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Hello Reader,

🧭 Where in the World?

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First, before you read this, consider your source. In Padua, two weeks ago, we visited the pharmacy for me. Today, in Bratislava, we visited the pharmacy for Tom. In between, one or both of us has been coughing and suffering sinus and upper respiratory ailments. That’s the way it goes sometimes, home or abroad. We’ve taken days off from sightseeing, curling under the covers and trying to ignore the world around.

In these two weeks, the world has been hard to ignore. We landed in Ljubljana, Slovenia, on U.S. election day and withdrew for three days. Call us preoccupied tourists.

We didn’t bother to discuss the new DOGE department to be run by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. The name simply reminded me of our recent visit to the Doge's Palace in Venice, known for its fancy tribunals and dank prison cells. In old Venice, criminal investigations could famously (or is it infamously?) be initiated by anonymous accusations slipped into the mouth of the lion relief sculpture in the palace courtyard.

On to Zagreb, Croatia, for five days. There we stayed in an apartment on a dark street, tentatively finding our way around an unknown city when the sun was setting at about 4 p.m. Our conversations alternated between our separate takes on what had just happened in the U.S. and decided silence when it just got to be too much.

Still feeling crummy, we did our best to give Zagreb a chance, and could sense its attractive café culture, seating spilling out onto the streets, with blankets, warm drinks, and excellent pastries readily available. Despite our timing – too late for autumn festivals and too early for holiday lights – we found the museums, parks, architecture and range of international restaurants pleasant, even the bittersweet Museum of Broken Relationships.

Our best meal in Zagreb was at an unlikely Indian restaurant on the corner near our apartment. But that meal concluded with a sobering conversation with our server about her take on immigrants in Croatia.

By the good graces of our Eurail pass, we moved on to Graz, Austria, and felt like we’d suddenly fast forwarded three decades. Graz, the second largest city in Austria, was named a European Capital of Culture in 2003, an honor that comes with substantial EU funds for cultural improvements. Its city center is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and Graz has been cited, too, as a UNESCO Design City. We spent most of our time there in museums.

In Graz, like much of Eastern Europe, wars, battles for independence, and oppressive regimes are part of recent memory and current museum exhibitions. Somehow, every museum visit reminded us of our current political situation back home. The Armory, the History Museum, and the Art Museum all approached the battles for individual freedom in different ways. The messages all smacked of current events.

From the Graz History Museum’s permanent exhibit on the rise of Naziism in Austria, a didactic accompanying a photo from a 1938 Anschluss rally:

Next stop, Bratislava. Our walking tour covered heaps of history, from the Middle Ages on. I asked our gude at one point why a black flag was flying from a church tower, and learned it’s in protest of the current culture minister. The “Minister of Unculture”, as our guide described her, has dismissed most staff who in fact have been developing and maintaining the country’s cultural heritage over recent decades, and replaced them with friends who have no experience in the area.

Sound familiar?

As we were commiserating about similarities in our current elected officials, our guide differentiated the two, saying “Here, we are a small country so the impact is little. In America, the consequences are much bigger.”

Let’s hope, she said, that your democracy is strong enough to outlast these four years. – KH.

🧳 Our (not so) Latest Posts

One of the things we love about traveling via train is the opportunity to find ‘secondary’ cities we’d not otherwise visit (such as our recent visit to Padua, Italy.) A good place to start to plan your own trip is to look up the European Capitals of Culture. Here’s an old post about Tallin, Estonia, a European Culture Capital we visited soon after the invasion of Crimea by Russia.

🗞️ Travel News From Around the Web

• When you do your research on a city or country you're about to visit, you should always check TravelPast50 to see if we've been there. Also, we never miss a chance to use a good guide book. But, when you're looking for a good guide book, be careful. There are lots of scammers out there who have never been out of their basement who use AI to cobble together phony guide books they sell online. Don't fall for it.
• We always rely on tourist information offices as we arrive in new cities. We recommend them for money-saving city pass cards and for walking tours. Most countries have seasonal events and various itinerary ideas on their websites, too. We recommend the official sites, (like Spain's or Austria's, for example) and not the sponsored or tour company sites.

💸 This Week's Best Deals in Travel

• Watch for our return to zesty deals on travel and related gear and gifts next week, in time for Black Friday shopping. In the meantime: Find a trip with Go Ahead Tours and save up to $800, now through Black Friday.
• And, speaking of tour deals, Intrepid Travel is currently offering up to 20 percent off more than 800 of their tours.
• If we haven't convinced you yet that Apple AirTags are the best innovation in travel of the last few years, maybe this will do it. They're on sale at Amazon right now for $72.99 for a four-pack. That's the lowest price we've ever seen. If you ever check bags, you should be using these.

✈️ Points and Miles News

As usual, because of banking regulation, we can't name this card here, but I think we can tell you that there's no annual fee, and you'll get an immediate $200 gift card just for signing up. No minimum spend! If you're a frequent user of a certain online retailer, and you don't have this card, you're really missing out on some great benefits.

📖 What We're Reading

Based on a NY Times recommendation of older "thrillers," Tom has dived into a 1943 book called The Fallen Sparrow, by Dorothy B. Hughes. The story is of an escapee from a Fascist prison during the Spanish Civil War who makes it back to New York to find his best friend has been murdered, and the police are doing nothing about it.

Kris just downloaded The Ministry of Time, a novel by Kaliane Bradley, based on a friend's recommendation, and doesn't have anything to say about it yet.

For our previous recommendations, check out this list.

❝Travel Quote of the Week❞

Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by. – Robert Frost

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Happy travels,

Kris and Tom

​ Tom Bartel and Kristin Henning ​Travel Past 50​ ​ Connect with us: Facebook, Threads, Instagram, ​ Join our Facebook community.

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