We finally made it happen in 1998. I saved up my vacation time, which made for a VERY long year, and we spent two weeks frantically running around central Europe.
Dzien Dobry. Poland was our first stop on this trip. It was neat for me to be in a former Eastern Bloc country. They've really adopted the free market economy, advertising is everywhere. I have mixed feelings about this. I want to meet people who are being themselves, not trying to be Western.
We started out in northeastern Poland at the town of Bialystok, and went to a town near the Belarus border called Bialowieza. There they have a national forest which is a remnant of the primeval forest that used to cover most of Europe. The reserve is left entirely up to nature, with no human management. If lightning sets a tree on fire, it burns.
This first picture was taken while walking out to the forest. We had hired a guide to show us around the forest and point out interesting features. He was very knowledgable of the local region and it's ecology. A rather travelled fellow as well, had been to the U.S. and Australia, and all over Europe.
This is a picture of the entrance gate to the forest. The gate is made entirely from wood, even the pegs holding it together. We spent an hour or so hiking in there. It was pleasant. We were lucky to see a small herd of red deer scamper through the woods, and we could hear them rutting in the distance. Supposedly, there are also bison roaming the forest, but we didn't see any. The whole area used to be part of the private hunting preserve of the Czars of Russia, when this region was under Russian control.
Then, we were back in the car and heading back to Bialystok. Unfortunately, I wasn't at the wheel of the car, and didn't have much control over where we went. The folks we were visiting whisked us around, so I missed a lot of good photo opportunities in this region of the country.
Next, we took the train from Warsaw to Krakow, in southern Poland. We rode
first class, and it didn't cost much, 30 dollars per person, if I remember
correctly. I could get used to first class. We were in an open salon car with
comfortable seats seats, a table, attentive waitstaff, and clean bathrooms.
The Glowny train station in Krakow was modern and spotless.
I prefer the compartmentalized cars better. In first class, there are six seats to a compartment, and they recline. It is a much better environment for practicing the language with the natives.
We had the misfortune of being in a car with a bunch of loud Americans later in our trip. They were not in our compartment, but two doors down. We had to listen to them complain for hours about how they couldn't see a difference between first and second class. I'm glad we could shut our door. If they had bothered to shut up and objectively look at the situation, they might have noticed that second class compartments had eight seats instead of six, and that there were more people in them, and you didn't get food service to your seat.
From Krakow we rode the train to Rzeszow, and then to the small town of
Strarzow. From there we hiked out into the fields to visit some folks we
sort of know. I had been told about how out in the sticks they were, even
that they didn't have indoor plumbing.
This picture was taken while hiking out to their house. This is a sight I don't often see on the farms around home, haystacks. Our local farmers don't even seem to bail hay anymore, they roll it.
Well, times have caught up to them, they had running water AND electricity.
While they did not have a telephone, I think I did see a satellite dish.
However, that didn't stop me from framing my pictures for the benefit of a good
story. I tried to capture that old world rustic feeling in my photographs.
This is a house on the property.
We also got to the town of Lancut, pronounced Wine-soot. We rode the bus from
Rzeszow to here. By the way, Rzeszow is pronounced somthing like Jhessouf.
Anyway, not only was Poland easy to get around by train, but where the train
didn't go, the bus did.
This was the palace at Lancut. It belonged to a regional prince. I didn't think much of the inside, I'm not really into art. However, in a nearby building, they have an interesting collection of artifacts from abandoned Eastern Orthodox churches. It seems that due to the various wars and changing political landscape, there are many abonadoned churches out in the woods. This museum is attempting to preserve what they can.
This picture was taken while hiking in the Tatras Mountains, in southern Poland,
on our next to last full day in Poland. We rode the bus for an hour south of
Krakow to get to Zakopane, a resort town that is [was] bidding for the 2006 winter
olympics.
This was just up the hill from Zakopane, in the Tatras National Park. We didn't have time to go too far, but it was a nice walk. We had hoped to ride the cable car up to the top of Mount Kasporov. We got there too late to get a ticket for that day.
Then we finally got to spend a day in Krakow, which used to be the capital of Poland. Krakow, being strategically and politically unimportant, has been spared much of the destruction of the twentieth century wars. Anonymity has it's advantages.
Krakow has a beautiful historic center. They knocked down most of the city wall a long time ago, but there are a few sections of it left. This is looking up the street at the Florian Gate.
Around the center square, which I didn't get a good picture of, there are a lot of sidewalk cafe's. It's a really nice ambiance in the evening, dining at a small candle-lit table, with the old buildings illuminated in soft light, and street musicians in the distance.
We had pizza of all things. With Kielbasa.
And the oddest thing, I was lying in bed later that night, and I could swear I heard a bagpipe. Chrissy didn't believe me. I'm part Scottish, I know when I hear a bagpipe. Well, I opened the window, and sure enough, someone was playing a bagpipe, in Krakow, in the middle of the night. Loch Lamond-ski.
Do widzenia, Polska.
Grüss Gott, Österreich.
Our first stop in Austria was Vienna. I feel that I need to go back to Vienna.
We had only Saturday evening and Sunday in Vienna. Well, nothing was open.
Some of the larger museums and Palaces were, but most of the town was closed.
But, we did manage to see some things. And I did have the best Gnocchi I have
ever had in my life here.
Vienna was basically, with a few interruptions, the administrative center of the Austrian Empire. We got to see the Hofburg complex, were all this administrative stuff took place. Also located here is the Austrian National Library, a public work started by one of the more reforming Habsburg monarchs. Now, this is a library. It basically puts to shame the stacks at Penn State. Millions of volumes, impressive architecture, painted ceilings. Many of the bookcases move to reveal private reading rooms.
We also got to go into the Kapuzinergrüft, the crypt were a hundred or so Habsburgs are interred. This is a picture of the caskets of Franz Josef, the next to last reigning Habsburg, and his empress, Elizabeth, better known as Sisi. It was the 100th anniversary of her assasination, hence all the flowers. Judging by the reaction in Vienna, you would think it was yesterday. There was more Sisi commemoration in Vienna than that for Princess Diana. As a visitor, I got the impression that the Viennese want their monarchy back.
We also took in a performance of Strauss music. I wish I knew how to Waltz when we were there. I don't know which Strauss composed what, but I did enjoy the music. It was a little touristy, but I'm glad we went.
This is Schönbrunn Palace, in Vienna. This was the summer residence of the Hapsburg monarchs. It started out as a hunting lodge well outside of Vienna. Now, it is well within the city, and you can take the subway and be there in just minutes. The gardens around the palace are vast, and even in the end of September, there still were flowers.
In the succession of monarchs and opulence, this hunting lodge has grown a little bit. There were two tours of the building, a long tour of 80 rooms and a short tour of 40 rooms. We only had time for the short tour. We did get to see the room where Franz Joseph passed away. During his reign, electricity and bathrooms as we know them were installed into Schönbrunn.
From Vienna, we rented a car and worked our way across Austria. It was a tiny Ford Festiva of the European variety. It drove ok, but on the Autostrada, I really had to be careful about changing lanes and passing someone. Cars come up behind you really fast at 95mph when you're only doing 70.
We went to take a boat ride on the Danube, but it was an overcast day, and we missed the last trip anyway. We had planned to spend the night in the city of Linz. This is one of the industrial centers of Austria, and as we were heading to the hotel we had targetted, we kept getting further and further into town. We decided that we didn't want to get stuck in the morning rush hour, if they have such a thing, and turned around. So, we started to work our way up into the Alps.
We wound up staying in the resort town of Gmünden. We arrived late in the night, and awoke to find that we had a room with a lakeside balcony and a gorgeous view. And, the town market had convened in the square just outside of our hotel. This was one of those moments that we wished we didn't have to get somewhere else. But, time marches on.
This picture is of the town of Bad Goisern, on our way up into the Salzkammergut Alps. Supposedly, the best hiking boots in the world are made here, but we couldn't find the factory. I tried to ask about it in the tourist information office, but I don't think my German was clear enough. So, we wandered around town a little and took pictures.
We finally reached the reason we had to leave Gmünden earlier, the town of Hallstatt. Often called the world's prettiest lakeside village. It is certainly one of my favorite places.
The town is perched between the lake and the mountain, and is the oldest continuously inhabited settlement in Austria. They have found remains of salt mining dating back 4500 years here. Salt still remains the chief business here. We took a tour of one of the salt mines.
Here are some photos in and around Hallstatt.
Then, we were off to Salzburg. The city of Mozart, if you're an Austrian, the city of the Sound of Music, if you're an American. Apparently, the Sound of Music was rather a flop with the Austrians. There isn't much around town in the way of movie souvenirs, but then, that was thirty years ago. There are Sound of Music Tours offered, but they only drive you to the places, and not in them. We found the places on our own and feel we got a much better perspective of it.
This is the fountain, and steps in the background,
of Mirabel Gardens, where the Von Trapp kids danced while singing "Do, Re, Mi".
This is the main shopping district, in the old part of the town. It's largely
a pedestrian only zone. All of the shops have these intricate wrought iron signs
hanging out front, with the name and some appropriate image on them. And yes,
there was a McDonalds here, and they even went so far as to make their Golden
Arches fit in with the other signs on the street, it was nicely done.
We got a clear day and went over to Berchestgarten, Germany. This town was
crawling with Americans. The U.S. Army used to have a recreation center here.
In 1980 I had stayed in the General Walker Hotel, which was known as the
Platterhof in a prior life. During the Platterhof days, the Wehrmacht had
built a network of bunkers underneath the hotel.
When the U.S. Army was there, they conducted
tours of the bunkers. I had the choice then of the bunker tour, or going up
to the top of the mountain to the Kehlstein Haus. Being a kid, I chose the
bunkers. I'm glad I did, because now the hotel is abondoned and the bunkers
are closed. [Update: The hotel is now demolished, as is the motorpool structure
next to it. I believe the restaurant/gift shop building still stands. Look
here. I am saddened, I really enjoyed my trip there in 1980.]
So, I finally got to the top of the mountain with this trip. This is a view from the Kehlstein Haus, or Eagle's Nest to Americans. On the left is the Konigsee, which is a gorgeous boat ride when the weather is clear. The town of Berchestgarten in on the right.
Lastly, we stumbled into Oktoberfest in Munich. This was actually quite an inconvenience for us. We didn't have a hotel reservation, and all we really wanted to do was sleep somewhere so we could catch our flight the next morning. This place was a zoo, and the hotel we got wound up being an hour out of town. By the weirdness of coincidence, we stayed in the same Gasthof I was in during that trip in 1980.
Neither one of us drink, but we went to check out Oktoberfest anyway. Basically, they setup these huge beer halls. I believe that you pay to get in and drink all you want inside, but they shoo you out after your time is up. I don't know for certain, I didn't go inside. Instead, we went and found a Wurst vendor and enjoyed the honey roasted almonds.
They also had loads of rides and amusements. Ones that would make your stomach turn when you're sober, let alone inebriated. Oh, and I couldn't find any funnel cake vendors, my Pennsylvania Dutch friends let me down.