Here we go again—interviewing successfully married couples around the world!
This time we have made a return visit to Europe and are pleased to say that we have added two countries we have not been in before—Andorra and the Czech Republic! In our quest to discover the world’s greatest marriages, our list of countries visited has reached forty-five and have occurred on six of the seven continents of the world—Antarctica next year for us! It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it!
As avid train travelers, we decided to make the six-hour jaunt from Munich to Prague by rail. As you probably know, the Europeans rely on rail service far more than we do in the USA. And frankly, their rail service is terrific, with few exceptions. And did we mention, romantic!
Our first experiences with the romance of European rail travel began nearly thirty years ago and still today; we can’t get enough of it! European rail travel is efficient, on-time, comfortable, and relatively inexpensive. You can cover a lot of ground with little wear and tear on the body. And let’s be clear—there is nothing quite as romantic as having dinner on a train with the one you love enjoying a good bottle of wine! The sleepover we will have on a train from Paris to Barcelona in a couple days will be icing on the cake!
We chose the Czech Republic this time for a number of reasons. First of all, the Czech Republic, formerly part of a country called Czechoslovakia, was part of the communist Soviet Union for forty years. When the Berlin wall came down in 1989, the Czechoslovakia gained its freedom. Through its “Velvet Revolution” the Czech people regained the freedom they had lost through the tyranny of Adolf Hitler and later the enslavement by the Soviet Empire. The Czech Republic was born in 1993.
Let’s remember, this country—the country of the great composer Antonin Dvorak and the New World Symphony (the eighth)—has been a land of romance, creativity, great music, and wonderful people for centuries. The Nazi’s and the Soviet’s darn near beat it out of them but, thankfully, they did not succeed.
Now, as you ride by train from the German border into Prague, you realize that the past Twenty-one years of freedom have allowed much of the former spirit and ingenuity of the Czech people to rise to the occasion once again. Without a doubt, the Czech’s have had a struggle converting from everything state-run to individual freedom, entrepreneurship, and boundless creativity—and they are succeeding by leaps and bounds. Let’s face it, a free and creative people like the Czech’s did not thrive under communism, but thankfully their spirit survived.
