Prague

Prague

Arrived via train on Weds evening. We took a cab to our hotel - the cab ride reminded me of a 007 movie - the roads appear to be alleys and it was a little bit foggy - I was a bit nervous, but not to fear we were welcomed with open arms. They have us a glass of champagne and escorted us to our rooms. From there we went out - the Christmas market was almost right outside our door. It is a beautiful one with a huge tree as it's center piece. We met Nick for dinner - we ate in the cellar of the 12th Century building, there was piano music playing in the background - I thought I was a wonderful dinner - I have no idea what Nick thought of it.

When I met Nick for dinner  in Prague - my, my

but we've come a long way from

South County!

 This picture does not do this Christmas tree

justice. It was one of the coolest trees I've 

ever seen and it was less than a block

from our hotel.

 The Christmas Markets of Europe are

all about food, family and gifts. At most of the 

markets there are little petting stalls scattered

around for the kids to have some fun

 Check this out! Hams cooking on a spit over

an open fire - when you order some ham

they just go and slice you off some.....

wish I had some right now!

Another animal stall

 This was our transport up to the Prague Castle

I thought it was pretty cool....

 The outside of the castle. The term castle is misleading

it is really a whole village behind those gates.

When the court would move literally hundreds of people

moved with it. I wish I had some pictures of the 

village. Cute little houses and shops lining the cobblestone

streets. 

 One of many, many manger scenes I saw

this one is done in hay.

This is stained glass at the church

on the castle grounds. Notice St. Lukas

I took that for Tony, his son is named

Johnny Luca - and now he knows his Saint.

Upon leaving the castle there is this statue

of a naked boy - I don't know why - but apparently

everyone around the world wants to rub his

you know what....it's quite polished.

I won't post the picture of me polishing the nob.

 There is a famous artist, David Cerny who was 

commissioned to build this tower when the

country was under Soviet rule. Just to piss them

off he sculpted babies crawling all over it. 

Then to ad insult to injury he sculpted this horse

for the Soviets and then hung it upside down.

What I've read about him states that this was 

an act of civil disobedience and considered

"hooliganism" and he was briefly arrested.

A day in Vienna

Vienna 

December 2016

The only city that was not bombed by the Germans - Hitler visited

Vienna before the war and he loved the city so much that he

gave strict instructions that the city was not to be bombed.

We started the day with a car tour, this will be the first time I've come to Europe and gained weight- our tour was really nice - this is a beautiful, old city.

 A church we stopped in our guide told us this is the church that Royalty use to get married in

 An eclectic neighborhood - the artist that designed this neighborhood 

has a museum but he went ahead and brought his art

to the street.

 Look an old fashioned phone booth

I couldn't pass this up - after 30 years with 

the "phone company" it's odd / nice 

to see a phone booth.

more of the neighborhood the artist built

 The  sign on the street

at the beginning of the "artists" neighborhood.

During a museum tour we got to pop in

to a cooking demonstration of how 

the Viennese make the wonderful

apple strudels.

Look carefully - no need to let

language barriers disrupt 

bathroom manners.....only in

Vienna

The old guard shack -

Kate and Stammie

We took a tour of this castle 

it was quite interesting to witness how

royalty used to live

At the top of the hill is the Queens little house

the King built for her so that she could

escape the hustle/bustle for awhile.

the walk way to the Queen's private palace

An example of the statues that reside all along

the walk way.

 Outside our hotel

in front of the hotel
The whole city dresses up for the holidays

And this beauty was in the lobby of our hotel
she was backlit with candles - beautiful

this was my breakfast most mornings in Vienna

I ordered a hot chocolate it was served on
a nice silver tray - I love the way they
all of the dishes over here!!!

 I took a fondue class in the St Louis and they
ended the class with Raclette - which was delicious
now I find it here at a Christmas Market in Vienna

Just a random shot of the market - people of all
ages enjoying the market day and night....

Budapest - December 2016

The trip is long over but I am finding that if I don't document these pictures pretty soon I won't know what they are all about so here goes...

 My driver - he was waiting for me at the 

airport. I really thought I "had arrived"

On our first night we went on a dinner cruise. These fine people took care of through out the evening.

 Once the band was done playing the violin player went around to different tables for requests. There were people from all over the world on the cruise and one of the songs requested was "Silent Night" (remember this was a Christmas time) the entire boat sang the song in english. Up until this point in my life I had no idea the world sang the same Christmas songs. It was a cool experience.

 The Is the Budapest Parliament. The second largest in the world. Totally beautiful at night, especially when viewed on boat. 

 The band that played through out the evening.

 My hotel room 

another view of the room - it big, nice and lovely.

A TOUR OF BUDAPEST

 The guy at the top was the king at some point in the history of Hungry. Well, it has been documented that he was an exceptionally handsome man - he had a wife that lived in the castle with him, but it was rumored that he had hundreds (yes I said hundreds) of women though out his life - even with this constant womenizing he was loved by all of his country men - Apparently he was a good ruler with his head and his.....

Budapest is known for its thermal baths and ice skating! As I was about to find out ice skating is very popular in eastern europe. Everyone ice skates.

This was our tour guide - she was wonderful

 My favorite store!!! 

 My traveling companions - 

 A view of the Pest side of the river

 Another view of the Pest side - 

 Just a view of a regular old street

 Our lunch menu

Me with the city in the back ground....

A very small sample of one of the Christmas Markets.

At every Christmas Market there is a bandstand - it's my understanding

that these are just pick up bands - regular people doing what

they love on stage - 

 We went to the oldest Opera house in Hungry to see 

the Nutcracker - this is a view from our box

yes - I said Box - Just like Julia Roberts in Pretty Women

when she was flown to San Fran for the opera

Dinner after the Opera - I loved having the violin

player serenade us. I know, I know I am easily impressed.

The Danube River at night

Tonight we did a dinner cruise on the Danube River - in all of my wildest dreams I never thought I would do that! It was very cool. It was a four course dinner with all drinks included.

                                           A pumpkin soup with roasted pepitos on top - really good

                                                    Four different pate's in a pastry shell

          Dessert

I drank draft beer because I know from past trips to Europe that their draft beer is better than bottled back in the States. (I talked to the guy at the table next to us and he told me to wait until we got to Prague their draft beer is the best isn't he world!!!!) Our cruise was so cool -

A picture of the Parliament Building.

 there was a band playing and there we folk dancers - at the end the violin player played all Christmas songs - it brought tears to my eyes to hear people from all over the world sing Silent Night together - we may be different but we all want the same things.

Thursday - we had a city tour with Julia -

a delightful young lady that told us so much about Budapest. I think living in America our whole lives we are shielded from the effects of war. She took us to the Jewish ghetto where 20,000 jews were killed. Prior to sending them to the camps in Germany they had to live in the ghetto surround by these walls. The are the only parts of the wall left. We learned so much and it was so interesting. We watched the day end from atop a hill on the Buda side where we got a magnificent view of the city.

Next it was on the to Christmas Markets and some warm mulled wine to warm us up.

Everyone might speak English.....but not all signs are in English

The Christmas Markets of Eastern Europe

escorted by Cobblestones and Pomegranates Travel 

And so another adventure begins.Just started another adventure. I left St Louis at 6pm on Tuesday - flew to Chicago and then to Munich Germany then to Budapest. The flight getting in to Munich was a little late but no problem. I find the display with the flight info to Budapest and see that I have 13 mins to find the gate and board the plane. I get a little nervous but I overhear some people saying "it's gate G4 - let's go" I was going to G3 so I thought I'd follow them. First thing you have to do is go though customs. There is a long line and a short line at the automatic scanners. I go to the short one. Well my passport won't scan. I tried and tried - finally I heard someone talking English so I asked her and she said "Do you have a Euro chip on your card? I said "Beats me, it's a American passport." She replied "You need to go to that line." And pointed to the long line. So I go to that line. Finally it's my turn and I notice a sign and I said does this sign mean it's only for Europeans? The man behind me said "yes" - I freaked - now I'm down to like 8 mins to catch the plane. But the customs agent let me go through his line and told me "You need to start reading the signs" I smiled and said "yes" but I really thought was if the sign was in english....anyway got out of that jam only to find out that I had to get on a shuttle to get over to gates G. Find the shuttle - get on - go to the next concourse and see signs for G25- 48. I'm like "I wonder where G3 is?" Of course there is no one to ask - you are on your own baby. So I go over to the flight display only to see that my flight is out of K3 - now I have to get back on the shuttle and go back where I came from!!! It now says the plane will take off in 14 mins. OK - now I'm thinking there is no way I'm going to make this flight. I'll have to spend the night in the airport and catch a flight tomorrow, but I get over to the K concourse and think "well it's K3 so it's close" Not so!!! K3 was the last damn gate on the concourse. I was going as fast as I could, sweating like a bitch and praying I'd make the flight. Right when I get near the gate I hear "This is the last call for flight whatever to Budapest" I was the last one on the plane. Sweat dripping off my face. So much for good first impressions!

Sedona, AZ - What a town

When the road you're on seems up hill

And things go wrong as they sometimes will.....

So far our trip has been plagued with tiny set backs - or you could call them problems.

1. As Terri was reviewing our plane tickets 2 days prior to departure she said "Wow Lou, Miss Traveler - really? We don't have a non-stop flight, we have a 2 hour lay over in Salt Lake City and the flight leaves at 6:25AM - this is the last time you book our flights."  She rapped my knuckles all right, but I sucked it up.

2. On the said 2 hour layover Terri decided to charge her IPAD. Unfortunately she didn't remember that it was charging until we were 30,000 feet up. 

3. We get to our room and as Terri is filling out the "lost item" report on Delta air website I hand her the itinerary- all of the sudden while I'm on the phone with my sister she yells "Mary Lou (I knew I was in trouble - she used my full name) this plane reservation says we are flying home on Sat Sept 10!" I said "Oh no, I'm sure you are reading it wrong." "Oh no I'm not!!!  Now what? We have to be out of the condo on the 9th." So I call Travelosity to change the reservations and it would cost $566. Needless to say we booked a room in Phoenix for Friday night and extended the car rental one more day. Guess we will see what there is to do in Phoenix on a Friday night!

4. Just one more tiny problem to top off our lovely day - as Terri is unpacking she says "Oh Great - I packed my swimsuit cover up and forgot to pack my swimming suit!"

Now on a good note upon check in the lady at the counter said "We are having a free BBQ today in honor of Labor Day - please feel free to go have dinner."