Johann Strauß, however, was one of the first global superstars of music. All three composers were contributors to the most Viennese of musical forms—the Viennese waltz. As the two presenters were both working professionals in the Vienna Opera Orchestra, we had a long Question and Answer session that was more about them and their careers than history. A great start to the day.
Later in the morning, we whipped around the city on a bus, whizzing by where Freud ate breakfast every day and being reminded what a center of intellectual life Vienna had been. have an expert-led overview by motorcoach of the Jugendstil landmarks of Vienna including the architect, Otto Wagner. We stopped to look at some of his apartment buildings before carrying on to a church he designed, which is perhaps the most beautiful church I have ever been in. The Steinhof Church, a Gesamtkunstwerk occupies a fantastic site on the Baumgartner heights. The church was on a hill above 20 empty buildings of five or six stories each, which could easily house hundreds of people each. This was a very large institution for people with psychiatric and developmental issues and has been in disuse since the deinstitutionalization movement. We were all struck by what a waste such a campus was but when we asked, we were told that the government was trying to get somebody to develop it but couldn’t. Part of the challenge might be that there is a strong socialist history in Austria and the stock of affordable housing is already much greater than most places.
In the afternoon we went to the Belvedere Palaces, in particular the Museum of Austrian Art where we saw works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, and more. It was quite rushed but we had time to appreciate some pieces, especially Monet’s The Chef, Edvard Munch’s Men on the Seashore, Helene Funke’s Träume and Richard Gerstl’s self-portrait.
For dinner we went to a Heuriger, a traditional wine tavern where they serve white wine in mugs, fried meats and fried vegetables and have roving musicians who seemingly could play anything they were asked for, from National Anthems to TV show themes, to pop tunes and classical music. Again, the food was not my first choice but the whole scene was fun and more so with a group that by this time had gelled quite well.
*****
Once again, view the photos as a tease, or save them to the end as a review.
Day 14: Welcome to Prague Monday, October 28
I finally had it with the breakfast buffets and had one double coffee and a bowl of cornflakes and muesli. On route we stopped at a McDonald’s where I took a picture of the bakery being nicer than most restaurants in Winnipeg. We had an extended stop in Trebon, a charming and perfectly preserved South Bohemian historical town with a rich history that goes back to the 12th century. While it felt a little unreal, like a theme park, we had a nice lunch and then were able to stroll the square looking into or going into the shops. We arrived at the K+K Hotel Central and had an orientation lecture where our guide explained that “there is no such a thing as a Czech who does not play at least one instrument” before pulling out what she called a “forest horn” and played us a traditional welcome tune. We were also told that the average Czech drinks 80 gallons of beer per year. That is a lot and when you factor in that there must be many who drink little or none. With our eyes open to that stat, beer was everywhere, and relatively little wine seemed to be on people’s tables when we ate out. And very little variety, by far the most common beer is Pilsner Urquell. We went around the corner for a dinner where we both had the best dessert of the trip. We were free after dinner but took it easy in our room.
Day 15: Old Town & Jewish Ghetto, Music in the Czech Republic Tuesday, October 29
Quite a bit of walking. The day is little blurry to me because it was my worst day of the trip for my arthritis. Despite that, we had a day or rich images and information. Including the Pinkasova Synagogue, museum and graveyard. 60,000 names of holocaust survivors were written on the walls of the synagogue which gave reason for pause. We had a hearty beef stew with pasta lunch. I meander back to the hotel on my own, skipping a music talk and the Charles Bridge. Alex said there were so many tourists on the bridge, you could barely move. And this was the end of October. I guess the advice not to go in peak season might be well taken.
At night we went to a classical concert of a small orchestra performing music written by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Smetana, Chopin, Bach, Bizet and Dvorak. Then John and Karen and Alex and I went to a “Michelin approved” restaurant and enjoyed every second, and every bite, And we imagine at about half the price such a meal, if you could get it, would cost in Winnipeg.
Day 16: Architecture of Prague Wednesday, October 30
We started the day with a lecture at the hotel on the architecture and fine arts of Prague, featuring all-important Prague styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Classicism, and respective revival movements, particularly concentrating on architecture of the 20th century: Art Nouveau, Cubism, and Functionalism. As she spoke, I came to realize that I like Art Nouveau. Not all our lectures were equal. While the subject was appropriate, timely and interesting the professor rattled it off like I was having a bot read a Wikipedia entry to me and did not inject herself at any point.
Then we went to Prague Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site that allowed us to see many of the styles we had just been lectured on. We spent most of the day there. While there were lots of stunning buildings and some beautiful art, and it was a gorgeous day it was again so crowded that inside buildings you were in the midst of a mob with “group think” setting the pace over which I felt no control. Most of the group commented over lunch and dinner that this felt a little too packed. We had a little bit of free time so we walked through a big downtown shopping mall, which felt like it could have been in any big North American city, other than an oval shape that gave it a slightly different feel.
At night we went for dinner cruise on the Vltava. The food was in the low average range, and the views of the city lit up were distant and infrequent. It was, however, distinctly satisfying to be sitting on a boat deck on October 30 in amenable weather chatting with our fellow travelers sensing we had shared a significant experience together that it would soon be coming to an end.
Day 17: Strahov Monastery, Free Time Thursday, October 31
We toured the Strahov Monastery, a place where “the knowledge of the Czech nation has been concentrated since 1140.” Not only were the libraires (theology and philosophy) stunning and amazing we enjoyed a private concert by a flautist and a classical guitar player who looked like Liona Boyd. In addition to the books and music there was a collection of curiosities, a precursor to museums. Like many parts of the trip, this day felt like a privilege.
The afternoon was free, and we went straight to the “Communism Museum” which was somewhat interesting but unabashed anti-communist propaganda, paid for by an American, that did not reflect the current reality that 30% of those who lived through the era says life was better then than now. Glad I went but surprised and disappointed that was so unreluctantly biased. That being said, we actually laughed quite a bit at how loaded the exhibits all were. From there we meandered with the idea of seeing the Kafka Head, which we did and doing some shopping. We ended up walking through a great maze of windy streets, gardens and shops we would have missed otherwise. And while we were late to also see the Cold War Museum, we had a great day and were able to buy a few gifts that we had not yet seen. A great final stamp on the trip and a final reminder that I like this kind of “come what may” time on a trip that this tour did not have much of.
We had our farewell dinner in a well appreciated restaurant, complete with robot bus machines (that we had a good laugh talking about what the appropriate tip was for, but we were both disappointed thinking that our last supper would be arranged in a private room with time for speeches. I have no idea what the “typical” road scholar trip group is like but between everyone being healthy and reasonable and an absolutely divine “den mother” guide, there is a great feeling that I wish we had been able to honour more formally. John and Karen had been given a bottle of wine due to some misplaced but recovered luggage along the way and they invited us to join them in their room to end the trip. And felt just right!
Day 18: Program Concludes Friday, November 01
We were up early but had our last massive buffet breakfast before taking an uber to the airport. We flew home through Heathrow and Toronto getting home at nine at night and able to unpack before falling asleep at a reasonable hour to get us back on track for our normal routines. Well, for Alex at least, but I left a few days later for Wichita KA, and Tulsa OK where I hit my 46th state and enjoyed two cities I had never been to while having a great time with other Quakers.
Photos might be better reviewed after the context of the reading.
Fran took us to the airport at noon. Our plane was delayed in Winnipeg, so we ate at Freshi at the airport. Our switchover in Toronto was very smooth and easy with Wade Miller filling the seat behind us. We left on time from Toronto, but it was a long difficult flight with an unimpressive meal. Nice African steward and bouncy attendant doing the announcements. Knees rough. No sleep. I watched about 2/3 of a recent Bob Marley biopic which I would describe with the word “dutiful.”. Alex watched a couple of movies to make it through the night. Not even close to making the connection, mostly due to the long wait at immigration. Followed by a long wait to get a new ticket. Then a long wait for the flight.
Day 2: Arrive Krakow, Wednesday, October 16
The plan was to arrive at Krakow's John Paul II Balice International airport (KRK) and have a rest before our orientation at five. I would have learned that “Krakow is truly a romantic city with a labyrinth of charming restaurants, coffee shops, and museums and is the first European city to be included in the UNESCO World Heritage List” As it was, Alex got a short version of the orientation from our guide the next morning when I chose to sleep in.
Our flight was changed to fly via Warsaw because the plane we were on hit a bird, which knocked out an engine and we had to turn around. This meant we had a 12-hour stay at the airport after our combined 10 hours of flying. The airline gave us a coupon, so we had beer on them at Goodman and Fillipo - DER Hotspot für genussliebende Menschen aus aller Welt.” When we arrived, we were greeted at the door, given a full meal to eat and were able to have a scotch (duty free) I had not heard of but was priced well and tasted fine) before bed. A good start with the way the hotel greeted us and with Ilona waiting.
Day 3: Wawel Castle & Cathedral, Chopin Thursday, October 17
The Novotel in Krakow had the best Breakfast buffet of the trip, although we did not know it at the time, I spotted who I guessed was our tour guide, by her professional look, as she may have been eating breakfast with her mother.
The 16th century brought Krakow to a state of unprecedented splendor and there was a 8:00am lecture about what a center of art and culture it has been. Alex got up and went to take notes. I slept. Izzy, our Krakow guide, was a highlight in herself. Knowledgeable, passionate, fun, present, accessible, patient and more. Clearly, she loves Krakow and her job.
Following the lecture, we walked to Wawel Castle (this is the time stands still moment of realizing we were really there and soaking in the beauty of the walk along the river Vistula) and Cathedral, a symbol of national pride and a testament to the golden times in the “City of Kings.” We explored the unparalleled collection of magnificent 16th-century Flemish tapestries including works by Michiel van Coxcie, the “Flemish Raphael,” and the breathtaking interior of the cathedral, which stands as a collective work of Italian genius.
After lunch (which we recall as the best pierogies that we have ever eaten in our lives- Pierogi Mr. Vincent, we continued on foot to the Old Market Square, one of the largest medieval European squares in existence. Its surroundings have remained unchanged for almost 700 years.
Our group was 17 which included a 42-year-old employee of Road Scholar as they send their employees on trips periodically to make sure they are grounded in reality. We had one tour guide throughout the whole trip and a second one in each city. I figured with a group as large as 17, there would be at least one person who would regularly bug me or make it plain and obvious that I bugged them. I can only speak to the former and I got on fine with everyone having no “you wouldn’t believe the person we had to travel with” stories. And while I hoped I would feel a better connection with one or two people and indeed within a couple days it was clear that Alex and I were on the same wavelength as one other couple. More on them later. We were the only Canadians, and the rest ranged from southern California to Maine and many points in between. A few identified, in conversation, as Republican but quickly added something like “the Republican party I joined doesn’t exist anymore.”
We were provided a concert of Chopin’s music at a nearby hotel entitled "Frederic Chopin, a Poet of the Piano." In Poland, They say that “Chopin’s music defines a nation and the country's long struggle for independence" and that his music is "the quintessence of Polish romanticism.” And we heard that “no one before Chopin, nor anyone since, has been able to create a sonic universe from the melodies and rhythms.” I did not go because my friend Mark had a court hearing regarding his civil case, and he asked me to join in. Alex liked it but it did not have the “wow” factor that some of our later concerts had. When Alex got back to the hotel, we ate at the restaurant there. I had Guinea Fowl; it tasted like chicken.
Day 4: Auschwitz & Birkenau Friday, October 18
The coffee at all the hotels came from machines that offered eight choices, and every sip of the trip was phenomenal. We had very little coffee that did not come from these machines, but there was little reason to.
We departed after our 6:30 breakfast, by motorcoach, to visit the Auschwitz & Birkenau Museum. It is, as you can imagine, hard to describe the experience. To begin the tour, you walk down a long sidewalk with 8-foot barriers on each side while a recorded list of names of people who died is played. I felt weak and sick just by that. Even though we were “off season” it was very crowded, and I am pretty sure that having a guide is not an option but a requirement. This meant walking (marching) with long lines and while I don’t believe this is intentional, I imagine it is not lost on many either. There was not a lot of new information except for some of the details, but just to be walking through the buildings, by the fences and through the gas chamber remains is very different from what you would read in a book or see in a movie. I am glad I went but enjoyed is hardly the right word. The remaining images are the “standing” cells used for punishment or to extract information, collection of peoples’ hair and piles of shoes and personal possessions taken when people were sent to their execution. Our guide was both knowledgeable and hit the right tone. It was certainly more of an experience of pause and feeling more than knowledge. Birkenau is all just ruins (foundations) whereas Auschwitz is preserved and where need be, restored. Our guide put on the movie Schindler’s List to watch on the way home, mostly because we were going to see places where it was filmed that evening.
On the way to our restaurant for dinner, we led through the Kazimierz Jewish District including the Jan Karski Memorial Bench, erected in honor of the legendary emissary of the Polish Underground, known for his efforts to alert the Western Allies of the Nazi genocide during WWII. We also went to the Jewish ghetto where they have a memorial of 58 chairs for the 58,000 Jews living in Krakow at the time of the Nazi invasion. Each chair had the name and picture of a holocaust victim. And a recent addition was on the back side of each chair, recent pictures of those who were kidnapped in the October 7 attack on Israel. When we asked and were told there were only a matter of hundreds (well under a thousand) Jews currently living in Krakow, I felt an awareness of the holocaust that I had never had before. I have resolved that if I ever meet a holocaust denier face-to-face, I’ll try to beat the crap out of them!
We ate at the Klezmer Hois restaurant that supplied a klezmer trio rotating room to room. The first dish was matzo ball soup, and it was new to me that they used a giant matzo ball that had been cut in cubes and slices. And a lovely plate of salmon for the main course. The music, the food and the décor were all wonderful. Every day breakfast was provided as part of our package and most days, so were lunch and dinner but often one of those we would be on our own.
When I got back to the hotel, I went to the bar to get ice to take up to our room. There was a guy on the tour who had been a forensic DNA expert for the FBI, and he had told people he was not much interested in talking about his work. But someone told him that I had missed the Chopin concert to attend court, virtually, of a civil case arising from a wrongful conviction due to falsely presented DNA evidence. He was in the bar where I was getting the ice and came up and “insisted” that I join him and his wife for a drink. He started with a cynical comment that lots of “wrongful convictions” are not convicting the wrong person but just cases where the prosecution made big mistakes. But, when I told him who the two defence witnesses were, one from Harvard and another from Texas, both who were FBI consultants, he said he knew them both very well and said, “they are both straight shooters, whatever they said in court was the truth.” I then explained how they had testified that the lab that did the DNA work in the case was the worst they have seen and had the most blatant violations of the SWGDAM protocols that they had ever seen. At this point, his wife smiled and nodded towards him and said to me “he wrote the SWGDAM protocols, he wouldn’t say that because he worked with others, but he is the one who led the team and did the writing.” Kind of a cool moment.
Day 5: Art Nouveau, Collegium Maius, Icons of Polish Modernism Saturday, October 19
We walked from our hotel to see the Franciscan Basilica, which was across the street from where we saw the “Popes Window” and then toured the ancient Collegium Maius with a very dry tour guide. who we enjoyed. He said their most famous graduate was some guy named Copernicus; he seemed to like globes. The school’s motto "Plus ratio quam vis,” which means "Reason over force,”
And before lunch, I must admit it started to feel a little rushed, we went to the Czartoryski museum to see what we were told was one of the 16 remaining da Vinci portraits in the world. We walked home alone getting a picture in front of Andy Boardman‘s school. We rested a bit after enjoying our meandering walk home and went out for our farewell to Krakow dinner at a local restaurant.
*****
Day 6: Welcome to Budapest Sunday, October 20
Photos might be better reviewed after the context of the reading.
On the bus pretty early and zoomed along a variety of scenery that we compared to Cape Breton, the Okanogan and more Canadian locales. This took us through part of Slovakia, so if I was counting countries that I have visited I could have added one. We had profoundly fatty barbecued pork and beer at a ski lodge along the way as soon as we arrived, some of went running away to see the largest synagogue in Europe, where we had a neat little tour from a guy whose name was, ironically, he said, Christian. It was quite stunning sight, and he explained to us that it looked like a Catholic Church on the inside and a mosque on the outside, which he explained as gestures to fit into the community. From there, we went to the restaurant where I sampled a couple of nice wines along with a fish with no name dinner. This included a little talk by Eva, our Budapest guide. Like Izzy, she was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, caring, tireless and approachable. We were amazed to find out that she loves doing these tours and does them when she wants a break from her regular job managing a big four start hotel in town.
Day 7: Heroes' Square, Andrassy Avenue, Pest Monday, October 21
We took a bus to another hotel as our hotel had all the meeting rooms booked. There, we had a lecture by an economist and a gender studies professor, Malek Attila and Zizka Dorota. They spoke about the contemporary political climate and some of the policies and results. 98% of the people who live in Hungary are ethnically Hungarian! Both the professors are vehemently opposed to Orban Viktor and his policies. Yet Atilla said he considered him to be an ideolog and Darota considered him to be an opportunist.
We left the hotel and went by bus and explored the city park and Heroes Square area where many of the museums are located. We had a coffee break, and I had already been a little overwhelmed by being shown a raft museums that I could not visit. I sat by myself and drank water to try and cleanse that experience.
Next was a visit to the Franz Liszt Museum in where we also had a concert. The guide wonderful and talked about his amazing childhood achievements, his unique way or working, refusing payment when he accepted students and myths, such as the idea that his hands were massive. They weren’t and they had the casting to do it. The piano recital was from a performance student near the end of his doctoral work who transformed as he played becoming less tame and progressively wilder both in h is playing and appearance (lost his glasses and his hair seemed to have a mind of its own) as he worked through the compositions. Of the many good things I could say about the Road Scholar experience, the private concerts really sets it apart from your average tourist experience. We also had a brief Question and Answer session after.
From there we were driven around a bit more and finally ended up at the central market. I have never seen so much paprika in my life! After a loop of the market we walked home, going by the Calvinist church, where I took pictures as I had supervised a Hungarian Protestant Church in Winnipeg for several years, and it was a must do to see one of the churches they would have known. After a short break in our hotel we then walked out to the restaurant in the Jewish Quarter, On the way, we stopped at a ruin pub, a thing that is hard to describe but basically as if a bunch of restaurants set up in a huge, abandoned apartment building. I suggest looking at this link for a better sense. We were all offered a choice between pear brandy or Unicom, which is a national icon and much like the stomach bitters I would drink in my pretentious twenties. We were told that there is no such thing as a Hungarian who cannot tell a story about getting into the family Unicom as a child. Then we went to a Gastropub for dinner, where we had five or six local young people join us and we were able to ask them whatever we wanted. I was across from a recently graduated 19-year-old woman who I spoke four or five languages. I asked her if she was originally from California, and she laughed and asked, “Would you like to hear my valley girl accent, people say it is really good.” She had gone to an international school and loves and must be very adept at languages. She said her Korean was better than her English and that she was a giant fan of K-Pop. I asked her for other bands she liked and of the four I liked the Bagossy Brothers Company the best. She is working in a souvenir shop but is trying to work her way into the movie business. I did not note her name, but wish I had because her talent and energy went well beyond her linguistic skills, and she seems destined to do great things no matter what she choses.
Day 8: Szabó Ervin Library, Downtown Pest Tuesday, October 22
We used the trolley, or streetcar, I can't quite remember, maybe a streetcar. And walked through the Palace District a phenomenally great tour of the Metropolitan Szabó Library by another woman named Eva. Then we went to the Kossuth Lajos Square in Buda. [Little reminder: Bumpy Buda and Plainlike Pest.] This is where we saw the Hungarian parliament then we walked through the Liberty Square and got some more history. We had lunch in the Strudel Haus which included goulash and a demonstration of making strudel. And then got to eat the strudel. We had a very short visit at the basilica where there was ridiculous loud organ notes being tuned. But we did see the mummified right hand of the King Stephen (975-1038) I walked back with John, while Alex went off with his Karen wife for a spa, and I dropped off the laundry before having a Thai massage in the hotel.
At night, we said, “No, thank you” to the organ concert that was offered, even though it had works by Bucha, Handel, Vivaldi, list Schubert and Mozart and decided to go to a jazz club. It was very local, no English spoken by the trio and the leader Vázsonyi János had several (apparently hilarious) long introductions to their songs, Romani Jazz covers of everything from Bach to TV themes. And was the last week of a long-standing club. A highlight was the waitress who had already started her new job, and therefore working two jobs every days said, “I am sorry I am just too tired to speak English” and “I don’t know the price of that dish, nobody else seems to either, what do you think is fair?”
This is where we cemented our friendship. With John (a retired judge) and Karen (a retired social worker) both from the Great State of Maine. Karen is warm, present, caring, wise, witty, beautiful and more. John is a bit of a buffoon. Does this sound like any couple you know? Or maybe I am projecting onto them?
Day 9: Castle District, Royal Palace Wednesday, October 23
We went by public bus to the Castle District (bus is free for seniors- they love the mayor there is who is conservative but not yet an autocrat like Orban.) where we had an expert-led tour of Hungarian National Gallery located within the Royal Palace. My favorite pieces were Throne of Fire by Servatius Tibor, The Cellist by Berény Róbert, Self Portrait and the Wanderer by (Galimberti) Lanow Mária, and Ironing Bear (also known as Life is Hard) by Kelemen Károly.
We walked through the Fisherman's Bastion and Matthias Church (I think this was in the one two many churches category and with no mummified hand, it just came up a little short.) I loved seeing houses built in the 1300s where people still live and apparently it is one of the more affordable parts of the city (that is already quite affordable.) We had lunch with a small salad and a huge array of tortes to choose from. We were both happy with Dobos torte.
It was a national day of Independence which of the three we celebrated during our 16 days. So, either revolutions happen in October, or each country has had so many that they have several Independence Days. It came kind of a running joke as driving into Prague we asked if we would have a national holiday and when the guide looked it up, she started laughing because yes, three out of four!
Road Scholar covered our taxi home where we rested up for a dinner cruise on the Danube. We had two such cruises on the trip. There were a few nice sights, but the food was perfunctory. It id allow us to linger and talk over dinner and I can saw I have “steamed” or “sailed” or “desieled” down the Danube.
*****
Day 10: Welcome to Vienna Thursday, October 24
Photos first?
As we left Budapest, I was reflecting on the heartfelt reasons to go to all the cities but Vienna. A good friend had studied in Krakow, and I was curious to see it, I had been the supervisor of an ethnic Hungarian church in Winnipeg so had always wanted to get to Budapest and Milan Kundera’s writing had a profound impact on me, and even though he was not from Prague, it played in his books. Turns out he is not beloved there, but it still motivated me. There are lots of reasons to admire if not love Vienna (and it surely was distinct from the other three cities- way more immigration and way more graffiti so it looked and felt differently, but I just did not have the same “I get to go there” feeling. I made up for this by seeking out a Quaker connection and we met up with her and had a great visit in a Viennese Café.
We spent the morning in transit driving by both industry and agriculture with villages along the way. We had the worst meal of the trip upon arrival: paper mâché soup followed by slab of tasteless beef with overcooked vegetables. We were given an overview lecture by our guide. She lacked the verve and passion of our true previous guides, and I found her English hard to understand. Given that cathedrals were on the agenda for the afternoon and that it just did not feel fair to my Budapest experience to not savor it, I begged off and rested in our hotel room. It was touching how just about every person in our tour checked on my wellbeing, and I was able to thank them and say that I was not feeling ill, but just reacting to the compression of the trip which is not the way I like to travel and that I had planned on giving myself time when I needed it. And for whatever reasons, I think of the Habsburgs as “the bad guys.” We are watching The Empress on Netflix now so at least that fills them out for me.
All to say that the day was a needed “reset” for me and I started the next day ready to go. All of our hotels were both full of character, high quality and just slightly nicer than we might have chosen on our own. All of the cities were “cheaper than Winnipeg” with Vienna being the closest and Prague being very affordable. Not like it was a generation ago when prices were about 1/10 of what you would pay in North America but still consistently well below what I would expect to pay anywhere in North America. Perhaps going in October helped, all are big tourist havens and likely have higher prices in the summer.
Day 11: Understanding Austria, Imperial Vienna Friday, October 25
After breakfast, we heard a lecture titled Understanding Austria by a local geography professor Karl Husa. He lived up to my experience that professors are often either well published and good lecturers or not particularly able in either. He has a great CV and was both entertaining and informative. He began his lecture saying, “We hate The Sound of Music, we are not part of Germany, and we do not have any kangaroos.”
We had a bus tour along the ring boulevard which included seeing modern Vienna, the UN building which employs 4000 people and various parts of the Danube, the ubiquitous graffiti beside and where Freud ate breakfast every day and eventually stopped at Hundertwasser Haus. We had vegetable tartar (kind of like guacamole) for lunch and then went to Schönbrunn Palace which really was magnificent. Rich with history, beauty and art and magnificent grounds on which to stroll. While only the external establishing shots for The Empress were shot there, it helps one imagine what it may have been like during the length of the Habsburg Empire. And has hosted some of the most important peace talks in history.
After dinner, we walked to the Kursalon Music Hall. This concert hall, designed by Johann Garben in the style of the Italian Renaissance, is where Johann Strauss II used to charm the crowds with his outstanding compositions. It was kind of a “greatest hits” of Austrian classical including ballet and opera. It was a sellout and runs 365 days a year. I sensed that if they were any locals there, they were bringing guests with them, but I gave over and enjoyed it. A personal highlight was watching just how much one of the members of our tour group loved it, beaming and bopping through every second.
Day 12: Treasures of the Habsburgs, Free Time Saturday, October 26
We were given a bit of a later start, which we appreciated. It is a bit of a theme that as much as we enjoyed this trip and wouldn’t have gone on our own, the pace was too fast, so I appreciated our scheduled breaks and took a few of my own. When the trip was labeled “keep up the pace,” I took that to refer to the amount of walking, not the density of activities and speed with which they were accomplished. A local history professor gave us a lecture on the collection of the Hapsburgs and some of their history. We then went to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, which included wonders such as automated toys, and then to the paintings where she also provided good explanations of context and history.
From there, we were left on our own, and Alex and I went to a café that has been open since 1903 and met with a local Quaker. Marina was filling in for a Friend I had met during an on-line conference, who had arranged to meet us for coffee but was out of town. Marina was a fascinating young woman who worked in the independent movie industry and shared about her transition from Jehovah’s Witness to Quaker.
With the afternoon free we took a long walk home meandering and taking in the city at our own pace with zero expectations. We considered going to an independent movie festival, but moved on, went out around the corner for wiener schnitzel and the like. It seems when it comes to wiener schnitzel, size matters.
Day 13: Great Musicians of the Vienna Classic, Belvedere Palace Sunday, October 27
We had a lecture on the diverse lives of three of Vienna's most famous composers during this morning's lecture. While Mozart initially enjoyed great success as a freelance composer and then struggled, Franz Schubert led a rather introverted life, only known for his renowned "Lieder" to his contemporaries. Johann Strauß, however, was one of the first global superstars of music. All three composers were contributors to the most Viennese of musical forms—the Viennese waltz. As the two presenters were both working professionals in the Vienna Opera Orchestra, we had a long Question and Answer session that was more about them and their careers than history. A great start to the day.
Later in the morning, we whipped around the city on a bus, whizzing by where Freud ate breakfast every day and being reminded what a center of intellectual life Vienna had been. have an expert-led overview by motorcoach of the Jugendstil landmarks of Vienna including the architect, Otto Wagner. We stopped to look at some of his apartment buildings before carrying on to a church he designed, which is perhaps the most beautiful church I have ever been in. The Steinhof Church, a Gesamtkunstwerk occupies a fantastic site on the Baumgartner heights. The church was on a hill above 20 empty buildings of five or six stories each, which could easily house hundreds of people each. This was a very large institution for people with psychiatric and developmental issues and has been in disuse since the deinstitutionalization movement. We were all struck by what a waste such a campus was but when we asked, we were told that the government was trying to get somebody to develop it but couldn’t. Part of the challenge might be that there is a strong socialist history in Austria and the stock of affordable housing is already much greater than most places.
In the afternoon we went to the Belvedere Palaces, in particular the Museum of Austrian Art where we saw works by Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschka, and more. It was quite rushed but we had time to appreciate some pieces, especially Monet’s The Chef, Edvard Munch’s Men on the Seashore, Helene Funke’s Träume and Richard Gerstl’s self-portrait.
For dinner we went to a Heuriger, a traditional wine tavern where they serve white wine in mugs, fried meats and fried vegetables and have roving musicians who seemingly could play anything they were asked for, from National Anthems to TV show themes, to pop tunes and classical music. Again, the food was not my first choice but the whole scene was fun and more so with a group that by this time had gelled quite well.
*****
Once again, view the photos as a tease, or save them to the end as a review.
Day 14: Welcome to Prague Monday, October 28
I finally had it with the breakfast buffets and had one double coffee and a bowl of cornflakes and muesli. On route we stopped at a McDonald’s where I took a picture of the bakery being nicer than most restaurants in Winnipeg. We had an extended stop in Trebon, a charming and perfectly preserved South Bohemian historical town with a rich history that goes back to the 12th century. While it felt a little unreal, like a theme park, we had a nice lunch and then were able to stroll the square looking into or going into the shops. We arrived at the K+K Hotel Central and had an orientation lecture where our guide explained that “there is no such a thing as a Czech who does not play at least one instrument” before pulling out what she called a “forest horn” and played us a traditional welcome tune. We were also told that the average Czech drinks 80 gallons of beer per year. That is a lot and when you factor in that there must be many who drink little or none. With our eyes open to that stat, beer was everywhere, and relatively little wine seemed to be on people’s tables when we ate out. And very little variety, by far the most common beer is Pilsner Urquell. We went around the corner for a dinner where we both had the best dessert of the trip. We were free after dinner but took it easy in our room.
Day 15: Old Town & Jewish Ghetto, Music in the Czech Republic Tuesday, October 29
Quite a bit of walking. The day is little blurry to me because it was my worst day of the trip for my arthritis. Despite that, we had a day or rich images and information. Including the Pinkasova Synagogue, museum and graveyard. 60,000 names of holocaust survivors were written on the walls of the synagogue which gave reason for pause. We had a hearty beef stew with pasta lunch. I meander back to the hotel on my own, skipping a music talk and the Charles Bridge. Alex said there were so many tourists on the bridge, you could barely move. And this was the end of October. I guess the advice not to go in peak season might be well taken.
At night we went to a classical concert of a small orchestra performing music written by Vivaldi, Beethoven, Smetana, Chopin, Bach, Bizet and Dvorak. Then John and Karen and Alex and I went to a “Michelin approved” restaurant and enjoyed every second, and every bite, And we imagine at about half the price such a meal, if you could get it, would cost in Winnipeg.
Day 16: Architecture of Prague Wednesday, October 30
We started the day with a lecture at the hotel on the architecture and fine arts of Prague, featuring all-important Prague styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Baroque, Classicism, and respective revival movements, particularly concentrating on architecture of the 20th century: Art Nouveau, Cubism, and Functionalism. As she spoke, I came to realize that I like Art Nouveau. Not all our lectures were equal. While the subject was appropriate, timely and interesting the professor rattled it off like I was having a bot read a Wikipedia entry to me and did not inject herself at any point.
Then we went to Prague Castle, a UNESCO World Heritage site that allowed us to see many of the styles we had just been lectured on. We spent most of the day there. While there were lots of stunning buildings and some beautiful art, and it was a gorgeous day it was again so crowded that inside buildings you were in the midst of a mob with “group think” setting the pace over which I felt no control. Most of the group commented over lunch and dinner that this felt a little too packed. We had a little bit of free time so we walked through a big downtown shopping mall, which felt like it could have been in any big North American city, other than an oval shape that gave it a slightly different feel.
At night we went for dinner cruise on the Vltava. The food was in the low average range, and the views of the city lit up were distant and infrequent. It was, however, distinctly satisfying to be sitting on a boat deck on October 30 in amenable weather chatting with our fellow travelers sensing we had shared a significant experience together that it would soon be coming to an end.
Day 17: Strahov Monastery, Free Time Thursday, October 31
We toured the Strahov Monastery, a place where “the knowledge of the Czech nation has been concentrated since 1140.” Not only were the libraires (theology and philosophy) stunning and amazing we enjoyed a private concert by a flautist and a classical guitar player who looked like Liona Boyd. In addition to the books and music there was a collection of curiosities, a precursor to museums. Like many parts of the trip, this day felt like a privilege.
The afternoon was free, and we went straight to the “Communism Museum” which was somewhat interesting but unabashed anti-communist propaganda, paid for by an American, that did not reflect the current reality that 30% of those who lived through the era says life was better then than now. Glad I went but surprised and disappointed that was so unreluctantly biased. That being said, we actually laughed quite a bit at how loaded the exhibits all were. From there we meandered with the idea of seeing the Kafka Head, which we did and doing some shopping. We ended up walking through a great maze of windy streets, gardens and shops we would have missed otherwise. And while we were late to also see the Cold War Museum, we had a great day and were able to buy a few gifts that we had not yet seen. A great final stamp on the trip and a final reminder that I like this kind of “come what may” time on a trip that this tour did not have much of.
We had our farewell dinner in a well appreciated restaurant, complete with robot bus machines (that we had a good laugh talking about what the appropriate tip was for, but we were both disappointed thinking that our last supper would be arranged in a private room with time for speeches. I have no idea what the “typical” road scholar trip group is like but between everyone being healthy and reasonable and an absolutely divine “den mother” guide, there is a great feeling that I wish we had been able to honour more formally. John and Karen had been given a bottle of wine due to some misplaced but recovered luggage along the way and they invited us to join them in their room to end the trip. And felt just right!
Day 18: Program Concludes Friday, November 01
We were up early but had our last massive buffet breakfast before taking an uber to the airport. We flew home through Heathrow and Toronto getting home at nine at night and able to unpack before falling asleep at a reasonable hour to get us back on track for our normal routines. Well, for Alex at least, but I left a few days later for Wichita KA, and Tulsa OK where I hit my 46th state and enjoyed two cities I had never been to while having a great time with other Quakers.