Vienna : The Gates of Europe

The Great Austrian city of Vienna sits at the edge of the Western world and guards its gates like a sentinel. It defended Europe against the aggressive forces from the east and protected the great values and ethics of the Western world. First the Mongols and then the Turks knocked the 'Gates of Vienna', however the city stood firm and repelled them. It is to this great city that i travel to on my sojourn through Europe.

June 5, 2011, Sunday

Europe for centuries has been eyed by the marauding forces from the middle east particularly who were zestful for the spread of their religion. At first the great gateway to Europe opened through the strait of Gibraltar from where the Arabs entered Spain and even as their pan-European conquest failed they did rule Spain for almost 700 years. The next great conquest came during the 16th Century and this time the attack came from the Ottoman Turks who unlike the Arabs took the back door route to Europe and attacked through Eastern Europe which they controlled by then.

It was the summer of 1683 and the Great cathedral of St.Stephan's in the middle of the city resounded with bells asking the Christian world to defend itself against the Muslim invaders. As battle resumed the gates of Vienna held strong and in what turned out to be a turning point in history the Turks were defeated and the West was saved. Even after more than three centuries after this siege the historic value of that victory has not dimmed. Just imagine a counter-factual, what if the Turks had won. There would be Islamic rule over most of Europe, no enlightenment of western values, no rise of science, post-renaissance art would have been severely hit owing to strict Islamic scriptures, no democracy as we know it today and Europe surely would have been plunged into the morass that the middle east has now come to become. Its almost mind numbing to think of even one of these possibilities. If ever there was a battle for the future of humanity, this was it, and thankfully for the world the West won!

As i was going through the above train of thoughts the bus finally arrived in Vienna. I had not had even a wink of sleep and was pretty tired and the body almost refused to collaborate. However the sight of the city had the desired effect as i was now driven by the adrenalin rush and now i knew i would not feel even an ounce of tiredness, the mind had taken over the body!

Vienna has a pretty compact city center , called the Inner Stadt. At once i made my way to the center of the city and to St.Stephan's Cathedral. Its the tallest building in the city and its spire can be seen from almost any part of the city. Dedicated to St.Stephan its one of the great churches of Europe dating back to the 12th century and built in a Romanesque and Gothic fashion. What gives it a distinct appearance though is the row of colorful ceramic tiles that adorn its roof. The tiles shined in the bright sunshine and were a picture to remember. The insides too were magnificent and as it was a Sunday the mass was underway. I was curious though to see a chapel dedicated to the late pope Jone Paul II and i came to know that he actually served as the Arch bishop of Vienna before he became the pope.

The church sits in the middle an eponymous square called Stephansplatz and numerous streets radiate from it into the rest of the Inner city. But i was personally interested in one particular street called the Domgasse - literally the 'Church street'. The reason was that this was where the greatest musician of the Western world stayed! Yes, Mozart stayed in one of the houses in this street for a period of four years. The house has since been converted into a museum and is a must visit for any lover of Western classical music. As i approached the Mozarthaus i was gripped with the memory of the great artist and felt as though i was on haloed turf. This was the place i thought where the genius would have composed some of his great operas and compositions. Just to walk on the same street and breathing the same air as the great man was an exhilarating experience for a mere mortal like me. I was one lucky guy i complemented myself!

Then i wondered through some of the other streets of the inner stadt which looked like a bigger replica of Prague old town actually. The streets in the inner stadt and their houses are still the same as they were centuries ago and walking through them was a great joy. Then i came to one of the oldest squares in Vienna - the Graban. Its a square lined with various famous fashion boutiques and at its center it has the plague column. It was a remarkable baroque column with various saints and angels and the holy ghost standing on top. Looking at that one could sense how much of an impact the plague had not just in Vienna but around Europe. Millions of people perished in a short time and i am sure its end must have brought great joy to the Viennese who built this magnificent column.

A short distance from the Graban is the Hofburg Palace, the official residence of the Hapsburgs who had quite a few palaces here but the Hofburg was their central base. The Hapsburg palaces in Budapest and Prague were just an appetizer i thought to myself as this was the real deal! Vienna was of course not just the Capital of the Hapsburg's Austro-Hungarian Empire but also of the Holy Roman Empire which the Hapsburgs came to rule as well. The Holy Roman Empire was sort of a phantom empire that hovered over Europe right from the fall of Rome till about early 19th century when at last Napoleon laid it to rest for good. It was ruled at various times by various empires of Europe usually by the one who was the most powerful and subsequently the Hapsburgs inherited it as well and became the Holy Roman Emperors and Vienna its capital. I think it was Voltaire who once famously said about the Holy Roman empire that it was neither holy,nor roman , nor an Empire. He was right as always!

My Walk ended at the great entrance of the Hofburg palace which was in pristine white color. Colossal statues of sinewy giants hammering mortals adorned the entrance way. The entrance was also winged by two magnificent fountains containing statues from mythology. There was also a church opposite to the entrance way. What an entrance i gasped. As i stepped inside the Palace i was transported back to the age of the great empire. Statues of myths in pure white marble flanked me as i saw horse carriages galloping with bewildered tourists on board even as men dressed in royal robes welcomed the visitors. Soon i am at the Josefsplatz named after the great king Franz Josef. It had the statue of the equestrian king in the middle surrounded by various other buildings of the palace. From here there was the entrance to the famous Swizz court which had a magnificent red and black Swiss gate that led me into the Schatzkammer or the Imperial treasury. Why was it called 'Swizz' court i wondered, maybe it could be because the Hapsburgs originally were from a small village in Switzerland so maybe it was in memory of that.

I had heard a lot about the Hofburg treasury and how it rivaled and in fact bettered the British treasury and i was looking forward to seeing it. And i was not disappointed as it was simply magnificent. Rooms upon rooms were filled with the Hapsburg riches. The most famous of them all was the Hapsburg crown jewels which was a real eyeful with its crown of gold and embedded precious gems along with the orb and scepter all in gold of course. A painting beside it of the king wearing them from the 19the century just showed how old it was. Also present was the royal gown which was red in color and looked very royal. In another room a cradle was present which i got to know was the cradle of Napoleon's son, this was here as Napoleon married a Hapsburg princess as part of a political deal and their son would have nothing short of a royal cradle. There was even a crown going back to the time of Charlemagne which is like a thousand years ago. The treasury was putting out a real show i thought to myself. There were several rooms that housed the treasures the Hapsburgs collected from around the world including clocks, lamps, table pieces etc. One item though caught my attention, there was a mantle piece that contained apparently one of the nails used to crucify Christ, that was truly amazing! As i exited the treasury i was in a daze and wondered if any other treasury in the world could compete with this level of richness!

Still dizzy from the royal treasury i moved to the historic Heldenplatz or the Hero's square, the most famous square of the Hofburg palace. At one end is the magnificent Neueberg palace and at the other end is the Volksgarten or the People's park. It was at this very place on top of the Neueberg that a jubilant Hitler amidst a roaring crowd below on the square announced the beginning of his 1000-year lasting third Reich. The Neueberg which means the 'New building' itself is a piece of supreme art. Its a magnificent neo-classical building with a curved arcade of pillars and arches. The whole concavity of the building is a sight to behold. It has an equestrian statue of Prince Eugene who stopped the Turks. Inside the Neueberg there was a wonderful exhibition about the Greek city of Ephesus, however more wonderful than that was the interior architecture of the building which was a sheer joy to behold. To just imagine that Hitler was inside this building and walking the stairs that i was during the heady days of the war gave goosebumps to me. Finally after what seemed like eternity i was out of Heldenplatz and the Hofburg palace. It was a heady experience and the sheer richness combined with the history of the place was overwhelming. No wonder they called Vienna a royal city!

The Hofburg palace exits into the famed Ringstrasse or the ring road that runs around the city. Right across the ringstrasse are two magnificent , large identical buildings on either side with the statue of the queen Maria Theresa in the middle. This is the Maria-Theresien-platz and the buildings on either side are the Kunsthistorisches museum and the Natural history museum and i headed straight to the former. The Kunsthistorisches museum or the art history museum is one of the great museums of the world. The entire collection here is compiled by the Hapsburgs so you could say that it was their personal art gallery and considering that they ruled a vast empire for a long period of time it is one very rich collection. The building itself is magnificent and it has some great works of art from around the world with the Italian collection being particularly strong.

As i entered the Kunsthistorisches museum the first thing i noticed was the grand entrance. It consisted of a staircase with a magnificent statue of Cannova at the head of it. Cannova was a great Italian sculptor of the baroque era and he sculpted this piece which had the great Greek hero Theseus slaying a centaur. It was one of the best statues i had ever seen and it was very detailed in its portrayal of the moment, so much so that one could almost feel that the figures were in flesh and not in stone. It was apparently commissioned by Napoleon to go at a square in Milan but with Napoleon's defeat it never went there and instead the Hapsburgs purchased it and had it at their museum. Apart from the statue at the head of the staircase what caught your attention was the ceiling. The ceiling was painted with various figures of renaissance art including Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci who were immersed in a discussion. The painting looked almost three dimensional as i could feel their presence. It was a great entrance to the museum and the best museum entrance in the world perhaps after the Louvre entrance which in fact it reminded me of very much.

Once inside i was really impressed by the collections. Although not as extensive as some of the other museums i have visited it was high on quality. The Egyptian section is particularly good and once inside the Egyptian rooms you almost felt you are inside Egypt. However the real highlight of the museum was the Italian section. The section is organized by painters and each room leaves you mesmerized. It amazes me as to what made the Italians so artistic, every museum you go around the world it invariably has a great Italian collection for sure. Here too various Italian artists like Titian, Caravaggio, Leonardo,Raphael and others adorned the walls. I liked the paintings where these masters combined Christian figures with figures from Greek mythology and it was fascinating to see the interaction of these two great periods on canvas. Also amazing was the Dutch painting section especially that of the dutch master Breugel which was different than the Italian in that it was less religious and more secular, hence it had beautiful landscapes and paintings of common folk at work. Apart from these there was a great Greek collection which was impressive too. The interior of the museum too was a work of art with amazing richness and color and beauty. All in all it was a great museum experience and i would have stayed there for longer but was forced to leave as it was closing time!

A short walk from the museum brought me to the Burggarten which is one of the bests parks in Vienna and most importantly has the Mozart memorial. Mozart was born in Salzburg and emerged as a child prodigy with an amazing talent for classical music. However Salzburg was too small for his talent and he had to move to Vienna where he impressed the then queen Maria Theresa so much that he became a court regular. He spent much of his life in Vienna and composed some of the great classical pieces of all time before he died an untimely death at the age of 35. The Viennese had taken him to their hearts and even as his operas resonated throughout the city decided to build a memorial for him in this park.

The memorial was truly spectacular. It showed Mozart in the middle of his moment, with one arm reluctantly placed on his music notes while the other swirls in the air , his head slightly tilted upwards as if he has just thought of a tune. Truly amazing spectacle. As i gazed at the man i can almost hear his tune in my ears which seem to drown the cacophony of the outside world. Only his tune seems to be entering my mind at that moment and i am transported back to the royal courts as Mozart is delivering his masterpieces to the awestruck audiences. What a moment!

Even as Mozart lingers in my ears i exit and make my way along the Ringstrasse. First came the Staatsoper or the State Opera and with Vienna being the center of western classical music it seemed befitting the great city. A short metro ride from the opera brought me to the magnificent Charles' Church , a great baroque church built on the lines of Borromini's St.Agnes in Agony church at Piazza Navona in Rome. I had seen the original when i had been to Rome and this one almost matched up to it. It also departed from the original by having Romanesque columns on either sides which was a nice touch i thought.

I was back on the Ringstrasse again and the great road took me to the Vienna Rathaus or Town hall. It was a colossal building but it was surpassed by the graceful Vienna Burgtheatre across it. The Burgthreatre is another tribute to Vienna's great love affair with the arts. Public places like this and the opera and town hall show that the Hapsburgs did indeed do something for the people other than indulging themselves with pleasure. Even though royalty is an abhorrence one has to give it to them when one sees such public buildings and support of the arts.

Right next to the Rathaus is the Austrian parliament. This was the final attraction of the day and what a finale it was. I have seen a lot of parliament buildings right from the Reichstag in Berlin to the French parliament in Paris but this topped them all. It was built like classical Greek temple with a magnificent fountain of Athena in the front. It was a heartfelt tribute by the Austrian people to the 'Cradle of Democracy' Greece. In fact for a moment i thought i was back in ancient Greece , it was so convincing. The magnificent building stood majestically and was flanked on the sides by bronze statues of taming horseman. The Pièce de résistance was surely the fountain of Athena. Athena the Goddess of wisdom stood on a pillar in full armor with a gilded helmet with a spear in the left hand and carrying Nike, the goddess of victory in the right hand. A subtle allegory that wisdom carries victory! Athena was flanked by four allegorical figures, two in front and two at the back representing the four great rivers of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Little cupids riding dolphins completed the awesome setting. The ramp way to the main building were filled with statues of great Austrians. The ramp leads to the main building which is filled with paintings and statues from the Greek myths expounding civic virtues and patriotism. I wondered what more treasures could be hidden within its walls and felt jealous of the Austrian parliamentarians who went to work in such a beautiful building. If only my office could have been half as grand as this i muttered to myself!

The whole day had been one dream after another and i was overwhelmed by Vienna. One more day remained in this great city and i was already looking forward to it!

June 6, 2011, Monday

It was a new day and the sun shone brightly on the great city. Vienna is famous for bakeries and bread in general and while having breakfast that morning i happened to look at a croissant in one of the many bakeries. The croissant again took me back to the siege of Vienna. Legend goes that as the Turks laid siege to Vienna they decided to attack in the early hours of the morning hoping to catch the Viennese off guard. However their plan was thwarted when the bakers of the city who were up early that morning found the Turks creeping under the city and informed the Viennese army who spoiled the Turkish attack and saved the city. In celebration of this event the bakers prepared a sweet bread in the shape of the Crescent they saw on Turkish flags and this sweet bread became popular over time and reached France and became known world-wide as the Croissant, which was French for crescent. History truly is fascinating!

Vienna as the world knows is a royal city and based on yesterday's evidence was a pretty serious royal city. The legacy that the Hapsburgs have left behind is pretty amazing with all their palaces. Hofburg was not the only palace they had in Vienna, in fact it was only their winter residence. They actually 'summered' in a grand palace outside the city called the Schönbrunn palace.

The Schönnbrunn (meaning 'beautiful spring') palace is one of Europe's most grandiose palaces and among palaces only Schönbrunn rivals Versailles. As one approaches the palace the first noticeable thing is the unique color. In the beginning the palace had a strictly grey exterior however with the coming of the baroque age the color was changed to a shade of yellow. It wasn't quite yellow nor was it orange it was a shade in between and from that day onwards it was and still called 'Schönbrunn yellow'! The weather too was perfect and the palace shone in the morning sun shine.

While much of the exterior is in Baroque the preferred style of the divine monarchs of the 17th century the interior is in Rococo - the more 'frillier' let-them-eat-cake style that followed. The interiors were done during the time of the Empress Maria Theresa who was the only woman monarch of the Hapsburgs. She seemed to believe in the 'make love not war' mantra as she married most of her 16 children to kings from warring kingdoms and thereby buying peace. One of whom was Marie Antoinette who was married into the French monarchy and we know the troubles she got into later with the French revolution. When i had been to Paris i had seen the history there with Marie Antoinette at its center and now when i come here to Vienna she somehow makes an appearance here as well. Its a small world indeed!

Once inside the palace, room after luxurious room tell the tale of this powerful monarchy which ruled over a vast number of multi-ethnic people. You cannot miss the elaborate Rococo style of the interiors. Building on the more sober baroque the Rococo style is marked with elaborate designs, be it wall paintings or furniture or chandeliers everything seems so elaborate and almost over the top. The ceiling frescoes seem particularly interesting as they look almost like propaganda. The divine queen is shown sitting on her thrown and the ever grateful people of her empire bow before her with gifts even as soldiers march into battle. I am not sure if this was reality for within a few years there would be a revolution in neighboring France which would envelope the entire continent. Anyway whatever be the politics of it all the interior is a gem and its grandness will always remain in my mind. One room though was of particular interest to me, it was a room where the five-year old Mozart performed for the first time in front of the queen and legend has it that Mozart after finishing with the piano leapt onto the queens lap and planted a kiss on her cheek. Being in the same room was simply surreal!

The Palace opens onto the Imperial gardens which are modeled on the ones in Versailles. The garden was pretty huge and it had a carpet of green grass laid over it with beautiful flowers of various color and variety glistening in the summer sun. At the end of the garden was the famous fountain of Neptune with water gushing through with enormous sound and fury. Beyond the fountain though is a natural hill capped by the Gloriette, a triumphal baroque arch ensemble providing a crowning touch to the palace complex. Its good to see such Imperial palaces and gardens open to the public for they are the rightful owners and it shows the evolution of our society from autocracy to democracy. Its been a century since the last King checked out from the palace and its now been overrun by commoners and they seem to be doing quite well without the King!

The last stop on the trip was to another palace - the Belvedere palace. Belvedere means 'Fair weather' and the weather was very fair, in fact it was a touch hot if anything. The palace is again on the outer part of the city and was built as a personal home of Prince Eugene of Savoy of the Turkish defeating fame. Although not as huge as the Schönbrunn it has an exquisite exterior. The white exterior of the palace is capped by a green roof carrying various detailed statuettes. The palace also had a beautiful garden with a small pond in the middle. Interestingly Prince Eugene was from France and apparently the French king did not employ him as he was not sufficiently handsome enough. But the France's loss was Austria's gain and he came over into Austria and helped defeat the Turks. His victory over the Turks is commemorated in the palace architecture too. Either side of the palace there are domes which were constructed to symbolize the domes of the Turks, his way of mocking them perhaps. After exiting the Belvedere palace i had lunch at a nearby restaurant and had the famous Wiener Schnitzel. A perfect end to the day.

Thus the visit to Vienna came to an end. It was an overwhelming experience to visit this great royal city and experience its fascinating history and its a memory i would cherish for the rest of my life!

Prague : Breathless in Bohemia

There are some cities which are historic and there are some which are beautiful. However there are some which are more blessed than the others which are aesthetically pleasing as well as historic. Ones whose inert beauty does not fade even amidst the relentless tides of history. The Czech capital of Prague is one such city which combines the beauty for the eyes with the history for the mind. It is to this city that i travel on my voyage across Europe.

June 3, 2011, Friday

The Czech republic or formerly the Bohemian kingdom of Central Europe is one of the most picturesque countries of Europe. Nestled between Great Germany on the one side and the rest of Eastern Europe on the other, its location is both a boon as well as a bane. Although its location gives it some of the most beautiful landscapes in Europe it also sets it in the cross hairs of historic conflicts. Its great neighbor Germany coveted it so much so that it could not resist invading it during the world war and once the war was over the Eastern European bloc controlled by Russia sucked it into the cold war putting it behind the Iron Curtain.

As a child though my fascination for Prague was strangely enough due to a Sherlock Holmes story. Its one of the most famous Holmes stories called 'A Scandal in Bohemia' where the great sleuth takes up a case of a Count from Prague, its one of the few stories where the great British detective comes out of his British ambiance and deals with the Continent. The story and this exotic place called Bohemia stayed in my mind ever since and visiting it was one of those childhood fancies - the one that you always wish but you know you will never attain. However owing to my good fortune here i was actually making a visit to the place. Lucky me.

As my bus screeched into the Florec bus station the impending day made me very excited. Prague unlike Budapest is a small and compact city and i was able to reach the city center by foot .However there was a marked contrast between Prague and Budapest which i had visited the previous day. There was absolutely no sign of the communist period. No grey buildings, no statues, no nothing. The city seemed to be left unscarred from the five decade assault of communism. What hit the eye though was the beauty of the whole place. The narrow cobbled stoned streets wound into the historic center seamlessly merging with other smaller streets. The light from the waking sun seemed to illuminate the gorgeous buildings of the city. Even among the clamor of modernity the entire architecture of the city seemed to be immersed in a bygone era. I might well have been walking in 19th century Bohemia!

The city center loomed ahead indicated by the spire of the legendary Tyn Cathedral. But this was the case of the journey being more pleasant than the destination. My eyes were having a difficult time taking in all the spectacular sights around me, not only was the architecture so soothing but it was the myriad hues of color that the buildings were painted in that took my breath away. Shades of Yellow, pink, green and red colors adorned these wonderful buildings and the morning sunlight was bringing out their richness. These were no ordinary buildings, among them were municipal houses, banks and churches. Somehow this aesthetic image and the gory history of the city's past did not sit together in my mind.

As i continued my walk i saw a tower like black building which peaked through the colorful buildings around it. This was the famous 'Powder Tower'. It was called so because it was used to store gun powder during the middle ages. It is an important landmark in the city as the inner city starts from here. Beside it was a contrasting yellow colored building with a beautiful painting in the middle adorned by statues on either side. This was the Municipal house of Prague and was one of the great public spaces of the medieval city housing the offices of the city's administrators.

From the Powder tower starts the most famous street in Prague - the Celetna. Its name literally means 'the royal way' and as the name suggests was the historic route taken by the King on his way through the city center to his ultimate Castle destination atop the hill. This part of the city was called 'Stare Mesto' or the 'Old Town'. A few more steps from the Powder tower finally brought me to the great center of Prague - the Old town Square.


The Old Town Square was simply breath taking. I had been to a lot of great European cities and seen innumerable squares but this was just out of the world. Apart from its massive size the sheer beauty of the buildings around was mind blowing. One side of the square had the Iconic Tyn church with its 'rocket launcher' twin spires. Its lower half obscured by a trendy cafe filled with tourists. With its entrance obfuscated by the cafe the Twin towers of the church seemed to float in mid-air! Adjacent to the church is the city Opera with it lovely red tiled roof and delicately decorated exterior. The view gets better though on the opposite side which has the Town hall with a red facade and housing the world famous Astronomical clock. Adjoining the town hall is a wonderful green space with enterprising vendors selling barbeque.

The other two sides of the square too contains exquisite buildings with fine statuettes. One building though caught the eye. It was a canary yellow colored building which was formerly the fire department and quite apt to its utility it had a statue of a fire man as he is rescuing a girl and another which had a woman shouting for help. Talk about a building architecture befitting its utility! Adjacent to it was another remarkable building which was apparently a hotel which had statues of two squabbling couples on either side of its entrance. Apart from the wonderful buildings the square was scattered with many bars and Cafes.The people of Prague really do know their art i mused to myself.


The Center of the square was adorned with the statue of Jan Huss. A great Czech religious reformer who questioned the ways of the Catholic church a full hundred years before Martin Luther pinned the legendary note of protest on a German church door to start the reformation! Amidst his growing popularity the Catholic church did what it did best, snuffed it out by declaring him as a heretic and hunted down all his followers who together with Huss were brutally burnt at the stakes. Huss after his tragic end became a martyr and his followers and his philosophy was and still continues to be a veritable alternative to the Catholic church here in the Czech republic. His memorial in the middle depicts his final hours as he and his followers are shown embraced in fire with him still holding the Bible in his hand. What a great memorial to a great man.

If the square was a glittering crown , the jewel in the crown was the St.Nicholas church situated on one of the squares' corner adjacent to the town hall. The church was a superb example of high-baroque architecture with a beautifully crafted exterior and a magnificent dome. The inside of the church too was equally beautiful. Though not very big in size it was rich in its decoration. Statues of religious nature were crafted in white marble and Gold was added in small but strategic positions to bring a certain richness and accentuate the statues. What more it was a living church and also doubled up as a concert hall. In fact there was a Mozart concert that very evening!


Another must see church in the Old Town was the St.James' Church. Its a masterpiece of Baroque architecture and has one of the most elaborate interior designs i have ever witnessed. The exterior though was very interesting with a facade containing three baroque pieces, each in white with a tinge of gold. But the interior was the real deal as it contained artistically crafted chapels and numerous paintings and sculptures. The alter too was a sight to behold. It was designed to give the impression of a huge art piece held aloft by flying angels. Interestingly the interior was designed by an Italian artist and again goes to prove the line 'Italian for art'.


After the Old town it was time to go to the much newer part of the city - the Nove Mesto - the New Town. As Prague is a compact city one could get there on foot alone. Here there were more modern shops and malls , pizzerias and McDonalds, hotels and restaurants and all other trappings of a tourist hub. As with the old town , the new town was filled to the brim with people, it was like being in India all over again. A short walk got me to the second most important square in Prague called the Wenceslas Square. The square is named after the patron saint of Bohemia St. Wenceslas and is topped at the end of it by the enormous neoclassical styled Czech National Museum. It is a hotspot of the city for any kind of celebrations or protests. The square also had other significant buildings such as the Hotel Europa which with its yellow exterior was one of the most beautiful Hotels i have ever seen. Also present was a huge Bata showroom which is a quite special brand for Indians. The Bata footwear brand is ubiquitous in India and has been known for its quality footwear at affordable prices for decades. So much is its fame in India that most Indians think that its an Indian brand but infact its a Czech brand! How it came to occupy such a huge place in the Indian psyche is truly remarkable and a perfect case study in marketing in B-schools around the world.

The Wenceslas square played a very important role in Czech history or rather the Czechoslovak history.Czechoslovakia was a union of two desperate units - Czech and Slovakia - which were forged together after the end of the second world war when the Austro-Hungarian empire of the Hapsburgs finally collapsed. This hastily put together unity was under communist rule for almost half a century before the events arising from the fall of the Berlin wall eventually tore it apart. However the split was not as violent as that of other Eastern European countries. In fact it was at this very place that a peaceful revolution called the Velvet revolution resulted in the peaceful separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech and Slovak republics. This is a lesson to the whole world on how to split a country in a civilized and peaceful manner. In a world filled with painful separations like pre-partition India and Yugoslavia, the events at Wenceslas square are a great lesson from history.


The eventful day finally came to and end after a leisurely stroll in Prague's New town. Though it had its share of wonderful buildings they were no match to the sights of the Old town. In fact not just the New town any city around the world would have had a tough time competing with the beauty that was the old town!

June 4, 2011, Saturday

It was the second day in Prague and the sun shone brightly in the sky and the cloudless sky made it a perfect day for traveling. It was a day meant for exploring the Castle district of Prague but however before that there was short excursion into the Legendary Town Hall.

The Town hall as i had mentioned previously stands on one of the sides of the Old town square. Its red exterior and pointed roof gives it a distinctive medieval look. Impressive as it is what stands today is just a fraction of the town hall. Before the second world war the Town hall was five times bigger and occupied the one entire side of the Old town square. However the war arrived and Prague became one of the many battlegrounds in main land Europe. However just before the war it was Prague that held out the last hope for peace. With Hitler at the peak of his popularity in the 30s he started on his mission of returning the 'German pride' that was battered by its surrender after the first world war. The reoccupation of the Rhineland was the first step on this road and the German speaking areas of Czechoslovakia called the Sudetenland were the next target. Hitler was adamant on his demand for Sudetenland and threatened a world war if he was not given it. With Europe and the world on the verge of a war the leaders of the world united headed by the British Prime minister Neville Chamberlain. Will the Czech gambit of paying off Hitler with Sudetenland stave off a world war? The whole world waited with bated breath. The British PM did what Britain was always famous for - trading off other people's property without their consent. Poor Czechoslovakia looked on haplessly as Britain and the other great powers handed over the Sudetenland to a smiling Hitler and Chamberlain proclaimed emphatically that he had achieved 'Peace in our time'. Little did he know that Hitler had other ideas, he was hellbent on a war and he got it when he found a silly pretext and invaded Poland and triggered the world war. Hence the Czech gambit did not work and the whole of Europe plunged into war and Prague was eventually occupied by Germany.


The Germans occupied Prague for the rest of the war and a million strong German army fought to retain it even as they stared defeat in the war. It was at this time that the Czech resistance fighters holed out inside the then enormous Town Hall but they were brutally killed when German tanks were brought onto the Old town square and the Town hall heavily bombarded to its present tiny size. Only the suicide of Hitler and the impending fall of Berlin alarmed the German soldiers to leave Prague even as the Soviets moved in. Just as everyone in Prague started to think of living 'happily ever after' the Soviets who came in as liberators became the occupiers and even when they left setup a puppet communist regime as part of their grand plan for eastern Europe. Thus the Czechs fell into another struggle with communism which lasted well over four decades. It was quite apt i thought that the Town hall was painted red considering its gory history.

Not everything about the Town hall is blood and gore. On one of its sides there is the world famous Astronomical clock which along with the time shows the seasons and star positions and such. It has been chiming for the last several hundred years. The most interesting thing about the clock is this very chiming. Every hour the bells are sounded by a pageant of the twelve apostles of Christ as each one comes out of a little window and hits the bell and disappears into another window only to let the next one do the same. This happens every hour on the hour! And not surprisingly its the most famous spectacle in Prague. As i made my way near the clock the sheer number of people ready with their cameras was overwhelming. And the show was as good as promised as the Twelve apostles came out on time and rang the bell. This can happen only in Europe i mused to myself!


Next i headed to the famous Castle district via the royal Celetna street. It was as if everyone in town was headed in that direction as i saw throngs of people going along with me. The narrow streets were almost choking with people . The road ended at the head of the famous Charles Bridge. Built by the Emperor Charles it connects the Old town to the Castle district. It is one of the great bridges of Europe and is modeled on Bernini's famous Bridge of Angels in Rome. Like the original it is covered by either sides by a row of Saints and Kings with each sculpture a real piece of art. Its also lined by famous artists painting and sketching away the people and landscapes around. The bridge too was crowded and was filled to the brim with people. The distant view of the Castle enticed the travelers who wanted to get there as quickly as possible.


After crossing the Charles bridge i was onto the winding steep streets of the Castle district. Like the old city it was littered with magnificent buildings of various colors. The brilliant views around drowned the tiredness of the steep climb. Within minutes i was at the foot of the Castle and a few more steps lead me to the Castle itself. The Castle of course is a Hapsburg legacy and like the castle in Budapest but even more beautiful had all the signs indicating it as one. All around too there were other great buildings with wonderful architecture. It was noon time when i reached and everybody seemed to be waiting for somebody. At first i thought it could be a celebrity but later realized that in fact i was in the middle of the change of guard. Soon a set of guards marched in and opened the gates and changed the guard and the set that was replaced marched out. Exactly how it happened during the times of the Hapsburgs!


At once i was inside the castle and was impressed with what i saw. Exquisite buildings with great statuettes and a fountain to boot in the middle. With all this Hapsburg setting around me i thought i was in Vienna already until i pinched myself to say that it was still a day away. Frankly if this is what the Hapsburgs did with their other cities i could not wait to see what they had done in their capital Vienna! Next i visited the St.Vitus church built in memory of the patron saint of Prague it was a gem of Gothic architecture. The insides were well crafted and decorated as it must be as it was the church used by the Hapsburgs for their royal ceremonies. One particular piece of art caught my attention though, a statue of St.Vitus circled by cherubic baby angels holding aloft the curtains for the Saint, and all of this in pure silver. Absolutely amazing!

Then i moved quickly to the Old royal palace which although not so specially decorated provided stunning views of the city from its balconies. The view of the city from here was one of the most beautiful views i have even seen. It looked like a picture postcard. The sun shining over a lovely city with orange roofs and spires. There was a great view of the Charles bridge too. The bridge filled with people, so much so that it seemed like no one was moving! Seeing the view of the city one could vouch for the fact why Prague is called the 'City of a 100 spires'. From this vantage point one could see the entire city sprinkled with scores of spires, some tall , some short but all of them wonderful to look at.

After going to a few other minor attractions inside the Castle compound it was time to go down to the city. The exit opened to a lovely vineyard and there were people who were relaxing on the side sipping wine as they took in the view of the city. The Vineyards accompanied me to the bottom of the Castle district and sooner than i could realize i had descended the hill and was on flat ground.

After winding through some more streets it was time to bid goodbye to this great city. It had been a great experience and more than the legs the eyes were sore after taking in so much of this beautiful city. As i bid good bye i was sure of one thing, Beauty had a new word and it was 'Prague'!

Budapest : Behind the Iron Curtain

The cold war was the defining political discourse of much of the 20th century. It created friends , it created enemies, it created impending war and elusive peace. No part of the world exemplified the cold war and the tragedy it brought better than the countries of eastern Europe or as they are sometimes referred to as the lands beyond the "Iron Curtain". Budapest - the capital of Hungary -was one such city lodged behind this iron curtain and that is where my next stop was.

June 1, 2011,Wednesday

The Ferihegy airport in Budapest looked quite brand new with beautifully designed interiors containing the best global consumer brands. What a departure this was i thought to myself from the cold war era when anything like this would have been impossible to imagine. After spending quite a long time finding the exit i was finally out of the airport and on road to the city.

The view of the approaching city was a very novel one for me in Europe. The sophistication of the other western cities i had visited was replaced by a scene of ongoing change similar to India. After all this was a city trying to come into its own after six decades of communist rule. So one saw buildings and roads under construction and a general environment of flux. However the legacies of the communist era remained, not in the overt display of statues of communist leaders which had since been removed but in buildings and streets around the city. The buildings with their grey,solid exteriors looked like they distinctly belonged to the communist era. Modern glass covered buildings from the post-communist era with McDonald chains in them were sheepishly making an appearance next to them!

Budapest is basically two cities - Buda and Pest - split neatly by the Danube river. The Buda part residing on top of a hill across the Danube and the Pest part on the plain across it. I first made my way to the Buda part which was the historical capital. I got into a bus which was fairly crowded as it was the morning rush hour and reminded me of some of my rush-hour bus travels back in India. The bus passed through the streets of Pest and onto the legendary chain bridge that joins Buda and Pest. After a short travel over the bridge i was on the Buda hill. From there i made my way to the top most part of the hill with the best view point in town called the Fisher man's bastion. The Fisherman's bastion is built like a medieval castle with pointed roofs and all. In fact the image of the bastion was used as a template for designing the famous Walt Disney logo!

The Fisherman's bastion overlooked the great city on the Pest side and what a view it was. The great Danube snaking through the city with innumerable bridges across it. The Pest side with its great domes and spires glistening in the morning sun. Also on view was the Hungarian parliament on the other shore of the Danube. It was too huge and spectacular , looking more like a palace than a parliament and indeed it was the biggest parliament building in Europe!


Behind the Fisherman's bastion is the great church of St.Mathias. The church though dedicated to St.Mary is named after the greatest Hungarian king of all time, King Mathyas. The church was built in a Gothic fashion with a beige exterior and orange colored ceramic tiles. In front of the church is the Trinity Column - a column constructed in memory of the survival from the great Plague that wrought the city and much of Europe in the 17th century. The column had beautiful statues of saints and kings and was capped off by a depiction of the Holy spirit. The church has an interesting history though as under Turkish occupation in the 16th century it was painted white and turned into a mosque and it functioned as one for 150 years before being reverted to a church when the Turks were driven out. Also the great Hapsburg emperor Franz Josef was crowned here.


The Castle hill is a beautiful place to meander through and i did just that. The weather for the first time since i came to Europe was very hot, in fact as hot as it would be in Bangalore. But the winding streets of the Castle hill provided a bit of a relief as they had some shade. After passing through couple of more viewpoints i was heading for the Hapsburg castle. The Hapsburgs are one of the great royal families of the world and they ruled much of central and eastern Europe for almost six centuries right until the first world war. Even though their ruling area varied from time to time they most certainly ruled Austria and Hungary all the time. So much so that their kingdom was called the Austro-Hungarian empire.

The Castle was built during the time of the Hapsburg influence in Hungary. The style was distinctly that of the Hapsburgs as it had a very neo-classical exterior which was crowned with a huge dome. The interiors of the castle was impressive too with a grand fountain which contained figures of Hungarian Magyar tribesman with their big mustaches and long pleated hair. A colorful garden completed the setting. The castle contained a couple of museums depicting Hungarian art and History and many great statues dating to the Hapsburg times.


After roaming around the castle it was time to get down from the Castle hill and walk along the Danube promenade. The Danube is one of the great rivers of Europe and no city embraces it as much as Budapest. The city's fascination with the river can be seen in the numerous bridges that were built across it. The biggest of them was of course the Chain bridge and walking along it was a real joy as you sensed that you are between the two cities Buda and Pest on either side. The view of the Buda castle especially was fantastic.

To end the day i took a cruise along the river which passed through some of the most famous buildings and historical sites along the river. The best part was going under the Chain bridge when you realize how big it actually is! Also impressive were the various other bridges such as the Franz Josef bridge and the Elizabeth bridge, each one uniquely designed. Even the Hungarian university is located on its banks along with various famous Hotels. One got a sense how the city had evolved around this river and the role it had played in the city's history. As the sun set it was the end of my first day in Budapest, it had been a hot and hectic day but well worth it!

June 2, 2011,Thursday

It was a new day and it was a day meant for exploring the Pest part of the city. As i started on my journey through Pest the old era of the Communists came to my mind. The second world war had been a triumph for the Soviets but it came at an immense price of over 26 million war dead! Its just such a huge number that it boggles the mind. When you consider the fact that the other allies, the US and the British lost about half a million lives each its a proof that it was really the Soviets who deserved most credit for winning the war. The war was proof for the Soviets how vulnerable they really were. A hundred years earlier it was Napoleon who had stormed Russia and now it was the Germans. This convinced the Soviets that if ever they would like to implement their communist principles and progress economically and politically they would need to avoid such attacks from happening again. Thus the concept of the eastern European buffer zone was born. It wasn't fair but that was the thinking behind it and thus the Soviets started setting up puppet communist regimes all around eastern Europe including Hungary. This eventually led to a self-contained, exclusive communist bloc in eastern Europe backed by the soviets which Churchill memorably referred to as the drawing of the Iron curtain across Europe.

The huge roads with their massive grey buildings reminded me of the Communist era. I actually felt lucky that i was able to walk around there for if i had been there 20 years earlier i would never have been allowed to enter the country in the first place! The place also reminded me of my time in East Berlin as i felt the architecture and the general atmosphere was similar. I guess Communism like religion was a way of life and dictated everything in a city and its people and led to a kind of uniform regimentation and i was not surprised that these two ex-communist cities should have looked similar under communism!

The first place i went was to the Jewish Synagogue which is apparently the largest synagogue in Europe. I had never been to a synagogue before and i felt excited to go in. The synagogue looked like a cross between a church and a mosque. It had huge minarets on the outside adorned with domes like a mosque and on the inside it had an alter and organ similar to a church. There were beautiful floral patterns on the ceiling reminding one of a mosque again. I was surprised to know that Hungary had and still has a large Jewish population and as with other Jews in Europe at the time of the world war underwent severe persecution from the pro-Nazi Hungarian government. Also surprising was the fact that the anti-semitic sentiment in Hungary pre-dated the one engendered by Hitler and the Nazis and the world war was an excuse to bring out this prejudice in the open. This goes to show that the Nazis were not the sole perpetrators of anti-semitism even though they were its biggest propagators. On the bright side there was also a memorial there to commemorate the people who helped the Jews during those hellish times. They were mostly diplomats who helped secure the endangered Jews with fake passports and documents including a Swedish diplomat! It was reassuring to know that even as humanity is capable of doing evil its equally capable of doing good too and its a kind of reassurance we need in our cynical world around us today.


From one religious place to another. The next stop was the biggest church in Pest - the St. Stephan's Basilica. The church sits right in the middle of the city and its huge dome leaps into the sky and can be seen from virtually any corner of the city. As i made my way towards the basilica it struck me just how huge the church really was. The church was modeled on the St.Peter's of Vatican and even though not as huge as the original it was enormous. What more it had a huge square in front of it which made the comparison with the original even more obvious. The interior was equally impressive and was designed in Baroque. The chapels on the side too were impressive and added flair to the church. The alter had a figure of St. Stephan , the patron saint of Hungary. The church was filled mostly with guide book armed tourists and the atmosphere was that of peace and quite. A short elevator trip took me to the doom and the view from there of the city and also of the Castle hill i had visited earlier was simply magnificent.


Next i started on my last stop in the city via the legendary M1 metro line. The M1 metro line is in itself an attraction , in fact it is a UNESCO world heritage site as it was the first ever metro line to be built in continental Europe. Here i could see the difference between this and the other metro lines. Owing to its historic stature the M1 line was splendidly maintained and had a modern yet old time feel to it. Even the carriages had a touch of class to them. It runs from the Danube promenade right along the city's main street - the Andrassy street - up to the Hero's square stopping by numerous other Pest attractions along the way.

The metro ride ended at the famed Hero's square which was constructed on the occasion of Hungary completing a millennium. The square consisted of a central column with the archangel Gabriel perched on top holding the Hungarian crown in his hand. The column then was surrounded by a semi circle of colonnades housing the statues of some of Hungary's most important saints and kings. The statues themselves were an interesting study. As the world knows the Hungarians are descended from the so called barbaric Hun tribesman who roamed Eurasia and the statues reflected these historic Hun figures with their long pleated mane, huge mustachios riding horses. Also present were saints who help setup the Hungarian nation including St.Stephan. Interestingly during the communist era the statues of some great communist leaders was installed here but with the downfall of communism these statues have been ported to a location outside the city. This is a great illustration of how the city has transitioned from communism to the modern era in the last 20 years!

Thus ended my trip of the city of Budapest. I had always wondered what the cities beyond the Iron curtain looked like and was happy to have had the good fortune of actually experiencing it here in Budapest!