Last Day in Budapest - Day 7

Well, we expected to like Vienna better than Budapest, but to our surprise- we all love and prefer Budapest!!  We love the architecture, the food, the diversity of peoples, the history, the ambiance, the topography and oh, did I mention the food?

And...... it's breakfast time again at our hotel cafe. It's delicious, scrumptious, the ambiance is great and it's included in our room bill, so we indulge and skip lunch.  

A sampler of fresh baked-this-morning breads.....

Breakfast entrees including Hungarian omelet (me) duck liver terrine (Ray), pasta with prosciutto (Shirley), scrambled eggs (Sally). 

Plus coffee, tea, etc and Sally and Shirley finished with a Lemon-grass torte. 

Thusly fortified, we again hop on bus #16 to the top of Buda Hill for a tour of the Royal Palace where Hungarian Kings were crowned (bombed nearly flat during WWII, poorly reconstructed by the Russians/Communist government nevertheless housing a worthwhile museum tracing 1,000 years of early, medieval and modern Hungarian history) and having great views of the Danube and the Pest side of the city. 

The Royal Palace and it's sculptures depicting historical Magyars (Hungarians) in dramatic scenes.....

And a lovely view of The Danube, the Hungarian Parliment Builing & Pest City...

I found a few Medieval / Art Nouveau gargoyles for daughter Julie who loves Halloween and such......

We spied a grand diversity of architectural styles...Art Nouveau, neo-gothic, neo classical, neo romantic, neo, neo....

We toured the Budapest Opera. Acoustics rated one of the top 5 in the world and costs for a performance one of the cheapest in Europe. 

And the iconic (on every postcard of The Danube through Budapest) Hungarian Parliment Building (from the front this time). 

A quick romp through the Great Market Hall, an 1886 farmers market featuring Hungarian paprika, fruit brandies, fresh veggies...

Paprika and garlic....

Meats and smoked sausages (free smells)......

A short walk on one of many Budapest pedestrian streets to our restaurant (Borlabor)...

...and we enjoy another fine meal, ending with Palinka (Hungarian fruit brandy - this time sour cherry).....

Tomorrow we will be up early to catch the 9:45 train to Pecs, Hungary. 

Walking Tour of Budapest - Day 6

WONDERFUL breakfast at our Hotel Gerlóczy this morning! Delectable pastries (baked at 7am), luscious pannacota, delicious omelets, fragrant coffee, crispy panini, tasty fruit bowls - oh yum, yum!  Is your mouth watering??

We meet our local tour guide Aniko at our hotel and head off for 4 hours of non-stop walking while providing historical overview, cultural insight, and personal insights. What an energetic, knowledgeable lady!

We start first on the Pest side of the Danube, exploring the streets, museums and parks of the newer side of Budapest. Including the Szechenyi Baths (Budapest's thin crust covers a huge reservoir of natural hot water). Budapest has 123 natural springs and 24 thermal baths. We didn't swim, but the Speedo and bikini clad pot bellied locals seemed to be having a lovely time.  

Heroes Square - 1,000 plus years of Hungarian history in a nutshell. 

And much, much, more!  Next we boarded the #16 bus for the ride to the top of Buda hill. First we visited Matthias Church where Hungarian kings were crowned. 

15th century sculpture in Matthias Church. 

Lovely stained glass. 

Coffee and cakes at Ruszwurm, the oldest cafe in Budapest (1827) still employing the original, vintage furniture. 

And returned to Pest in time for an organ concert that rocked St Istvan's Basilica. 

And then dinner at classy, highly rated, Cafe Kor.  Luckily we snuck in early, as every table was booked for the evening. 

Authentic Hungarian hideg gyumolcs leves (cream-based, cold fruit soup), ours was strawberry.  

Walking home we passed a collection of "love locks". Lovers have their name engraved on a lock, then lock it to the structure signifying lasting love. 

Off to bed after coffee and dessert at our elegant Gerlóczy Hotel cafe. 

Vienna - The Sun Comes Out Day 4

Up early in hopes of finding breakfast at the Naschmarkt, a lively, sprawling outdoor produce market also including Turkish kebab stands, small cafés and on Saturdays a flea market which is a little seedy but fun.

We fueled up on coffee, snacks and a goulash omelet (very good, by the way) and headed for the Emperor's Hofburg palace (living quarters, tableware collection, and biographical info on his wife Sisi). No pics were allowed, so none will be included, but we found the historical backstory quite interesting. Would have liked some info on the living situation of the many people actually running the palace (a la Downton Abbey), but none was offered.  

Since we were so accustomed to be surrounded by opulence, we just had to visit the famous, elegant Cafe Sacher, for an espresso and a slice of the famous Sacher torte (chocolate cake separated by apricot filling and covered with chocolate frosting), invented in 1832. Years later it's still pretty yummy. 

Our final Viennese treat, is a trip to the Wiener Wald (Vienna Woods) and dinner at a Heuriger (wine garden restaurants, clustered around the outskirts of town, old-village atmosphere, serving homemade wine and small meals).  First we took bus #38A to Leopoldberg, high above Vienna, having great views of the city, the Danube and surroundings. 

Then, we rode back to Grinzing and chose a lovely Heuriger (Weingut Heuriger Dr Mueller-Schmidt) for dinner - WOW - our best meal while in Austria. Big slices of crispy pork.  Look at that smile on Shirley's face!!

We found 3 kinds of roast pork, (one with a delicious, crispy rind), dumplings, cucumber salad, quiche, homemade white wine and Shirley's new favorite drink, 1/2 white grape juice, 1/2 mineral water.  Here we are feasting in their lovely little garden. 

On the train ride home tonight, we all fell asleep in a delicious roast pork coma. 

Up early tomorrow for the 3 hour train ride to Budapest!

The Beautiful Blue Danube - Day 3

We are on a train speeding toward Ancient Melk Abbey on the beautiful blue Danube River. Oh, by the way, Dave and Ray were sent off to purchase train-boat-train combi-tickets, but we got busted by the conductor.......🙉

It seems Dave and Ray somehow only purchased 2 round trip tickets instead of four (we blame it on the pretty ticket agent's poor English). The female conductor on the train laughed when we said we didn't know Shirley and Sally, and directed us to "pay up" at the next station. Sally and Shirley expressed a faint suspicion that we were striking out on our own, disrespecting our heartfelt apologies and excuses.   This time the ladies came to the desk with us, thus securing their safe passage and guarding us from any potential "Euro-floozies". 

Here are the girls with their tickets, Ray and I continually expressing contrite regret. 

Climbing the hill above Melk we see the restored 11th century Melk Abbey towering above us in Baroque splendor (the exterior was redone on the 1700's). 

The Benedictine monks took vows of poverty, but the abbot did ok. 

Circular stairway..........to heaven, I guess....

The library - I got scolded by the guard for taking this pic. She must have thought I had a book-eating camera. Not one volume was out of order (Ray checked). 

Pretty town of Melk below. 

Climbing back down the hill, we walked the couple kilometers to the Danube wharf, boarded our boat and cruised downriver past lovely vineyard towns for 3 hours. 

Picnic lunch on board with Sal and Shirley's new favorite soda: "Almdudler"!  At a Viennese grocery store near you.......

Landing in Krems an der Donau, we hiked a few more kilometers (all uphill) to our target restaurant........to find it closed. Sooo disappointed - They made their own bacon!!  Really!!

Oh well!  We consoled ourselves with a couple more kilometers of sightseeing in the pretty town and found another spot for dinner, while contemplating how Hungarian cuisine with tons and tons of really spicy paprika might be a welcome change. I believe there is no Sri Racha to be had in all of Austria (still checking). 

Taking the train back to Vienna, everyone dozed in another food coma. Today we did literally walk our butts off!

Tomorrow: the Naschmarkt (international/farmer's market), the Emperors  Palace, Sisi (the Emperor's Barbie-doll wife), and a Heuriger (country wine garden). 

Vienna - Day 2 The Old City Center

Cathedrals, jewels, music, tafelspitz and walking in the rain:
Due to jet lag, we all woke up early, were out the door by 7:30 and had a quick breakfast in a local cafe before meeting our personal tour guide Lisa Zeiler, a local Viennese lady who provided wonderful historical context and insight into Vienna's contributions over the centuries.


Being a religious holiday in Austria, the churches were full. The compensating factor was that beautiful music presentations were ours to enjoy free of charge - a beautiful choir-orchestra-organ recital at St Agustine Church (great acoustics) and a string quartet playing Vivaldi's four Seasons at St Stephen's Cathedral.

Medieval courtyard (now updated)

Lovely old Diglas Cafe, where Lisa and Shirley bought candied violets, created for the empress back in the day.

Lunch at very traditional Reinthaler's Beisl (we appeared to be the only English speakers) where we had Tafelspitz (beef rump roast boiled in broth, with a condiment of horseradish mixed with applesauce and a side of caraway hash browns). Very tasty, (although I was wishing for a spot of Sri Racha) and again we were soooo full.


The next few hours we walked off our lunch by exploring odd bits of Vienna.
Tomorrow: a day trip to Melk Abbey, a cruise on the Danube and likely more foodie adventures.

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Adventures in Vienna - Day 1

Our intrepid adventurers leaving today (or rather yesterday with the time difference), from Denver International Airport. This will be the last we see of each other for roughly 36 hours......

David and Sally's flight to Vienna was cancelled, due to a trifling technical issue such as an engine falling off or some such thing, so we worked with Luftansa to get re-routed and spent the entire night waiting for flights in Toronto and Frankfurt, eating plastic airline food and finally arriving at our hotel about 4pm instead of 8am. Ray and Shirley had cellphone problems, a flight with reservations (but no assigned seats), and a bloodthirsty cabbie accidentally whacking Ray on the head (and drawing blood) with his trunk lid, but still managing to beat David and Sally to the hotel by a wide margin. Our rooms at the K&TBoardinghouse2, Vienna - clean, simple and ideally located next to the subway stop.

On the recommendation of our hostess Tina we tried a local specialty - Weiner Schnitzel - monster portions of breaded and fried veal cutlet goodness. Tender on the inside, crispy on the outside, no calories or fat grams and paired with local beer, wine or a tasty lemon/ginger soda and and a side of potato salad we washed to taste of airline food quite away.

After ingesting all that food, jetlag set in with a vengeance and we barely made it back to our hotel before collapsing in a food coma. Tomorrow we meet our local personal guide for a walking tour of the old city center (and likely sampling more Viennese delicacies).