Trial of the Century & Beyond

As our journey in Central Europe comes to an end, here are a few stories that are worth mentioning:

What happened after World War II

In Prague, we learnt a great deal about World War II and the atrocities commited during that time. So, before we exited Europe, we decided to make a pitstop at Nuremberg to visit the Memorium Nuremberg Trials. This was enlightening for us, as we gained insight into how the Nazi criminals were persecuted.

The Nuremberg Trials were a series of court proceedings held after World War II to prosecute Nazi war criminals. It was the first time in history that war crimes were tried in an international court, setting a precedent for future international law. The victors of World War II - France, UK, USA, and other allied countries created a tribunal that presided over the trials.

The museum is located in the actual courtroom where the trials took place. An impressive audio-visual display shows the proceedings and indicates where various participants sat - judges, lawyers, audience, and the accused. Walking through the courtroom, you can almost feel the weight of history.

Nuremberg Trials Museum

From Germany, let’s move to Slovakia for our next story.

High Tatras Mountain Train Breakdown

In Slovakia, convenient mountain trains take you from the main city of Poprad to the mountain villages. On one of the days, we discovered that the train tracks were being repaired between two stations, so we couldn’t reach our final destination directly by train.

To our surprise, they had arranged excellent alternative transport. We got off at the station where repairs were happening, along with everyone else on the train. Immediately, someone at the station directed us, and we caught the bus with all the other passengers. These temporary buses took us to our final destination.

High Tatras Mountain Train

What was most impressive was how well-coordinated everything was. It was evident that these European cities prioritise convenient public infrastructure, over everything else.

Our journey eventually took us through Frankfurt Airport, where we had a completely different experience.

Frankfurt Airport - A Nightmare

We exited the Schengen zone through Frankfurt Airport and had an appalling experience. The airport was chaotic and disorganized. Suneela was flagged for additional screening after going through the body scanner. A female guard checked her but didn’t take her to a separate room for the screening. Instead, she started touching inappropriately, almost groping, while checking for illegal items. It was a gruesome two minutes. We decided to avoid this airport in the future. Later, we read similar incidents reported by other travelers on Reddit about Frankfurt Airport security.

Amidst the travel challenges, we had good time exploring interesting art and cultural experiences throughout our journey.

Museum in Cesky Kremlov

In Cesky Krumlov Castle, we also visited a small, less-famous museum containing exhibits by an artist, Miroslav Paral. His art was bizarre at first glance. We started reading the placards next to his works. He created art to describe how people had a lavish life style after Cold war when they were suddenly filled with money, and how Czechs ordered native German families to leave the country after WWII. We could never imagine what life was like during Cold War and how the life changed after the war for everybody. Going through the exhibits, we felt like we were walking through life back then. It was fascinating to read his thoughts and see how he manifested them into art.

Back in Poprad, we had another unexpected experience.

Smoke Alarm in Poprad

In Poprad, we stayed in a small Airbnb with a conventional kitchen but no chimney. The first day we started cooking, we opened the window a little. We were just making breakfast - toasting bread. Suddenly, to our surprise, we heard the smoke alarm go off. We opened the window completely and told our hosts the same. We were a bit anxious about authorities arriving with fire engines (as we’ve heard happens in the USA), but nothing like that happened. The alarm went off by itself.

Finally, let’s return to Prague for one more cultural experience.

Mucha Museum

Mucha Museum

On one of the days, we visited Mucha museum, to learn about the Czech artist who was essentially a graphic designer before the times of photoshop. We were absolutely blown away by the intricate, detailed posters he created in the early 1900s - each one looked like it could have been made with modern design software! Mucha also spent 18 years completing the Slav Epic, a series of 18 massive paintings depicting the history of Slavic people from Russia to the Balkans. Some of the paintings were displayed in Mucha Museum and were incredibly well detailed. In fact, you would need a magnifying glass to go through every single element of the painting.

That’s all from Central Europe Series. Don’t worry, we will continue sending posts, this time about our journey discovering Western Europe. Read more about our journey to a deserted Paris in the next post.