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The Baltics, Poland and Vienna 2019
September 4, 2019
Tonight we fly to Tallinn, Estonia through Warsaw from Chicago. My traveling companion is Tom Klug and this trip is his first to Europe. He has hunted South Africa seven times and been to Asia five. Normally, Paris, London or Rome are the typical first visits to Europe. So this is a bit unusual, but then again, so is Tom...but in a good way.
September 5, 2019
Tallinn (rhymes with Stalin) is the capital of Estonia. It is approximately 50 miles south across the Gulf of Finland from Helsinki. My impression of the Baltics before traveling there was they were all about the same. However, the history and culture of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are considerably different.
There are few things better when traveling a long distance than to be greeted at an airport by a driver with a friendly face and your name on a sign ready and willing to take you directly to the hotel. We are staying at the Hotel St. Petersbourg, a lovely place about 600 years old. Not too long ago this was a summer residence of the wife of the Soviet Union President, a gift from the Estonian people...gladly given I am sure.
Our location is in the Old Town about one block from the central square. It is a delightful surprise. Tom and I drifted throughout the old area and had dinner on the square. When you look in the dictionary under the word charm you will find a picture of this place.
September 6, 2019
Our guide for the day picked us up at 9:00 this morning. Another bright, cheerful sky. Into the 1200’s, both what is now Estonia and Latvia were pagan lands. Into that religious no man’s land rode the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. The membership of the order was comprised of German “warrior monks” intent on spreading Catholicism in the region. After a severe defeat in 1236, the surviving brothers were incorporated into the Order of Teutonic Knights and from that point onward they became known as the Livonian Order, hence the region’s name, Livonia.
Our first stop was Kadrioig Palace. This Baroque palace was built by Peter the Great for his wife, Catherine I, after his successful siege of Talliinn during the final phase of the Great Northern War in 1710. A lovely park surrounds the palace and the grounds include the Parliament building.
We drove through the outskirts of Tallinn stopping to visit the Olympic Center (used for the Yachting Regatta in 1980--the one the U.S. boycotted), St. Bridget’s Convent (at least the remaining ruins), and the Song Festival Grounds where every five years a 120 year-old Estonian song festival takes place (the outdoor amphitheater holds over 100,000 people).
September 7, 2019
This morning a private transfer was arranged for us. We are headed to Riga, Latvia. The countryside reminds us of central Wisconsin. Hardwoods and pines, some rolling hills. Very placid and peaceful. Along the way we stopped at Turaida Castle, complete with a local history museum.
This is our chance to experience a genuine whiff of the Middle Ages, a time of romantic legends, castles and heroic figures...all represented among the ruins of the 13th century Turaida Castle. Our guide works at the museum and was a fountain of information regarding the area centuries past.
Our hotel for the next two nights is the Grand Palace located in the cobble stoned 15th century old city of Riga. Latvia is another smaller country of approximately 2 million people of which one third live in this capital city. Like Tallinn, Riga’s medieval old town is designated a UNESCO World Heritage site. This afternoon we explored the extensive the old town area and had dinner at one of the many quaint restaurants located here.
One interesting thing we have noted on the menus is after each entree is described, there are a series of numbers. When we asked the waiter what the numbers were for, he showed us a grid on the back page which identified various food allergies. For example, 1 indicated the dish contained shellfish; 2 indicated peanuts, and so on. There were 20-25 numbers--great idea, easily understood.
September 8, 2019
Our guide today invited us to admire the most famous sights of Riga. It is Sunday. A perfect day to sightsee. There are very few people up and about this morning and almost no traffic.
In the middle ages, Riga had a mighty port and was a full-fledged member of the Hanseatic League, which was a confederation of merchant cities on the Baltic Sea in the Baltic region and northern Germany. The prosperity of the era can be seen in the small and Great Guild halls, as well as the House of the Blackheads (below).
From here we journeyed past the University building, National Opera , Academy of Arts and the central train station concluding with a walking tour of Old Town. Somewhat confusingly, there is Upper Old Town and a Lower New Town (both are centuries old) which at one time were separated by very large defensive wall. In the Upper Old Town we explored a fantastic Russian Orthodox Church. Breathtaking interior. Interestingly, the Russian churches are loaded with paintings, statues, icons, etc. all telling the story of the Bible and the characters and stories located therein. (I always found it interesting that the Second Vatican Council held from 1962-1965 by the Roman Catholic Church, whose intent was to create a spiritual renewal, decided to start removing such items).
It is overwhelmingly visual. In a period of time when few people could read or write, religious instruction was learned through the spoken word and images. Their mass service, or Divine Liturgy is a lengthy affair. I recall being in St. Petersburg and attending a portion of one. Typically, they last 3-4 hours. There are no chairs or pews so everyone stands the entire time. On holy days, the service extends an extra hour.
This city is a real treat for the eyes. Not only abounding in Medieval era buildings, a wide variety of styles--Romanticism, Gothic, Mannerism, Baroque, Eclectic, Modernism--are all represented here.
After our tour, Tom and I visited St. Peter’s Church which features the highest church tower in the city, with a viewing platform and meandered over to the exhaustive (and exhausting) outdoor shopping market. We took a self guided tour of the Riga History Museum and continued to drift around this wonderful walking city, had dinner and collapsed.
September 9, 2019
Took a car from Riga to Vilnius (vil’ noose), Lithuania driving through some beautiful countryside to visit Rundale Palace in the south of Latvia. Considered one of the best baroque structures in the country, it was built in the 1730’s as a summer residence for the Duke of Courland. The history is fascinating. After the Duchy was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1795, Catherine the Great presented the palace to the youngest brother of her then current lover. Napoleon used it as a hospital for his army. Germany occupied it during World War I. In 1919 it was heavily damaged during the Latvian War of Independence and was later used as a school and grain warehouse.
There is great renovation ongoing. It is a lovely place in a bucolic setting. Latvians are rightly proud and Rundale is a top visitor attraction. The Italian architect, Rastrelli, designed the palace. He also was the creator of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg and the exquisite Catherine the Great Palace in Tsarskoye Selo.
From here we drove into Lithuania to the Hill of Crosses where hundreds of thousands of crosses have been placed near the small city of Saiuliai in northern Lithuania. This area was occupied by the Teutonic Knights during the 14th century. The tradition of placing crosses dates from this period and probably first arose as a symbol of Lithuanian defiance of foreign invaders. Over the centuries the hill was repeatedly leveled. Each time local residents and pilgrims replaced the crosses and rebuilt the hill.
During the Soviet era, the pilgrimage to the Hill of Crosses served as a vital expression of Lithuanian nationalism. Pope John Paul II visited here in September of 1993.
As has been the case in Estonia and Latvia, our hotel in Vilnius was located in the center of Old Town. Another perfect spot. After checking in, we walked the area. There is no central square here and the ambience is not nearly as quaint as Tallinn or Riga.
September 10, 2019
Our tour today started at Vilnius Cathedral which is located near the base of a sudden rock outcropping on the top of which stands the old fortress with its commanding view of everything. We drove the outskirts of the city and as we entered the Old Town area we walked past five different religious denomination churches within a three block area. Religious tolerance has long been a hallmark of Lithuania.
The country has a very different culture than Estonia and Latvia. There is a more pronounced Polish influence. The Polish-Lithuanian Union lasted from 1385-1561 and was quite the regional powerhouse, a bulwark protecting northern Europe from the Mongol-Tartar hordes in the east. The influence of Germany and Russia is also pronounced.
On our own, we walked outside the Old Town past a building once occupied by the Gestapo and later by the Russian KGB. Movingly, there are names of murdered Lithuanians carved into a row of bricks on the building’s front side along with stories of heroic resistance to the fight for independence from Soviet occupation.
The weather has been splendid, almost always a mix of sun and white clouds with temperatures in the low 70’s.
September 11, 2019
Today is the first of three straight days which demand quite an assault on our beauty sleep. Very early wake ups. We flew to Warsaw early this morning and are staying on the square directly across from the Royal Castle which served as the official residence of the Polish monarchs throughout the centuries.
We were granted an early check in at 11:00 and immediately boarded an hop-on hop-off open air tour bus for an overview and orientation to Warsaw. It is a beautiful city. Construction is everywhere. We have never seen so many building cranes. Literally, there are hundreds. They hover over everything.
There is a freshness and vitality that is palpable. Everything has been rebuilt since World War II and now they are rebuilding the rebuilt. In 1939, there were 1.3 million residents living in Warsaw. By 1945, there were less than one thousand. In retribution for an indigenous uprising in August, 1944, Hitler ordered the city to be destroyed--and it was--completely. The destruction exceeded Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined.
At that time, Russian troops were perched across the river while this slaughter was going on and, combined with Soviet occupation after the war, there is a great deal of animosity that exists toward the Soviets to this day.
After dinner on an inner square, we attended a delightful Chopin piano recital. The Poles are very proud of their genius native son. His early teacher quit when Chopin was 6, saying the pupil had already passed the master. Fryderyk Chopin lived from 1810-1849.
September 12, 2019
The Warsaw Uprising Museum is a must see. It commemorates the two months when Warsaw’s population attempted to throw off the Nazi yoke. Legendary tales of heroism are treasured and retold, but in the end, it led to the annihilation of 200,000 people and the obliteration of the city. Very moving.
We slowly finished our trek back to Old Town with sore feet but a real sense of satisfaction. Great day. This city of 2 million (Poland counts 40 million) is a must see.
September 13, 2019
We woke at 4:00 for an early morning train to Krakow. We left our luggage at the hotel which was a five minute walk to the Main Market Square of Old Town. This city of 800,000 was as fortunate regarding devastation during World War II as Warsaw was not.
The city dates back to the 7th century and was the capital of Poland from 1038-1596.
This morning we took a golf cart tour of the Old Town environs. We had a very chatty and knowledgeable driver/guide. Prior to the royal licensing for the central square, there were three existing structures: a narrow, square based town hall with its soaring spire, the 1000 year old St. Adalbert Church and the Cloth Hall, a lovely Renaissance style structure, once the center of trade. It now houses shops offering Polish made handicrafts.
Our guide took us past St. Francis Basilica, home of Pope John Paul II when he was archbishop of Krakow. Then onto the old Jewish Quarter, once home to 75,000 Jews; now 300 still live there. All that remains are a number of buildings and a cemetery from that once robust community. Oscar Shindler’s factory, made famous in Steven Spielberg’s movie, “Shindler’s List,” is nearby.
We walked the Royal Route from the north end of the Old Town, entering through St. Florian’s Gate, the main entryway of the protective rampart around Krakow. It continues all the way south to Wawel Hill where the old royal residence, Wawel Castle, is located. This is another 30,000 step walking day, and well worth it.
Dinner on the Square, with violin music in the background and the clip clop of horse hooves on the cobblestones, buildings all aglow--this is a marvelous place.
September 14, 2019
Another early rise day. This time to catch our bus for a tour of Auschwitz, perhaps the most infamous of the Nazi concentration camps. It is difficult to describe the overwhelming sadness you feel when standing in an area where more than 1,000,000 people were destroyed. We had a wonderful guide, compassionate and knowledgeable.
The brick buildings of this camp are still intact, as much a memorial as a museum. I was surprised by the setting that is Auschwitz. Upon entering, there is an electrified barbed wire fence but once inside, the wide streets are lined with trees which surround a number of attractive, 2-story brick buildings, called Blocks. One visitor said it almost looked like a college campus.
However, as we proceeded through them, the stark reality was quite something else. Along with the narrative of our guide, there were a great many blown up photographs of what took place at the camp, from the process of entering to the treatment inside.
Several of the blocks have been converted from barracks into museum rooms with glass display cases. In one, there are over 43,000 shoes, mostly women’s and children’s, now mostly the same dark gray color except for a few made of red leather.
There is a large display in Block 5, taking up half of a barracks room containing suitcases brought by Jewish victims to the camp. The Jews were instructed to mark their suitcases for later identification; you can still see the names written on the leather cases in large letters.
Another display is filled with the artificial legs and crutches brought to the Auschwitz-Birkenau camps by incoming prisoners. There are rooms with displays holding reading glasses by the thousands; rooms with cases holding only combs or shaving brushes or clothing, or dishes, pots, etc.
One case is filled with hair cut from the heads of an estimated 140,000 victims. The hair appears to be deteriorating badly, and most of it has turned the same shade of dark gray. It is a sight difficult to forget. And, this represents but a fraction of the people who were brought here.
Our last stop here, outside the barbed wire, was the gas chamber and crematorium. Three kilometers away is the murder camp of Birkenau, seven times the size of Auschwitz. Complete with a more extensive killing machine, the gas chambers and crematorium are considerably larger. This part of the overall complex held more than 100,000 prisoners at any one time.
Perhaps for one country the reason is to never forget and for the other, always to remember.
This has been a very sobering day.
Today was a study of contrasts: the beast of Auschwitz and the beauty of classical music. Human drama in the extreme, for sure. Krakow is a must visit.
September 15, 2019
Another early start for our flight to Vienna. We started by taking a hop-on, hop-off bus around the outer ring (Ringstrasse). This circular grand boulevard serves as a ring road around the historic Innere Stadt district of Vienna. The road is located on sites where medieval city fortifications once stood, including high walls and the broad open field ramparts. The city walls had been built during the 13th century and were funded by the ransom payment derived by the release of Richard the Lion Heart, Richard I of England. They were eventually considered obsolete and in 1857 decreed to be demolished by order of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
The Ringstrasse and the planned buildings were intended to be a showcase for the grandeur and glory of the Hapsburg Empire. It is that, indeed. The Vienna State Opera, Town Hall, Austrian Parliament, Palace of Justice, Academy of Fine Arts, University of Vienna and many other public buildings, museums and palaces adorn this magnificent 5.3 kilometer road.
We got off at The Hofburg, former principal imperial palace of the Hapsburg dynasty rulers, and drifted through its myriad of buildings on our way to Stephansplatz, the main city square. It is pedestrian only (except early in the mornings) and a hubbub of activity. We walked to Stadt Park and bought concert tickets for tomorrow night. Grabbed the metro and collapsed at the hotel. Another splendid day.
September 16, 2019
The nearby train station has a stop at Schonbrunn Palace, summer residence of the Hapsburgs, and we arrived with time to spare for our 10:00 tour. Once again, our guide was a blessing--enthusiastic with a wealth of information.
There are 40 furnished rooms on this tour. The exterior is currently the color of classic Hapsburg yellow, kind of the official color of the dynasty. However, the original color was pink, as were many items in the palace during the reign of Maria Theresa (1740-1780). She transformed Schonbrunn from a small hunting lodge into the 1441 room Rococo masterpiece it is today. Everything in the palace was selected by her. Its opulence compares on only a slightly lesser scale to Versailles. Only here, everything that is seen is original, as compared to Versailles where most of the furnishings were stolen or destroyed by the mob during the French Revolution.
Schonbrunn was built about 80 years after Louis XIV started to build Versailles. However, they did share the same landscape architect and both gardens are magnificent.
Maria married for love, not politics, most unusual for the time. She and her husband, Francis I, had 16 children. For those royals a staff of 1800 was needed. The rooms are sumptuous. After passing through a drawing room, we enter the Great Gallery, once home to glittering Imperial banquets held under the ornate ceiling paintings.
As a side note, during World War II, a bomb pierced this ceiling causing considerable damage (during the war, about 20% of Vienna was damaged or destroyed, mostly south of the city where the factories and transportation centers were located). There is a slight color variation to the ceiling as a result.
Each room on the tour is a masterpiece. Maria Theresa was very particular. When life in the palace became too hectic, she ordered the building of the Gloriette.
Situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the gardens and the palace itself, it was here she could have her boiled egg breakfast away from the crowd. Maria Theresa was the only female ruler of the Hapsburg Empire. Unlike the Russian, German and Ottoman Empires, this one simply disintegrated and went quietly into the night after World War I.
Tonight we attended a wonderful Strauss concert at the Kusalon, a music hall in Stadtpark.
September 17, 2019
First thing this morning we are off to watch a morning practice session at the Spanish Riding School in Hofburg Palace. Founded in 1735 and named after the Spanish wing of the Hapsburgs, it is dedicated to the preservation of classical dressage and the training of Lipizzaner horses. The arena itself is a masterpiece of Baroque design.
A sell out crowd expected a bit more than it received. We had hoped to see the jumps and “airs” for which the Lipizzaners are famous. Instead, it was basically a light work out for horses and riders consisting of not much more than a little walking and trotting.
Oh well. From here we wanted to explore the highlights of the extensive palace grounds. Some parts were closed for renovation. Surprisingly, there was no museum devoted to the Hapsburg Empire. Nothing. Very weird. And, the Vienna City Museum was closed. All very disappointing.
Somewhat to Tom’s chagrin, we walked back to the Ringstrasse. I wanted to find the Ephrussi Palace. It was the largest in Vienna and home to the family made famous in the marvelous book, The Hare With Amber Eyes. The Jewish family was made an offer when the Nazis took over--give us everything you own and we will let you leave the country. The other choice was less desirable.
However, we strolled back to the heart of the central city and drifted around stopping to listen to an organ recital at the magnificent Old St. Peter Church.
Tonight, we had dinner at Cafe Schwarzenberg, the oldest cafe on the Ringstrasse. Later, we journeyed back to the 18th century attending a concert at the Musikverein. The 30 musicians of the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, along with opera singers and soloists, all dressed in historical costumes and wigs, created an evening of wonderful sound in this magnificent venue.
September 18, 2019
And so it ends. Flights from Vienna to Warsaw and then on to Chicago. Not many people we know have been to the Baltics, but we both highly recommend they put it on their list. Poland was a surprise to us. The sights and the people are worth more time than we had. And, of course, Vienna is Vienna, a must visit place.