Part III: Zagreb to Prague 2006

With little sleep, I got the 7:20 train to Keszthely, Hungary, and a ride to Heviz, a spa town with thermal lake. After weeks in a country where I had at least superficially studied the language (Greek) and two more weeks where I passed through several languages and currencies, but had guides, I was now on my own surrounded by Hungarian with the second language German and Italian a distant third. If anyone in the tourist office spoke English, I never found out as I had the misfortune to be there on WhitSunday and WhitMonday when all such services were closed. German is not the strongest in my repertoire, but without a word of Hungarian it would have to do. I explored the town and managed to get a room looking out to a park. It was quiet and after doing some laundry, I slept well.

The following morning I had a walk and coffee on a deck in the sunshine. Changed hotels to one closer to the lake, so I could just walk over in a robe and have a float around taking in the scene of bathers “taking a cure” or just having a good time. That evening I enjoyed the various pools and jacuzzi, so much stronger and warmer than at last night’s hotel.

After two days of learning just two words of Hungarian (thank you and good morning) and speaking only a bit of remembered German, I joined an American and two Dubliners at breakfast, and we chattered away, sharing our stories and adventures. Later visited the lake again for some stretches waist-high in the water and then caught a bus to Keszthely for the train to Budapest. My roommate from the tour met me at the station with her daughter’s fiancé; they took me to the apartment where the daughter is living while working for an NGO, and which would be our base for six days in Budapest.

The following day was rainy, but I took a long walk to the Szechenyi Baths for almost three hours of exploring the pools of various temperatures and saunas and steam room. A different walk back led through residential streets of interesting architecture and embassies.

The next day was more strenuous as we walked to and around Parliament, across the Margaret Bridge to Buda, around and up to Castle Hill. Nice moments were the view down a street in Pest looking across the Danube toward the Fisherman’s Bastion, and crossing back to Pest on the Szechenyi or Chain Bridge toward a former palace, now a hotel.

There is excellent public transport, but my whole time in Hungary’s capital I chose to walk. Hours of walking each day were both tiring and interesting as the streets of Budapest are architectural art galleries, though often as well dirty and dusty with buildings marred with bullet holes.

The next day I entered the large Public Market on the way to crossing the Liberty Bridge to the Gellert. I decided not to use their famous baths, and just had lunch on the terrace, looking toward traffic and the Danube. Walked along the river to cross the Elizabeth Bridge back to Pest where I changed money, used an Internet café, and checked restaurants for tomorrow night’s dinner.

Heavy rain gave a day of rest and organizing our stuff for packing up again. I ventured out only to buy our train tickets, see the Basilica, and to take Judy, her daughter and fiancé to dinner complete with gypsy musicians.

A Hungarian friend drove us the next day up the Danube Bend to the village of Szentendre with its Serbian Orthodox church (and many tourists). At an open-air museum we explored homes and farms of various regions of Hungary, and what was Hungary in earlier times. Finally to Visegrad with its castle and great views.

The next morning Judy and I caught a 6:50 train from Budapest to Brno, Czech Republic, passing through Slovakia on the way. In Brno we went to the Tourist Information Office to find lodging (a ritual we repeated in each town we visited in the southern states of Moravia and Bohemia). Then changed money into yet another currency. Later we walked up to the Spilberk Castle; the path and grounds were peaceful and clean and filled with the songs of birds. Except for the noise and dirt of the re-construction of the central plaza, I was very impressed with Brno. There was not the graffiti that plagues Zagreb and Budapest, and had much less traffic, seemingly without the constant roar of motorbikes and mopeds. As the second largest city of the Czech Republic, it has several universities and colleges, a symphony, theater, and lots of parks. It just seemed like a very livable city.

The next day we continued by bus along a nice country road to Trebic. We found lodging in the Jewish Quarter, the largest preserved complex of its kind in Europe, and a UNESCO World Heritage site, (Practically every place we visited in CR turned out to be a UNESCO World Heritage site.) We walked extensively through the town, including to the wonderful Romanesque-Gothic Basilica of St. Procopius, and to the Jewish Cemetery.

The next day on to Telc. We got a garret room right on the (you guessed it!) UNESCO World Heritage sited central plaza with its painted façades, one from 1555. Walked to the chateau with its Romanesque arches along the gallery, and to the adjoining park by the river. Judy spoke more German than I do, though I was busily picking up as much Czech as I could from our phrasebook. We used both with whatever English the locals had, sometimes with amusing results. For our evening walk in Telc, we were instructed to turn at the “godmother church”. We were curious to see what it would be, when, logically enough, there we were at the Church of the Mother of God.

Bus to Trebon along another scenic road lined with lupin. The White Horse Hotel had a good view of the main square, and the town-hall tower. We walked though flower gardens, in the park beside the chateau, and by the 14th century brewery. Almost every day in the Czech Republic our main meal, usually a late lunch or early dinner, was fish (trout, carp, or “fish fillet”) and a small glass of the local Czech beer.

After such small towns Ceske Budejovice seemed huge, but it shared the elements of a wonderful central plaza with tower and fountain, and served as a base to leave early the next morning for Cesky Krumlov, considered by many to be the most scenic of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Czech Republic with its high castle and river setting.

By chance our visit coincided with the annual Festival of the Rose, which meant all lodging was booked, but enhanced the medieval atmosphere of the town. Rich brocade and other costumes were worn by many walking the streets, and there was music at various locations and a procession of “royalty” on horses, accompanied by dancers and musicians. We walked up to the castle where dances and juggling was performed on the lawn.

The next morning we took a bus to Tabor, and got a room in a pension by a park. With map in hand we did a thorough walking tour of the town, climbed a 13th-century lookout tower for vistas in all directions, and had dinner on Zizka Square looking toward the fountain and Renaissance houses. All the towns we visited in the southern Czech Republic had common features, yet each was lovely in its own way. We prepared to enter “the big city” early the next morning.

Prague has a population of 1.9 million, so after towns where from the bus station we could walk (a small pack on back and dragging a small wheeled carry-on behind) to lodging, here we took a Metro and then streetcar to the section of Prague where we stayed known as Mala Strana, just below the castle.

I spent the whole first day visiting the Castle, “the largest continuous castle complex in the world” with palaces and ecclesiastical buildings from the 10th century through the end of the last century. Visited the St Vitus Cathedral with its marvelous stained-glass windows (one by Alfons Macha) and bell tower, the spacious hall of the Old Royal Palace, St. George’s Basilica (the second oldest church in Prague), Golden Lane with 16th-century houses. As the day was very hot it was nice to sit within cooling stone walls of the Old Royal Palace and watch the film, The Story Of Prague Castle.

A long thunderstorm with heavy rain curtailed evening explorations, but the next morning we meandered across the Charles Bridge to Old Town Square, and through streets large and small to Wenceslas Square (actually a wide boulevard), New Town Tower, Divadlo Theater, St Martins in the Wall, Bethlehem Square where John Hus preached, Astronomical Clock for a blessing of the Apostles on the hour. To Kampa for a late lunch at Rybarsky Klub, looking over the Vltava to the spires of Prague. Continued on to the Church of Our Lady Victorious to see the Holy Infant of Prague. As the day was 30C+ and humid, I stopped to change shoes and clothes, and continued up the hill to Loreta. Near the Castle I watched three artisans doing restoration; it was interesting to see the chipping of concrete plaster to create the designs of a palace façade. Walked past the house of poet Jan Neruda on the way down the hill to pack for tomorrow’s departure.

It felt luxurious to sit in the back of an arranged car and be driven to the airport at 5am on MidSummer’s Day. Lufthansa to Frankfurt to change for a nonstop flight to Portland and days of adjusting to a different time zone.