BUDAPEST -- Back in the early 1990s, I picked my way through Budapest's enormous main Jewish cemetery, trying to find the grave of Lipot Baumhorn, an architect who was long-forgotten but whose body of work once held pride of place in cities and towns the length and breadth of Hungary.

Krakow, Poland's historic royal capital, lives and breathes historic memory.

Its magnificent main market Square, the Rynek Glowny, serves as a vast urban living room at the heart of a medieval Old Town that rivals that of Prague.

There, each hour on the hour, day and night, a trumpeter climbs to the top of St. Mary's Basilica and plays a fanfare that is cut off abruptly in mid-note to recall a trumpeter who was killed by invading Tartars while playing the very same call to arms in 1241.

An Overview

In the 14 years since the Velvet Revolution toppled the old communist regime, Prague has become one of Europe's top travel destinations. But there is so much to see and do in that glorious, golden city, that the vast majority of visitors never get a chance to explore other parts of the Czech Republic.

On the one hand, this is a pity, for the country boasts an extraordinary wealth of historic sites and natural beauty, all within a few hours drive of the capital.

BUDAPEST -- The last time I wrote about Budapest on Centropa I provided an itinerary of Jewish sights and resources, most of them in and around the city's Seventh District, the old downtown Jewish quarter anchored by three grand synagogues forming a so-called "Jewish triangle." 

photo taken by Miroslav Petrasko, on January 29, 2002, CC licensing

TRNAVA, SLOVAKIA -- Slovakia lies in the heart of Europe and boasts magnificent scenery, gems of architecture, vivid folk traditions and as many as 300 spectacular castles, but it remains little known in the collective consciousness as a tourist destination.

photo taken by lifebeginsat50mm, on Fevruary 24, 2008, CC licensing

BIELSKO-BIALA, POLAND

Column published on 20.08.2009 -  ©: all pictures by Ruth Ellen Gruber (except where notified)

Wine merchants and wonder. Off the beaten path in northeastern Hungary