Off To The Holy Land and Egypt

After a safe and relatively smooth flight,  Linda and I are in Rome, Italy.  We are staying in a hotel near the airport tonight and then we will meet up with the person from Princess ( a young man with very curly and very unruly blonde hair) tomorrow.  Then we will be off to the cruise ship, the Pacific Princess.  Almost as soon as we got here today (when we were in the hotel and had free wifi) we had an email from the main office of Princess: the two days in Egypt had been changed to the islands of Rhodes and Mykonos.  Not exactly where we wanted to go, but Princess just wants to keep us safe. We are disappointed, but better safe than sorry.  Now let's just hope they don't cancel the two days in the Holy Land.

We had a little adventure when we got into our room at the hotel.  We couldn't get the lights to come on. After trying everything we could think of before we had to call the main desk, Linda discovered what the little object on the wall beside the door was for----you put your key card in it and that cuts on the electricity in the room.  This way when you leave the room all lights will be off.  Clever little idea!

Well that's all for today.  I will tell you about the LONG hike from the arrival gate to the parking area for the hotel vans and about Linda talking to the wall at another time.

Last Stop - Budapest, Hungary

 We are crossing the Chain Bridge from the Pest side of the city to Buda.

 The Chain Bridge at night.  Isn't it beautiful?

 Linda and I made new friends: Doreen from NC and Alice from California.

 Last night of the cruise, so we had our picture made on board the ship with the Chain Bridge in the background.

 Bye, Bye Budapest.  You are an extra special city with lots and lots of history.

 Heroes's Square on the Pest side of the city.

 Looking at Pest from the top of a hill on the Buda side of the city

 Many different stores on Castle Hill leading  up to Fishermen's Bastion on the Buda side.

 The Matthias Church at the Fishermen's Bastion.  Look at the geometric tiles on the roof.

National Art Museum  located on Heroes' Square in Pest.

Pictures from Durnstein, Austria

 We have arrived in Durnstein, Austria, known for it apricot soaps, jams, and brandy. It is located in the Wachau Valley.. Durnstein is referred to as the "Pearl of the Wachau".

 Kuenringer Castle where King Richard the Lion-heart was caught and held prisoner by  Duke Leopold V. King Richard was held prisoner for over a year.

 This is the entrance to one of the shops in Durnstein - nothing modern here.

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 A marker for Duke Leopold V.

After our walk around Durnstein and a little shopping, we returned to our ship, Viking Odin.

Home Again, Home Again

Bright and early (4:00 am) Saturday morning, May 5th, we were off to the Budapest airport.  Our flight to Frankfort, Germany, was at 6:15 am, so we were up at 2:00 am to shower, dress, put our bags out to be put on the bus, and then we had breakfast. Not many people on the flight to Frankfort - maybe the Hungarian people do not like to fly so early.  After arriving in Frankfort, we had about 3 hours until our next flight to the USA and home.  We passed the time trading camera cards so we were sure to have all of the pictures - I have over 375 and Linda has about the same.  Do you think we took enough????? Long flight home, but a safe one.  We arrived home about 3:30 EST, and thanks to our new status as Trusted Travelers (at least according to the TSA), we went right through customs and didn't have to stand in a single line. That was really nice!

Eleven great days in 5 very interesting and historical countries were fabulous - tiring at times, but worth every minute of back pain that I had.  Now I just have to get that problem worked out before our next adventure in September.  Until then .........

Budapest, Hungary - Final Stop on the Cruise

On Thursday night, May 3rd, we cruised into Budapest, Hungary, affectionately known as "the Little Paris of Central Europe" and "Pearl of the Danube".  It was a beautiful sight to see from the balcony of our ship.  The old town of Buda on a steep hillside on the right and the neo-Gothic Parliament Building lining the flat left bank, which is Pest.  The 8 bridges were strung with twinkling lights and floodlights were shining on the old castle walls of Buda. We made pictures, but I am not sure pictures can do this sight justice!

The next morning we were off again on a bus tour - starting on the Pest side of the city with the National Opera House and the historic Heroes' Square.  In Buda, we walked along Castle Hill to Fishermen's Bastion and then to visit Matthias Church.  This church has very unusual geometric patterns on the roof.

Our guide had the bus driver to drive by the Budapest Promenade which is by the water so that we could see the bronze shoes, a memorial for the Jews killed in WWII.   This was a very touching memorial.

The Chain Bridge was completed in 1849 and linked the two halves of the city Buda and Pest for the first time. Of all the towns we have visited on this fabulous cruise, Budapest is my favorite.  (Pictures to follow)

Bratislava, Slovakia

OK, I have been back home since late Saturday, and I have not finished the blog.  Sorry.......I do want to let you know about the last few days of our cruise because they were wonderful.  On Thursday, May 3rd we were in Bratislava. This is the capital city of Slovakia, and the only national capital that borders two other countries, Austria and Hungary.  We embarked early on a bus and walking tour of this charming city; of course we did not count on the weather that morning.  The wind was blowing really hard while we were visiting the Castle, but our guide, Ava, didn't miss a beat!  The members of the group kept walking on to the top of the hill, but she just kept on talking!!!!  When we finally got back to the bus and headed for the Old Town, here came the rain.  It was a very interesting town and had several quirky statues found throughout the Old Town, but we just wanted to get back to the ship and out of the rain. One of the interesting landmarks that we saw was the communist-era bridge with its revolving restaurant. (I will post some pictures later).

Durnstein and Vienna, Austria

Well the internet and I are not friends today.  After waiting 15 minutes for 3 pictures to load, the server timed me out and I lost the pictures.  So today there will be no pictures.  I think I will wait until I get to an airport on Saturday to  upload any more pictures.

Yesterday was a slow day - thank goodness!  I needed a rest - the back and the sciatic nerve aren't cooperating this week.  Linda and I skipped Melk and the 900 year old abbey and just chilled for a few hours.  Then we headed out after lunch to Durnstein, another small village further down the river. Tessa, one of the program guides, took us on a leisurely waking tour.  This village is located in the picturesque Wachau Valley,  Beautiful scenery as we were cruising along the river.

This morning we headed off in 4 buses for Vienna, the capital of Austria.  This is a large city much like Rome and London.  We took a ride along the Ringstrasse, which replaced the city walls in the mid-19th century. We saw much of the city's baroque architecture, including the world-famous Opera House, St. Stephan's Cathedral and Hofburg Palace. Very interesting city - lots of history here.

Well now it is 5:25 pm here and time to get ready to EAT again...... We had a very interesting happening today also.  The Viking Legend (another ship) pulled right up beside us at the dock and completed blocked our view.  We thought that was quite rude!