Terezin, Czechia

On our second day in Prague we took a bus tour through the lovely Czech countryside to the small town of Terezin. It was built in 1780 as a military fortress by Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II and named for his mother, Empress Maria Theresa. In German it is known as Theresienstadt (Theresa's City).

It was never attacked by the Prussians and later became a camp for political prisoners.

In 1940 the Nazis converted it into a Gestapo prison and in 1941 a Jewish ‘ghetto’ was established there. Although it wasn’t an extermination camp, over 33,000 people died there from horrible overcrowding, disease, and starvation. In all, 150,000 people were sent there, including 15,000 children. About 88,000 were later transported to Auschwitz and other extermination camps.

Our guide emphasized that although it wasn’t a ‘death camp,’ it was full of unspeakable misery and terror. I was touched by a display of children’s drawings. Some were stark depictions of the camp, others hopeful, happy drawings of their lives before imprisonment. The adults in the camp worked tirelessly to make the children’s lives as normal as possible in a grotesquely abnormal setting. They would teach school, prepared to stop in an instant if a guard appeared.

Sobering is too weak a word to describe the feelings while visiting Terezin. When I was in high school, we would glibly parrot, “Man’s inhumanity to man” as the most likely theme of any serious work of literature. Can such horror be adequately described?

The Moldau in Prague

23 Jun 2022

 

I love “The Moldau” by Bedrich Smetana. It’s a symphonic poem, the second movement of Má Vlast and a rich depiction of the river from its source in the Bohemian forest to the city of Prague. Moldau is the German name: in Czech it’s the Vltava.

I’ve played the piece in two different orchestras over the years.

Years ago I went to Education Week at Brigham Young University. It’s a week of free college courses for grownups. Michael Ballam, a professional musician and celebrity from Logan, Utah, gave an inspirational talk in the huge Marriott Center. He spoke of the immense power of music and recommended that we all make a musical first aid kit on an audio cassette. (yeah, this was 1993). I’ve never done it, but in case you are around when I fall into a coma, "The Moldau" and Gustav Holst’s "Jupiter" from The Planets are my top two choices. I guess at this point you could just pull them up on YouTube. (I just did.)

Michael Ballam told a moving story about an elderly German woman in a nursing home in Utah. He came to play the piano and lead a Christmas carol sing-along. The woman typically sat huddled in her wheelchair, mute and unresponsive. As Ballam sang a carol in German, someone noticed the woman’s lips moving: she was softly singing: her first words in years. Music can reach into our depths.

We left Boston Wednesday evening and arrived in Frankfurt, Germany around 7 a.m. Thursday. Since we lost 6 hours in the time zone adjustment, I only got 3 hours of sleep, sitting upright in economy. It’s now 8 p.m. and we’re at our hotel in Prague. I’m not sleepy. That would be great news for most normal humans but for me, it’s okay to feel good, but not too good. I monitor my sleep daily to avoid hypomania.

Nothing to do right now but hope I can sleep tonight.

In the meanwhile, I’ll savor our day. When we arrived in Prague, I realized that I was woefully unprepared. Our introductory walking tour wasn’t until Friday. We got a map and directions to the downtown shopping mall. But Prague streets are not at all at right angles, even less than Boston. We eventually found the mall, but then what’s the word for bookstore? There was Gap and Armani, Puma and Foot Locker. No Barnes & Noble. We did find it (Luxor) and bought a tour book (in English).

Back out on the streets and sidewalks of diminutive square paving stones, we happened upon the Municipal Hall. The clerk at the box office was skeptical that we would enjoy the concert of singing in Czech. Turned out it was sold out anyway.

We ate delicious borscht at Pekny Bistro, charming and quiet at two in the afternoon. We walked along the Moldau. I seemed to hear the woodwinds burble upstream in the Bohemian forest and the ‘cellos pound out the country beat of the exuberant wedding festivities.

24 June 2022

This evening I sat in St. Salvador Church near Charles Bridge in Prague, listening to the opening notes of "The Moldau." Satisfying, even though it was just a six-piece string orchestra.

After the concert we sat outside to eat traditional Czech food (dumplings are featured prominently). It began to rain and we were grateful for the restaurant's awning. I had bought a black umbrella decorated with sheet music at the Lobkowicz Palace. A great investment for our half-hour walk back to the hotel.

By the way, I slept 10 hours last night, a total of 13 over two nights. That will do.

Negative Review

 Jim and I have planned an ambitious travel year. In the rush to make up for two and a half years of staying home (mostly), we’ve planned more trips than ever.

Last week was our East Coast trip. In one day we drove 960 miles: Lexington, MA, to Charleston, SC. Jim’s sister and her husband live there and since 2016, the year after David died, we’ve come to Charleston to stay with them and attend Spoleto Festival USA. It’s an immersion into the world of chamber music, opera, dance, and performance art.

Spoleto was cancelled in 2020 and last year Jim flew down on his own. I was deep into my garden: supervising Jim’s nephew Caleb and a teenaged gardener I’d hired to rebuild raised beds with granite pavers from the bottom of our driveway. While creating a new sidewalk in front of our house, workers uncovered them. How long ago was our street was paved in granite block?

This year at Spoleto, we attended a ballet performance that swept me away with the grace of a well-trained human body. We also saw a creative retelling of the classic Puccini opera La Boheme and several chamber concerts hosted by the inimitable Geoff Nuttall at the Dock St. Theater.

A concert featuring Stevie Wonder music had a last minute change when the tenor got sick. Johnny Felder, a local young man and opera chorus member, filled in and had us audience members eating out of his hands.

The day before our last chamber concert a violinist tested positive for covid, so at 11 p.m. the night before, Geoff asked a pianist friend of his what he could play. What we experienced was a breathtaking performance of a Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Handel (not to be confused with his Variations on a Theme by Haydn). Twenty-five variations and then a fugue: played masterfully with no sheet music.

I can’t begin to imagine the skill and talent such a feat requires.

Although I agreed to the crazy itinerary of a one-day 960-mile drive to Charleston, I decided that the ride back should be broken up. Thursday we drove a mere 633 miles. Truth be told, Jim did 85% of the driving that day. On his sister’s recommendation we stopped in Richmond. She had been charmed by the city years before. We walked along a cobblestone street and found City Dogs, a little grill with themed hot dogs, burgers, and Philly cheesesteaks.

After supper we wandered around trying to find the “Canal Walk”. After one dead end we found our way under the interstate and down some stairs to the canal. It was dark and deserted but we pressed on. Later, safe in our motel, we admitted to each other that we were grateful that our walk ended uneventfully.

After our Richmond evening, we checked into a motel in Short Pump, VA. I inexplicably love that name. It has an earthy down-to-earth tone to it. Named for a short pump (what’s a long pump?) under a tavern’s porch, it was on the Richmond Turnpike, which connected that city to Charlottesville, VA.

Our motel room prompted me to write my first negative review. (I have low standards: I’ve slept in my car on more than one occasion: a private bath is deluxe.) The fridge leaked onto the floor, the bathroom door was water-damaged and so swollen that it couldn’t be pushed closed. The kitchenette floor was sticky and the shower and bathtub wall wasn’t clean. But, as Jim said, philosophically, “I’ve seen worse.”

In 2001, we took our six kids, ages 10 to 20, to France, Italy, and the United Kingdom. I had booked rooms in a hotel in London for our first night there. All that night I wished I'd used a travel agent! I hardly slept. It was a three-story walk-up with a shared bathtub (yes, just a tub) which was filthy. The only positive was the price, but even my frugality was strained to breaking. We were definitely in a high crime area. The next day was Sunday and while the kids and I waited outside the Hyde Park Chapel, Jim sallied forth in search of better accommodations. He found a hotel within a row of charming hotels, each featuring an “English breakfast” of eggs, fatty sausage, and toast. It became a comfortable landing place during our London adventures.

Post-script: next morning in Short Pump, Jim gave the list of 'improvements needed' to the motel clerk. He received a 60% refund. I mentioned that in my review.

Chemist or Fool

 A few months ago, I did a very foolish thing. I spied little chunky white grains on the kitchen counter. My mouth watered, and to satisfy the sudden sweets craving, I licked my finger, touched a few grains and put them on my tongue. I immediately spit out the dishwasher detergent. But it had looked so inviting! I gained new understanding of poisoning among roving toddlers.

My mom broke her hip in 1984. (I realize with a shock that at 61, she was younger than I am now) I went to New Jersey with little R’el and one-year-old Peter to help her.

One evening I walked into Mom’s kitchen and found Peter under the sink, a plastic container of dishwasher detergent open beside him.

We called poison control and were told not to induce vomiting. Dishwasher detergent is very caustic and further tissue damage could be caused by vomiting it back up.

I was touched when 24 hours later I received a callback, checking on Peter. He was fine, no worse for the experience. As a young mother, I appreciated the thoughtfulness and care.