Time Travel on the Danube River

I've been saying that "All travel is time travel" for some time now. When you visit a place, you also visit a time. You can go back to the place, but not the time. Las Vegas illustrates this in rapid fashion, where a 10 year span of time can render a completely different (and of late, disappointing) experience.

But as I'm about to head out for our Danube River trip from Budapest to Prague, I'm struck by how much time matters for a trip like this.

I live in Chicago, where 100 years is OLD. That always seemed quaint to me, as in Salem, MA, where I grew up, there were houses from the 17th century. The city itself was founded four hundred years ago. I'm subsequently humbled when I visit St. Augustine where history is pushed back another six decades.

This past weekend, I visited Death Valley, where people who've literally been forgotten drew and carved symbols on rocks in a place surprisingly suited for life in such a seemingly desolate place. The indigenous population, which goes back thousands of years, has no communal memory of these folks, and simply refers to them as the "old ones." We were there, and so were they. Same spot, different times.

The Danube valley's known history stretches back around 5,500 years. That's older than the pyramids, the standard measurement for "old." Writing up my standard daily newsletters for such a trip, I learned a lot about the Celts who dominated the area before the Romans pushed them to far reaches of the British Isles. Their culture spread as far as modern Europe, and yet most of what we know about them is found in grave sites. But an even older population left remains in the area: pre-sapiens humans. There's reason to believe that neanderthals and possibly other pre-sapiens groups lived together with "modern" Homo sapiens, competing, at times cooperating, and even interbreeding.

The river has always been there. Ok, that statement has more authority than is warranted, but it's likely that the Danube has existed for all of "human" history. And that history is extraordinary.

As we sail west (upriver) on the Danube, we'll be on the same river that neanderthal swam and fished in, that modern humans paddled across before writing was invented, that the Greeks explored looking for trading partners, that the Romans conquered and fortified, and that carried the floating victims of the black death, the plague, and many other diseases as they made their way towards the Black Sea.

In more recent history, the valley hosted more than its share of artists, inventors and warmongers - with borders and family trees sustaining frequent edits especially during the 20th century. Many children raised an arm to the führer, nearly an entire population was moved, concentrated and slaughtered, and many bombs were dropped to ensure that never happened again. Hopefully.

I'll be thinking of these things as we make our way in complete safety and luxury. We (most likely) won't be adding to the "history" of the place. I imagine 5,000 years hence, our trip will be as unimaginable as someone riding an inflated pigskin as they check their fish traps. But both happened, and in the same place. As I write this in Chicago, I'm separated by distance and time. A week from now, the only distance will be time.

Two rivers flow, and we can only travel one. But travel we shall.