Souvenirs

A 50 Euro cent. Gotta always have one handy. Most public restrooms cost that.

Hungarian paprika 

3am Budapest time to 8pm Jacksonville time

We got up at 3am Budapest time yesterday to catch a 4am bus to catch a 6:30am flight to Amsterdam.

Then 9 and a half hour flight to Atlanta.  Claim our bags, walk them through customs/security, then recheck them  for the flight to Jax.

Security checks are different everywhere- they should post signs: shoes off? Yes or no. Belt off? Yes or no.  Expect someone to try and determine if I am hiding something explosive between my bra and my skin? Yes or no.  Good gracious. Not gonna complain, truly.... Not exploding in flight is the most important thing, and we did not. So the various security folks did their job successfully, but simply posting a list of expectations would be nice.   Like high school teachers do on day 1 every year.

3am Budapest time to 8pm Jax time. 24 hours  more or less. Whew.

We walked across the Chain Bridge

(Not made of chains, clearly)

There was a nice pedestrian walkway, separated from the car lanes.

Budapest arrival by night

Parliament building, as seen from the Danube 

Close up 

Etc

I don't really know how to take videos

We went to an organ concert in a lovely church in Bratislava this morning. I attempted to take a video. It's a bit rushed at the end because it looked like I was running out of time. But then I couldn't get it to quit recording; hence the picture of David's shoe.

And now it appears that this blog program won't accept videos anyway.. Facebook perhaps?

Bratislava Slovakia

Tour guide says when someone asks her how far this is from Czechoslovakia, she answers- oh, about 23 years. That's when Czechoslovakia split into 2 countries- the Czech Republic  and Slovakia. (She also had an old joke about the KGB and toilet paper, but I'll leave it unrepeated here) 

Very nice medium sized capital city.

A castle, with a statue of a guy on a horse out in front:

Castle had a lovely gate:

And a nice view of the Danube:

Of course, like as in all good castles, Marie Therese Hapsburg slept here at least once. 

Then down to town:

Odd:

This is the sign warning folks not to trip on the bronze man at work:

The sign is also to tell tourists to whip out their cameras, because this fellow  is apparently quite a famous bit of whimsy in these parts.

Ping pong tables in the park, right in the  middle of the city. Nice!

I felt like I should've reading this sign from the back. Are these real Slovak letters? Or maybe avant-garde artsy?  I need to look into that. Meanwhile, this ad for some event was all over town, in all its backwards-letters glory. 

Layers of Vienna

Top half of the picture- the big palace.

Middle area is a bunch of wood stalls being assembled in preparation for the Christmas market starting maybe next week.

Pile of rocks in the lowest section of the picture is Roman ruins being excavated.

They have a lot going on here!

Mozarthaus

We went to Mozart's house! Or one of them, anyway. Somehow very cool a thing to have done. I loved it. No interior pictures allowed, but here is the sign at the door, and a couple of street shots:

Other famous locals:

Also Strauss, but no pictures. Not even that famous gold (goldish?) statue. Drove past it, but no opportunity to take a picture 

Vienna

I think Washington DC must be modeled after Vienna- lots of gorgeous marble buildings, with statues of guys on horses.

And fountains. This one was built because they figured God was mad at them for I forget what, and had sent the Plague. So this was to thank God for ending the plague. Ok then.

We walked through the Spanish Riding School, but the Lippizaner stallions take Monday mornings off. I thought they looked a little bored there in their stalls, but maybe not.

Wachau valley

Wachau (pronounced vock-how) valley along the Danube

Melk Austria abbey

The abbey is mostly famous for its medieval library, but no picture taking  allowed in the library rooms.

Spiral steps

David and his hat from trail ridge road. Me and my travel bag. We are usually  together, all 4 of us:

Passau

Spent the day in Passau Germany today. Just a few miles away from the Austrian border. We both have a bit of a cold/cough so took it easy today. Skipped the walking tour this morning but took a stroll on our own later on in the day. Big attraction is St Stephen cathedral.

Fancy, yes indeed it is.

Cruise director Carl

Takes pictures of each stop, and of us passengers each day. Busy man. His job is to keep 170 Americans and Canadians  happy, safe, and not-lost. Busy busy man.

Regensburg Germany

Regensburg. A really nice little city. Street cafes, lots of cobblestones. An Italian look to the place, which they are proud of

Over the door at the city hall. 2 figures. Represented offense and defense