I do think cruising with small children is an easier form of travel. The logistics are just more straightforward: your accommodations and consistently toddler-friendly dining travel with you. On balance, this is both good and bad. On the one hand, it saves time and effort spent on ‘everyday life’ activities. On the other hand, caring for a toddler forces you to live more like the locals (in terms of engaging in kid-friendly activities and the chores of daily life). That said, I wouldn’t hesitate to drive again.

The trip had far more highlights than lowlights. Indeed, I think every place we went is now firmly affixed to the “return” list, especially Bavaria and Poland. And, while we were lukewarm on Berlin initially, it has a lot of cultural venues that are worth exploring. Thus, while it’s not the prettiest city, it’s certainly worthy of another in-depth visit. Realistically, it will likely take us another 3 years or so to finish the 157×50 (err 39? 40?) goal. So, if we’re not back in Central Europe before then, I suspect we will most assuredly return soon thereafter.

Finally, this trip reminded me just how much we like experiencing new places. I think that’s been one of the great advantages of the 157×50 project’s goals. By definition, you’re forced to expand your horizons and travel more widely. Fortunately (or unfortunately), once you’re on that path the thrill of exploring becomes addictive and you find yourself thinking: “why not drive from Budapest to Turkey?” or “maybe we should island hop through Indonesia?” Of course, we’re not hostel-dwelling, backpacking vagabonds. We’re far more (and unapologetically) bourgeois by this point in our lives both by choice (why inconvenience yourself when you needn’t have to?) and necessity (traveling with a toddler, while I’m sure it’s technically possible w/ backpacks and in hostels, I think you’d have to be stark raving mad to do it). But, I digress…

Final score: +6 countries and +1 state for us; +13 countries and +1 state for Emerson!

Up next: the Caribbean over Thanksgiving.

Our hotel—a Marriott in the city center—is located in a residential area in the former East Berlin, a few blocks south of Unter Den Linden. As we arrived early, we had time to explore the city yesterday, walking a fairly large rectangular pattern north to Unter Den Linden (via Gendarmenmarkt), over to the Brandenburger Tor, followed by a slight detour to the magnificent Reichstag building, cutting across Tiergarten (which was fortified as a Euro 2012 Fan Zone), visiting Potsdam Platz (where we stopped for dinner), and back down Leipziger Strasse to our hotel.

The impressive Reichstag...

Our first impression of Berlin? Meh… it’s okay.

Not being one who’s ever overly impressed by the “big sights” (pyramids at Giza? meh, too), seeing something like the Brandenburg Gate in person is enjoyable, but it doesn’t make the experience. Instead, I find the overall vibe/feel of a place—its architecture and environment—to be more important. And, Berlin (at least what I’ve seen of it) isn’t wildly appealing. Indeed, it’s sort of what I expected Eastern Europe—big cities in former Communist countries—to look like before visiting Prague, Budapest, etc. years ago.

Now my vision is finally realized in Berlin. While some of the modern architecture is arresting, there are also a lot of unattractive (presumably GDR-era) apartment blocks, as well as more recent attempts at contemporary and/or minimalist aesthetics that have failed to deliver (as it’s a fine line between ‘elegant simplicity’ and ‘stark brutality’). Given the history of Berlin, my criticism probably isn’t fair. It’s just that the city seems to be neither as spectacularly modern as Dubai nor as charmingly reconstructed as Munich.

Let’s see if our impressions change tomorrow.

Our walking tour began just outside of Florianska Gate in the Planty (a green park—built where the fortifications of the city once stood—that surrounds much of the Old Town… our hotel, overlooks part of the Planty on the other side of town). Passing through the gate, we walked toward the main square, explored it in more detail, and then headed down Ul. Grodzka toward Wawel. Along the way, we stopped into the Church of Saints Peter and Paul and its next door neighbor, the Church of St. Andrew (intimate in scale, but very impressive). We then hiked up the hill to Wawel for an impressive view of the Vistula River, explored the castle grounds, and visited Wawel Cathedral. For me, the most striking item was a small display on the altar containing a vial of Blessed Pope John Paul II’s blood—a kind of modern-day relic—that presumably will be venerated by the faithful for perhaps hundreds of years to come (much like people stand around looking at parts of old Saint So-and-So, fragments of the Cross, or whatever today). Krakow really is the “Rome of the North” (and often cited as the most Catholic city in Europe’s most Catholic country). As a retired Catholic, I felt very much at home.

Wavel Cathedral

After our visit to Wawel, we returned to our hotel for a quick pit stop for Emerson (the benefit of having a really good location) and then headed back to the main square to visit St. Mary’s Basilica, which had been closed earlier in the day for church services. I must confess—having seen a lot of churches that all sort of blend into one another—that “there’s something about St. Mary’s” that I really liked. Sure, it’s a Gothic masterpiece on the outside. But, the interior of the church had a certain joyfulness and vitality lacking in so many of Europe’s great churches. Indeed, I was somewhat reminded (especially by the ceiling) of the beautiful mosques that we visited in the Middle East this year. More celebratory than somber: seems like a better way to honor God.

Interior of St. Mary's Basilica

After the church, we had lunch at a wood-fired pizzeria. The pizza—as all food in Krakow seems to be—was excellent and affordable (our sit-down lunch, including drinks and tip, was less than $20 for the four of us). We then strolled back to our hotel for Emerson’s afternoon nap while Mom headed out to explore more of the city.

We regrouped in the late afternoon for some souvenir shopping before heading to dinner. We ate at a place called Marmolada, which provided another good meal at a very good price (though not up to Miod Malina’s level of excellence). After dinner, we had some delicious ice cream (at $0.50 per scoop) before returning to the hotel. Later tonight, I plan to head back out to try some night photography.

There’s much to do in and around Krakow and this trip has only scratched the surface. Moreover, we’ve found that we really like Poland and would like to explore more of this country. As such, we’ll add Poland to our ‘return visit’ short list (which, I must confess, is ironically rather long).

Tomorrow we drive back to Germany to spend our last couple of days on the continent in Berlin before heading back to London and then on to home.

Update: I was so pleased with the results from my little Cannon S100 Point-and-Shoot and a tiny Joby GorillaPod, that I came back to the hotel and revised today’s post to include a sample:

Olomouc's Socialist Realist astronomical clock

The onward drive to Poland was slowed down by road work and at one point a sudden and inexplicable closing of the highway near Ostrava just before reaching Poland. This caused much confusion to the GPS unit, which wanted to keep routing me back to the aforementioned closed section of highway. For a while, I tried just ‘driving toward Poland’ hoping this would cause the recalculation to ‘catch on.’ No such luck. So, I eventually just stopped the car and added a waypoint inside of Poland and away from the non-existent highway. All told, I think the detour added 30 or so minutes to our travel time. This was only the second time that the GPS (briefly) failed us on the trip, and it’s really made the journey virtually stress free (especially as I’d pre-programmed all of the key destinations in the “favorites” list before our departure from home).

We’re staying at another Radisson Blu in the heart of Krakow. It’s a fine hotel choice in a great city. While we didn’t have a chance to explore too much of the town yet, what we’ve seen we really like! And, we don’t regret for a single moment the decision to come here (though it involves two fairly lengthy driving days for us). It’s full of character and very beautiful. We did manage to make it to the swoon-worthy Main Market Square.

Libby and Emerson in Krakow...

We also had what might just be the single best meal I’ve ever eaten in Europe… and for an amazingly low price. We happened upon a place called Miod Malina (“Honey Raspberry”) that’s seemingly recommended in all of the guidebooks and generally requires reservations. We lucked out and grabbed a table for four (the advantages of eating early on toddler time) before the crush of patrons really started. The restaurant does both Polish and Italian dishes (sometimes as a fusion) remarkably well. I won’t belabor with details but highlights included: gorgonzola, pear, and cranberry crostini, tomato soup w/ dumplings (out of this world good—Emerson shared this with me), potato pancakes with meat stew, meat stuffed dumplings with caramelized onions, and a warm Krakow-style cheesecake (somewhat akin to New York-style with a more assertive/tangy cheese flavor). Amazingly, we had all of this food (plus the stuff I didn’t mention)… basically starters, mains, and desserts for everyone plus drinks for about $55 (with tip). That’s $55 total, not per person… for one of the best and more expensive restaurants in town. Clearly, Scandinavia this is not…

Raspberry Panna Cotta at Miod Malina... excellent food and service!

We’re looking forward to tomorrow!

Today’s box score: +1 country (Poland); +2 for Emerson!