Visiting four Central European cities: Krakow, Prague, Budapest and Vienna may not be as exciting as the Inca Trail or Galapagos, but I had fabulous experiences there. These four cities have interesting histories and amazing architecture.  They have similarities, but also are different enough to make visiting all four very satisfying.

Krakow, Poland

Krakow is a small city with a lovely market square in the center of town.  There are shops and restaurants all around the square.  It is a lively place, full of street musicians and fun. The focus of the square is St. Mary’s Basilica, built in the 14^th century.

I had the fun of watching a bride walk down St. Mary Basilica aisle with her father. 

Nearby is the Krakow Jewish ghetto. Before WWII, Krakow had a thriving Jewish population of about 60,000.  As in most of Europe, the Jews lived in an area separate from the Christians referred to as the Ghetto.  Two of the synagogues are open to the public.  But with only about 100 Jews living in Krakow today, the synagogues are for tourists and are maintained by charging an entrance fee.  The main temple was for the wealthy and is extremely beautiful.  The other temple was much simpler and was for the working man.  

Today the ghetto area is very lively with many restaurants, serving Jewish and Middle Eastern food and Klezmer music entertainment.  Unfortunately, I could not get a reservation, therefore I can’t comment on the quality of either.  

A Passover Seder in Krakow

Timing is everything, and I was in Krakow for Passover. While we were in the Jewish ghetto area, Jerry saw a flyer for a Passover seder the following evening, at the Galicia Jewish Museum. We immediately registered for it.  It was a once in a life time experience.  

This was the first time that the community did a group Seder and it was obvious. About 40 of us sat at four tables. Our table had an American from New Jersey who lives in Krakow and owns a book store; a couple from Haifa who decided not to stay in Israel for their Seder because they were tired of family squabbles; the museum director, Chris; a Polish Christian couple, and a Jewish female Brit who is the polish woman’s English teacher.  The Polish woman had spent a year in Israel and the Israeli woman from Haifa recognized her.  They were delighted to see each other.  The lively conversation at our table was mostly in English with some Hebrew (no Polish – I don’t know any).

Now for the Seder: The reading of the Haggadah alternated between Polish and Hebrew, with explanations in Polish and English.  The museum provided two Haggadot: A Polish/Hebrew and an English/Hebrew.  The English/Hebrew one was photocopied from a book and the copy machine collated them in reverse order.  Until we figured this, we were all terribly lost.  We rearranged the Haggadah and things made much more sense.

When it came time for the ritual hand washing (the leader of the Seder usually does it for the whole group), we all went to wash our hands.  Two sinks and 40 people took quite a long time.

Then came the ritual foods.  The “greens” were potatoes (traditionally Polish because real greens are not available yet in April).  The horseradish, freshly ground, was nice and sharp.  The traditional (normal) Seder meal consists of an egg in salt water, then gefilte (chopped) fish, Matza ball soup, then brisket, potatoes and vegetables.  Dessert is usually Passover cake.  This meal started off with the egg.  Then we had a potato and egg soup that was delicious.  But then came desert – half a banana with chocolate sauce.  I have no idea what happened to the main part of the meal.  Maybe they just couldn’t get it together for so many people or whoever was supposed to bring it, didn’t. None of us mentioned anything, but we all laughed when the desert came with no dinner.

We finished off with the songs. It was a fabulous evening – we met wonderful people and enjoyed the conversation.  It was a unique Seder experience.  

Another fun experience in Krakow was going to the opera.  The opera house is absolutely delicious (looks like a wedding cake).  It is supposed to be a small replica of the Paris Opera House but I believe it is even more beautiful.  We sat in a box on the first box level.  It was as if we were in the 6th row with a slight elevation.  These fabulous seats cost about $17 each.  The house is tiny – 700 seats.  The curtain is a beautiful painting.  The chandelier and ceilings are magnificent.  On the second floor there is a large room for people to congregate during the intermission.  It is sumptuous with red velvet chairs and a lovely chandelier.  They allow the audience to bring champagne back to the seats and they serve the drinks in real glasses.  The only drawback to the house was the bathroom situation.  There is one stall on each level for each sex.  The lines were ridiculous.

The opera was Barber of Seville.  Luckily, I know it well because the Super Titles were in Polish.  The opera was performed extremely well.  The roles were all cast perfectly.  The acting, was excellent and the level of singing was impressive.  It is such a fun opera that I had a smile on my face the whole time.  The audience was excellent and really appreciative.

Krakow exceeded expectations.  Now on to Prague, Czech Republic.

Prague

Prague is the MOST beautiful city I have seen.  Both the architecture and the art on the buildings are magnificent.  As I am writing about walking around in all that beauty, my soul expands.  The river Vltava dissects Prague:  one side of the river is the “old town” and the other has the castle and St. Vitus Cathedral.  

The Jewish Quarter was a must see for me. Like in Krakow, the Jews had to live in a designated part of town, the ghetto.  Prague had a good size Jewish population before WWII and had many synagogues in the ghetto.  However, only one synagogue, the New/Old Synagogue is still being used for worship (so few Jews left). The rest of the synagogues are museums.  

 I would have loved to go to services there but unfortunately, I was not there on a Friday night. The Pinkas Synagogue from the early 1500s has its walls covered with the names of the Czech and Slovak Jews who perished by Hitler.  It was very moving to read the names.  The Maisel Synagogue was built a few years later, in the late 1500s.  It has lovely banners of the old Jewish guilds such as the silver smiths.

Prague is also a musical city.  Concerts are hawked on the street.  There are multiple classical concerts each day.  I tried to go to many of the concerts. Most of the concerts include Mozart because he lived in Prague for a bit and composed there.  The Prague opera house is also modeled after the Paris Opera house (like the one in Krakow).  It is a bit larger than Krakow’s house, just as beautiful but less enchanting.  This time I heard Carmen.  

We took a trip out of Prague and to visit the beautiful town of Ceske Krumlov.

The town fell into disrepair especially during the communist years.  It is being restored to its glorious state and at the time of my visit, about 80% of the buildings had been restored.  The buildings have distinct geometric renaissance decorations on them.  The tower is magnificent.

Budapest 

Budapest is a larger and less attractive than Prague and suffered more from Soviet Russian neglect. Nevertheless, I had wonderful unexpected experiences there, as well.

The Great Synagogue is the second largest synagogue in the world, second only to the one in Jerusalem.  It is huge and shaped like a Basilica and feels more like a church than a synagogue, not only in the shape but in the decorations as well. (See above). It has an organ, which only Christians play during services (religious Jews are not allowed to play musical instruments on the Sabbath).  Liszt and Saint Sans played it in the 19th Century.  The structure was started in 1854 and completed in 1859.  Today there are about 80,000 Jews in Budapest.  More Jews survived WWII here because the Germans only first occupied Hungary in 1944.  Most of the artifacts from the synagogue and Jewish Museum survived WWII because the National Museum helped pack up the items in the Jewish Museum and hid them in the National Museum’s basement during the war.  Likewise, priests helped hide the Torah scrolls in a cemetery and they came through in good shape.

In the courtyard of the museum were 4 pillars with the names of the Christians that saved Hungarian Jews.  Seeing the many names restored my faith in human beings. It was into the synagogue that Jews were herded and processed to be deported.  

While I was at the synagogue, they were setting up for a concert. We asked and I thought they said it would be a Klezmer concert. I bought tickets.  It was a Holocaust memorial concert not a Klezmer concert.  Wow! This was an extremely emotional experience. The synagogue was full of local Jews.  We were probably the only non-Hungarians there.  The program was completely in Hungarian including the singing of “Where have all the flowers gone?”  Most of the music was very mellow and moving.  One person read a poem and a vocalist was humming a tune to it.  I had tears running down my face and I didn’t understand a word of the poem.  I still get chills thinking about that night.

Very worthwhile was my visit to Liszt’s house, which is now a museum. It housed a number of interesting pianos but most exciting was seeing Beethoven’s piano. 

  We took the funicular up and later walked down.  There were lots to see, but since this isn’t a comprehensive guide book, I will only mention the medieval synagogue from the 14^th century, discovered when a house was undergoing a renovation.  The archeologists also unearthed gravestones from that period.

Vienna 

Vienna was the last stop on the four Central European city tour.  We took a Hydrofoil between Budapest to Vienna.  The boat was much more fun than flying.

Vienna is a beautiful city, clean and white.  The architecture is absolutely stunning.  I loved it, but it felt a bit cold after Prague.  There is much to see in Vienna and it is easy to get around either by its tram that circumvents the city or by underground.  Vienna was a musical Mecca in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.  There is the beautiful opera house, which was partially destroyed in WWII.  I could not attend a performance; therefore, I went on a scheduled tour.  

I must just mention two beautiful palaces: The Hofburg Palace and museum and the Schonbrunn Palace.  The latter is easily reached via underground.  It was built mid 1700s.  Both the palace and the grounds were just amazing.  The palace is huge with over 1,000 rooms.  I visited all 40 rooms that are open to the public using an excellent audio guide.

It has a fabulous ancient musical instruments collection.  The musical instruments were arranged by time periods.  The Mozart room housed the instruments from his time, the Beethoven room instruments from his time etc.  There were lots of harpsichords, clavichords and pianos.  There were also many harps.  The 18^th C was a period of great experimentation with different musical instruments.  The museum had an acoustical guide so we could listen to some of those rare instruments.

The four-city tour was just perfect.  Krakow was the smallest and therefore cozy.  Prague is the most beautiful with Vienna a close second.  Budapest had the hot baths and the beautiful synagogue experience. They complimented each other.

Final comments: 

1. After an overnight flight, hire someone to pick you up at the airport. We tried to save money and take a local bus in Krakow.  It was stressful because we didn’t know where to get off.
2. Small European cities are easy to get around – no need for a guide except for specific venues.
3. Do some research on what is available – I would have liked to see a Lipizza horse show, but I would have needed to get tickets in advance.