Eastern Europe to the Black Sea - BUDAPEST

Budapest - Castle Hill and the Chain Bridge at night

The Chain Bridge at night in Budapest

Last June Bob and I added another cruise tour to our East Germany cruise on the Elbe.  When we finished the previous tour in Berlin, we caught a train to Prague to begin our next adventure - Eastern Europe to the Black Sea.  After 4 days in Prague, in the rain, we traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia, where we had a tour and lunch - very neat little town, although Rick Steves didn't think too much of it!

Matthias Church and Fishermen's Bastion

We drove on to Budapest and arrived in the late afternoon.  We got settled in on the ship (the River Concerto), had a delicious welcome dinner, and enjoyed the sights of Budapest at night.
We had 3 Program Directors on this cruise.  Ours was Sorin, Crupa, the most adorable PD I've ever had.  He was just a baby, still in his 20's, handling a group of 40 old farts.  And he did it brilliantly.  I even tipped him more than I usually do! All 3 program directors were Romanian. Only Christian was old enough to tell us about life under the Communists.  His grandfather had a fairly prosperous farm and the Communists just came in and took it.   In Bucharest, Romania, we met  a man who had participated in the Revolution in 1989.  He was only 14 at the time, but filled with a deep desire to drive the Russians out of Romania.  They didn't seem to have a problem with communism, so much as with the Russians.  The Russians were hated and despised, all over the Eastern bloc.

That was a recurring theme all over Eastern Europe.  Over here we thought it was the fall of Communism; it was really just the fall of the USSR as they got booted out of the countries they had enslaved for 44 years.   Romania is the breadbasket of eastern Europe, but the Romanians starved because the Russians sent everything back to Russia.  We heard the same thing from the Poles on our first cruise.  In Germany we were shocked to find out some East Germans miss the old days, when life was "simple and easy."  In Budapest, our local guide told us "under communism we had a nice life, even though we could not speak freely.  Now we can speak freely but we have no life."  I wish we could have had a much longer conversation with the locals we met.  They have a totally different perspective than we do. 

Budapest is a gorgeous city and I thoroughly enjoyed our rain-free days there.  We had a city tour by bus, where we drove down Andrassy Ut. to Heroes Square, and on to the thermal baths.  I wish we had been able to return to the baths - they are supposed to be phenomenal!

The Széchenyi Thermal Baths

Instead, we went on an optional of the House of Terror, a place that under the commies, if you went in you didn't come out.
I didn't care for the museum but it did include more sights in the city, primarily Liberty Square.
Each room in the museum had a handout, in English, to explain the circumstances of what we saw.  Unfortunately, we had no time to read anything before we were off to the next room.  I brought all the papers home and still have not finished them.
Hungary has an interesting history.  They allied with Germany in WWI, and when they lost the war they lost 2/3 of Hungarian territory.  Then in WWII Hungary was caught between the aggressive Nazis and the hated communists, so they again sided with the Germans and paid the price for it when the US handed Eastern Europe over to the Soviets after the war.

The Berlin Wall falling was actually partly the result of the Hungarians allowing immigration to the  West.  It was a chink in the armor of Soviet power which gave hope to the people.  The Germans sent the Hungarians a part of the Berlin Wall in gratitude.

Poland - more on Krakow

Krakow has the advantage over Warsaw in that it sustained very little damage in WWII.  Its Old Town and Wawel Castle are authentic, no re-builds.  To that I say, I salute the people of Warsaw for rebuilding from the ashes.

Wawel Castle, Krakow, Poland

We arrived in Krakow in the early evening, so once we were all checked into the hotel, the Park Inn, our Program Director, Jutta (from Vienna) took us to Old Town on a local tram, showed us how to get back on the same tram, and cut us loose to find dinner on our own.  Bob and I found a wonderful little restaurant that served sea bass.  It was served head on, which we here in the US don't normally see.  I didn't think of taking a picture before I ate it, but I did get a shot of the carcass when I was done. Not quite the visual I thought it would be.

The next morning, after our "buffet breakfast" (see my other post today on European hotels), we went to Old Town again, but saw more of it.  We went to Wawel (pronounced VaVel) Castle which you can see is absolutely gorgeous).  We went to the Jewish Quarter, if that's what they still call it. 

We also went to a Memorial to the Jews Deported from Krakow and sent East . . . I found it very moving.
                                                                                    

This was taken at what was the railway station during the Nazi occupation.  Each chair faces East, and represents 1000 Jews deported from this place. 

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Today there are only trams, but where we see trams, those terrified people saw railway cars that were taking them some place they didn't want to go, and from which they would most likely never return.
But where did the Jews go?  Belzec extermination camp, Plaszow slave-labor camp, Auschwitz.  .  .  .

On our tour, we saw the Kazimierz District, which was historically the Jewish District from the 14th century until the Naziis wiped them out in 1943.   This was not the location of the Ghetto, however.  The Nazis moved all the Jews from Kazimierz to the Podgorze District,where they were crammed into a space that used to house 3000 people and now had to house 15,000.  This the Nazis established as the Jewish Ghetto, and nothing of it remains today except a plaque, if I remember right.  Helena Rubenstein was born in Krakow, in the Kazimierz.   We saw the Old Synagogue, and the Remuh Synagogue, and the outside of Schlinder's Factory.  Nothing meant as much to me as the symbolism of those chairs.  Some of our group had their pictures taken sitting in one of the Chairs.  I didn't think of it, but I now wonder if that wasn't a little insensitive of them?  The chairs represent Jews going to their deaths.  I'm not sure a blond Gentile sitting in that chair is appropriate.  But it did make for a nice vacation picture.

Krakow, Poland

By the time we reached Krakow, I was already in love with Poland.  The countryside at this time of year was stunning, with all the rape seed in bloom.  It's a brilliant yellow, with green grass interspersed, or vice versa.  I normally fall asleep during these bus transfers, but I couldn't find a dull spot in which to nod off.  Around every corner there were these spectacular landscapes of farmland, painted in yellow and green.

 Krakow itself is lovely.  It didn't suffer much damage during the war, so it's old Town and wonderful Wawel Castle were preserved.











Krakow is visual.  It is all abut the beautiful sights.

 The video I made shows Krakow much better than I could by trying prose.

 https://plus.google.com/u/0/+LindaHarward/photos/photo/5958894026203022130

Poland - Jasna Gora

Halfway between Warsaw and Krakow in the little town of Czestochowa, is the most famous shrine to the Virgin Mary in Poland.  It is the Black Madonna of Czestochowa, believed to have miraculous powers, residing in the monastery of Jasna Gora.  It is Jasna Góra's most precious treasure.

 

The monastery has a beautiful Cathedral in which to house their treasure.  Not only is the monastery a spiritual place for pilgrims, it is a mecca for tourists.  It is an active Catholic church and frequently services are being conducted amidst the hordes of tourists trying to make their way to the Madonna.  They do not close the church to visitors during services and they do not have any organization to herding the tourists through.  It was a melee of tourists crowding and pushing and little children making their First Communion, and an old woman having the misfortune to be seated in a chair in the aisle, trying to pray (probably begging God to rid the church of all these tourists!).  When the Holy Communion was over the priest led the kids out through the crowd.   He had to clear a path, practically having to push his way through, waving his incense and chanting the whole time like nobody was there.  It was really the most amazing sight.  Here is a picture of the crowds and of the Black Madonna, behind a locked gate.

There is a service going on. Is that supposed to be the Black Madonna?

What little can be seen of the Black Madonna looks nothing like the picture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once I escaped the weirdness of the Cathedral, the rest of the church was not crowded at all.  It is a beautiful place.  I would highly recommend a visit to Jasna Gora.  Just avoid the Black Madonna.

Poland

Warsaw,  May 7-8, 2013

This past Spring, Bob and I took a 5 week tour of Eastern Europe.  This included two river cruises and some land tours.  It was a magnificent trip!  I had a professor in college who was Polish.

We flew to Warsaw from Denver.  We arrived in the early evening and crashed right away, so that day was shot.  The second day we were up early for breakfast and to begin an included City Tour of Warsaw.

I don't know what I expected.  Poland was the butt of so many jokes when I was growing up that I guess I thought it would be old and kind of decrepit.   I certainly didn't expect this new and shiny city! We had an interesting tour of Warsaw.  It was leveled by Hitler, another Stompy-foot leader who had to punish those who dared resist him,

so there aren't really any historical sites from WWII.  They have just completed a Holocaust Museum and Memorial (but the museum itself wasn't open yet when we were there.)

The Royal Palace in Castle Square, Old Town

Warsaw's Old Town isn't going to make you sigh in awe.  I thought it very pretty, but of course it can't compare to Krakow's Stare Miasto.  Nor Bruges, nor Brussels.  But Warsaw's Old Town was completely destroyed by the Germans, and had to be rebuilt by the Poles after the War.  They received nothing from the Soviets, and no Marshall Plan money from the US.  Yugoslav's Communist Dictator Tito got Marshall Plan money, but the Poles did not.  Perhaps it was impossible to assure the money rebuilt Poland and was not siphoned off to the Soviet Union.  Tito, though a communist dictator, ruled his own country as he saw fit and was not under the thumb of the Soviets.  That Marshall money went to the people of Yugoslavia.

A short history, from Wikipedia:

During the Invasion of Poland (1939), much of the district was badly damaged by the German Luftwaffe, which targeted the city's residential areas and historic landmarks in a campaign of terror bombing. Following the Siege of Warsaw, parts of the Old Town were rebuilt, but immediately after the Warsaw Uprising (August-October 1944) what had been left standing was systematically blown up by the German Army. A statue commemorating the Uprising, "the Little Insurgent," now stands on the Old Town's medieval city wall.

After World War II, the Old Town was meticulously rebuilt.  As many of the original bricks were reused as possible. The rubble was sifted for reusable decorative elements, which were reinserted into their original places. Bernardo Bellotto's 18th-century vedute, as well as pre-World-War II architecture students' drawings, were used as essential sources in the reconstruction effort.

My interest in Poland dates back  to my college days, 1969-73.  I had a political science professor who

made such an impression on me, it helped shape my views of the world and the people running it.   He was Polish and the story of his life is the most inspirational story I've ever heard (non-religious, that is).
Perhaps I will do a blog on him.

I think we had the best time just walking down "Embassy Row", as I call it.  All the big embassies are on the street.  There is a huge park right across the street, about 2 blocks from our hotel (Sheraton Warsaw).  We had a lovely stroll through it on a really gorgeous day.