Month: March 2017

One of the things about traveling for two months is that occasionally you need to take a bit of a break. This morning we slept in, worked on the New York Times crossword and took it easy. We went out for coffee and pastries and brought them back to the room. We finished the crossword and read our books. 

Eventually we decided to go out and explore Salzburg. We walked along the river and through the park to the Mozart Museum. 

The museum was interesting but a bit disappointing because it was small and fairly expensive. 

It was, however, a stunningly beautiful day and we thoroughly enjoyed walking the streets. 

For dinner we had an elegant dinner at the Hotel Sacher. 

And finally we had the famous Sacher Torte. 

The train ride from Vienna west to Salzburg took almost three hours. We rode through lush green countryside. 

We walked from the train station to our hotel in Salzburg. 

We are staying at the Hotel Goldgasse.  As we were unpacking we realized that we left the cord for our USB charging hub in the hotel in Vienna. So we got directions at the front desk and took a bus to a shopping mall 20 minutes away. We found the electronics store and bought a new hub. 

Dinner was great. We had potato soup. 

The grill plate. 

And finally had apple streusel. 

Today we took the train from Budapest back to Vienna because tonight we had tickets to a concert at the Vienna Opera House. The  concert was by the opera singer Edita Gruberova.

The performance was quite extraordinary. I enjoyed it immensely. Here you can see the people in the standing room section. You can’t buy standing room tickets in advance. People line up the afternoon before the show. 

Ms. Gruberova sang a variety of songs for 35 minutes. Then there was a 25 minute intermission. She sang for another 30 minutes or so and then there were at least 6 encores. 

Afterwards we took the subway back to our hotel. 

It was a lovely Spring day in Budapest. The temperature was in the 70s. We took full advantage of it and had a great day sightseeing. We visited St. Stevens Basilica. It is one of the most beautiful Cathedrals I have ever seen. 

St. Steven brought Christianity to Hungary. This reliquary contains his mummified right hand!

We also went to the top of the Basilica and enjoyed an expansive view of Budapest. 

The Big Bus hop on hop off package that we bought yesterday included options for a walking tour and a boat tour on the Danube. We took the walking tour this morning. Our guide, Thomas was entertaining and very knowledgeable. I think his tour alone was worth the cost of the ticket.  

Here he is telling us about one of the very few Soviet era monuments that is still in place. This one commemorate the Russian soldiers who died liberating Budapest from the Nazis. 

Do you recognize these two guys?

We took the boat tour tonight. These are the Houses of Parliament. 

After the boat tour we went to the Opus Jazz Club for dinner and a show. A Canadian singer, Melissa Lauren was singing with a quartet. 

It was a great day and a lovely last evening in Budapest. There are several interesting sounding things that we didn’t do here. We will have to come back. 

Duke and took the hop on hop off bus tour of Budapest today. Budapest is a beautiful city. The castle and parliament particularly stand out. 

We rode the funicular up to the castle and explored a bit. 

The Budapest Bridges over the Danube are also beautiful. 

The Big Bus Company has a night tour. The parliament, the castle, and the bridges were especially beautiful all lit up. 

In between all this we took a rest at our hotel and watched the live coverage on BBC of the terrorist attack in London. It makes you realize that something like this can happen to anyone anywhere. 

For dinner we went to a restaurant recommended by our nephew, Wes and had a great dinner. Thanks for the recommendation Wes!