Author Archives: Barbara

Budapest Hungary – Day 2

We got up and breakfast was included with our room. The following is a list of what is included on the buffet: hot fried peppers, scrambled eggs, hard boiled eggs, smoked turkey breast, horseradish, sausages, raw red onions, dill pickles, hot pickled peppers, rice pudding, waffles, syrup and assorted jams, chocolate syrup and chocolate powder, dark and light honey, Danish, chocolate, whole wheat and regular croissants, 8 assorted types of breads and rolls, onion and pepper goulash, pickled herring, Brie cheese, assorted salamis, assorted hams, assorted sliced cheeses, spring mix lettuce salad, tomato, sliced cucumber, pears, fruit cocktail, cooked tart cherries, plain yogurt, peach yogurt, strawberry yogurt (these yogurts were in a bowl) assorted packaged yogurt, dried fruits, whole peaches and apples, apricots, watermelon. 3 kinds of cereal, assorted coffees, teas and hot chocolate, orange, apple and peach juice. This was breakfast! I decided to go with Marsha to the airport to pick up her daughter. It was only 2 subways and a bus ride. But we thought it would much harder than it was to get to the airport. We picked up Stephanie and came back to the hotel so she could drop off her luggage. We then went to the Spy Museum ( it had an enigma machine) and then went to the building on the top of the hill (bunch of stairs). See pics

We then went back to the hotel for a little while and Marsha’s friend Janos came and took us to a Hungarian restaurant. They had original Hungarian musicians and they were wonderful. The food was terrific. Stephanie had goulash soup and Marsha and I had paprika cream soup. Then for dinner Stephanie and I had chicken paprigash and Marsha had grilled veggies and cheese. We wanted dessert , but we were too full.

We cam back to the hotel so Stephanie could get some sleep. We are touring Buda tomorrow morning. It is supposed to be at least 100 degrees here for the next couple of days. Just way to hot!

Budapest,Hungary 8-1-13

Can’t believe it is August already. We went to the train station for an early train to Budapest. We decided to eat breakfast on the train – Marsha had a cheese omelet and olives and I had a ham omelet with a fresh salad.

When we arrived in Budapest one of Marsha’s contacts had made arrangements for us to be picked up at the station and taken to our hotel. We visited for a while then checked in. Our first order of business was to get Hungarian money – the Hungarian Forint (HUF). I changed about $300 in Czech money and got $3,300 in HUF. We were by another train station, the subway and the post office. We went to the post office and Marsha mailed some postcards. I needed to buy a card and mail it. Well we don’t speak Hungarian and no one speaks English, but I was successful and the staff at the post office could not have been nicer or more helpful. We stopped to get a subway map and check the price of fares then we headed into the city . We are staying in Buda and headed over the river to Pest. The picture is of the bridge we crossed looking at Pest. The other picture is of the State House. Again this is a city filled with many beautiful buildings. We walked along the Danube and just enjoyed the city until we went looking for a restaurant.

We decided on what restaurant and Marsha ordered a veggie burger and I had a 1/2 meter of white sausage with cooked cabbage and a pretzel. Again all was delicious. We decided to walk home and on the way took pictures of Budapest at night. It really is a beautiful city. Marsha is going to the airport tomorrow to meet her daughter, Stephanie. Stephanie will be traveling with us for part of the trip. It is early tonight – only 10pm, but it is good to have some down time after we walked all day.

Bratislava/Vienna – Day 3 -7-31-13

We got up, had breakfast and took our luggage back to the first hotel. It was too early to check in so they stored our bags and we made sure we had a reservation. Then we walked to the train station and took a train to Vienna. When we got to Vienna we got on the subway to Schônbrunn Palace Marsha did the maze and I took the palace tour. I also took a picture of the garden. As usual all was great and of course no pics allowed in the castle. See pics of outside and garden. We then went to the demonstration on how to make apple strudel. It included a piece of strudel and a drink – see pics. We then got back on the subway and headed to central Vienna ((St Stephen’s Platz). See pic of church. We toured the church and the downtown area. We decided to have dinner in Vienna and chose a restaurant based on food naturally, while we were having dinner I noticed people taking pictures of the building. When we had finished we discovered it was the building where Mozart wrote the Marriage of Figaro. The restaurant was very nice – see pics – Marsha had gazpacho for an appetizer and had mushrooms in a cream sauce with bread dumplings for the main dish. I had pork with the chanterelle mushroom cream sauce and potato noodles. See pics . All good food. We are now on the train to Bratislava – it just left Vienna and it is 8:30pm, we still have to walk from the train station in Bratislava to our hotel and check in. When we get there I will be able to connect to WIFI, upload the pics and send the blog post. Tomorrow we are headed to Budapest.
Forgot to mention the before dinner digestive. See pic. We know it had vodka and all that fruit. It was very tasty!

PS- Bratislava is in Slovakia just across the border from Austria. It should be pretty much east of Vienna.

Bratislava – Day 2 – Tuesday 7-30-13

When we woke up it was much cooler to our delight. We were so hot and tired yesterday we couldn’t bear the thought of another day like that. Our first job was to find a place to stay for the night since the hotel we were in didn’t have a room for today. We set out on foot and while we were walking past the Presidential Palace they were changing the guard. See pics. There was no one there but us! We checked several hotels and found one for tonight. We are not homeless. We stopped for breakfast and then headed to the first hotel to check out and get our luggage and make a reservation for tomorrow. are you confused yet? We then dropped our bags at the hotel we are staying at tonight (too early to check in) and went to see the sights. We walked to the UFO Bridge over the Danube and walked across it. See pics. Then we went up to the observation tower on the bridge. Great view! We then went into the restaurant and had a cold drink. Again a spectacular view. We could see windmills in the distance and they are actually in Austria. We decided to use the facilities when we were leaving the restaurant and it was all windows and on them said “are you enjoying the view”. I have many pics on my camera-too many to post. We then walked into the Old Town for more sightseeing and about 4pm headed to our hotel to check in. Nice hotel and since we couldn’t find a laundromat, we did laundry. See pic. We went to dinner in the Old Town – nothing exciting – Marsha had garlic soup and fries and I had schnitzel and fries. We are now back at the hotel and I can only get WIFI on the lobby so Marsha went to see how we’ll our laundry is drying. It is only 10:15pm.

Bratislava – Monday 7-29-13

It was about a 4 hour train ride to Bratislava. Fortunately our car was air conditioned until the conductor came around checking our tickets and said “the climatizer” is no longer working. We reached our hotel at approx 5:30 but it is still HOT here. We looked like we took showers with our clothes on. The hotel is air conditioned so we just cooled off for a while. There was a snafu with our reservation so we have to find another hotel. We headed into the Old Town and it seemed deserted. We thought everything was closing, but we found a restaurant for dinner. We both had salads – it is just too hot to eat – and then we split a dessert, while we were sitting there a Greek parade passed by – don’t know what the parade was for.

There is also a picture of the square where we had dinner. Walking back to the hotel we saw this table of guys with the giant beer container on their table so we took their picture. Also there is a pic of the “space” bridge. I