A Tour of Central Europe

By Glynn Baugher

This is a light account of a short guided tour of four main Central European cities--Budapest, Vienna, Prague, and Salzburg--with brief excursions to Durnstein, Austria; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Cesky Krumlov, Czechia. The focus is on sightseeing and on getting photographs of the beauties of those places, especially those of Prague and its glorious architecture. The book is lavishly illustrated with the author's photographs inside and another on the cover.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663255211

Glynn Baugher

Glynn Baugher grew up in rural Virginia; graduated from William Monroe High School; earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from Emory and Henry College; earned his Master of Arts degree and Ph. D. from Tulane University. While teaching at the college level for thirty-four years, Glynn married and fathered three children. Today he is retired and lives in Emory, Virginia.

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Copyright © 2023 Glynn Baugher.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5522-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5521-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023914781

iUniverse rev. date: 08/25/2023

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CONTENTS

Prologue

Dedication

June 2, 2023

June 3

June 4

June 5

June 6

June 7

June 8

June 9

June 10

June 11

June 12

June 13

June 14

June 15

PROLOGUE

This book is essentially my journal of an EF: Go-Ahead Tour in June of 2023. All photos I took, except the two with me in them, those taken on my camera. The cover photo is of the Hungarian Parliament, as shot from Buda, across the Danube.

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to my late brother Larry. He was my youth’s second self. Thanks in part to him, I have the means to travel the world. I can imagine him shaking his head in wry bemusement, saying Not for me. But he was always generous about others’ pleasures.

I also dedicate the book to my fellow tour members, 24 strong

(counting me), and two fine main tour guides.

To Trish and her daughters Megan and Allie, open and inviting,

the daughters especially enjoying my blunders;

To Brian and Cindy, my first acquaintances in the group, a lovely couple;

To Steve and Noriko, good talkers, fellow academics;

To Sal and Christine, caring and helpful;

To Sharon and Becky, travel pals, laughing at my anecdotes;

To friends Rosalyn and Christine, fellow liberal spirits;

To Aaron and Shannon, who never once pulled my hair, though

behind me all the way to Prague;

To Tyler and Rachel, brightening up the space across the aisle;

To fellow Virginians and kindred spirits Guy and Margie;

To Mona, scout extraordinaire;

To Gustavo, who took care of me, and the winsome Anna;

To Luda, the second to arrive at the Budapest airport, after me,

Luda the zealous photographer;

To our two main guides, Diana Marx, Budapest through Prague,

with whom I had good, good talk;

And Beate Menert-Henry, from Prague to the end, warm and loving.

Thanks to you all.

June 2, 2023

After several frenetic days of mowing my lawn, trying to dispatch some grass and weeds from my established plantings, and planting some new flowers in the earth of my former geodesic dome greenhouse, I went to bed on the first of June shortly after 11 p.m. I had my electric alarm clock and my cell phone both set for 5 a.m. At that time it was still dark when I arose, and my cat Sadie, sleeping on the foot of my bed, was puzzled. I had showered and shaved shortly before bedtime and thus had little to do other than take care of the kitties, feeding them and providing enough water to carry them through this one day. They have a cat door to come and go at will and about two acres to divert themselves upon. The catsitter comes tomorrow and will stay at my house, followed in the last days of my absence by another. Sadie, of course, would not eat, as if saying, This is most irregular. Ricky was oblivious; he expects to eat when he sees me. I hurriedly dressed, explained to Sadie, in English, what was happening, and was out of the house at 5:45, the sky now lightening.

I had my fully packed carry-on suitcase and backpack