In many ways it feels like the blink of an eye, but to really transport our minds back to 25 years ago took a bit of an effort on our part. Even stranger was to think that we had celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary five years ago atop the world's tallest building (at that time), Taipei 101: now that time really has gone quickly! This time, hot on the heels of our European trip, we were glad that we'd decided to scuttle plans for a trip to Thailand to celebrate and decided instead to enjoy some home town specialtiies.

We took a personal day from school on Friday enabling us to drive over to Dahzi in the afternoon after work on Thursday last week. The Hotel Grand Victoria is a five star hotel that has morphed into being alongside all the glitz and glamour of the Neihu shopping malls, hotels, high-end apartments, restaurants and the Big Wheel that seems to be essential in any city worth anything these days! Not only is the accommodation first class, but it has recently hosted what is Taipei's first Michelin starred restaurant  La Festa, which is closely affiliated with Italy's La Credenza.

Our room was decadently luxurious and featured Phillipe Starck decor along with a most magnificent bathroom featuring not only expanses of beautiful natural stone and superb fittings, but an amazing toilet that almost needed to have a licence to drive it, with all sorts of automatic lids and heating and various other options that I'll leave to your imagination! The restaurant was sublime and lived up to its reputation. We eschewed the ease of the chef's selected menu, partly because of the foie gras to which we're ideologically opposed, but still managed to cater a classic four course meal for ourselves along with a mouth watering, smooth Italian red. We were able to dine at leisure and were slightly surprised at the restaurant's popularity on a quiet Thursday night: it got fairly packed! The wait staff were suitably coiffed and preened a little, yet cleverly left us alone except when we gave the slightest signal that we needed something, whereupon they descended like an eager flock of seagulls on a hot piece of pasta.

After a wonderful relaxing night under what Cass coined "The Karsten quilt" named in honour of our super goose down quilt in Karsten's apartment in Berlin, we eventually made our way down to breakfast in the same restaurant about half an hour before they closed up. We again stuffed ourselves on an amazing spread of tasty, fresh produce and ordered our eggs and waffles individually. It was such a relaxing way to spend our anniversary and all the more thrilling to drive home and revel in the fact that all our colleagues were beavering away at work!

Since then, we've made up for our days of leisure, being thrust back into the fast lane of newly formed classes (for me) and the revving up of second semester curricula (for both of us). The weekends have been a welcome relief and we've let out a collective sigh that ends abruptly on Monday when it all starts over. Cass and I both had our respective Book Clubs this Friday and as usual, had starkly different experiences! I, along with our ten strong group of men, had the famous beer tappers at Beitou's "Big Brother" , the rustic wooden bar that miraculously survives out on the main road near Beitou station, while Cass dined on al dente vegetarian at the local, classy Mia Cucina with her half a dozen girlfriends. They were disappointed to be "kicked out" at a very early hour: apparently the restaurant has become so popular that a booking now only lasts for two hours in order to accommodate multiple sittings. She and a couple of others wandered around the adjacent SOGO department store for a while afterwards...a beauty of big city living where everything seems to be open at least till 11 p.m.

We went across to the cinema on Sunday to see the incredible "Zero Dark Thirty", which we've been meaning to catch for some time. Wow, what a cinematic experience this was. Even though incredibly different, it had the same tension filled, "edge-of-the-seat" rush as the recent movie Argo. Director Kathryn Bigelow certainly has this modern war genre nailed down fast: A+ from us! Another late lunch/early dinner at The Spice Shop was a relaxing end to another weekend.

I've neglected to update our reading for a while. Cass has finished numerous books and I have read two books about Auschwitz (in the lead up to our visit). Currently, Cass is reading The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes and I am reading (belatedly) our friend Barry Maitland's excellent latest Brock and Kolla adventure, Chelsea Mansions. Photos: a blast from the past (!), me with my first semester group of kids in support class, shots from our anniversary stay, one of Cass before we went to the pictures yesterday and a close up of Cassy's "new" ring. She had her big emerald cut diamond shored up on either side by some triangular cut diamonds in a technical marvel of engineering by Joe, her doting jeweller: It's quite something!

 Our apartment owner, Jacek, was a bit flustered when we arrived about 45 minutes early, so we agreed to give him another 45 minutes to get the apartment sorted. Our first foray into the uncut diamond of Kazimierz, the old Jewish ghetto in Krakow, Poland now enjoying a renaissance as the Bohemian quarter, gave us a tiny insight into the magical world we'd explore for the next five days.

Wandering down past old synagogues and countless images, statues or plaques of ex-Pope JP2, we made it to the shores of the Vistula, the lifeblood of lower Poland and one of its prettiest features. Wandering back, Cass disturbed some birds (first photo above) in the town hall's square: the look on her face I think sums up our excitement in being in our third wildly different European city on our Christmas break.

We checked out our very slick (and warm!) apartment for a while, got settled, then headed off for some lunch before attacking Wavel Hill and Castle. A vast complex of ancient churches and castles on one of the few outcrops of higher land in the city, it was quite stunning architecturally and ornate in decoration, both inside and outside the many buildings. Cass enquired about concerts, particularly by the Polish maestro, Chopin, but didn't get much joy. We toured the church, but were disappointed to find the Royal rooms in the castle across the square were heavily restricted in terms of visitor numbers and were booked out for some days! JP2 again gazed benevolently upon the masses from yet another bronze likeness, but his ubiquitous presence was starting to creep us out a little!

After this we made our first of many trips to the sights and sounds and experiences associated with the main square, an amazingly expansive space in the centre of Krakow city which has been the hub of the community since medieval times. One night we managed to snare the only tiny table inside a restaurant with a majestic view of the square, with slowly clopping horse teams taking tourists in coaches through the cobbled streets. Hordes of youngies gorged on the most visceral looking platters and strings of mysterious meats, and hot beer and wine was sipped and held in gloved hands while bands played, shoppers browsed and bargained, and traders hawked. A cup of coffee turned into a bottle of wine, then a four course meal: we weren't giving up that spot easily!

Highlights of our days were again guiding ourselves through the city and environs via tram. The system was great and we were able to easily negotiate our way far and wide. We always climb the highest points so made our way up the four bell tower at Wavel and conquered the Krakus mound to score a panoramic view of the city from the far southern reaches. We wandered through back streets and marshes, parks and churches, outdoor memorials and museums and galleries. The Oskar Schindler factory was an outstanding museum dedicated to explaining the fate of the Jews who were detained in the area we were staying, Kazimierz. A young Roman Polanski's notes were on show and more horror from the days of the German invasion and occupation of Poland could be witnessed. Another day trip to the Wieliczka Salt Mines where the floors, walls, frescoes and even the chandeliers are made of salt, was quite overwhelming. The statistics, sheer size and sense of claustrophobia cannot be overstated and I must admit that waiting for the lift to return us to the mine-head was rather unnerving! The endless corridors of salt workings stretching for many criss-crossing kilometres (300 km+!), the vast cavernous spaces continually producing salt stalactites, and the wondrous grand cathedral were ethereal and stunning.

One evening, I took Cass to the Bonerowski Palace to enjoy a concert by celebrated young Polish pianist, Weronika Krówka as she played some classic Chopin amongst others, and her performance was so masterful, deft and nuanced that my darling wife was brought to tears. It was pretty special with a real virtuoso at work, sitting in the front row in a 16th century palace in a gorgeous room overlooking the twinkling lights of the Old Square. Another incredible highlight was to visit and explore the newly opened Rynek Underground museum. The whole square was dug up in 2005 and the archeological discoveries were so highly significant that they expanded their plans for the museum five-fold. It now snakes its way under most of the square in a high tech labyrinth of exhibitions that made it the best archaeological/history museum that we've ever visited.

We ate mouthwatering meals and cakes and coffees, a highlight being the massive plates of potato pancakes with goulash sauce for me and the traditional Polish dumplings, pierogi, for Cass at a local backstreet cafe. Our final morning before we were whisked off to yet another airport was to wander around doing a self guided tour of the synagogues in our area before visiting a weekend market where Cass bought some "vintage" local silver earrings and pin.

Krakow is really the forgotten jewel in the crown of Europe. This university city is alive with young, intelligent, vibrant people (many of whom look like super-models: Cassy's words, not mine!) and older folk who have witnessed wartime atrocities, survived, then prospered. Krakow's Kazimierz is comparable to Berlin's Kreuzberg in its slow metamorphosis and all three cities we visited are still coming to terms with various aspects of their political and social pasts. What a trip we had: we'll be recalling many moments for countless years to come and would love to get the chance to revisit any or all of these destinations. This is the album link.

I'll be back to "Taipei Life" next week, and by the way, we celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary in style this week staying in a five star hotel and eating at an Italian, Michelin starred restaurant! More later....

I had read both The Auschwitz Volunteer and Auschwitz: A Doctor's Eyewitness Account in the weeks leading up to our trip to Europe, to reacquaint myself with some of the facts and background leading to the most effective and brutal genocide attempt in human history. Nothing, however, could have prepared us for the scope and enormity of the horror we felt as we wandered the snow encrusted paths of these awful museums of indescribable human suffering.

Our driver got us to Auschwitz main camp before anyone else arrived and it was eerie and confronting to stand under the infamous Arbeit Macht Frei gate upon entry. We didn't feel like taking photos, but I'm glad we did in the end, as they go part of the way to describing our feelings on this day: shocked, cold, stunned and almost in a trance-like state for the majority of the time. We opted to self-guide, as we do at every opportunity we are afforded, but it was an especially good decision here. As the tours began to fill the place, we were able to cut out, skip a few sections, then head back later in peace and silence.

I remembered that the phone had a black and white function on its camera and thought that as the day was struggling to be more than monochromatic anyway, it would be a good choice for most of the photos. The main camp was barracks after barracks of horror. We were so shocked by the mountains of hair behind glass that I forgot to take a photo and we only properly regained our senses by the time we entered the next barracks. The well-known and written about "killing wall" was almost the most shocking thing in the camp, where many thousands of innocent men, women and children were slaughtered at this spot. We spent more than two hours at the main camp before we decided to rejoin Peter, our driver at the front for a ten minute drive to "Auschwitz II" the vastly superior killing machine that morphed into being after the evil genius of the Nazi brains trust realised that their goals could never be met at the original camp.

The main camp is very well preserved and is a physical monument to the millions who died there. Birkenau is more of an emotional tribute. While the famous train entrance and the tracks along with many of the wooden huts still stand, it is the vast acreages that are the most stunning and the stark chimneys against the horizon left by a panicked SS trying to burn the evidence of their atrocities as they fled further and further west in the end. We walked though some bitter snow flurries and wondered how anyone could survive harsher weather, dressed in rags, maltreated, worked almost to death, beaten, fed on nettles and water, all with the prospect of near-certain, horrific death hanging over their shoulders every single day and night. We walked though the outer camps few huts that were open to the public and were confronted by beastly smells: could the rank smell of dying humans permeate the wood of these bunks to this day? The ruins of the ovens were more evidence of fleeing, panicking guards and we witnessed the spot where people were selected to go "to the left", which meant directly to baths, death then ovens, or "to the right", where they would live short, tortured lives until they could work no more, whereupon their fate was the same.

We'll never go back to these horrific places. However, we're both glad we went: it feels almost like it is a human being's right of passage to witness it. This is the album link.

I'll try and publish a final instalment tomorrow about Krakow: it will be cheerier.

5 p.m., freezing cold and night was falling rapidly like a heavy blanket over what looked like a ghetto in the backstreets of Kreuzberg, Berlin. I powered up the phone and texted Karsten who assured us he'd be there in a few minutes. Our luggage was propped against a crumbling, graffiti-scarred wall outside what looked suspiciously like a crack den's oversize, creaking front door which had seen better days, when Karsten rolled up, led us into a tagged-up stairwell, up 5 flights and ushered us inside our "communist era style" apartment. Central heating units not dissimilar in size, colour and consistency to 1960's style Volkswagens dominated the two rooms, yet seemed to be throwing out the heat of a disposable lighter. Four huge arched windows, unadorned with coverings of any kind, boldly looked into the inner courtyard and all the surrounding apartments. Karsten commented that we could, "Walk around naked in this heat if you like..." Welcome to Berlin!

Although taken aback a little from this less than auspicious beginning, we quickly found the groove of this hippest neighbourhood of modern Berlin. Once the Turkish quarter, real crack dens and squatter buildings are nesting side-by-side with gentrified apartments, retro communist pads (like ours)and tiny studios hidden away in pretty, but crumbling pre-war blocks. Looking beyond the graffiti, we saw uber-mod restaurants and bars, young families walking the streets in safety and galleries and boutique shops dotting the maze of backstreets near the Schonleinstasse underground station from which we'd make our many forays into another new city.

Alexanderplatz became our hub for the next 5 days. From here we ventured far and wide, catching the U bahn, the S bahn, trams and lots and lots of walking. After a few days, we had the layout of the inner city pretty much nailed down in terms of geography and transport links, and found ourselves asking, "Should we take the 'U' or the 'S' to get to Spandau?"  After the unexpected success of our Alternative Budapest tour, we decided to try the original, Berlin style. This was a fantastic journey over 4 and a half hours where we walked through alleys and back lanes, through postage-stamp parks and building sites, under freeways and in and out of train stations, hopping on and off different trams and walking a lot, all in the cause of discovering some of Berlin's most surprising and hidden gems. We stood on great mounds in the exclusive suburbs where Nazis first detained citizens in concentration camps, explored acres of re-vamped brewery buildings, marveled at cutting edge street art and ate currywurst in the shadows of the S bahn at the original stand where it was invented (and stood on the spot where the very first short moving picture was filmed, of a train leaving the same station). We saw sections of the Berlin Wall that most never see and saw incredible, historic buildings, sites and art that are not in any guide books or maps...our guide was young, energetic, smart and knowledgeable and it was a real treat.

We traveled out to the Olympic Stadium one morning and this was yet another reminder of the sick genius of Hitler and the Nazis. Berlin still resonates with all sorts of reminders of the war and it is encouraging to see the way Germany deals with this delicate issue: there are monuments, memorials, museums and exhibitions of all manner of atrocities, yet somehow they have made them all accessible without watering down the real and horrific history. The stadium had an amazing museum which captured the mania of the time, and the stadium itself stands as a monument to the image of strength and vitality that Hitler sought to instill in the populace: in fact, it is a gorgeous piece of modern architecture that takes your breath away even today.

Wandering Under der Linden on the way to the Brandenburg Gate, we could eat Brandeburger sausages or see bubble shows on the street along the way. Back on down, Cass was particularly taken with the subtle memorial in the ground at Bebelplatz commemorating the book burning that occurred there in 1933 at the instigation of Goebbels. Back again to the imposing Reichstag and all it's associated history and across to the Holocaust memorial, a haunting and unusual piece of open air art. On other days we travelled out into the suburbs to visit Berlin's answer to Versailles, the Charlottenburg Palace, and we both agreed it compared favourably (I actually think it was better, but my resident Francaphile does beg to differ!). I spied a Knights helmet amongst other things!(see above). It's just so European to be wandering back to the subway and stumble across an exhibition by Goya, Daumier and Toulouse-Lautrec on the way, a coincidence as we'd become new fans of the French satirist artist, Daumier, after seeing a colossal exhibition of his work in Budapest the week before. The Jewish Museum was a confronting visit, yet gave so much background of which we were unaware. We left having a much better picture of how they have been unfairly and unmercifully persecuted for many hundreds of years, culminating in the WWII genocide attempt. 

Of course, we managed to eat our share of German cuisine, and I must admit I was in heaven in this land which worships both meat(sausages) and beer. Cass managed to find other delicious options everywhere we went, however, and we also managed to sample a lot of fine cakes and coffees Deutschlandstyle! We discovered that sugar portions are called "zucker sticks" and discovered that you need to know some German to buy coffee in the supermarket...fun times!

The German capital is ablaze with independent thinking, avant garde style and exciting life. We loved the feel of this very different European city still struggling to come to terms with its past, while triumphant in its resurrection from the ashes of the allied bombing in 1945. Our minds filling up with the echoes of war atrocities and horrors perpetrated, we were ready to travel to Poland and face them head on in the most uncompromising setting of all. Photo album slideshow above for a time, then here.

Deep breath. Here goes! I'm back in the writing seat, out of practice and in a bit of a rush. I plan to do three entries, maybe even four, to include Budapest, Berlin, Krakow (and perhaps a separate one on Auschwitz). The plan is to get the first two done this week, with the first installment today (Budapest), second by Wednesday(Berlin) and the final one(s) done next Sunday-Monday in the regular weekly spot. Sound like a plan?

We'd selected the three countries/cities on our route as we'd never visited before and they all seemed to offer an exotic and different experience from ones we'd had on previous trips: there was not much more planning than that. Normally we'd make use of highspeed rail around Europe but the trains into Poland, in particular, are notoriously unreliable and slow. We had an 8 plane interchange for our 17 days!

Straight after school on Thursday, to Hong Kong, then Frankfurt and onward to Budapest, we arrived early Friday morning through the magic of erasing time zones, and taxied through a flurrying sky and snow kissed landscape to Budapest city. Ensconced at the gate to the old Jewish quarter we met the first of our hosts for the private apartments we would stay in all three cities. After a quick orientation session of the quirks and features of our very comfortable space, we were able to set out on a first foray into the city.

Cass had armed herself with a guide book and I had various apps and maps electronically, but our first mission was to grab some cash in "forints", nail down the metro, then get some supplies to stock our little apartment's larder to ensure we didn't need to brave the snow to get some breakfast. We worked the ATM, then worried over the rather confusing metro instructions for a while before buying a book of ten tickets, getting them validated then diving onto a very "communist era" looking train to travel a few stops down the line. We disembarked in a very un-communist looking sparkling mall where I sourced the right electrical adaptor I was after (come on, iPad, iPod, phone and camera all needed some help by now!)then we braved the underground dwelling masses to get some Hungarian foodcourt food: even that was delicious! It was -6 upside and we wondered how our Taiwanese down jackets were going to cope when we trained back and emerged into a bitter flurry. Scarf swathed and hats on, we were surprised to find they were coping really well!

Over the next five days, we had some of the most magical experiences you could possible imagine. Our second afternoon and evening was on our only organized tour, one which turned out to be an eye-opener. The Alternative Budapest tour was a walking one over 3 and a half hours and we saw street art, crumbling synagogues, yarn bombing, dead drops, hidden corners and the coolest bars and venues we've ever seen anywhere in the world. Our trip culminated in a trip to the A38, a massive Ukranian container ship moored on the Danube and a visit to the VIP bandroom out the back, deep in the working bowels of the ship. It's the number one bar in the world!

Our visits to the twinkling nighttime Christmas markets were almost too magical to believe: the snow wafted down on steaming cups of mulled wine and skaters danced on tiny ice rinks set up in the central courtyards. The wooden stalls sheltered wood and wool, marzipan and leather, pottery and paintings. We walked and sampled and marveled. We soaked up delicate  and perfect concerts of Hungarian maestro Liszt in churches on Christmas night and feasted on local delicacies in late night suppers just off the main square in toasty restaurants. During the day, we crossed the Chain Bridge, explored the Buda Castle hill and warded off the cold by ducking into restaurants and bars to sample more Hungarian coffees, wine and food. We traveled by underground to visit the magnificent Heroes' Square and in the shadow of the thousand dancing ice skaters were delighted to stumble on a major Cezanne exhibition....what does this city not have?!

One day, we boarded a bus for a tour of the city which, remarkably splashed straight into the Danube itself and continued the tour! The River Ride bus/ship was a unique engineering achievement and it was exciting to experience the splashpoint with rousing music as accompaniment. Check our little video here. We caught trams all round the city from Pest to Buda and back again, in the morning and the fading light and later at night. The double city split by the Danube is a perfect little gem of crumbling Gothic architecture, a thriving little metropolis pulling itself ever so slowly from its recent communist neglect and austerity. Even though cold and stark for much of our visit, Budapest is a succulent bud pushing its way out of a neglected garden bed, and we want to return to watch it blossom. Here is a link to the Budapest album once it disappears. Berlin here we come!