I have spent much of my life first 17 years of life dreaming about the boulevards of Provence and street cafes of Paris. I ended up instead as an exchange student in an industrial town in the coal and steel region of in Lorraine, France. But that didn’t daunt my love of travel.

I’ve returned to Europe a couple dozen times since, returning nearly every year to add a new country or destination to my list. In the spring of 2023 I hit a personal goal: to visit every sovereign country in Europe. The last one on the list was Portugal (via the island of Madeira).

Now that I’ve hit the 4 corners, I’m trying to fill in the blanks. I’ve never been much of a London-Paris-Rome kind of guy, and would much rather find himself amidst the natives of an end-of-the road Dutch village or roaming through the border regions of Slovenia. With Paris, though, I generally make an exception.

Join me and my friend and photographer, Vanja, as we explore the culture, history, cuisine, as we fill in some of the blanks in Croatia, Hungary, Slovakia and beyond.

Varaždin, Croatia

Varaždin is a relatively small city with a population around 46,946, spread over 13.21 sq miles in Northern Croatia, close to the Drava River. It’s about an hour’s drive north of the capital city of Zagreb and best known for its baroque and rococo architecture, music and food. Its size was a perfect match for my off-the-beaten-path theme

Varaždin City Museum

Varaždin City Museum was founded around 1925 in the premises of the fortress called ‘The Old Town.’ The basic items of the first permanent exhibition were the objects given to the Museum by Varaždin families.

Budapest, Hungary

Straddling the Danube River, Budapest is Hungary’s illustrious capital. It is a treasure trove of history, culture, and natural beauty. Renowned for its remarkable architecture, relaxing thermal baths, and flavorful cuisine.

Hungarian dishes often include fruits, such as plums and apricots, cooked with meat or in piquant sauces/stuffings for game, roasts and other cuts. Various kinds of noodles, dumplings, potatoes, and rice are commonly served as a side dish. Hungarian dry sausages (kolbász) and winter salami are also widely eaten. And then there is Goulash, or as Hungarians call it, gulyás, means “herdsman.”  Its origins date back to the 9th century Magyar shepherds as a simple meat and onion stew prepared in heavy iron kettles known as bogracs.  The national drink of Hungary is Pálinka, a very strong traditional spirit made of many different types of fruit.

In the 15th century, invading Ottoman Turks introduced a new spice to Hungary, paprika.  While the rest of Europe remained lukewarm towards this red chili pepper from the New World, Hungary embraced it and paprika has since become a defining element of Hungarian cuisine. Made from peppers that are locally harvested and then sorted, toasted, and blended to create different varieties. The Hungarian paprika marketed in the US  is usually the édesnemes variety, which is “noble” sweet, slightly pungent and bright red.  

Ptuj, Slovenia

We detoured to Ptuj and Ehrenhausen, then back to Varazdin.

Ptuj, the oldest recorded city in Slovenia, has been inhabited since the late Stone Age and developed from a Roman military fort.

Attractions include, the Ptuj Castle, home to the Ptuj Ormoz Regional Museum which features everything from instruments and arms to traditional masks and striking tapestries; the Dominican and Minorite Monasteries; and the Orpheus Monument, a well-preserved Roman tombstone.

Ehrenhausen, Austria

The mausoleum in Ehrenhausen might be the most significant mark that the Eggenbergs left in the city. They are several buildings where you can spot the family’s coat of arms. Most importantly, Ehrenhausen is also the site of the Eggenberg’s main fortress. The 16th century building was one of Austria’s numerous fortifications that secured the South and the East of the country against the Turks. Beyond mausoleum and fortress, don’t miss out on the parish church, a typically Austrian mix of styles. The charming market square invites visitors to stroll around and explore the village.

Back to Varaždin in time for dinner

Varaždinsko zelje is an autochthonous variety of cabbage traditionally grown in Varaždin County. The most important property of this cabbage variety is that it can withstand cold winter weather.
It has a bitter and sharp flavor and pungent smell. Because its leaves are durable and elastic, it is traditionally used in recipes that require longer cooking time, such as cabbage soup or braised cabbage with bacon or beef.

Brno, Slovakia

Brno is a stately city and lies in the Moravia region. It is the country’s second largest city and serves as the traditional capital of Moravia. It feels very cosmopolitan after sleepier and more rural Slovakia.

Despite the ravages of past wars, many of Brno’s historic buildings have survived, including the churches of St. Thomas and St. James and the Gothic church of the Augustinian monastery. Tugendhat House (1930), designed by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1992. The old town’s narrow streets are surrounded by an array of grand boulevards.

Prague, Czech Republic

Greetings from Czechia! We used to say ‘Czech Republic’ but it is now preferred we use the proper name Czechia. That’s ok by me.

Prague, capital city of the Czech Republic, is bisected by the Vltava River. Nicknamed “the City of a Hundred Spires,” it’s known for its Old Town Square, the heart of its historic core. It is nothing less than a Disneyland Fairy Tale city!.

The beer acquires its characteristic aroma of malt grains and a balanced caramel taste through triple mashing. The soft Pilsen artisan water lends it a unique, delicate taste, while the Žatec hops gives it a velvety bitterness. And the malt itself finishes the beer in a golden color.

Beer drinking is ingrained in Czech culture, society and history. So much so, that the beer industry is considered a part of the national heritage.

Zakopane is Poland

Zakopane is Poland’s main alpine destination and a major tourist center. It’s a festive place, teeming with happy visitors.

When we set off this morning, we had no idea we would find ourselves in Poland later that day. That was certainly not on the itinerary. But the gorgeous Slovak Tatra mountains pulled us in and we just kept going north. And suddenly we were in the equally stunning but much more lively Polish side of the high Tatras.

Žilina, Slovakia

Žilina is a city in north-western Slovakia, around 120 miles from the capital Bratislava, close to both the Czech and Polish borders. It is the fourth largest city of Slovakia with a population of approximately 80,000. The name is derived from Slavic/Slovak word žila – a “(river) vein. :Žilina means “a place with many watercourses.”

So, no Ukraine today. But the scenery in the extreme east of Slovakia and the Carpathian Mountains made for a nice excursion anyway.

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Gingerbread houses, Christmas trees, caroling and concerts on board ships add extra spice to cruises on Europe’s rivers during the month of December. But the biggest incentive to don winter coats and hats is the Christmas markets in ports along the way. Almost every city has at least one filling municipal and cathedral squares in the weeks leading up to December 25 and almost every river cruise line operating in Europe extends it cruise season into December to take advantage of the holiday glow. I was aboard Viking River Cruises on its Danube Waltz itinerary cruising from Budapest, Hungary to Passau, Germany with stops in Bratislava, Slovakia, Vienna and Linz, Austria.

Each city’s Christmas markets embraced the festive season by selling decorations, holiday novelties, food and mulled wine to warm heart and soul under twinkling lights on cold December evenings. Some added musical entertainment and carnival rides. Can one be too old to climb aboard a carousel?

An infectious holiday cheer brought smiles to passengers and crew on board. One afternoon crew members donned Santa hats and reindeer headbands to lead passengers in a sing-along that ended with a conga line winding through the lounge. An advent choir boarded the ship after dinner in Bratislava for an a cappella performance. In Austria, costumed singers and musicians presented songs from “The Sound of Music” and ended the evening with Christmas carols — “Silent Night” in three languages.

Passengers participated in trimming Christmas trees, personalizing globe ornaments with markers. The pastry chef patiently taught us the art of gingerbread house-making and to my envious eyes some structures turned out quite good.

The kitchen crew made an extra effort to warm us up with a holiday glow. After a shore excursion one chilly afternoon the chef welcomed returning passengers in the reception area with cheese fondue spread on slices of fresh bread plus cups of hot chocolate with an optional splash of rum or amaretto.

Have holiday gifts to buy for family and friends back home? Bring an extra suitcase. Cities along the Danube offer shopping districts with brand-name stores as well as cute boutiques. And, of course, the Christmas markets present a bounty of items, some handmade.

Christmas markets bring out residents, especially after work and on weekends. If you’re game, you might interact over a glass of gluhwein. After visiting two or three markets, the next few might seem just the same, but be on the lookout for one-of-a-kind finds and local food specialties.

In Budapest, crowds filled two Christmas markets within walking distance of our ship. A Nativity scene with large, colorful figures stood in front of St. Stephen’s Basilica where a Christmas tree towered over an ice rink. Vendors in wooden huts sold Christmas ornaments, marzipan, Hungarian fried bread and steaming cups of mulled wine.

In Slovakia, sausages and potato pancakes simmered on stoves in a small market outside Bratislava Castle perched 300 feet above the Danube. Our excursion stopped for a view from the windy terrace then descended to the Old Town for a walk on cobblestones past warmly lit cafes to a Christmas market where cloth dolls in folk dress caught my eye.

In Vienna, I strolled past Rolex, Dior and Tiffany stores on Kohlmarkt Street on my way to Café Central where a glass case overflowed with pastries. A reindeer head made from gingerbread mousse and baked apple called out to me.

Christmas markets were scattered across Vienna, one by city hall, another at Am Hof where raclette oozed onto plates and flutes of Champagne bubbled on a wooden bar. Outside Hofburg Palace, a few vendors sold high-end goods. I couldn’t resist a jaunty made-in-Austria woolen hat. At my favorite market, outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where Mozart married in 1782, I had to have two wooden toy trains in letters spelling my grandsons’ names.

That night, we boarded a motor coach to travel along city streets lit with holiday decorations to a small theater for a Mozart and Strauss concert just for Viking guests.

In Linz, Austria, streetcars streamed past Christmas market stalls on the Hauptplatz, one of the largest squares in Europe, but shoppers seemed so engrossed in the goods they barely noticed. My search for an authentic Austrian gift for someone back home yielded only apparel from distant lands — Peru, Nepal, China — so I left, disappointed.

In Passau, Germany, our tour group went to Café Simon for a demonstration of gingerbread making with samples of three flavors washed down with an orange and rum punch. Refortified, I made my way to the plaza outside St. Stephen’s Cathedral where bells sounding the hour reverberated around more than 70 rustic wooden Christmas market kiosks. Patrons stood around high tables snarfing down foot-long wurst sandwiches. I resisted the temptation of gluhwein stands to seek out something German-made for that someone still on my gift list. I found it inside a make-shift shop where a young woman was selling woolen hats and cute head wraps made by her German grandmother.

Just when passengers think they have seen their last Christmas market, those departing from the Munich airport find one more under a canopy between terminals. More than 40 market stalls and 450 Christmas trees set up here along with an ice-skating rink with skate rentals for those who want to do a few spins before their flight departs.

For once, I was glad mine was delayed.

Viking River Cruises: 800-304-9616

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Fields still laced with land mines. Rampant unemployment. Young people fleeing to bigger cities to find a better life. Suzi Petrijevcanin wasn’t complaining, just telling it like it is to passengers on Viking River Cruises who’d booked a visit to her home as part of their shore excursion.

“We call you the boat people,” she laughs.

The Lower Danube flows through Eastern Europe’s former Communist countries. Bookended by beauty spots in Budapest and Bucharest, the stretch of river is short on fairy-tale castles and romantic vistas, long on buildings pockmarked by bullet holes, ugly Communist-era housing projects, monstrous people palaces built by egomaniacal tyrants.

Passengers who book this itinerary tend to have an intellectual bent; well-traveled lifelong learners who’ve been to other countries in Europe and want to satisfy their curiosity about this part of the world. Eastern Europe’s complicated history unravels in on-board lectures, walking tours, motor coach excursions and visits to the homes of people like Suzi.

Viking’s Eastern Europe itinerary takes in Croatia and Serbia — formerly parts of Yugoslavia — as well as Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania, once all but closed to the West by the Iron Curtain. It combines a cruise on the Lower Danube with nights in upscale hotels before and after. My ship, the Lif, served as a comfortable base for exploring present-day life in the countries of Eastern Europe as it relates to their dark history.

City and Country Life in Hungary

The Danube divides Buda and Pest, two sections of the Hungarian capital. We began in Buda with a walking tour around Trinity Square and gothic Matthias Church with its eye-catching Zsolnay tile roof. Behind it the white turrets of Fisherman’s Bastion rise above the Danube. Named for the fishermen who defended this stretch of the city walls in medieval times, it now serves as a viewing terrace.

From this perch, we had a great view of the Pest side of the city and the massive neo-gothic Parliament building reflected in the river. A funicular leads down to the riverfront and the Chain Bridge, the oldest of Budapest’s seven spans. Damaged by the Nazis, the unusual suspension bridge was rebuilt in its 1840 design, though enlarged for vehicle traffic.

Crossing over to the Pest side, we came to one of the most haunting displays of the city’s tragic history: row after row of shoes, replicated in bronze, lining the riverfront. This sculpture, “Shoes on the Danube,” memorializes Jews forced to remove their footwear here before they were executed by fascists, their bodies dumped in the river. Visitors place stones and flowers in the shoes, silently snapping photos.

During World War II, more than 80 percent of the city’s buildings were damaged before forces of the Soviet Union pushed out the Nazis. Then, in 1956, the Soviets crushed a revolt, sending 40,000 Hungarians to camps for “re-education.” Another 300,000 fled the country.

Cruise passengers have several opportunities to visit the Hungarian countryside. Godollo Royal Palace and Gardens, largest palace in Hungary, lies just 40 minutes from the capital. An excursion to a farm and equestrian show taught us about Hungary’s tradition of horsemanship that began when nomadic warriors thundered across the steppes from Asia.

Conflict Between Croats and Serbs

Tour guides in Croatia and Serbia, home visits and on-board lectures help passengers wrap their heads around the complicated struggles between Croats, who are mostly Catholic, and Serbs, mostly Eastern Orthodox. But the conflict isn’t so much over religion as it is over territory and resentments rooted in struggles centuries old.

En route to Suzi’s house in Croatia, our tour guide took us through the Danube port of Vukovar, 90 percent destroyed in the 1990s during what Croatia calls the Homeland War (in Serbia it’s the Civil War). It started when Croatia declared independence from Serbian majority Yugoslavia. In Vukovar, more than 200 Croats who had taken refuge in a hospital were executed.

After listening to such tales of inhumanity, it was a comfort to sit in Suzi’s warm home and talk about life in Croatia today. While western Croatia thrives from tourism along the Adriatic Coast, eastern Croatia along the Danube still struggles. Once the nation’s breadbasket, Suzi said landmines left over from the war make tilling the fertile soil a challenge.

We learn the Serbian side of the story in Belgrade, capital of Serbia. Unlike most of Eastern Europe, Serbia does not belong to the European Union so has not benefited from its economic assistance. Ugly Soviet-era apartment buildings blight the skyline. Other buildings still bear bombed-out walls.

Our tour guide gave us an overview of Serbian conflicts. A Serbian nationalist assassinated an Austro-Hungarian archduke, causing Austria to declare war on Serbia and starting World War I. During World War II, Josip Broz Tito led Yugoslav guerrillas, and later became leader of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, holding together a coalition of non-aligned nations during the Cold War. The breakup of Yugoslavia began after his death in 1980.

But as in Croatia, Serbia’s struggles began much earlier. Situated at the confluence of the Danube and Sawa rivers, Belgrade is at the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe and has been destroyed and rebuilt 20 times.

A bright spot in Belgrade is the Church of St. Sava, one of the largest Orthodox churches in the world. Begun in 1935, construction halted during World War II and under Communism. Work resumed in the 1980s, with funds largely from Serbians living abroad. Inside under its 100-foot diameter dome, visitors learn some of the practices of the Serbian Orthodox religion: only human voices are allowed (chants, no organ), the altar must face east, worshippers stand (no pews) during services and the church follows the Julian calendar so Christmas comes on January 7.

Iron Gates to Bulgaria and Romania

The Danube continues east toward the Black Sea passing through the Iron Gates, a gorge between Romania on the north, Serbia on the south.

We pass an onion-domed monastery, now a convent, poking from shore. On the public address system, our cruise director tells us to watch for a nun on the balcony. If she waves to a passenger, legend has it the passenger will find enduring love within a year. A woman veiled in black appears, raising a hand in greeting.

A few minutes later we cruise by a Mount Rushmore-like head of King Decebalus who battled the Romans for freedom for what is now Romania. Carved into the limestone cliffs, it measures more than 140 feet high.

We journey through a lock and dam and the Danube widens. Kayakers skim the surface and fishermen cast lines into the river. Cottages and campgrounds line the shore where people are picnicking and sunbathing on beaches. The red-tile roofs of villages add color to the riverbank. A plume of smoke from a tractor rises from a field.

In Vidin, Bulgaria, passengers make another home visit, this time to learn how to make banitsa, a pastry that’s a staple in every household. Ramona Mihaylova lays out bowls and pans on the granite countertop in the kitchen of her modern home, which could have been plucked from the suburbs of Cincinnati where she and her husband lived for many years before she retired from teaching and they returned to their homeland.

On our last morning on the river, we boarded a motor coach for Bucharest, capital of Romania and “Paris of the East” for its wide boulevards, parks and mix of architecture styles and grand monuments, including an Arch of Triumph.

The night before, our cruise director gave us his story of life in Bucharest under Communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. He told us he grew up with anti-Western propaganda meant to explain away harsh economic conditions. Teachers told him blue jeans cause skin cancer and the Western diet was unhealthy, all while food shortages were rampant. Electricity was shut down for an hour every night and apartments could not be heated to more than 57 degrees.

We saw the main reason for these restrictions when we toured the Palace of Parliament, a permanent example of Ceausescu’s megalomania. He bankrupted his country to build this ostentatious people palace, the biggest administration building in the world after the Pentagon. Covering nearly 4 million square feet, marble-clad rooms drip with gold leaf. Our one-hour tour covered just 3 percent of them.

Ceausescu never got to enjoy his palace. Before it was completed, a wave of revolutions swept across Eastern Europe in 1989. In December that year, Romania’s military sided with protesters, arrested the tyrant who, after a quick trial, was executed on Christmas Day.

A few months later the Berlin Wall came down in Germany.

The Iron Curtain had fallen.

For further information, visit Viking River Cruises or call, 800-706-1483

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