Vienna, Austria June 5-10, 2011

After a short train ride on Railjet, (Austria's National Rail) we arrived in Vienna. We had saved about ¾ of Mom's giant Wienerschnitzel from the night before, and on board the train we bought three nice croissants which the bistro cut and heated for us. The sandwiches were delicious.

Our wienerschnitzel sandwiches

Our apartment in Vienna is on a very tiny street, so tiny that the taxi driver had a terrible time finding it. Ball Gasse is an old street, is written up as one of the “most Viennese” and at the end of it is where Mozart died in December of 1791. We didn't know this when we booked the apartment, but it was a nice bonus to discover.

The place where Mozart died

Another bonus was the restaurant on the street below us. The food was good, the waitstaff was funny and friendly, and they gave us free coffee because they took a liking to my mom. In fact, we ate very well everywhere we went. We had read about a few historical places that we didn't get to see when we first went to Vienna about 40 years ago and, amazingly enough, most of them were cafes. But, of course, Vienna is renown for its cafe culture, and we did our best to educate ourselves!!

One of the places we wanted to experience was Cafe Central, a very historic coffeehouse where many famous figures called home. Used to be that people came for breakfast and stayed past lunch, doing business, visiting friends, reading the day's newspapers. Some even used the cafe's address as their own. The story goes that Lev Bronstein could be found there daily, that is before he changed his name to Leon Trotsky and went off to Russia to help cause some havoc there. We went in and certainly didn't intend to stay any longer than it would take us to eat breakfast and enjoy the ambiance of history in that place. Good thing. Nobody is invited to do that anymore. There seems to be a time limit.

Leon and me

We also went to Demel's, a big part of the early Viennese cafe scene and had to experience what all the notoriety was about. It goes without saying that our diet at home will be without sugar or fat for quite some time.

Before

 

After

St Stephens with its intricate carving

Roof with small spire

St Stephens at night

We did go to some places that weren't eating establishments, and our favorite was St. Stephens Cathedral which was begun in the 1100's and renovated many times. Its profile is unique, having had drawings that had called for 2 spires but after the first one was completed, those plans were set aside due to lack of funds. The result is a unique asymmetrical profile not found in any other major construction of its size in Europe. It is enormous and both inside and out has many intricate features, carvings all over its stone surface outside and various surfaces of carved marble and wood inside, with lots of gold leaf. Huge marble columns hold up the gigantic roof which is covered with colorfully painted wooden shingles. It really is a stunning piece of architecture. My grandfather visited it in the early 1900's, and I remember hearing his description of it when I was a young girl..

The Hofburg Imperial Palace, home of the Habsburgs, the ruling family of Austro-Hungary, prior to WWI, is another major feature of the city. A huge expanse of gold-leafed, copper-roofed, white frosting confection, it houses the most elaborate library with ceiling trompe-l'oeil paintings, the very famous Spanish riding school with beautiful white Lipizzaner horses, museums devoted to glass and crystal and coins, silverware and royal jewels and robes, and the Imperial Chapel where the Vienna Boys Choir perform on Sunday. That's just a small list of what is located in this sprawling complex.

Hofburg Imperial Palace

There really isn't enough room in this blog for a thorough description of Vienna. It is a wonderful city with so much to do and see. It can't be completely viewed in one trip. In fact, none of the places we went could be thoroughly explored in the time we spent there. I think that calls for another trip in the near future, don't you?

How could I forget gelato concoctions??

Budapest 5--31--11 to 6--5--11



 Budapest is a most beautiful city. Our analysis credits the plethora of architecture of churches, castles, bridges, statuary and practically every other kind of structure.  They were all done with a heightened degree of artistic effort, at least that's how we see it.  Even the ramparts along the banks of the Danube are more than just a seawall.  They are stepped perfectly. 

A few experiences that we counted as our favorites have to be the Szechenyi Baths (beautiful aqua water set against Baroque buildings of buttery yellow)

Mary and Gloria ready to take the plunge

Every window has flowers, and the rooftop is for nude sunbathing!

Beautiful castles

the cruise down the Danube and back (at night it was so beautiful to look up at the hillside on the Buda side and see so many churches and the castle bathed in golden light, and the Pest side with its Parliament and other churches likewise)

Picturesque bridges--this one Chain Bridge

Visiting architectural wonders (the Opera House with its beautiful, Baroque style and oodles of gold leaf everywhere). Incidentally, this opera house was the site of the movie “Evita” and we heard that Madonna paid a fortune to use the presidential box for the film) Also saw St. Stephens Basilica and St. Mathias church. Both very beautiful and very different. St. Mathias was the most unusual with its Moorish style. Lots of patterned walls and columns. Mathias married Beatrix of Belgium there in 1498. Pretty old)

Interior of the Opera House

Altar of St. Stephen Basilica

Opera house seating

Exterior of St. Mathias Church

King St. Stephen

Altar of St. Mathias Church

Just looking at all the different buildings from such early times. Everywhere we looked we saw beautiful ornamentation of animals, people, designs of concrete, marble, granite, travertine. And walkways and streets of brick, stone, marble and travertine. It was evident that the city put a great deal of effort and funds into beautification for a lengthy period of time.

Enjoying the food and flowers. Flowers and more flowers seem to be the order. We see mostly geraniums, both upright and hanging, wax begonias, hanging begonias, petunias, hydrangeas, and roses. They form a explosion of color everywhere. The food is also colorful with paprika being the major spice, although we had a delicious risotto with asparagus and pine nuts among other dishes that incorporated cream, dill, pickles. Nice combination of flavors. Enjoyed some flavorful Italian food, too. About halfway through our stay, we found nearby a newly opened little cafe with delicious pastry and great coffee. We went back for lunch: fresh croissants with cheese and veggies.

Terry & Mary at breakfast

Definitely we are sad to leave such a picturesque country.  It's one we will plan to revisit.

The Wienerschnitzel inspection

From Krakow to Budapest 5-31-11

 From Kranow to Budapest  5-31-11

We started out with some gently rolling hills














We drove through some of the villages




 

We stopped to eat at a truck stop that was named for a Robin Hood of Poland



And ate some traditional food of the Tatar Mountains



We passed through the old, ugly Soviet checkpoint--now empty

No stopping at all since Hungary is part of the EU

And we got to Budapest just fine with our driver Pawel who had to turn around and make the 7 hour trip back to Krakow.

Krakow, May 26 -- 31

It reads, "Recommended the best tiramisu"



It's a beautiful city, Krakow, with flowers everywhere in pots, in hanging baskets on fences, along roadsides and sidewalks, and just about everywhere else imaginable. The results are a colorful city with a ring of forested park completely around it where a medieval moat used to be. We have an apartment in the old city, close to the town square, with all the accoutrements. It's close to almost every old tourist site, and noisy, busy, and in the middle of the action. We managed to stuff into 6 days about 2 weeks' worth of sights, and our legs paid for it.



Beer is better when surrounded by flowers

 Of course, we stopped when necessary and partook of what was good in Krakow, namely the food and drink.

Outdoor restaurants everywhere

 



Always time for coffee

Our day usually began with coffee and then it was off to see something beautiful.  The architecture was breathtaking, especially the churches, of which there are 150 in Krakow.  Some of them are very, very tiny and some are quite large.  Most of them are ornate, but I think the most spectacular of them was Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady which was about a three minute walk from our apartment.  The ceiling was painted a delicate blue with small white dots that made it look like the early evening sky.  Heavenly!

Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady

Sts. Peter and Paul Church

Another church we saw was Sts. Peter and Paul Church where we also attended a concert.  What a fantastic repertoire the ensemble had!  We heard Brahms, Beethoven, and Vivaldi's "Four Seasons" in such a setting that I blinked back tears to be surrounded by such visual splendor and auditory beauty.  Just two evenings earlier we had attended a Fredrick Chopin piano concert in the Bornonowski Palace.  The music brought back many memories for Mom and me; I had played several of the pieces in my own piano lessons.  I'm actually surprised she recognized them because I'm sure they didn't sound remotely like what we were hearing! 




 

Florian Gate, built in 1300's

Remaining wall of Kazimierz, the Jewish section of Krakow

Other types of architecture included parts of the city's walls built in the 14th and 15th centuries and the wall of another part of town, the Jewish section of Kazimierz, built in the 12th century.  And, of course, the Wawel Castle dominates the skyline. It is the most visited site in Poland and what magnificent structures!

Wawel Cathedral

Besides strolling around the city, looking at interesting museums, listening to wonderful music, drinking coffee and eating delicious food, we had the interesting experience of descending 400 feet (800 steps) into a salt mine,  

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Ethnographic museum

Home baked bread to be blessed by the priest at Easter, just like my grandmother used to make

spending time at the Ethnographic Museum, and going through Oscar Schindler's enamelware factory, probably one of the most extensive museums we've ever seen.  One interesting thing happened completely by surprise, and that was the Polish soccer championships won by the club in Krakow.  Oh my goodness!  Did they ever have a celebration---like no other we've seen.  And it was LOUD!

Celebrating Krakow's win over Warsaw in Polish soccer championship with fires in the main square

And, of course, there was shopping to be done, and Mom was all too happy to comply.  She was like a kid in a candy store!

Cloth Hall and its many shopping stands

Assumption of Our Lady Basilica

We all were sad to leave this beautiful city, and very early in the morning of the day we left, we went up to get our coffee as we usually did.  But this time we caught the bugler sounding the hourly hejnal that was in medieval times a warning call.  We had heard it before and speculated that it was undoubtedly a recording since it is done every hour of the day and night.  But, as I was standing alone, below the highest tower of the Basilica of the Assumption of Our Lady and looking up, I caught a glimpse of gold flash in one of the tower windows.  Then a hand reached out and waved to me.  I took it as a gesture of friendship--an invitation back to that magnificent city.

Additional Thoughts on Poland

Very old homes in Poland in my grandfather's village.  Maybe he grew up in a house like this?

This is one of my favorite Polish dishes--I have been mispronouncing it all these years.  It's spelled Nalisniki, and after I saw it on a sign, I realized I had been saying "nolishlinki"which was wrong.  No matter what they're called,, they are delicious!!

Huta Deregowska and Zarzecze

Roadside remembrance along our route

It's a good thing we had a GPS in our car; on our own, we would never have found these two tiny villages of my grandparents.  We started out from Warsaw and quickly began to drive through little villages with people clearing land by horse and plow and weeding great rows of vegetables and grains with hand-held hoes.  Very hard work. We passed many roadside remembrances, some very small and simple and some very ornate. The land was at first very flat; then we began to see undulating hills, all the while remaining bright hues of green.  Every once in a while, a small river snaked its way through the waving grain, then the wider Vistula River came into view and ran under our road. 

Cereal grains waving in the breeze

Maybe Dziadzi's house?

At last we got to the first village, Huta Deregowska, where my grandfather was born.  It didn't take long to drive through; it consisted of only about 40 houses all situated on the main street.  Some were pretty modern and some looked as though they had been there for at least a century. 


Try as we did, we could not get anybody to speak English to us, although one young man said, "Sorry."  That raised some suspicion that more people could speak English than would admit.  One elderly lady came out to her fence to look at us but shrugged when we asked her if she could speak English.  I said, "Thank you" to her in Polish, and she laughed and responded with something that I could only think must have been, "I didn't do anything for you."  We saw several very early houses that we imagined was what my grandparents must have lived in, and we found the very early churches in both villages.  We agreed that these definitely were old enough to have been their home town churches.  We later met a woman at a gas station who had lived in the US for 7 years.  She explained

church in Huta Deregowska

church in Zarzezce

that sometimes people would return to Poland to claim land that had belonged to their ancestors.  Hence, the general suspicion of foreigners. 

We drove the 1 1/2 miles to Zarzecze where my grandmother was born and came upon an old cemetery.  We stopped the car, got out and began to wander through it.  In a few minutes Terry called out that he had found something.  When we got there, we saw a Nalepa grave, then another and another.  There must have been at least 15-20 in all, some from Nalepas born in the early 20th century and some born later.  There was a section of very, very old unmarked graves like the kind that people who had died in the 19th century would have had.  We spent over an hour just looking at different tombstones, then we picked up a small remembrance to put on my dad's grave, and left since the afternoon was almost over and we still had miles to go before we could sleep.