Czech Republic and Poland!

Krakow is a great city to visit - since it was spared the worst of WW2 damage, the medieval town center is a sight to behold.

In Bohemia, there are a number of sites to consider - if you like mountains, then the Tatra massif between Poland and CZ has charms. If you want cities, Prague is worth a 2-3 day stop. Consider also the other cities: Tabor and Cesky Krumlov/Krumau (medieval), Ceske Budejovice/Budweis (huge town center), Jindrichuv Hradec (fortress city) and dozens of castles in Southern Bohemia and Moravia, all with wonderful atmosphere. If you want to go to a real undervalued (by Americans) site, take on Telc in Moravia - nothing like that town in all of Europe! I'd also check out festivals to get local flavor - folkdance in Strasnice (June)and a number of similar attractions in Western Bohemia.

Krakow is a great city for exploring with many sites, as well as just being a wonderful city to meander and relax. I highly recommend Auschwitz, this tragic historical site is a moving must. The salt mines near Krakow, are also great. We also bought candy floss on the square in Krakow and just sat around watching the sites. It was lovely.

We hit Prague. In addition to the popular sites, we thoroughly enjoyed taking a paddle boat out on the river. I remember that the most.

I think Poland as a lot of treasures too, we were enough lucky to have a personal guide who took us around. We visited between Krakow and Prague some places, like Wroclaw (we didn't even knew before about that city and it was so beautiful) and in the Polish mountains we also visited Karpacz in the Karkonosze and Zakopane in the Tatra mountains, which were lovely too..

If you are also going to Berlin (I assume you are the same Juliane from another post), you can consider Gdansk as a stop-over. The city has a close association with the dockworkers of the Solidarity movement, and even though this may imply images of a gray industrial city, Gdansk actually has a rather pleasant water front and town center.

Read Rick Steves book: Prague & the Czech Republic. A lot of excellent suggestions are right there. I am a native of the country and I think he chose the best. Of course if you have more time we can add.

I have a long, semi entertaining, travel report all about the CZ; Prague, Kunta Hora, some small towns down in the wine country and of course Ceska Krumlov. Email me if you would like a copy;

[email protected]

just take out the two XX's to get the real address...

Also, in Poland if you are interested you could visit the Auschwitz camp.

I am very interested in history and the world wars, so while it wont be a very 'pleasant' place to visit, for me it will mean a lot :)