Our time in Slovakia is over today. We said goodbye last night to a good friend we have made here in Bratislava. I met him as a student and we’ve had many good times together over a drink, supper or during a lesson. He holds a significant position in the Slovak government and I’ve enjoyed his insights on his country. Judy and I travelled with he and his family one weekend. As I said in an earlier post, friends are hard to come by and I will miss him a lot. Judy meanwhile has also said goodbye to friends she has made. Such is the lot of a traveler. Our hope is that come the fall we can engage in ministry work somewhere, possibly in Kenya.

It has often happened that as Judy and I sit in a plaza in a new city, we will look at one another and agree that we are so blessed to have been able to travel as we have over the past couple of years. And since I won’t be able to write for a while I thought I would just mention some of our travels over the past couple of months.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have often traveled to Vienna in the past. It is just an incredibly beautiful city. And Austria is so well looked after, that it has been a favorite destination. About 6 weeks ago we went for a weekend to Salzburg, another beautiful and much smaller city. Think Mozart! Those of you who liked the Sound of Music may know that much of that film was shot in and around Salzburg. Try humming a few bars of “doe, a deer a female deer…” or “The hills are alive with the sound of…”. Fortunately, I was able to talk Judy out of both the Mozart concert and a Sound of Music Tour! But there is truly a sense of music in the air in this lovely place. We visited a fine contemporary art gallery (there are also many traditional galleries), toured the city’s castle (pictured above), lounged in their magnificent park (so nice on our spring weekend visit with the magnolias in bloom), and walked to many more sights. I’d like another couple days there - and to tell the truth I have a little regret about missing Mozart. Maybe we can go back some day.

Then three weeks ago, we again visited Austria taking a train along the Danube Valley to Tulln and Krems, just two of many small towns along the Danube west of Vienna. What a nice trip we had in these smaller quiet and inexpensive places, which still have many old and beautiful architecture (going back to about the 11th-12th century in some cases), Roman ruins, lots of public statuary and fountains, art galleries (both were home to famous Austrian artists). There is a paved bike path that runs along the Danube all the way into Germany. Is anyone game to travel it with us someday? It would be a great trip.

Finally, 2 weeks ago we took the train to Krakow, a nice small city in Poland. Since it escaped much of the allied bombing in WW2 it has many original historical buildings, a really nice large castle (called Wawel and free to us on Monday!). The food was inexpensive and they have great bakeries, neither of which was good for our diets! Most significant to us was the nearby town of Oswiecim, and the infamous Auschwitz and Birkenau. We felt we had to see these places of such horror and reflect on how inhuman it is possible for man to be. It is just impossible to understand how such a thing could have been allowed to happen, and I am moved nearly to tears just thinking about it again. A picture of 4 children, skin and bones really, standing together naked and utterly innocent; a partial roomful of human hair to be sent to make fabric; another partial roomful of prosthesis taken from victims. These things are etched on my mind, maybe for forever, which I think is the way it should be. With only a little imagination you could feel the ghosts of these poor souls walking the rooms and halls. Of the thousands of Jews previously living in Krakow some 250 are presently living there.
On a lighter note however, Krakow has great jazz scene. I love jazz, and so we attended two concerts by well-known Polish jazz musicians on successive night costing next to nothing! After the hell of Auschwitz this was almost heaven!

And it gets even better for us, as this weekend we travel to Italy for about 12 days – Venice, Orvieto as a base for daily trips into Rome and the surrounding country, then to Siena as a base for travel into Florence, Pisa and more of Tuscany. Great wine and great food! There goes the diet again! And it gets even better, as finally, we will then fly to South Africa for 2 weeks, to see our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughters, then home to Canada.

As I said at the start, we are so blessed.