Mitteleuropa
by Mary Jo
I'm still locked in mortal combat with the current book, so I'm offering another classic travel blog: a riverboat cruise on the Danube. Rivers were the interstates of the past, and so much of European civilization developed along the waterways. How better to explore than in a boat holding maybe 150 friendly, intelligent passengers and serving lots of really good food?
Like a plot element, the idea of a riverboat cruise simmered in my lizard brain for years, and in 2006, I thought it was time to do a cruise in Southern France. Except that all the French cruises were booked for the time slot we had, and we ended up cruising the Douro River in Northern Portugal. It was great.
This year, I decided it was time to book that French cruise. Urp. Once again, Southern France along the Rhone was sold out. Which is how we ended up cruising the Danube. Again, it was great—the Mayhem Consultant and I are easily amused, and any interesting new place will be fun. (Update 2023: we'd booked a French riverboat cruise for autumn 2022, but for a variety of reasons we cancelled it. I think I'm doomed never to travel the French rivers!)
Prague
Our Danube cruise started with a three day pre-cruise extension in Prague, which isn’t on the Danube, but really, how could we go to Eastern Europe and not see Prague? The city has been an intellectual and creative center for centuries, and under the blighting hand of five decades of Soviet rule, it was spared rapacious developers tearing down beautiful old buildings.
Prague lived up to its reputation, and the old city is truly spectacular, including the famous and incredibly complex astronomical clock, which dates to 1410 (!!!) and which performs its traffic stopping dance every hour on the hour.
A high point of Prague was our tour of the Lobkowicz Palace, part of the Prague castle complex on a hill overlooking the city. The Lobkowicz family had been Eastern European aristocrats for centuries, and they were collectors and patrons of the arts. Then the family was forced to flee twice—first when the Nazis came, then in 1948 when the Russians came.
And here the story becomes even more interesting. After the fall of Communism in 1989, former owners could go to the courts to reclaim the family properties, and that’s exactly what William Lobkowicz did. Born in Boston and educated at Harvard, he reclaimed the family estates and sold off several to raise the money to restore the others.
The Viking cruise line had a video about the palace tour, and I started salivating when they showed the family art treasures. Original Breughels and Canalettos. Hand written manuscripts by Beethoven, with his own scratch outs and annotations!
The tour included a lovely lunch in a gorgeous high ceilinged chamber, amazing views over the city, and a half hour chamber music concert featuring works by composers associated with Prague. People like Mozart and Beethoven and Dvorak. Yes!
Music
That was the first of several concerts of classic music on our journey, and reflects how much music is a part of eastern European culture. Another concert was by the organ in cathedral of Passau, in Germany. It’s the largest cathedral organ in Europe with almost 18K pipes, and when it played the double bass notes, the reverberations were so powerful that I half expected the plaster cherubs to be shaken off the walls. <G> (Note: half an hour seems about right for a classical music concert for an audience of tourists.)
On a riverboat cruise, you tend to stop at a city a day and get guided walking tours of the old city in the morning, with free time or optional tours in the afternoon. So we got an overview of great cities of Eastern Europe. Regensburg in Bavaria has a stone bridge (called, logically enough,
the Stone Bridge, Steinerne Brücke) which was built in the 12th century and for centuries was the only really reliable crossing of the Danube for a very long stretch.
I loved medieval Passau, also in Bavaria, with its cathedral and twisting streets. The tour there illustrated something else about Eastern Europe: the presence of war. As the guide said matter of factly, there were no war industries in the city so the only thing the Allies bombed in WWII was the railroad station. Hence, the medieval city survived. (The other omnipresent topic in Bavaria was beer, which was referred to often and enthusiastically. <G>)
Vienna
I have to say I wasn’t too taken by Vienna, though that surely is because we were shown lots of oppressive imperial grandeur from the heyday of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Nor was I very impressed by the famous Sacher tortes, though the tea room at the Sacher hotel was very lovely, and full of tourists like us who were there for the iconic experience. (And the chocolate. <G>)
I liked Budapest a great deal more—it was attractive and idiosyncratic and invited further exploration. In the afternoon, we went to a horse show at the farm of the two Lazar brothers, who are world champion carriage drivers, and which underlined Hungary heritage of riding and horsemanship. (Some of the riding tricks, like this one, must be like what Regency spectators saw at Astley's Amphitheater back in the day.)
I’m a born tourist and could say lots more, but what struck me most about the trip was the different feel of the region from Western Europe, which I know a great deal better. Central Europe is sometimes called Mitteleuropa—Middle Europe, a term that is political and cultural as well as geographic.
The history felt very close as city guides described the Roman origins of their cities, the bombing damage of World War II, and tragically empty Jewish quarters. Even more present was the history in the Czech Republic and Hungary, countries which were under Communist domination until 1989. Guides talked about how statues of Lenin and Stalin used to be in particular squares, how a particular square was popular for demonstrations "because there was more room for Russian tanks," and pointed out the stark, boxy Soviet buildings that were all about cheap practicality rather than aesthetics.
This part of the world has often been fought over—Hungary is largely a level plain, perfect for raiding horsemen or oncoming tanks. Maybe that accounts for the underlying fatalism of the culture: great music, world weary intellectuals, and brilliant scientists fleeing to the west. In the long history of the Central Europe, Communism was a blip that is already receding into the past. (We were told that Hungary had the highest per capita number of Nobel laureates in the world, at least partly because of the number Jewish mathematicians and scientists who fled to the West to escape the death camps ofWWII.)
Not that I should be drawing many conclusions based on a mere ten days in Mitteleuropa! But it’s a fascinating part of the world, and I’m glad we had a chance to see some of it.
Have you ever been to Central Europe? What did you think of it? And if you haven’t visited, would you like to? What dreams and fantasies come to mind when you think of the romantic Danube and Viennese coffee houses?
Mary Jo, adding a picture of a band of Prague musicians playing horns unlike any I've ever seen. But they sure were enjoying themselves!
...perhaps you ought to book that French river cruise now, Mary Jo, for 2025 or 2026....
I've never been to Central Europe, so I definitely enjoyed hearing about your experiences and seeing your pictures. My mother's parents were from Hungary, but we've no Nobel prize winners in the family (as far as I know).
Posted by: Kareni | Monday, October 23, 2023 at 11:08 AM
Our hands-down favorite vacations were canal barge cruises through various areas of France. We did a charter with friends, a total of 6 passengers plus the captain and cook (who took turns at each!) Over the years, we did 3 trips, on the same barge and with the same people - Burgundy (Bourgogne), the Loire Valley and Avignon to the Mediterranean. At the time, the cost was comparable to the larger river trips.
At that time, there were not as many barges, but today there are many more options, from larger ones (~24 people) to the charters. There are some in different locations also - England, Scotland, Ireland, Holland - We would highly recommend it and are trying to see if it is time for us to go again with our friends!
Posted by: Karen Conroy | Monday, October 23, 2023 at 03:17 PM
Mary Jo is cruising the Hudson right now and one of the downsides of cruises is really bad WiFi. So the rest of the wenches are stepping in until she can.
The Danube cruise is like a step back into a fairy tale, although these days, the lower part tends to run dry, unfortunately.
One does have to plan two years ahead for those French cruises though!
Posted by: Patricia Rice | Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 07:31 AM
oh wow, that sounds ideal! Hear that Wenches? We could do a barge tour through France... wine, castles, wine... ;)
Posted by: Patricia Rice | Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 07:32 AM
That does sound fabulous! And I wouldn’t get seasick on a barge. Would love to do a river cruise too - had better get booking!
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 08:12 AM
Brilliant descriptions, thank you MJ (as the Wenches seem to call her :) ). I went backpacking in the 90s and spent a month in Salzburg, a day in Vienna (a Sunday, -10C and most things closed), a visit to Dachau in February (COLD), among other things. Backpacking meant mainly doing things on the cheap. . .which was impressive at the time and a lot of fun, but I really do need to get back and see the sights which require a more substantial investment (like tours). The culture is so different to my native Australia. . .one day :)
Posted by: Deborah Wilson | Tuesday, October 24, 2023 at 03:36 PM
That sounds like a great trip, Deborah! I'd love to visit those places too - really need to look into a trip to central Europe!
Posted by: Christina Courtenay | Thursday, October 26, 2023 at 09:01 AM