A relaxing day-trip from Prague is a comfortable rail ride to the town of Benešov. Stroll the grounds of Archduke Francis Ferdinand's chateau.

I visited the site once before, in 1996. This year the landmark features a special display, "Together in Life and Death," with realia and memorabilia from the lives of the Archduke and his wife, Sophie Chotek. Gavrilo Princip got off two shots and managed to kill them both--on their wedding anniversary, June 28. I'll be in Sarajevo on the centennial, so please look for updates.

Just when I was afraid Prague had become too touristy. A couple of hours after checking in to a hostel in the Lesser Side district, one of the major sight-seeing destinations, I happened upon this group of revelers singing a traditional Czech song. They stepped out from the pub "At the Tomcat's" to perform "Všude bylo ticho..." "Everywhere was quiet, like in church, only music was playing merrily... the moon was witness to our love & kisses."

This trip is largely devoted to an understanding of Viennese Jewish writer Stefan Zweig's autobiography The World of Yesterday, an account of Europe, particularly Central Europe, before it came apart at the seams with the outbreak of World War I. Appropriately, my JFK-Prague flight offered Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel, a film loosely inspired by Zweig's writings (and whose imagery includes several Central European landmarks which I'll visit).

The film closes with the lines "To be frank, I think his world had vanished long before he ever entered it. But I will say, he certainly sustained the illusion with a marvelous grace," which can refer to Zweig as well as to the films lead character, Monsieur Gustave H.