What we will miss

  • Cathedrals
  • Basillicas
  • Reliquaries
  • Shrines of the Black Madonna and the Infant of Prague
  • Small churches with fantastic mosaics and frescoes
  • Castles
  • Shrines 
  • Reliquaries
  • Franz Kafka
  • Crown jewels
  • Funiculars
  • Russian-inspired red and green garnet intricate jewelry settings
  • Matryoshka or Babushka dolls, Russian-inspired nested dolls
  • Fabergé eggs created  for the Russian Imperial family
  • Medieval architecture/art
  • Battle of the Nations. Read more
  • Baroque architecture/art
  • High-end museums with very famous paintings
  • Historical places
  • Dragon of Krakow
  • The Mermaid of Warsaw
  • Chestnut (Buckeye) trees in bloom
  • Tulips and sculptured gardens
  • ​Our fellow bus travelers
  • Good tea, especially Earl Grey
  • Creamy cappuccino
  • Dining al fresco
  • Furry pigs
  • Lipizzaner stallions
  • The sound of horse carriages on cobblestone
  • May poles (with trees on top) in every village
  • River cruises
  • Pedestrian bridges decorated with locks
  • Stautes and monuments
  • Neatly kept cemeteries with fresh flowers everywhere
  • Corner flower sellers
  • Lilacs
  • Swans, nesting storks and hooded (grey) crows
  • Bright yellow canola/rape seed fields
  • Perfect reconstructions of original medieval buildings
  • Wooden roofs
  • Strudel and sacher torte
  • Budvar/Czechvar, the original Budweiser
  • Bad American coffee
  • Chestnut trees in bloom
  • Crystal chandeliers
  • Pierogies
  • Moldovite
  • Ghosts in castles
  • Climbing bell towers and domes
  • Local folk dancers
  • Good classical music: Chopin, Dvořák, Beethoven, Haydn, Mozart, Strauss, Schubert, Mahler, Bruckner, Brahms, Wagner, Schumann, Handl, Bach, Mendelssohn, Bartók, Liszt
  • Famous artists: Durer, Grunewald, Klee, Klimt, Schiele, Gottlieb, Ernst, Arp, Muller, Hans Holbein,
  • Famous writers: Goethe, Hess, Kafka, Marx, Grimm, Freud, Mickiewicz, Conrad, Singer
  • The Dragon of Krakow
  • The Mermaid of Warsaw
  • The Marionettes of the Czech Republic
  • Baltic amber
  • Petra

What we Won't miss

  • Heavy meat-based food
  • Vegetables cooked to mush
  • No salad or fresh veggies
  • Young gals with selfie sticks, blocking views to all monuments, including primping at Auschwitz
  • Crowds, especially in Prague
  • Drivers running us down
  • Bikes running us down
  • Segways running us down
  • New-fangled showers that defy common sense and take a PhD to figure out
  • Stoical faces and grumpy attitudes
  • Demonstrations against governments
  • Constant currency changes: Zloties, Euros, Florints, Korunas
  • Paying to use the bathroom
  • Sloooow wait staff and service
  • Scam music vendors, dressed in period costume, outside every church and theater with an upcoming performance
  • Plug adapters and converters
  • No wifi in some hotels or just in the lobby
  • No cell phone service
  • Walking on cobblestone streets and walks
  • Professional pickpockets (gypsies)
  • ATM and exchange office scams
  • Graffiti
  • Dragon ladies at the "water closets"
  • Street walkers at the truck stops
  • Men in tight suits (especially of a Prussian blue color)
  • Women in super tight stretch jeans
  • Last-minute hotel changes
  • TV just in the Czech language
  • American pollution: The King, The Colonel, McCafe and Starbucks
  • Paying for water
  • ​Everyone dressed in black
  • The golden pe--s of Prague statue
  • Funnel cakes
  • Hearing about the Holocaust any time soon
  • Anti-government protests in Krakow​
  • Anti-government protests in Warsaw
​