GFPKTravels2

Greetings! I'm amazed at how much I am learning about the countries we are visiting.  It's not that my American schooling didn't provide me with a sense of the places, language, and general history.  It's hard not to be aware of each country's highlights at least since the beginning of WWII.  With all of the movies made, you pick up some of the dramas.   But being here, and listening to resident tour guides and home family members tell their stories, and those of their grandparents brings a deeper insight into the year-by-year experiences and transformations.  The major lesson being reinforced on each day, at each stop, is that people in these countries have never stopped fighting to determine who they are, and what freedoms they have.  While my life in America has been challenged by my father's participation in a war before I was born, and I had my own challenges in Vietnam, I don't think I ever felt like the ground I walked on was being seriously thr...

Greetings! The closest capital cities in the world are Vienna, Bratislava, and Budapest.  Nevertheless, today was a transit drive to Budapest from Bratislava.  On the way, we took a side trip into Austria, to see a twenty-year old modern art museum (Danubiana Meulensteen).  Well worth a couple of hour visit which we tried to fit into an hour. Crossing the Hungarian border, we stopped to see what William described as our last look at Baroque Churches.  True to their goal of trying to convince the local Protestants to return to Catholicism, their interiors were filled with golden everything and visual evidence that the way to heaven was through fealty to the Church's doctrines. For the final three days of this "Jewels of Bohemia" Overseas Adventure Travel Tour, we'll be staying at the President Hotel in Budapest.  While I couldn't find a website, it's an impressive accommodation.  I described the streets of Pest (one side of the river Danube) as the tallest, ...

This morning was a City Tour, and our guide (Ivan) led us on a bus tour of the upscale neighborhoods of Bratislava.  The views from the hills overlooking the City were breath-taking, and so were the home prices.  Fortunately, some were being reserved for ambassadors and business leaders.  The one for the U.S. Ambassador looked like the White House. A City tour wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Pressburg Bakery, a centuries old landmark which delivers daily a popular pastry in the shape of a crescent filled with either poppyseed or walnut. We even got to watch as they were being made, and then devoured our pick courtesy of William, our main tour guide. One of the worst decisions made by the communist forces in the 1960s was to tear down the  Jewish quarter  and build a freeway through town.  Beginning after the end of the war, the returning Jewish population, and those who had decided to flee a hostile Europe for Israel or the U.S. - passed through...

  Greetings! Last night, our hotel host provided a tour of his deep cave wine cellar, and then followed it up with a wine-paired meal accompanied by local popular guitarists.  The owner, Pavel, is clearly a major collector of wines.  His hotel sits atop an extensive multi-level of caves under the town, and he has 3,000 wines spanning almost 70 years stored in it.  Nearby, he has 25,000 more, covering over 200 individual wine varieties.   Our desert tonight was partly prepared by our travelers, who completed parts of the prune cake preparation during the meal, and then eagerly awaited the finished result.  Our host shared the printed recipe, and even included a personal hotline for those with questions. Today was a transit day, and our destination was Bratislava in Slovakia.  After breakfast, we drove to the ancient Moravian city of Trebic to visit its Jewish ghetto - a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Strolling through its narrow alleyways, we st...

Greetings! Overseas Adventures Travel has a feature called "Day in the Life" where some of the days are focused helping us learn more about the residents of the countries we visit.  Today, we shared most of the day with Olga Guevaro and her family on her horse farm.  We were not only introduced to a working horse training facility, but to the lives of a couple whose stories again illustrated the political and social trajectories of Czechs over the past seventy years. We also heard about the lives of the horses on the farm most of which were born here, and a couple whose lives were deeply entwined with Olga's.  Of their deep roots in nature growing up and maturing into adults, she said of her brother and her "He's turning into a  tree, and I'm turning into a horse.".  Watching her play and work with two of her horses in the corral, we could see the deep bonds whch she had developed with them. Our experience was a lot more than listening, as we did farm st...

Just after breakfast, we boarded our bus and headed for a town famous for its beer (Ceske Budejovice).  William took us directly to the primary attraction - Budweiser Budvar Brewery.   One of the most detailed beer tastings I've ever been treated to, we toured the plant as they prepared to bring it in to full operation around noon.   Finally, we descended into the cellar where 70 large tanks held the unfermented, unpasteurized new beer.  Without a long shelf-life, this beer would begin to lose flavor in ten days, but it tasted great to all of us straight from the tank.  I learned later that this facility produces 1 million eight hundred thousand hectoliters of beer annually.  Worldwide, 258 million hectoliters of beer, 1.5 billion hectoliters of wine, and 3.5 billion hectoliters of tea are produced. Visiting the ancient walled town of Trebon, and devouring a delicious lunch of local Carp and mashed potato, with raspberry lemonade, we drove on to t...

Greetings! We were treated this morning to a local history lesson illustrated by the family experience of a Czech family in the Sudenten, broken up by language and location when the Germans were expelled at the end of WWII, and whose lives were continually disconnected during the period through the turbulent a960s, and on to the fall of communism in the area in November of 1989.  Our special presenter's (Oli) family story made clear the dramatic impacts of expulsions by each side of Germans, Czechs, and mixed families. The Vyssi Brod Cistercian Monastary, with roots back to the 1300s, is considered the spiritual center of South Bohemia.  Seized by the Nazis, and used as an armory, and then by the Soviets as a garrison, its impressive collection of books and relics has survived amazingly intact.  An unbelieveably ornate wooden bookcase and portrait gallery was created over 50 years by one monastery resident. Finally, we drove to a mountain ski resort which carried us to th...

Greetings! Sharka, our guide, hosted us for most of the day.  She not only took us on a city tour of Cesky Krumlov, but she and her parents invited us into their homes for dinner.  Except for our rafting down the Vitava River, which she watched from the shore, she was the ultimate local guide. Established in 1250 by the Lords of Krumlov, this trading center with a hilltop castle contains architecture that dazzles your eyes.  Except for the walk up into the castle, it's easy on the feet.  It's also easy on the stomach, with many small shops sporting pastries, lunch and dinner destinations, and ice cream shops. Crossing the river from the castle on one of the oldest bridges in Europe, the cobblestone streets wind back and forth sporting alleyways the beckon the inquisitive.  Fortunately, the facades of the houses have been preserved by its residents, and their original frescoes are being revealed by slow restoration by the recent residents.   In the afte...

  Greetings! Ever been to a concentration camp?  I told myself that I wouldn't, but there are lots of places used during WWII to hold people against their will.  Some far more greviously than others.  The one we visited today ( Vojna Memorial ) was asked by those who survived it to call it a concentration camp, but it has a slightly different story than one you are familiar with. It was one of many camps used from 1949 to 1961 by Germany to house political dissidents, and to force them to work in uranium mines.  There were executions (247), and workers died of uranium poisoning and other illnesses (2000), but many more experienced a prison held without charges during that time.  Conditions were harsh, and survivors scarce.   In Pisek , on the banks of the Otavo River, we crossed the second oldest bridge in Europe, even earlier than the famous Charles Bridge we crossed yesterday.  Built before 1200, the sides are lined with statues of Saint Jo...

  Each day, I learn how little I know about what happened in the past several hundred years in this part of the world.  And I don't think I'm alone in that ignorance.  Sure, I can name the countries and probably their capitals.  I know the major events for the continent we call Europe (wars, national leadership, olympics, etc.).  And up to recently, I thought I could have located western, central, and eastern Europe. But over the last few days, with a deeper look at Germany and the Czech Republic, I'm finding how little I have been paying attention to the dynamic between the two, and how much the drama has played out the essential issues of our day.  This area has played an important part in shaping religion, government, business, and personal rights.  With every new family empire, subjugated townspeople and peasants responded with a continual pursuit for freedom and personal justice. Strolling through town, it is impossible not to be amazed at the exp...

Greetings! Today, we were treated to a city morning tour with two wonderful guides who helped us understand not only the physical layout of the old and new parts of Prague, but the historical trajectory of it.  From gates which stand alone marking the great walls, to the present commercial streets along the wide moats.   From the varied architectural designs, we learned of the inhabitants and uses.  As the City was awakening, we were able to enjoy the sounds and smells of the restaurants, bakeries, and shops. A small opera house along the way was the site of Mozart's early works, premiered her among adoring crowds in contrast to his receptions in Vienna.  A sculpture commenting on the theme of one of his last works signals the location. We visited one of the remaining synagogues in the Jewish quarter of the Old City.  Tomorrow afternoon, some of our travelers have receive a deeper briefing on the local history of the community.   Of course, a visi...

  Greetings! Our drive up the Elbe River Valley from Germany into the Czech Republic has yielded a real surprise.  When our guide told us a few days ago that we would be able to followthe end of the season celebration in Dresden last night with another on our first day in the Czech Republic, we had no idea it would showcase a connection so close to our home. The area we traveled into consists of small towns that are desparate to build their own support systems collectively.  Seven of them decided to call themselves Czech California  (Ceska Kalifornia) and today they are having their second annual Festival.  William introduced us to two local electeds who walked us through the Festival grounds, providing us with promotional buttons, photo book, t-shirts, and participation in a cake eating contest - all designed to highlight their efforts to champion a regional approach to civic self-sufficiency.  The town mayor and one of her colleagues told us that man...

Greetings! Dresden needs a tour guide to really understand and appreciate how very much it has to offer.  The fourth largest city in Germany, it has probably the largest collection of museum (non-modern) art per capita.  It also is well-known for having been fire-bombed in WWII, and has used many of the restored structures as museums and historically-significant locations. Dresden sits on the floodplains of the Elbe Valley, and poses a problem with digging very deep into the ground.  Throughout the City, an extensive system of above-ground blue pipes carries the water from construction sites back to the river, competing with the increasingly-present floods. Our tour included the many castles and churches which were destroyed in an attempt to demoralize the residents two days after the Yalta Conference ought to minimize such actions.  We walked through a variety of architecturally-incompatible designs seeking to preserve the old, and introduce the new within the City....