Warsaw to the outskirts of Vienna

Our first stop for two nights, after leaving Berlin, was Warsaw.

This city was heavily damaged during WW II, and it has been carefully rebuilt to look exactly as it did before the bombings.

To me this looks like a movie set, but it's real.

One afternoon the two of us found a cozy little restaurant just outside the city's center and filled ourselves with delicious pierogis.

A side street in Warsaw

School children on a field trip, Warsaw. Childen on a field trip look pretty much the same, regardless of the country, don't they?

On our way to Krakow, we stopped at Auschwitz. This was a startling, disturbing visit, but I'm glad to have seen remnants of the horror with my own eyes.

For instance, this is a bin, a huge bin, filled with the tiny shoes of little children brought to Auschwitz with their parents...and killed.

It was a relief to leave Auschwitz and get to our destination, Krakow. The city's market area, only a few steps from our hotel, is beautiful at night.

The next evening we went to a restaurant in the countryside for a delicious dinner and lively Polish folk music and dancing. The band members are all of the same family, from mother to daughters to grandchildren.

Now on to Budapest. One morning we went to the top of Castle Hill, which gave us a panoramic view of the Danube and the parliament building. Budapest is divided by the Danube into the "Buda" and the "Pest" sides of the city.

We took an optional excursion while in Budapest to Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. This city is known for its lovely needlework. I loved this place and oogled much delicate needlework artistry.

Here we enjoyed another dinner, this one Hungarian and, of course, some Hungarian music and dancing.

Now it was time to move on to Austria. This was the southernmost stop on our tour and, ironically, the windiest and coldest!

We were surprised to see miles and miles of wind turbines dotting the landscape. Here in Maine, a hillside with 10 or 15 turbines creates a major stir among the locals. In Austria, apparently, this form of electric power production is more accepted.