Ending our trip

All of us finally arrived back home in the USA-- most not without some trauma or another.  Weather on the East cost caused a number of delays for some of us.  Joyce actually thought she might have to spend the night in JFK airport, but was diverted on standby to Reagan and taxied to Dulles hotel where her car was located.

Bob probably had the most traumatic experience from Budapest to Indianapolis via Amsterdam and Minneapolis.  He came home early as his Mother was admitted to the hospital and eventually in ICU.  She never fully regained consciousness after he arrived June 5, and she passed away on June 11.  She was 90 years old and had struggled with failing health issues for several years.  We feel fortunate that Bob was able to be with her in those final hours.

Our trip was fabulous with great friends and family meandering the rivers of Eastern and Central Europe.  We probably wouldn't take the same cruise over again, but we are already thinking about another cruise, possibly through France as well as a road trip on our own through Germany. There are numerous companies offering the very same river cruises, but we are sold on Avalon.  If you want the particulars why we like this line over the others, contact us and we can expand our thoughts for you.  

Thanks for following along with us on the blog.  Modern technology has made blogging much easier than when we started travel blogging in 2008.  

                   

     

                                         River Cruising 2015

Prague Part IV

This is a view of Prague from the Prague Castle complex.

This is the Charles Bridge bisecting the Old Town. Joyce

and Lois' apartment was about the 2:00 position-- walking

distance to everything.  Pat and Joy were straight up at 12:00,

In the New Town, near the top of the photo.

You could definitely spend a week in Prague and never 

have to visit the same building or even the same street twice.

Food choices were excellent, tasty and very reasonable, as was the

wine.  Our driver to the airport said the next two months 

would see 250,000 tourists a week and they would be so

thick, you would be shoulder to shoulder.  OMG!  And we thought 

things were bad this weekend.  He said forget about

finding a seat at the patio dining areas.  We had many, many

choices even with a large number of tourists.

These are decorated gingerbread pieces, using

lace doilies or fabrics as the pattern.  Unbelievable.

Everything you see is edible.

Our apartment kitchen and living area.

Security for our apartment was incredible.  We

had to navigate three separate doors with coded

keypad entries before we could arrive at our 

elevator. This complex won an award  in 2008 for best 

renovation and it shows.

Prague Part III

Astronomical tower

Municipal House- reported to be the most beautiful building in Prague. The building was built from 1905-1912 and is an absolutely gorgeous example of Art nouveau style throughout the building.

  We ate lunch in this dining room and the photo

  comes up way, way short to illustrate the beautiful

  surroundings.  Food was delicious and reasonable.

Mucca Museum-  this museum is dedicated to the Czech-born Alphonse Mucca ( 1860-1939) who won acclaim for introducing French Art nouveau when he painted a poster for actress Sarah Bernhardt.  He went on to paint more posters, jewelry, furniture and many more items.  His final rendition was a 20 painting Slavic Epic which we had seen on a Rick Steeves special.  Unfortunately, the Slav Epic is now housed in the National Gallery in Prague ( closed for renovation ) Below are some of his posters.  Since no photos were allowed in the museum, these all came from the internet.

Prague Part II

After our Prague Castle trip, we treated ourselves to wine and snacks at the apartment where Lois and  Joyce are staying.  Great to just chill out a bit and regroup.  We had booked a Vivaldi concert at at nearby St. Clements Cathedral for 7:00.  The concert was magnificent in this lovely cathedral.  We had nearly front row seats and could see all the performers.  We heard Bach, Hayden, Schubert, Vivaldi and many others.

  Snack time and a cooling off and recharge time.

Prague Castle complex, St. Vitas Cathedral

St. Clements Cathedral where we had concert.

St. Clements is a Greek Catholic cathedral with

a cherub theme.  We couldn't begin to capture

all the lovely cherub sculptures throughout the 

building.  The acoustics are reported to be some 

of the best in all of Prague.

After finishing dinner, we wanted to experience the Charles Bridge at night.  We were delighted to see one of our concert performers playing along the bridge.  We told him we had just seen the concert, so he played several beautiful songs just for us!   We were smitten for sure.  Actually purchased one of his CDs.  It  was a magical finish to a long, exhausting day.

Visiting Prague

Prague has been one adventure after another with 4 women out on the town. Joy and Pat are in New Town and Joyce and Lois are in Old Town, about 5 minutes from Charles Bridge. The two placs are about 20-25 minutes apart.....all depending on how fast you navigate the tourist traffic and how many times you stop for gelato or trdelnik- a favorite Slavic pastry.

We have packed  two very full days and evenings and seen nearly everything we had on our list.  On Saturday, the heat was horrible, but nevertheless, we chose to head up the hill to the Prague Castle which really isn't a castle at all, but a series of buildings with St. Vitas Cathedral as a centerpiece.

After nearly 20 days of castles and cathedrals, we were numb, but this one was stunning and possibly the most beautiful.

We always managd to find little outdoor cafés for lunch as well as dinner.  Food and wine were great and we thought reasonably priced. This was our final evening in Prague.  The weather had cooled enough Lois had to cover up with a blanket.

Traveling to Prague

It is Friday and we are headed to Prague--Pat, Joy, Lois and Joyce.  It has been a long night as we received a call about 10:00 PM  Thursday evening Budapest time ( 4:00 PM Eastern) that Bob's mother had taken a turn for the worse and was being placed in ICU with a breathing tube.  Earlier reports had appeared less critical, but this time, we knew we needed to send him back to the states ASAP.  Thankfully, our wonderful friends ( and travel agents ) Chuck and Janice Maida kicked in to " super agent mode" and called the airlines.  Janice was able to convince Delta to get him on a plane, exchanged tickets, no charge with decent seats. He left Budapest at 6:00 AM this morning ( 12:00 midnight US  time ) He had no sleep as he had to depart for the airport at 3:15 AM.  He will arrive in Indianapolis this evening by 5:35 PM ( 11:35  Prague time).  All this in really just 17 hours elapsed time.

We are outside of Prague less than 2 hours and we have van problems!!  Oh, boy, another adventure.

We ended up over three hours to get a replacement van and driver.  They had to transport us to the next gas station and when we 4 girls climbed into the highway assistance truck and found an opened half consumed Corona beer, we dissolved into total hysteria.

The driver was not from Prague, so when we arrived he couldn't find our apartment.  After numerous failed attempts, we gave up and went to Joy and Pat's hotel where we checked them in, stored our luggage had a drink and dinner, then hired a local cab to take us to our apartment.

The apartment is beautiful, modern and spacious.  We are in the heart of the Old Town, just minutes from the famous Charles Bridge.

Budapest Continued.....

We purchased an additional tour for this afternoon in Budapest.  Our tour took us to the lovely Opera House, a Department Store which is now a Bookcafe and finally to the House of Hungarian Art Noveau.

          Above and below, Opera House

   

     Above and below, department store

   This was one of the desserts we were served 

    in the Bookcafe.  Totally awesome!

   House of Hungarian Art Nouveau, above and below.

Budapest part II

We took the ubiquitous City Tour of Budapest early this morning.  With Buda on one side and Pest on the other, this is indeed a city of bridges.  We enjoyed touring past the Parliament building we had seen from the waterside early in the morning.

                 Parliament building

       Another lovely church up at Castle Hill

      The fabulous arches and columns 

       provided the perfect photo op to

       capture Lois.

  

      Looks like Pat, Joy and Janice are making

      a difficult decision about where to next!!

Visiting Budapest

We have had to place posting on a little hiatus as we had an emergency late, late Thursday night.  Bob's 90 year old Mother was rushed to ER and eventually admitted to the hospital, unable to breathe.  The resolution has not been a simple one and early Friday morning Bob caught a flight from Budapest to Indianapolis.  Thanks to wonderful friends and travel agents, Chuck and Janice Maida who were with us, he managed an exchanged ticket with decent connections. Fred Beehler ( brother of longtime friend Jerry Beehler ) picked him up in Indy and took him to the hospital.

Hopefully, they will resolve her breathing issues soon and she will return to the rehabilitation center.

Meanwhile, Pat, Lois, Joy and Joyce have continued to Prague.

Budapest seems almost a distant past and it was only 2 days ago.  Most of our photos are on Bob's SD card in his camer and in the midst of getting him out of Budapest, I failed to download them.

  

Our cruise director alerted us to be up on the top desk as 

we entered Budapest as the views were lovely.  Mary 

was all prepared for a fabulous day.

From the waterfront, the Parliament buildings were amazing.

This was a view atop Castle Hill in Budapest.

Bratislava.....Part II

   This is the old City Wall which is a double one- built

   to protect the city from the Mongols and the Ottoman

   Empire ( mostly in Turkey).

    Chuck is checking email on the old steps. 

   The American Embassy.  We drove past the

   Ambassadore's resident earlier in the day.

Visiting Bratislava on Wednesday

Today, we begin with a brief motor coach tour of the town, including a ride up to the Fortress on a hill high above the city.  Several of us had a misconception of the size of Bratislava.  This city of nearl 500,000 people is the Capitol city of the country of Slovakia.  This country was created from the earlier Czechoslovakia country which in the Velvet Revolution, dissolved the Czech country into to two separate countries; Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czechoslovakia country under Russian rule was home to peoples with different histories as well as different cultures and they were happy to separate.This occurred in 1989 as the Soviet Union was crumbling.  For over 1,000 years this area was under Hungarian rule until 1918, after WW I.  ( several of us have discussed how valuable it would have been if we had studied European history before we took this trip.  However,  on the other hand, most likely it wouldn't have made near as much sense as it does with a local guide and walking the ground with the history. )

  Rebuilding as well as restoration of this Fortress

  was just completed in 2011-- in time for a Summit meeting

  between President George Bush and Puttin. The Fortress

  has been victim of many fires through the centuries

  ( begun in 1430) and today looks much newer than 

  the oldest parts.  In the photo below, look carefully,

  and you can see one of the old Gothic windows left from an older building.

Photos below depict the Cathedral of St. Martin, 

for centuries, the coronation church of the Kings

of Hungary.  Interior is mostly Gothic with a few baroque 

additives.

  Considering this was a coronation church, it is

  surprisingly lacking in much of the gothic 

  ornamentation we have seen all over Europe.

Spanish Riding School

On our walking tour, we walked right by the entrance to the Spanish Tiding School, home to the famous Lippizanner horses.  We saw one walking from the stable to the performing ring, but no one caught the photo.  The performances are quite pricey at 130€, with training sessions much less.

We learned that the horse we saw was a very young one as they are black/gray at birth and only turn white at a more mature age.  

This is where we saw the horse walking across.

    Performance ring for the Lippizanner horses.