Easter in Eastern Europe

I am struggling with how to describe the last 11 days. It’s not that long a time period, but we have seen and done so much. The eastern Euopean cities we have visited have been beautiful and so historic and our heads are truly swimming with information from the monarchies of the Austro-Hungarian Empire to the atrocities of the Nazis in WWI to the years of the Iron Curtain and Soviet bloc to the economies and cultures of these countries following the political changes in 1989.
We started in Prague, the “City of One Hundred Spires,” where our education on eastern European history began with our guide, Yiri. We toured Old Town, the Municipal House and the Jewish Quarter before crossing the Charles Bridge to visit the Castle District, the seat of Bohemian kings and Holy Roman emperors. Then we drove to Vienna with a short detour in the medieval Czech town of Telc. The Imperial city of Vienna proved to be equally rich in royal history under the rule of the Habsburg families for 650 years with the addition of so many well known composers, musicians, poets and artists. We spent Easter Sunday in Vienna where the hotel left Easter baskets full of goodies in our rooms!
Before driving to Budapest, we were lucky enough to have a stop in Bratislava, Slovakia where we had a guided walking tour through the old town and a wonderful slovak lunch of stuffed potato pancakes. Next we drove to Budapest and our guide, Rita, took us on a tour first of the Buda side of the Danube River, with its Castle Hill and royal district, and then the Pest side, with the impressive Parliament Building and the vast Heroes’ Square where 250,000 people gathered in 1989 to celebrate the political changes and remember those who died in the struggle for independence from Communist rule. Our last stop on this eastern European tour was Krakow, Poland where with our guide Agnes we visited the Royal Castle and Cathedral on Wawel Hill before stopping at Market Square, the largest such medieval example of its kind in Europe. We then toured the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps where we became witnesses to one of the most horrific crimes ever perpetrated. Words do no justice to what we saw -- it is a sobering memorial to the 1.5 million people, mostly Jews, who were killed there.
We hope you enjoy our photos as we continue this amazing journey. Our next stop is Athens where we visit our friends, the Heards, for a few days before taking a Mediterranean cruise. We miss all our friends and family but we'll be home soon - only 2 more months to go!

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