Into the South

In the years 1909, 1911, and 1913, Kafka undertook several journeys to Switzerland and Italy, sometimes with Max Brod. He saw something of Lake Garda, visited an airshow at Montechiari, wandered around Munich, toured Zurich, spent an evening in Lucerne, rode the Gotthardbahn railway, stayed at Lake Lugano, looked around Milan, and recuperated in Stresa. The two friends confided many of their impressions to their diaries; the Kafka scholar Hartmut Binder has done the detective work to reveal the exact course of events so that today you can make an enjoyable journey in Kafka’s footsteps. 

At the station before the first journey I surprised Franz by handing him a little brown-bound notebook and taking one just the same out for myself. “We can keep parallel travel diaries,” I explained decisively. And indeed I was overjoyed that Franz took up my suggestion with enthusiasm. 

Max Brod

There is a goal but no path; that which we call the path is hesitation.

Franz Kafka, Aphorisms