Being someone who has always enjoyed history and geography it has been a joy to travel through central Europe and experience first hand so many different countries and what their major cities have to offer. Countries like Germany and Austria I have studied at school and already know something about. Other countries like Poland, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary have always been a mystery to me. In my growing up years they were drab and oppressed countries behind the Iron Curtain.

I expected to see affluent societies in Germany and Austria but was surprised to find prosperity in the former Eastern Block counties as well. The exclusive designer label shops are not only in Berlin and Vienna, but also in Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. Supermarkets are just like ours, packed full of goodies to satisfy every appetite.

What is different from us is the buildings, which are old, very old and sometimes very, very old. The hand-carved sculptures on these buildings are magnificent and stands in stark contrast to the post WWII architecture which is functional and bland. Many cities lost a lot of these classic buildings in the war so you now see the ridiculous alongside the sublime. This is no more so than in Berlin which is a scarred city full of tragedy. The allies heavily bombed the city in WWII reducing so much of it to rubble. The lovely old buildings which survived were then subjected to the ground battle for Berlin which was fought building by building. The stone work is riddled with bullet holes. Berlin then had to endure “the Wall” which separated the communist east from the capitalist west. We heard numerous stories of brave East Germans escaping to the west. Despite all this Berlin is a city full of hope – the arts have returned and flourish, Parliament House and the Berlin Cathedral are both magnificent buildings, there are wide tree-lined footpaths and streets, malls, eating places and expansive parks.

Warsaw was even more damaged in the war than Berlin. During the Nazi occupation, on 1 August, 1944, there was the Warsaw uprising, where for two months local residents rose up in an armed struggle against the German soldiers. The rebellion failed and Hitler ordered the city to be reduced to rubble to be an example to any other occupied city of what would happen if they rebelled. Sadly Russian troops entered the rubble on 17 January 1945 just a little too late. However the Polish people showed great spirit to reestablish the city such that ten years later a million people were once again living there.

With the exception of Poland, Europe has by and large turned its back on its Christian roots and embraced secularism. While Poland boasts it is more Catholic than the Vatican, other countries have a handful of worshippers in their churches but thousands of tourists. One has to ask why? Has the suffering of two world wars, the holocaust and the cold war left people too jaded to believe God can actually make a difference. Or is it the more recent affluence which has left people feeling little need of God? Has the rejection of the monarchy in Europe given people a psyche that doesn’t want any absolute power ruling over them. Maybe the Church is just old and tired – especially when you see a giant stone tomb in the middle of the pews at the front of the Cathedral, such as in Prague. Better to treat it as a museum! Whatever the reason please pray for the Church to renew or for God to raise up a new Church full of living stones!

Apart from anything else it has simply been life changing traveling in these countries I’ve previously only read about. To see first hand horrific places like Auschwitz (and actually walk into the gas chamber) and aesthetically magnificent places like Budapest and Vienna has brought history to life. It has pushed me back to the history books to understand better Europe and how it has developed into the countries we now see on the map. Each country has its own story to tell in relation to the other countries round about. Given the histories of empire, national pride and conflict, the current arrangements under the EU are quite remarkable. The fact that we can travel so easily across the borders of prosperous countries that were once bitter enemies is truly remarkable. It is a joy and great privilege undertaking this journey.