Category: Balkans 2023

The sun has set and our last night away sees us soaking in the view over the Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. Our last day before flying home is in London. We lived here in 1987 and it occupies a special place in our hearts. The preplanning had this as a shopping day but I suspect that my life partner has run out of room in our cases. Our finale for this holiday is atop the London Shard which has been built since Suzanne was last here 13 years ago. As the sun sets we enjoy some English bubbles 31 stories atop the Thames as one of the great cities on this planet lights up.

Suzanne was most put out that she did not receive an invite to QE 11’s funeral last year and was keen to pay her respects. After some initial persuasion she agrees to revisit Windsor castle that we last saw in 1987. A short half hour by train sees blue skies and wintersun and we revel in the beauty and majesty of this magnificent castle. Noone does castles quite as well as the English and the same goes for the high vaulted gothic cathedrals. St Georges’ chapel is the Windsor castle and is the burial place of Queen Elizabeth 11 as well as multiple other monarchs including the (in)famous Henry V111. Sadly photography is forbidden inside. Nonetheless I manage to sneak photos of the church. Unfortunately the crypt where QE 11 is buried is tucked away in a place where I am unable to successfully take an illegal photograph.

We round off the excursion with a traditional pub lunch at a 300 year old Windsor pub with a couple of pints of tepid British Ale!

PSS:

14th of November, a special day. You guessed it, King Charles birthday! It looks like my beloved didn’t get an invite to that bash either. So we are flying home and on the way, as best we can I will celebrate a much more important occasion, the birthday of my only love. Happy birthday darling!

It seems aeons ago that we drove through “off the beaten track” Romania, the tracking down of my birth place in Serbia and the excursions to Bosnia and Montengro. I have been away for long enough to have disengaged from the worries of work and home. They are as if it were another lifetime. T shirts and shorts under sunny skies have given way to thermal underwear rain and grey skies albeit with enough sunny spots to make for reasonable pictures. The sun now sets before 4:30pm and it is nighttime dark by 5pm.
The last few days are a concession to “she who must be obeyed”. The rental car is gone and we have 3 nights in Budapest which is one of Suzanne’s favourite cities and similarly a couple of nights in London. Suzanne fills the cases with souvenirs particularly embroidery in Budapest. I have booked multiple Michelin starred restaurants and a night at the Budapest opera indulging a particular passion of mine, Wagner. I drag my beloved to 5 hours of Die Valkyrie. She manages to stay awake for most of it and actually enjoys the musically brilliant last act. Win- win!

A wet Saturday morning in Budapest has us at one of Suzanne’s favourites Madame Tussauds.

Finally a wait in line in the wet for along lunch at, would you believe it in Budapest, the Baroque themed New York cafe. Touted as the most beautiful cafe in the world.

We also squeeze in a ride on the Ferris wheel.

And a visit to the Baroque St Stephen’s Basilica.

Our accommodation is the 5 star Gresham Palace opposite the famous Lanchid (Chain bridge) which we get great views of from our balcony.

Sixteen years ago a 2 week driving trip through Hungary morphed into a randow wander through Vienna, Prague and Bratislava as well as Hungary, of course. Vienna was dazzling but our time was spent in the historic centre and we did not have the opportunity to visit Schonbrunn castle on the outskirts of Vienna. I have managed to settle this unfinished business.
Built in the 17th century this Baroque masterpiece is inspired by Versailles. It has 1440 rooms of which 40 are open to the public. It was the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It was here that Mozart first performed as a child to Empress Maria Theresa. Napoleon held his war cabinet here. JFK met Kruschev there in 1962. The gardens, in season, are a work of art. Now as winter approaches the gardens are basic but the complex is majestic and beautiful.

Germany as a country is a relatively new construct. Historically the Holy Roman Empire secured an agreement with the various Teutonic kingdoms who came together regularly in Nuremberg to elect one of their number as ruler. That arrangement lasted 1000 years. The formation of Germany as a country dates to the late 1800s.
The southernmost “kingdom” was Bavaria and to this day Bavarians still regard themselves as something other than German. One of Europe’s most visited attractions is our first destination here. Neuschwanstein Castle south of Munich was the inspiration for Disney’s Sleeping Beauty Castle. It was built by King Ludwig 11 in the late 1800s in the Romantic style. He was inspired by composer Richard Wagner and his operas Tannhauser and Lohengrin and parts of the castle are modelled upon sets of those operas. He died before the castle was completed. Perched high up a mountain this doesn’t disappoint.

Munich is the capitol of Bavaria and our base for a variety of trips further north. It is a lively city with a pretty old city to enjoy. It is also the base of support and genesis of the NAZI party and Hitler so there is a darker side to it. The Germans here acknowledge that part of their history and memorialise it. Not with anything other than repulsion but it is history and did happen. Our role is not to whitewash history and pretend it didn’t happen. We must accept the past and learn from it so as not to make the same mistakes again. The Germans are certainly doing this with the Hitler past. We seem to be going the other way with woke and cancel culture where we refuse to listen to and acknowledge differing viewpoints.
Enjoy the pictures of this lovely city. It is a relaxed place with a great lifestyle. The food here is hearty and plentiful and the people love a beer. Not very healthy but a whole lot of fun!

“Nuremburg is the most German city” proclaimed Adolf Hitler. As the traditional seat of power and situated in the south of Germany near to his power base it was politically savvy to nail his colours to this city. Two years after coming to power he and his Nazi party constructed an amazing complex from which to stage the 1934 Nuremburg rally which was attended by 700,000 Nazi party members. The rallies had been held since 1923 but on a very small scale initially. The last rally was in 1938. The 1934 rally was filmed by the creative genius Leni Rieffenstal and produced as a propaganda film called Triumph of the Will. It is worth watching chunks of this to witness the mass of humanity that turns out, the incredible oratory of Hitler himself and the mesmerised look on the faces of the crowds. It is truly mind blowing to see the platform and the main stage intact and even more amazing to be able to freely wander up and stand where Hitler delivered his speech.

Nuremburg was formed in 1050 AD and became the seat of power for the assorted Germanic states in the 14th century. Throughout the middle ages and the Renaissance this was not just the economic and political capitol of Germany but also the intellectual and artistic centre. This is a beautiful city that fans out from the castle to old squares, medieval buildings and soaring gothic cathedrals making this a must see destination in Germany.

At the end of WW2 some 90% of Nuremberg was just rubble. The Allies targeted Nuremburg with aerial bombing as Hitler had earmarked the city as his spiritual home. Most of waht we see today is not ancient but reconstructed but wow, what a great job!
Postwar Nuremberg was chosen as the site for the court to try Nazis for war crimes and continues to do so to this day. A perfect bookend to the 1934 Nazi prewar rallies. Ironic!

Hitler and WW2 are writ large in Bavaria. Hitler’s home country of Austria is a stone’s throw away and the Nazi party genesis was in Munich the capitol of Bavaria. From 1928 to 1933, the Nazi party went from 2% electoral support to 40% enough to form coalition government and propel Adolf Hitler to the chancellorship. Two months after his election Hitler established Dachau as a concentration camp to inter his political rivals and to establish and fine tune his SS as one of the most sadistic and brutal police operations known.

Over the years leading up to WW2 Dachau imprisoned not only political rivals but also of course Jews, criminals, gypsys, communists, homosexuals, prostitutes and diseased and infirmed.

It was a prison work camp where the inmates were expected to work as slave labour. Of course torture, maltreatment, malnourishment and abuse was de riguer. As the first of a network of such prisons the death rate was high but it was from punishment, abuse and maltreatment. This was not an extermination camp such as Auschwitz in Poland.

When the Americans arrived in April 1945 the spectre of emaciated survivors was distressing to the GIs but not as much as the piles of bodies stacked as if they were firewood! While not as confronting as my experiences in Rwanda and the Cambodian killing fields this still provokes reflections upon mankind’s inhumanity to fellow humans.
Dachau was destroyed at the request of survivors in 1965 only to be rebuilt as a memorial to the victims of Nazi Germany. It is now an autumn leafy tree lined shrine. The suffering of those thousands under Hitler is a quiet remembrance. We all dedicate a minute of silence to those who perished here.

“Can I do a wine tasting” is met by a disappointing “No” and I am crestfallen. “But if you come back in an another hour, you can taste our full range and wines from all around Europe.” My eyes light up and then comes the most unusual addition, it’s free! I am there with bells on.

Liechtenstein is a tiny country sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. Only 25kms long it has a population of only 38,000. It is one of th more expensive destinations on the planet and one of it’s main “industries” is being a tax haven.
On the hilltop above Vaduz is the castle still occupied by the Prince of Liechtenstein. Unfortunately the photo opportunities are marred by renovation works.

The compact little old town is a pleasant stroll.
The outskirts of Vaduz is framed by the headwaters of the iconic Rhine River. Across the border is Switzerland.

We farewell beautiful Salzburg for the Tyrolean city of Innsbruck. The 2 hour drive actually takes us through Germany in part before turning back into this city in the heart of the Austrian Alps. The venue for the 1964 and 1976 winter Olympics, I should not have been surprised that this is a city rather than a smaller town which is what I imagined.
The Nordkette cable car is our first stop here and the two cars take us up above the snow line to 7400 feet above sea level. The skies are overcast and the wind howling cuts right through me as we walk outside reducing the ambient temperature to below zero. It is a struggle to get around and keep the hands and cameras functioning.

Nonetheless this is a white snowy wonderland with a birdseye view of the city below. Having had our fill of photos we thaw out and enjoy a hearty lunch with a view.
Down in Innsbruck we arrive with only a couple of hours of daylight left. The sun is now setting here at 4:30pm. As we set out to explore the old city a drizzle graduates to rain. The historic old town is small but surprisingly pretty and we do what we can dodging the rain and taking photos.

Our last stop is St Jakob’s Cathedral a beautiful 15th century church. As with so much throughout here and going up to Germany it sustained heavy damage from aircraft bombing at the end of WW2. The subsequent restoration is amazing as this is an impressive, authentic structure.

My life partner insists, we must go to Mondsee, so 3 hours driving in the solid rain gets us to a beautiful pale yellow Baroque Cathedral. The first movie I ever saw as a boy in a picture theatre was Sound of Music. It turns out that my wife and her mum fell in love with the movie and dreamt about visiting the countryside portrayed in the Oscar winning movie. This cathedral is where Maria marries von Trapp. It is ornate and beautiful and brings tears to her eyes as memories with her now deceased mum resurface.

Salzburg is only a short drive away. Apart from being fairytale beautiful it has two touristic themes, the Sound of Music movie and its most famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The latter was born here and spent his childhood here. By age 5 he was performing concerts for the public. At age 9 he was composing music. This musical genius had a flame that burned brightly until his premature death at age 35. My first port of call here is his birth house which is now a Mozart museum.

Beyond that this is an enchanting place with sparkling alleyways, an imposing hilltop castle and an array of stunning Baroque and gothic churches. Salzburg does not disappoint!

Mozart square

Quite a tongue twister the capitol of Slovenia, is a compact attractive little city. The old town now has a more Germanic architectural feel about it. The main Preseren square is named after Slovenia’s national poet. The large grey Viennese style town hall contrasts with the salmon pink Baroque Church of the Annunciation. Further on the main Cathedral of St Nicholas is a masterpiece of gothic art. Beautiful winding alleyways make this a lovely place to spend some time wandering.

The small river Ljubljana winds its way through the town. The pretty bridges spanning the river feature the unique triple bridge which comprises three separate bridges side by side.

Further downstream is the Dragon bridge. Built in 1901 it was at the time the world’s longest single span bridge. It is adorned with four dragons, the symbol of this city. Legend has it that Jason and the Argonauts killed a dragon here and established the city.

Overlooking all of the town is the Ljubljana castle. Commenced in the 11th century it affords a beautiful view of the rooftops of the old city.