Russia Spring 2019

"Get rid of national borders" --- Gorchakov in Nostalgia by Andrei Tarkovsky

Prologue:

For a few years I had been interested in watching 4 theater works at 4 different theaters in Russia. I thought I would have to make 4 separate trips to Russia for these, and when I learned almost one year ago that the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg was to stage Swan Lake in April this year, I went ahead and bought a ticket. This trip was originally conceived as just a two-nights trip to St. Petersburg to see Swan Lake.

During the course of one year after I bought the ticket, however, I luckily started noticing the 3 theaters in Moscow would stage the other 3 works soon after the Swan Lake in St. Petersburg, and for this reason the trip gradually expanded from 2 nights to 18 nights. This was a much less expensive option than making 4 separate trips to Russia, paying for Russian visas 4 times! (A multple-entry tourist visa is no longer available at least for the Americans.)

Between watching these theater works I had more than one week blank period in Moscow, so I added a trip out of Moscow to Yuryevets, where the Andrei Tarkovsky house-museum generated my interest a while ago. And to this trip within a trip I also added one World Heritage Site and two Tentative World Heritage Sites to visit.

This was my 5th time in Russia but 4th time in St. Petersburg and in Moscow.  Other cities I had visited before this trip were Kaliningrad, Veliky Novgorod, Staraya Russa, Vladimir, Suzdal, and Sergiev Posad.

The Trip:

18 days in Russia. This is the longest time I have spent in Russia at a time. Well, I might as well get the worth of the money I spent for the Russian visa - 500 USD. In fact I could have spent up to 30 days with this single-entry visa. 

I feel I got a little better grasp of Russia this time, perhaps due to the length of time I spent, the Russian people I spoke to during my stay and / or the fact that I now live half time in Ukraine. 

Russia is an intriguing country to say the least. Although I have only been to the western-most part of the country so far, it seems its vastness presents an incredible diversity of nature and culture. Exploring the whole Russia would equal exploring a whole continent like Africa or South America. 

But exploring the European Russia like I have been doing would mainly reveal only historical and cultural sides. After landing in St. Petersburg and moving to Moscow, I basically traveled on a loop from Moscow through Rostov, Yaroslavl, Yuryevets, Nizhny Novgorod, Gorokhovets and back to Moscow.  Yaroslavl, Yuryevets, and Nizhny Novgorod are all on the Volga River, the longest river in Europe.

The TWHS of the Rostov Kremlin visually wowed me.

Rostov Kremlin TWHS

Rostov Kremlin.

The WHS of Historical Center of the City of Yaroslavl was quite pleasant and has much to explore. Because the interior of 3 of the 4 main churches were not accessible until May, I missed them only by a few days, so I feel like going back there at one point.

The park to commemorate the millennium anniversary of the foundation of Yaroslavl.
With the Volga River in the background. 

Annunciation Cathedral is supposed to be the main church of Yaroslavl
and overlooks the area in the photo above. 

Church of Elijah the Prophet is located at the epicenter of Yaroslavl. 

But this monastery is supposed to be the most historic in the city. 

And this Church of St. John the Baptist appears on the 1000 Ruble note. 

So it's difficult to say which church is the most important in the city. All I have to say is that this city is pretty historic.

Nizhny Novgorod is the 5th largest city in Russia with 1.3 million people.

The Nizhny Novgorod Kremlin wall 
with the Volga River in the background.

Gorokhovets is located on the eastern edge of the Vladimir Oblast.  The Historic Center of Gorokhovets appears to be any center of a small city in Russia.  But this TWHS is supposed to be "hidden under mountain" and therefore has played an important role in defending the region. The photo below was taken from the top of the "mountain" where Kremlin used to stand and shows the most area of the Historic Center with two monasteries on each side of the river.

Historic Center of Gorokhovets.

Russia has given us many great pieces of art. Think of Dostoevsky or Tarkovsky, although it is not immediately clear how many Russians today read Dostoevsky or watch Tarkovsky. I had visited Staraya Russa in 2009 where Dostoevsky spent summers and set and wrote "The Brothers Karamazov" and during this trip visited Yuryevets where Tarkovsky spent his childhood as reflected in "The Mirror."  Yuryevets turned out to be hands down the #1 highlight of this trip.

It wasn't so easy to figure out how to move from Yaroslavl to Yuryevets in one day.  I had to go through Ivanovo and take two Matryoshikas (Minibus).

Yuryevets on the Volga River.

Since 2007 the Andrei Tarkovsky Film Festival has been held annually in Yuryevets in honor of Tarkovsky. In the film strip behind the monument (in the photo below) I found a photo of who appeared to be Theo Angelopoulos, which stunned me.  This probably means that Angelopoulos had visited Yuryevets for the film festivel.  I have never heard of any relationship between these two cinematic giants of the 20th century, except that the Italian poet Tonino Guerra worked with both on their screenplays.

The Tarkovsky Monument

Tarkovsky, his sister, his mother and his grandmother shared this house with other families and occupied just one room for 3 years during the WWII.

Tarkovsky House-Museum

The room where the family of four lived. 

Tarkovsky later went to Moscow and attended one of the most prestigious film schools in the world, VGIK, which I visited for the first time. His enormous talent did not bode well with the Soviet authority, resulting in his exile in the 1980s, but today his statue stands near the main entrance of the film school.

Andrei Tarkovsky in the middle. 

Oh, I shouldn't forget about the 4 theater works, two Tchaikovsky/Petipa, one Chekhov and one Pushkin!

The original 1895 Marius Petipa-choreographed production of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg has been considered to be the definitive version of Swan Lake. This is the version against which all other Swan Lakes are assessed. This production had one incredible Alina Somova as Odette/Odile.  Act 1, Scene 2 was completely absorbing.

Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg.

Actually, the Marius Petipa-choreographed production of The Sleeping Beauty that I watched at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow also premiered at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg in 1890.  This is not surprising considering the fact that St. Petersburg was the capital of Russia at that time and until 1918.

The Sleeping Beauty at the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow.

At the Moscow Art Theater, which is sometimes called Chekhov Theater, what I really wanted to watch was Cherry Orchard. But for unknown reason they did not revive this most famous play by Chekhov during the 2018-19 season, so I actually had to compromise with Three Sisters.

But it was not such a good idea. The Moscow Art Theater is known historically for initiating realism in theater in the first decade of 20th century, and what I wanted to watch was a Chekhov play rendered in realism.  But this production of Three Sisters was decidedly modernist. The director placed 2 video cameras with 2 camera operators on the stage, right by the characters, and those operators were shooting close-ups of the characters that were then projected in the various areas on the stage.

This photo from MAT shows different actors from what we watched. 

The director's purpose in doing this is to prevent audience from getting involved emotionally with the characters by making audience be aware that this is just a theater show, not a reality. And the reason he wants to do this is because he would rather have "the audience objectively observe what is happening on stage." This is one of the main concepts of modernism in theater and is exactly what Bertolt Brecht started doing with the Berliner Ensemble in Berlin in the 1930s, initiating modernism in theater.

Although admirable for what it was, this production of Three Sisters was just not what I had in my mind.   Later I learned that MAT's Cherry Orchard was archetypally rendered in realism...

Chekhov's Three Sisters at the Moscow Art Theater in Moscow.

On the other hand Robert Wilson is the world's foremost post-modernist in theater.   Pushkin's Fairy Tales, conceived and directed by Wilson, has been playing at the State Theater of Nations in Moscow every few months since 2015.

Pushkin's Fairy Tales at the State Theater of Nations in Moscow.

It is not possible to see exactly what's going on in Russia today just by visiting Russia 4 times in the last 15 years. I have only some general or even sketchy knowledge of the history of Russia. And this knowledge tells me that Russia was rather well-integrated in Europe up until the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. For example, the Scandinavian Vikings established the state of Russia in the 9th century to begin with, the Romanovs apparently tried to "keep up with the Bourbons" and a German woman named Catherine once became the Great ruler of Russia. And even after the Bolshevik revolution, Russia under Stalin was hand in hand with the US, Britain and France during the WWII, the reason behind the fact that Russia sits permanently on the Security Council of the United Nations. 

Then, my question is, why is it that today's Russia is so at odds with the rest of Europe? I simply asked the following question to a Russian person I met in Moscow:  "Why doesn't Russia join the European Union?" I also pointed out that a country like Poland doubled its GDP after joining the EU. Her answer was succinct but predictable. Basically, going it alone to protect its national interests. Well, I sincerely wish Russia good luck! 

She also said she admired the courage of the British people for Brexit. I said to her Brexit showed the weakness rather than the strength of the UK because if they have strength, they would try to lead the EU like Germany is doing. 

Although Moscow appears to be doing well, it is well known that Russia needs to overhaul its oil based economy. I don't even know how Russia ended up basing its economy on oil, when they have such superior technology to send the first human to the space! It's perhaps just a matter of time when Russia would be able to create a solid capitalist economy.  For this I would say Japan would serve as a good model. Japan has no natural resources whatsoever and has slightly less population than Russia, but its GDP is more than 3 times as much as Russia's.

Having stayed in Russia for 18 days, I have noticed something new that I did not notice in my previous visits.  Here are three of them: 1) It seemed like more and more Asians from Siberia and / or east Asian countries are now in St. Petersburg and in Moscow, either as residents or as tourists. 2) Considering the bad relationship between the USA and Russia, I was surprised that so many American fast food restaurants are allowed to do business here.  I was particularly surprised at the ubiquity of KFC. 3) Japanese cars or electronics equipment have been sold around the world, but not necessarily Japanese daily goods, which seem to be pretty popular in Russia.  Not only Japanese vending machines stand here and there in Moscow, but even pharmacies have Japanese medicine section. 

I hardly think about this, but during this trip I started realizing that my Japanese family had strangely had some ties to Russia.  My grand mother was born in today's Dalian, China, during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, but the city of Dalian was originally established by the Russians, and she used to make Russian dishes when I was little in Japan, although I didn't know that they were Russian dishes until I visited Russia for the first time!  My grand father spent 2 years in a Siberian labor camp after being captured by the Russians a few days AFTER the WWII ended. And ... my grand mother is today buried in Sergiev Posad outside Moscow.

Epilogue:

I have been writing this in a bus from Moscow back to Ukraine without doing any researches, as there is no internet connection.  So it may include some inaccuracy, especially with regard to the history of Russia. I shall probably keep revising this blog after getting back the internet connection. 

In any case this will conclude my trip to Russia this time. Flights from Budapest to Moscow or St. Petersburg cost only 20-30 USD, but the difficulty and the cost of getting the visa would prevent me from coming back here very often. 

I wish there were no borders, therefore no need for visas, but I am uploading this from the Russia-Ukraine border. Hopefully the Russian officials will let me out after posting this blog ... which could be misconstrued as a disparagement about Russia. :) 

Make Russia Great Again!

Millem Nishikawa

Copyright: 2019 Westriver Press All Rights Reserved

Germany, Netherlands, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech, Austria, Italy, Switzerland Fall 2014 - Spring 2015

PROLOGUE

I lived in the city of Cottbus in eastern Germany from October 2104 to March 2015.  During this time I made 4 short trips, totaling 6 weeks, to 10 countries in Europe mentioned in the title of this report. 

I visited Poland during 3 of the 4 trips.  Here I would like to write about all the places I visited during the 3 trips under the subtitle Poland. The same will go with Slovakia, which I visited during 2 trips.

GERMANY

I traveled in Germany for a week right before Christmas 2014.

My first destination was Nuremberg in southern Germany.  It was my second visit to Nuremberg, but this time the main purpose of visit was to see the Christkindlesmarkt, or the Christmas Market, supposedly the most famous Christmas market in the world.  This one is historic and larger than most others in Europe, but I did not necessarily think it was better or more fun than newer Christmas markets of the similar size, for example one at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin.

Nurmberg Christkindlesmarkt.

But I really like these Christmas markets, especially for the traditional food and drinks they offer.  Besides, we don't have a market place in each city in the US, and therefore I feel that Christmas markets held at other venues in the US, such as the LA Convension Center, look absurd.  Of course the same goes with farmers market in the US.  It doesn't look right when you have farmers market on blocked city streets.  

I also visited the birth house-museum of Albrecht Dürer, the most famous son of Nurmberg and a northern colleague of Leonardo da Vinci and Raffaello da Urbino.  

The Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex is a World Heritage Site in Essen in western Germany.  This Site and the Völklingen Ironworks WHS represent the might of the Industrial Revolution in Germany in the early 19th century.

Zollverein.

The former Imperial Abbey of Corvey is a World Heritage Site near Höxter in central Germany.  The Westwork, or the west-facing facade, of the main church of the Abbey is the only standing structure from the Carolingian era in Germany.

The Westwork to the right.

To cap my trip through Germany this time, I visited Quedlinburg, my favorite small town in Germany, which I ended up visiting for 3 years in a row after I discovered it in 2012.  It was also holding a small Christmas market.  

The Christmas market in Quedlinburg.

I walked around Quedlinburg once again and could not believe that the walking tour with a night watcher I took last year did not take me to this watch tower.  

This watch tower is part of a wall 
that surrounds the old center of Quedlinburg. 

My third visit here comfirmed that this city was still amazingly special.  To me it's the most authentically traditonal city in Germany. 


NETHERLANDS

The one day and night trip to Amsterdam was a side trip from my trip through Germany.  It was my only second visit to Amsterdam in 20 years.  The main purpose of this trip was to attend the concert of the Royal Amsterdam Orchestra of Concert Gebouw :), generally considered the third greatest orchestra in the world after the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic.

In the afternoon before the concert I hastily organized a trip to the town of Naarden outside Amsterdam, believing that this town was part of the World Heritage Site of the Defense Line of Amsterdam. Although I realized later that Naarden was not part of the WHS, it is part of the nominated extension of the WHS. 

Naarden.

It was fascinating to learn at the Defense Museum in Naarden that the people in the low lands of the Netherlands naturally came up with the idea of using water to defend themselves in the late 19th century.  The Dutch were able to raise the level of water for about 50 cm above the thin stretch of land surrounding the snowflake-shaped town, seen in the photo above.  50 cm is too shallow for boats but is too deep for infantry to maneuver well.  So, while enemy foot solders were struggling in the water, the Dutch were able to shoot them up from the tips of the snowflake.  This defense system was very effective until the advent of warplanes.

I got very tired by the evening, but the conductor Mariss Jansons' choice of Rhapsodies kept me fully awake during the concert of the Royal Amsterdam Orchestra of Concert Gebouw (Concert House).

The Concert Gebouw. 

After finding out that Naarden was not part of the WHS during my research that night at my hotel, I quickly went to visit the town of Weesp, also just outside Amsterdam, to see its fortress, definitely part of the WHS, at 7 in the following morning in the winter darkness and in heavy rain before my scheduled departure from the Amsterdam train station at 9.

The fortress in Weesp. 

LITHUANIA

This half-a-day visit to Lithuania in late February was my second visit to the country.  I arrived in the capital Vilnius at 6 by bus from Poland and left Vilnius at 14 back to Poland.

During the 8 hours I visited Kernave by bus, 35 km outside Vilnius, the first capital of Lithuania and a World Heritage Site.  The Kernave Archaeological Site is regarded to have the paramount importance in the Baltic region, as it shows the evolution of  the human settlements there from the new stone age all the way to the 14th century.

The Kernave Archaeological Site. 

The impressive new museum houses movable cultural properties from the Kernave Archaeological Site.

The Kernave Archaeological Museum. 

POLAND

The Muskauer Park, a World Heritage Site, straddles the border between Germany and Poland.  Designed by Hermann von Puckler, it is considered to be the first park in the world landscaped with the concept of "Painting with Plants."

The Castle at the Muskauer Park. 

The Church of Peace in Jawor, along with the Church of peace in Swidnica, in the Silesia region of Poland is a result of tolerance to the Protestant faith in the then-Catholic Habsburg Empire in the 17th century. The Lutherans in turn created the largest half-timbered church in the world under the restriction not to use stones, which still had to be imposed by the Emperor.

The Church of Peace in Jawor. 

Wroclaw, the capital of Silesia, is the discovery of my trips to Poland.  It is I believe the most pleasant city in Poland, and, better yet, its renovated market place may well be the most beautiful in the whole Europe.

The Market Place of Wroclaw. 

The Centennial Hall in Wroclaw, a World Heritage Site, is regarded as a landmark in the history of reinforced concrete architecture.  Built in 1913, it can house up to 6,000 people.

The Centennial Hall. 

I am fast forwarding to my 2nd trip to Poland 2 months later here...

After finishing the ski resort tour in Norway and Sweden in the Nord in 2007 and in Italy, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France in the Alps in 2008 and 2009, I am now embarking on the ski resort tour in eastern Europe, beginning with Poland and Slovakia this winter. I hope I won't be too disappointed...

I went to Zakopane, the most popular ski resort in Poland.  There are several ski areas around Zakopane, but the largest one was the equivalent of  the smallest one in Southern California.  Besides, there was not much snow on the slope on the day I skied.

One of the ski areas in Zakopane. 

I took a bus from Zakopane to Lisa Polana, from where I walked on a bridge across the Bialka River that constitutes the border between Poland and Slovakia.

Here I have to fast forward once again to my third trip through Poland two months later...

Back into Poland from Lithuania by bus and staying in Hajnowka in the north-eastern Poland, I went to visit the Bialowieza Forest, a World Hetitage Site that straddles the border between Poland and Belarus.

The church spires in Hajnowka. 

The Bialowieza Forest may well be the most interesting World Natural Heritage Site I have ever visited in Europe.  Situated on the watershed of the Baltic Sea and the Black Sea, it is the last remaining part of the immense forest that used to cover the entire European continent.  As such, it protects today a diverse wildlife of about 60 mammal species and 250 bird species, out of which the European Baffalo is the iconic symbol of the forest:  25 % of the species reside here in this forest.  

The European Buffalos were milling around by the roadside. 

On the following day I left Hajnowka at 5 in the morning and traveled through Warszawa and Krakow by train and bus to arrive in Bochnia in southern Poland at 14:15.  

Wieliczka and Bochnia Royal Salt Mines is the first World Heritage Site ever to have been designated by UNESCO in 1978.  I had visited Wieliczka before but decided to visit Bochnia this time after finding out that they had created a hostel-style accommodation at 250 meters underground at the salt mine.  

At 15:00 I took a 3-hour English language tour of the mine that included a boat ride in an underground canal.  After that I had a rather relaxing evening at 250 meters underground where I had supper at a cafe and took shower and slept at the hostel.

The hostel at the Bochnia Salt Mine. 

There was a church in Lipnica Murowana, a village near Bochnia, one of the 6 churches collectively designated as the Wooden Churches of Southern Malopolska World Heritege Site.  These churches, built with horizontal logs, are supposed to represent an important aspect of medieval Roman Catholic church-building. 

The Church of St. Leonardo in Lipnica Murowana. 

Back in Bochnia I took a bus to Krynica, the most popular spa town in Poland.  Here, as in Karlovy Vary, the most popular spa town in Czech Republic, the way we are supposed to cure our ailments is not to soak in various warm waters but to drink them.  I don't have any ailments but had two different kinds of warm water at the new main spa in my attempt to prevent ailments.  

The old main spa is reflected in the new main spa in Krynica. 

BTW, the price was pretty low even in this most popolar spa town, as well as ski resort, in Poland, as there were hardly any foreign tourists.  My 3-star atmospheric wooden hotel was 26 Euros for one night, which included healthy spa dinner, breakfast and even lunch (the main meal of the day), which I had before checking out at 13 o'clock.  Hmmm, this means you would spend only 780 Euros per month for accommodation and food in this town...

The border crossing in this area was a bit of a struggle, even though there is no border controls, as both Poland and Slovakia are within the Schengen Zone.  There is a railroad crossing the border but is no longer used.  There is no bus running between the two countries, either.  From Krynica, I took a bus to the border town of Muszyna.  From there I had to take a taxi to a bus stop in the town of Circ in Slovakia right across the border, which took about 15 minutes.  Interestingly, the Polish taxi driver had to take the "taxi" lamp off the top of the car before entering Slovakia, saying he was not supposed to be doing business in Slovakia...

SLOVAKIA

The Bialka River constitutes the border between Poland and Slovakia. 

After skiing in Zakopane in Poland, I crossed the river / border into Slovakia and took a bus to the ski resort of Tatranska Limonica in Slovakia.

The 2,653 meter peak at the High Tatra Mountains. 

Tatranska Limonica is the most popular ski resort in Slovakia, even though there is basically only one piste at the resort.  However, this piste is quite long and steep, and skiing here was much more enjoyable than at Zakopane in Poland.

Tatranska Limonica ski resort.  

My next destination in Slovakia was the town of Bardejov, a World Heritage Site, in north-eastern Slovakia.  The old center of Bardejov is the best preserved medieval town, complete with the surrounding wall, in Slovakia.

The market place of Bardejov with the town hall, now museum, in the middle. 

Then I headed back west and stopped at Ruzomberok in central Slovakia.  From here I walked on snow to Vlkolinec, a World Heritage Site, several kilometers away.  Vlkolinec is supposed to be the most complete traditional village in Slovakia with 45 log houses.

Vlkolinec.

Again, fast forward to my other trip to Slovakia 2 months later...

After being dropped off by the taxi I took from Muszina in Poland, I waited for a bus alone at the bus stop in Circ for about one unsettling hour. Then the 15:00 o'clock bus took me to the transportation hub of Poprad, where I took another bus to Zvolen in central Slovakia, where I arrived at 19:40 and stayed overnight.  Of course I had created my itinerary with minute details before the trip.

After a night in Zvolen, I headed to my only destination in Slovakia during this trip: a World Heritage Site of Historic Town of Banska Stiavnica in southern Slovakia.  It was my second visit to this magnificently quaint city in Slovakia.  You can see my photo of the center of this city from my first trip in 2010 here.

The small center is packed with historically important monuments, such as the former silver mine, which drove the economy of the city, the Mining Academy, which is the world's first ever engineering school, spearheaded by the Habsburgs, and where modern mining technique was first developed in the world, and the replica of the Calvary, one of the three World Heritage-listed replicas of the Calvary in Europe.

The entrance to the main silver mine. I took a 90 min. tour. 

The Mining Academy.

The replica of the Calvary under a major renovation.

These panels have been taken out from the chapels at the Calvary replica
and stored in the museum at the Old Castle during the renovation. 

In late afternoon I visited a spa at Skline Teplice a bit outside Banska Stiavnica but still within the buffer zone of the WHS.  The cave bath is supposed to be the only hot spring in a cave in Europe where people can soak.

The Cave Bath at Skline Teplice. 

Border crossing always seems to pose problems, and this time from Banks Stiavnica to the border with Hungary, I had to take two buses and one train and...

HUNGARY

Walked across the border for about 2 km and took two more trains and one more bus to my next and only destination in Hungary: a World Heritage Site of Old Village of Holloko in northern Hungary.  

This area of Hungary is supposed to be inhibited by an ethnic minority called the Paloc, and Holloko is a traditional Paloc village preserved since 17th century.  

As a World Heritage Site, the whole village was visibly undergoing a major renovation before crowds hit in summer.  But this small village had a lot to offer, such as a castle ruin, museums, workshops, restaurants and cafes, and I thought I could spend a whole relaxed week here. 

The Old Village of Holloko.

The Holloko Castle ruin and the surroundings.

We all know that Hungary is well-known for paprika, the red pepper.  For lunch I ordered what they called Paloc Soup, which took me by surprise.  It was a spicy paprika soup with pork and cabbage, and it tasted almost exactly like my favorite Korean Kimchi soup!  To think about it, the ingredients are exactly the same.  Maybe Attila the Hun (who supposedly contributed to the naming of this country) relayed Kimchi soup all the way from Korea!  

But my research later showed that the soup had several variations, and maybe what I had just happened to taste like Kimchi soup...

CZECH

After visiting Vlkolinec in the morning, I headed out to Czech Republic from Ruzomberok in Slovakia in the afternoon and spent the first night at Vallaske Mezirici in eastern Czech Republic just for convenience.  

I stayed at this former castle for about 20 Euros. 

The next morning on December 31 I took a train to Brno, the second largest city in Czech Rupublic and the capital of the Moravia region, where I was scheduled to stay with my friend Radim for 4 nights. It was my 3rd time in 7 years to visit Radim in Brno .  

On January 1 Radim's friends Jaja and Marek invited Radim, his girlfriend Christy and me for lunch at their apartment in Brno. The traditional Czech holiday food was super.  They were all very friendly and nice people, and I was honored to be a guest of honor. :)  

Lunch with traditional Czech food. :) 

On January 3 I went to visit the city of Litomysl in central Czech Republic by train by myself.  Litomysl, with its World Heritage-listed castle, was a pleasant city with an elongated market place, which we would see more often in Slovakia than in Czech Republic.  Litomysl is also the birth place of Bedrich Smetana.  

The well-preserved arcade castle supposedly illustrate the aristocratic lifestyle during Renaissance in central Europe.  

The Litomysl Castle. 

I walked into a regional museum.  I did not have the exact entrance fee, and they did not have changes for me.  They said that I could not get in the museum unless I brought the exact fee.  Although there were some stores to get changes not far from the museum, I just walked out because I was not so much interested in the museum.  I told this story to Radim later, and he got quite upset about the behavior of his fellow Czech citizens at the cashier of the museum. :)  He then telephoned the director of the museum, complained that his friend all the way from Japan was denied entrance for not having the exact entrance fee and argued that the cashier was definitely at fault for not having changes.  The director was supposedly very apologetic about the absurd incident and sent me a thick coffee-table book on some local artist I had never heard of after I got back in Germany.  Now that I think about it, I would have wanted a Smetana CD with it. :)  

On January 4 I left Brno for Ceske Budejowice in the southern Bohemia region of Czech Republic in order to visit the nearby Holasovice Historic Village, a World Heritage Site.

Ceske Budejowice is, needless to say, the birth place of the original Czech Budweiser, which is much superior to the American version in my and most other people's opinions.  This city also has the largest market place in Czech Republic. 

The Market Place of Ceske Budejowice. 

Holasovice was about 30 min. bus ride from Ceske Budejowice.  It is supposed to be a well-preserved example of traditional central European village built in a style known as South Bohemian Folk Baroque.  I thought the snow made the whole village look like a Baroque cake. :) 

Holasovice Historic Village. 

AUSTRIA

After arriving in Brno in the morning of December 31, Radim, Christy and I left Brno in the afternoon in Radim's car to Vienna, Austria, 2 hours away, for the Silvester (New Year's Eve) Celebration.  

Vienna is certainly one of the most gorgeous cities in the world and one of my favorite cities in Europe.  We arrived about 18:00, parked the car in the outskirt of Vienna and took subway to the center.  It was my 7th visit to Vienna, so I kind of showed Radim and Christy around the center of Vienna.  

The Vienna City Hall was one of the main sites for the celebration. 

But I was surprised how cold it was.  After dinner at one of my favorite restaurants in the center, we struggled to find shelters from the freezing temprature.  Most cafes had been completely occupied by people looking for shelters just like we were. :( 

It was Christy's first visit to Vienna. 

But all in all I think we had a great Sylvester. :)  

00:00 on January 1, 2015. :)

ITALY

In February this year it was possible to see opera productions by Robert Wilson at 4 major theaters in Europe:  La Scala Theater in Milano (The Coronation of Poppea), The Opera in Paris (Pelleas and Melisande), Theater am Schiffbauerdamm in Berlin (The Threepenny Opera) and Zurich Opera House (Norma).  Since I had seen his Pelleas and Melisande in Paris and The Threepenny Opera in Berlin before, I decided to go to Milano and Zurich to see the two other operas.  

I flew from Berlin to Bergamo in Italy on Ryan Air in the morning, visited Bergamo in the early afternoon and stopped at Crespi d'Adda, a World Heritage Site, on my way from Bergamo to Milano by bus in the late afternoon.  

Crespi d'Adda is an example of so-called Company Town, a town built for an industry (the textile industry in the case of Crespi d'Adda) and its workers' specific needs in 19th century.  Because of this, it is said that there was no strike in this town for 50 years after its establishment in 1892. 

Offices at Crespi d'Adda.

In the evening I went to see the opera Coronation of Poppea by Monteverdi at La Scala in Milano.  It was my third time at La Scala in as many visits to Milano.  It was astonishing to see how well Mr. Wilson's minimalist modern imagery fits with a Baroque opera.  

La Scala Theater. 

The following day I made a day trip to the city of Casale Monferrato in the Piedmont region to see Vineyard Landscape of Piedmont, a World Hetitage Site, outside the city.  According to my Italian friend in Los Angeles, Piedmont, not Tuscany (Chianti),  produces the best wine in Italy, and accordingly this is the only wine-related WHS in Italy.  

It was heavily snowing on this day. :) 

I had lunch at a pizza restaurant recommended by the tourist office in Casale Monferrato.  Not only the local wine was super, but also the pizza was one of best I have ever had.  

The next day was one of the busiest in my traveling life. :)  At dawn I left Milano for the city of Varese in the Lombardy region by train, checked out one WHS in the morning and another in the afternoon outside the city and went to the city of Lugano in southern Switzerland by bus and train in the evening.  

The WHS I visited in the morning is called Monte San Giorgio, a mountain that straddle the border between Italy and Switzerland.  This mountain has produced impressive array of marine life fossils.  I went to a museum in Besano on the Italian side of the mountain by bus.  

A replica of the fossil of the Besano-saur. 

Besano-saur is not a dinosaur but an extinct marine reptile that used to swim around in this area when it was underwater some time ago. The real fossil is supposed to be protected from the public intrusion in the basement of a Milano museum.  

The WHS I visited in the afternoon is called the Sacred Mountain of Varese, one of the 9 Sacred Mountains in the Piedmont and Lombardy regions collectively named as a World Heritage Site.  This site is one of the three replicas of the Calvary in Europe listed as WHSs, along with the ones at Banka Stiavnica in Slovakia and Zebrzydowska in Poland, which I visited during Easter in 2007.  

My bus dropped me off near the First Chapel at the mid level of the mountain, and I walked up the snow-covered slope, diligently visiting all the 14 Chapels recounting the last day of Jesus, to the Sanctuary of Santa Maria del Monte, the centerpiece of the WHS, on top of the mountain.  This replica of the Calvary is much larger than the one in Banka Stiavnica, but probably not as large as the one at Zebrzydowska.  But again there are all together 9 of these replicas in Piedmont and Lombardy.  

The Chapels at the Sacred Mountain of Varese.  

SWITZERLAND

I arrived in the city of Lugano on Lake Lugano about 21:00.  It was my first visit to the city.  

As soon as I entered Switzerland, the price tripled.  The price in Switzerland was getting closer to that in Norway two years ago, while the price in Norway has been going up even higher.  

In fact the reason I came to Lugano in the evening was because I found the cheapest accommodation in this part of Switzerland, a quite nice villa-turned-hostel.  This whole property of the villa-turned-hostel by Lake Lugano must be more expensive than George Clooney's villa by Lake Como in Italy, which is right east of Lake Lugano, as Switzerland is much more expensive than Italy.  

I went to walk around the city center by the lakeside after 22:00.  It was quite beautiful at night.  

The next morning I had to go to Belinzona by train, where I had a reservation at 8:45 for a bus to Chur in eastern Switzerland.  Belinzona itself is a World Heritage Site, but I had visited the site before.  

The 2-hour bus ride from Belinzona through snow-capped mountains to Chur was quite nice but cost whopping 52 Euros.  

A Church in Chur. 

In the afternoon I took a train and a bus from Chur to Müstair in the far eastern corner of Switzerland to visit the Benedictine Convent of St. John, a World Heritage Site.  The transportation cost 58 Euros one way.  The bus went through the Swiss National Park, the only national park in Switzerland.  

Part of Swiss National Park.

The convent, like the Imperial Abbey of Corvey in Germany, is from the Carolingian era.  The figurative murals at the convent are supposed to be the most important from the era in Switzerland .  

Benedictine Convent of St. John.  

In the morning after a night in Chur I went to the nearby ski resort of Flims by bus, not to ski but to see the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona, a World Heritage Site.  Two ski lifts were supposed to take me to a point that offered one of the best views of the Tschingelhörner mountains, the centerpiece of the WHS.  

But after taking one lift up the slope, it was announced that everybody had to evacuate the area due to the worsening weather caused by a storm.  WTF!  One of the reasons I decided to come back to Switzerland, splashing so much money, was because I thought I'd be done with this country once and for all after this trip!  (I would still love to go back to Norway anytime, which I believe is more beautiful and pleasant, but more expensive than Switzerland.) 

Somewhere beyond this ski slope 

is the Swiss Tectonic Arena Sardona. 

Back in Chur in the afternoon I picked up my luggage and left for Zurich, my last stop in this trip.  It was my 5th visit to Zurich.  

I caught the opera Norma by Bellini at the Zurich Opera House in the evening.  Norma supposedly received very good reviews in Zurich, but I did not think it was one of Robert Wilson's better productions.

Zurich Opera House.

On the last day before catching an overnight train back to Cottbus, I went to the hill top south of Lake Zurich by metro for a half-day hiking.  It offered spectacular view of the Lake and the surrounding mountains.  

The citizens of this most expensive country in western Europe seem to have gotten used to such a good life that they now want to protect their lifestyle against invading EU nationals.  (Switzerland and Norway, the two most expensive countries in Europe, are not in the EU.)

EPILOGUE

With visits to these places I am now done with a large swathe of Europe, namely central Europe (Germany, Austria, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary) and the western Former Soviet States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova).  With visits to just a few more places I will be done with the Balkan Peninsula and the Scandinavian Peninsula.  

But the fact is that I was not planning any of these trips until I went to live in Cottbus, Germany.  What I was originally planning for 2015 was  a week-long, snow-hiking trip each in Sweden and Norway...

Millem Nishikawa

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