August 12 The Last of Krakow and our Central Euro Road Adventure

Kazmierz, finding a bit of Balance

Leaving Auschwitz, driving, decompressing and discussing, we stopped for what was our second best ever gas station meal. The first was in Pecos, NM with friends for burritos, sitting on a bench almost next to the pumps. This time, in the Polish countryside, was a lovely flowered deck around the corner from the pumps ( still attached to the gas station) and alongside a garden where a watermelon and mint cocktail and a duck breast salad and beer helped lighten the atmosphere.

We headed back into Krakow to the old Jewish quarter, where after years of dilapidation, a revival has occurred. Although there are not many Jews, the synagogues are being preserved, the cemeteries opened and the cafes alive with Klezmer music, a true melding of Polish and Jewish culture.

Walking through the New Cemetery, with many graves and headstones from the 15th Century, slanting rays of late afternoon sun stretching across the unique metal scrolls resting atop the stones, brought some serenity back to the day. At the far left, a hilly grassy mound of graves with no stones. At the far right, a mosaic wall made of the rescued pieces of the stones from those unmarked graves. A bit more symmetry and balance to the day.

There were cafes with hummus and cholent and latkes, charoset and borscht. We skipped on heavy food and went Asian for some Yom Tom soup and Yellow Tofu Curry, yum! Heading home to the Niebieski Spa Hotel to pack, we planned for a tomorrow full of chores- there was packing and a package to post and laundry to do before we could head back to Prague and await our flight to our next destination, Italy.

Early Monday, package on its way for about a third of the price of any other country, we settled into the Franzia Cafe, where you can listen to some decent music, sit on a comfy couch, have a latte or a beer and do your laundry.

We were probably the oldest people by about thirty years but the coffee was good, our clothes are clean and we are ready to move on.

Comments

August 3. West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna?

West, East or Central??? Where the Hell is Vienna? Aside from the fact that it is approximately three hours and fifteen minutes from Cesky Krumlov, Vienna, it turns out, is technically in Western Europe, even though Austria makes its appearance in Rick Steve's Eastern European book and people who live in Czech, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia are Central European. In fact, it is almost offensive to call them or their country Eastern European, as that is clearly only for the old Soviet bloc. We made a few stops along the way, taking the scenic way past a magnificent very long lake, and over beautiful mountains with rolling fields of crop and grain, not quite the Sound of Music Austria, but not too far off. Crossing from Czech to Austria in the EU of today entailed no more than driving past the old vacant border patrol building. We checked into our hotel, just a couple blocks outside the busy Ringstrasse and next to the Rathaus, and sank into our air conditioned room,...

#118 - It’s Sunny and HOT in Paree

Dinner last night was just a ten minute walk, following the Marci school of city touring which says : “run around all day, anywhere you want, take public transit everywhere, but once you are back at your hotel, be it 6 or 7 or even 8pm, just walk close by for dinner”. I always pick the neighborhood to stay in first and then I pick my hotel. I don’t mind running all day, but once the day is done I want to be near lots of good places to eat dinner. Astier, a bistro in the 11th, qualified on the location and the Good Eats. Again, the food sounded simple, like my beet gaspacho with crunchy veggies. The deep purple was rich looking and the flavors layered and fresh. Steve started with the pickled herring and I think he was quite surprised when the waiter delivered and LEFT on the table a quite large glazed terracotta container of herring, a serving spoon and fork, a bowl of small potatoes and a basket of bread. Then he left. Clearly this was an all-you-can-...

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths

A Beer Primer, Brewery to Baths In Czech, beer is king. It is the breakfast of champions, the lunchtime liquid, the afternoon aperitif, the dinner drink and evening bar crawl beverage. There is dark and light and everything in between. You can order normal, at 10% alcohol, or 11 or 12 for a faster buzz. It can be smooth or bitter, yellow, brown or red. It goes with dumplings, and pork knee, and pickled sausages and apple strudel. It fills you up and always makes you need the WC. And so, although we are not beer aficionados, and I am not even a beer fan, we picked Plzen, CZ as the first stop on our 15 day road trip through Eastern Europe (or Central Europe to those who live there according to a Czech acquaintance). It was close to Prague so even if we got lost, the day would not be lost. The morning's challenges would be getting to the rental car place in town by metro, finding our way back to the apartment in our Skoda, the largest produced Czech car, and navigating ou...

Marci and Steve Go Back to Europe

Search This Blog