We traveled to Graz. I was keen to go on the railway journey after watching "The Man in Seat 61," a British travel show about train travel. The Traveler had praised this scenic journey and it was well worth it as we traveled through the Semmering Pass, a natural border that connects Austria and Styria. We drove through foothills in the Styrian valley and through the alps. We went through tunnels cut through huge mountains and over viaducts. We passed villages built on the sides of mountains. The vistas we looked out on were dazzling.
We passed through the Village of Semmering and saw this monument.
We liked our hotel in Graz with the friendly young women from Bucharest, Rumania working there. The bath was in the middle of the room, strange but fine!
A cozy lobby with an old press in the center.
Graz is the second largest city in Austria, a kind of resort place for the Viennese, and known for its delicious food and wine. It is full of both old and new and well worth the trip!
Ad for that delicious beer lemonade mix that is so refreshing.
The city has old juxtaposed with the new.
Below is the Kunsthaus Gaz, the Contemporary Art Museum
Lots of beautiful galleries to peer into.
Interesting shops to visit.
I would have liked to have my hair done in here!
A wonderful farmers market smack in mid town.
And here we found Edelweiss in bloom!
The Mur runs through Graz and there are several bridges crossing it. Here is one featuring the Murinsel, a trendy cafe.
Interesting graffiti
Lots of cafes and this one featured tiny sociable birds.
The Schlossberg is a tree clad hill in mid city where a castle once perched.
During WWII a network of tunnels were used by citizens to be safe from aerial bombing. After the war the hill was developed into a huge park.
We walked up 260 steep steps to the top with rest stops and lovely views all around us.
A bank of roses
And the rooftops of Graz
And at the top were many walks and cafes and sites to see, even trains running through the tunnels.
A theatre with Cyrano playing!
Inside the interesting theatre
AAnd up above, a sky bar
In one area, we could look in all directions and see where we were in relation to the rest of the world. We realized that we could look out in one direction and see both Slovakia and Slovenia, the countries of our "so-called" President's Wives #1 and #2!
Seeing this bank of Daylillies made me somewhat homesick--I wondered if mine were in bloom.
We opted for the funicular to go down, kinda scary as it goes straight down.
We enjoyed good Styrian food and wine. One evening a stout well-dressed man sitting next to us in a local restaurant began a conversation. A well-traveled business man, he had even been to a conference in Columbia many years ago. He has two homes-- one in Vienna and one in Chili, his wife's home. He loves Graz and hopes to buy a retirement home here.
He likes our President and thinks he is right to keep immigrants out. He is fearful of Muslims and reminded us of the time when Muslims tried to invade Europe and Jan Sobieski, the Savior of Christendom, pushed them back (that was in 1683!).
We returned to Vienna and boarded another train that took us all the way to Warsaw. We were eager to spend one night there to see the new Museum of Jewish History.
We had good adventures on this train. On the way we met an older man with long grey hair dressed in grungy black leather. His English was passable. He watched me working my iPad and told me to google "Robert Oswald escape." I did and we realized we were looking at a man who had made an impossible, daring escape from Communist Czechoslovakia to Austria in 1986 by using power lines to travel on through the sky! It is an amazing story and he was interesting and very kind. He helped us to transfer our bags to another train.
Lunch in the Czech Republic
Always interesting and varying landscapes to look at....
I loved seeing the red poppies in bloom!
Students on field trips are always fun to watch!
Nice seeing the names of towns as we passed through!
We had other adventures that day. We were kicked out of our nice compartment by a family who had reserved seats. An attractive young conductor helped us find seats and move our luggage to a first class compartment. We had to pay extra.
There we had a fascinating conversation with a handsome blue eyed young man, an ex volley ball player for Poland. His wife still is and is training for Olympics! He told us that since tomorrow was Corpus Christie Day that we would have trouble booking a train to Krakow and we should do it in the Warsawa Centralna when we got there. That was really helpful and we did.
We had a superb night in the Victoria Hotel--staying there brought back many wonderful memories (we stayed there in 1988-89 during our year in Krakow). We enjoyed dinner and then walked down Nowy Swiat in Warsaw, bustling and all lit up and full of young people enjoying themselves.
The next morning we joined the throngs and were as amazed as we were in 1989 by the religious devotion and enthusiasm in Poland shown in the Corpus Christie parade. Unfortunately the Jewish Museum was closed because it was Corpus Christie Day and everything (even a Jewish museum!) closed.
I loved seeing this very tall nun in the procession and then later I found her standing next to me.
In 1989 while in Krakow, we had a special viewing place as Kevin's student had invited us to watch the Corpus Christie Parade from his family's elegant art-filled apartment. We had a great view looking down on the parade.
ILater, I enjoyed showing Kevin the marvelous University Library that is built with a green roof. Here is Kevin on the green roof with the Wisla in background!
And me walking through one of many covered paths.
Looking out over the lovely gardens!
One of many domes looking down into the library,
Like this....
And we had a nice walk around the old city so beautifully restored after beingcompletely destroyed by German bombs in WWII.
Polish posters are always so stylish!
There's Jan Sobieski in the middle of the square!
Then onto beautiful Krakow!
A nice lunch in the Rynek--the second largest square in Europe!
As always, Ania and Monica treated us to places we had never been and introduced us to Polish artists, such as
This was a lovely building
With history told in intriguing displays
We went to a lovely out door flower festival where Ania and Monica made flowers.
And had a delicious lunch in a garden.
We walked by our old digs on the top floor behind the statue of Ignacy Jan Paderewski--The building is named for him, Małe Paderevium.
I found this photo of our apt on the internet--lovely in the snow!
And we had a catching up and so much fun meal with Radek and Ramon!
An elegant tea party at Kaya's home.
Kaja loves her cat whose name I've forgotten.
And in Biskupice, Ania is obsessed with her kittens. I've forgotten their names but I call them Polka and Dots.
They are no so happy when she puts them in her studio.
Luna and Napo want to know what is going on!
Kevin is as usual fascinated with the robot mower that comes out everyday
To keep Ania's marvelous garden in good shape!
This photo is taken from her garden window and I use it on the title page of my blog. There used to be haystacks in the background. Now there is a new house right across the street from Ania. The neighborhood is developing.
Oh so lovely to be in Biscupice but another Mishap strikes.
On our last day, while wandering around our beloved Krakow, Kevin tumbled on a curb and fell on his knees. He jumped up and said it was nothing but a skinned knee. We returned to Biskupice for a nice dinner. Kevin's knee kept growing bigger and bigger until Ania decided it was time to take him to the emergency room so in her car we went and drove for a long time. The ER room was full and we went in and waited forever. Finally, and they said the wait was so long because they needed to get a specialist in who spoke English and this specialist was a terrific doctor! He understood the problem (the warfarin!) and fixed Kevin up. We returned home to Biscupice early in the morning. Then Ania and I spent time on the phone trying to figure out flights home. There was no way we could travel after having been up all night and Kevin could not bend his knee.
Eventually we managed to get first class to Amsterdam another day where we would stay one night; then first class to USA. And these were wonderful and comfortable flights.
Made even easier by wheelchair rides through the airports and Kevin's pain pills!
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