Day-17 On the Way Home

We departed Zurich and arrived in London.  The flight for the US leaves in about 1.5 hours.   So we were up at 4:15 Zurich time or about 9:15 PM Last Night in Dallas... so we get home at about 3:30 or 4:00 PM  Making a 19-hour day.... going out dancing on Saturday night is probably not in the cards.

Well, it was a good trip....  Until next time....

Day 16 On the train from Salzburg to Zurich

The train ride was pretty amazing.  I tried to get a lot of pictures but only a few were useable due to the speed of the train or just being able to see the shot and get it.  I have included a few here for your viewing pleasure.  The area around Innsbruck was stunning and I unfortunately didn't get any pictures…. But, here a few.

Day-15 Salzburg

Mirabell Gardens

Mirabell Gardens

hursday we visited Mozart's house.  Is was very interesting and much more historically accurate than the popular fiction about his life.  After reading some of the letters between him and his dad I have a better appreciation for their relationship.  L. Mozart tried to be a good father to a son who he realized had an exceptional gift,  In many ways the forces of mediocracy were aligned to try to crush the young A.W. Mozart.  It is only hundreds of years later that we can see these people as humans and truly appreciate the gift that A. W. Mozart had.  (bummer - no photography allowed, upside - they had an instructional CD on two pieces of his music that I got a copy of in the book shop… can't wait to try it on the grandkids)

Mirabell Gardens are almost next to the Mozart house.  The Mirabell Palace is only used for concerts and is otherwise closed.  But the gardens are beautiful.  It was cloudy part of the time but when the sun peeked out for a few seconds I got a few nice shots.  The gardens are actually more like several different gardened all strung together.  It is just barely sufficient to show a few photos and say that they are all beautiful, well maintained and different.

Salzburg from the Hill

Fortress

Clouds over Tower

Door Garden at Fortress

Old arches found during work on the building

After the  gardens we took a bus to the old town part of the city and walked around for a while.  There was still a bunch we didn't get to do due to time but we choose to take in the Hohen Salzburg Fortress on the mountain above the city for the great views.  There is a funicular that gets you to the base of the Fortress and then you can explore… The view is shown in the picture (you can click on a picture to enlarge it)  The site has been occupied since Roman times but the Fortress was started in 996 and built up over the years. About 1000 years ago it became an imposing and commanding military presence on the mountain above the city that no one attacked the city for almost 1000 years until the time of Napoleon.  Salzburg eventually came under Austrian control and the city was attacked again by American bombers in WWII.  Other than that They have managed a quiet, peaceful existence while most of Europe raged around then. 

We found this statue of a long dead king interesting,  The bronze was so old it was almost entirely brown.  But the message is clear he is the guardian of the city… and if you mess with them he has a mighty sword.  By the time we had explored the hilltop, we were ready to get some dinner… As we cruised back through the old town we decided that Die Weisse looked better and we had barely touched the menu.  So we caught a bus to the Bahnhof and then one to near the hotel and headed for the restaurant.  Spinach dumplings and Chicken Cordon Bleu later we finally headed back to the hotel.  If you get to Salzberg ,Die Weisse is at 10 Rupert Strasse, The food and wheat beer is excellent.  (By the way water costs 4.80 euro and beer 3.50 euro - so drink beer to save money.

The Bronze King

Friday we are headed back to Zurich on the train.   

Day-14 On to Salzburg

We managed to get up, pack, go to breakfast, hop the underground to the train station and still got there an hour early.  That was OK, it gave us some time to figure out what o do with the last of the Florins.  So I decided to get us a couple of sandwiches for the trip and they were 550 Florins each… but I only had 900 and some euros…. I tried to talk to the lady in the shop and she spoke NO English.  There was another customer and I asked if she spoke English and she said a little.  So I explained to her what I was trying to do… which was pay with the Florins and then the rest in euros… but I didn't have that many euros coins either… Hmmm.  Between the three of us we finally figured out that I could use 600 Florins and a two euro coin for the sandwiches and were set, I used the last 300 Florins to get a .33dl coke.  Perfect, I got rid of all of he Florins.

So we finally find our car on the train, the last one, and get abroad.  There are four people sitting there and they all turned out to be from the Dallas, Texas area, and we had a good time comparing notes on traveling.  They used a travel agency to preplan everything and have a car meet them in each city and take them to the train. Come to think about it that is pretty nice.  It is similar to what we did in Prague.  They also had tickets to the Vienna Philharmonic and some other stuff set up for the next day through the agency.  I like the freedom we have to do what we want, but the coordinated tours and connections to the transportation sure would be nice.  Maybe we will have to try that on one of our trips.  We got the name of their travel company… We'll have to look into it some day.

The train ride from Budapest to Wein was the reverse of the trip we just made a few days ago.  But, this time we are on our way to Salzburg two more hours past Wein.  Other than the train and bus trip to Prague this is our longest travel day.  We get in about 3 PM.  The weather has been overcast the entire trip… but we can always hope.  

The more rolling hills… the towns of western Austria are quite nice.  They are starting to harvest the crops… Some of the fields were just starting to get mowed down.  And the days are just a little shorter even after the two weeks we have been in Europe.  I'll check the sunrise and sunset sometime when I get internet access.  Right now I am just blogging on the train.  I just had an interesting experience… we went through one of those tunnels under the mountain and when we came out the other side the sun was out and the sky was blue.  It is like we teleported to someplace totally different.  But, it makes sense that the weather  on one side of the mountains midget be different than the other side… but, what a surprise… to actually see it happen.

We are zipping across the country side at 200 kph, which is a pretty good clip, toward Linz.  The train is two minutes behind schedule….  That may explain the speed up.  Until now the train was doing about 170 kph or less.  This was the first time he really put the pedal to the metal.

Finally, made it to Salzburg, it is overcast again, and i got lost trying to find the hotel. (Hey, there was some construction and there were no street signs visible.) But, we finally made it.  Checked the e-mail.  Skyped Ricky. And asked where the locals go to eat.  The hotel manager said, "Die Weisse" and showed us how to find it on a map.  Just as we stated to go there was a slight misting of rain…. discretion being the better part of valor… Nancy, ran in and got the big umbrella.

Die Weisse was excellent.  They have their own brewery, good Austrian wheat beer, and wonderful Austrian food.

Good thing we went back and got that umbrella it was raining when we left the restaurant…. We came back to the room and crashed.  Tomorrow we take on Salzburg.

Day-13 Buda

Rick with St Stevens Background

We got going early and went up to Castle Hill in Buda this morning.  It has a great view over the city and the Matthias church.  We took took a bunch of pictures of the church and had a great time just walking around the hill top.

Matthias Church Exterior

Matthias Church Interior

We took a bus and tram to the Hungarian National Historical Museum. No pictures but it was very interesting looking at their history from their viewpoint.  The museum starts out about 200,000 years ago when Homo Erectus and Neanderthal both occupied this part of the world.  They have amazing collections of artifacts and early tools from sites in Hungry.He museum then proceeds chronologically to the year 2000 AD.  

Historical Museum (with Nancy)

It was really interesting to see the contrast in the description of the same events from the Austrian and Hungarian descriptions.  Each has a bit of truth in it but the spin mostly from the Austrian side was visible.  The Hungarian side has a little fatalism going for it, too.  Nobody did anything wrong, shit just happened…. Like World War I, and World War II… To be fair the Hungarians did own up to their part in these events but there was that ever so mild, well we were surrounded by Axis powers and what could we do?

The section on the period after World War II to 1989 under Communist rule was veery interesting, too.  The marxist government jailed 563,000 people for "political cleansing."

Then the very last section was on Hungarian Scientists and Noble prize winners.  That was excellent (I almost missed it just before the exit) but they have contributed a lot to physics, mathematics and medicine.  Many had to leave Hungary for the US or the UK to do their work but they were Hungarian and many kept contacts or re-established them after the fall of the Communist government in 1989.

Day 12 - Pest

We got up and went down to the restaurant in the hotel for a Hungarian breakfast.  It was somewhat surprising.  Scrambled eggs and French toast were familiar.  Then there 12 types of cheese, 15 types of bread, four types of fish, stewed vegetables, and another dozen things I didn't even recognize.  It was interesting that they also had desert for breakfast.  So I had to try a little piece of cheese cake. 

Now that we were charged up, we headed for the internet cafe to check the e-mail.  The cafe was supposed to open 30 minutes before we got there but no one was there and the gate was locked.  His loss, we pressed on to the Parliament for the tour.  Nancy waited in line for almost an hour to buy a ticket, then we waited 40 minutes for our scheduled tour to start.  The building was very nice and the English speaking guide told us a lot about the history of the building.  After getting out of there we stopped for a torte and expresso and I had a coke. ($7)  Then we headed to Liberty Square, to St Stevens, and then to the opera house.

St, Steven's church is an excellent example of opulent design.  Marble and gold leaf, and then more of everything, statues, frescos, and a separate chapel with the right hand of St Steven on display as a "relic."  The building is beautiful and the form and design reminded me of the Roman buildings we saw in Italy.  Pictures just don't really do the place justice.  While it is not as grand a St. Paul's in Rome… it gives you the same feeling.

The opera house tour (in English at 1500) was interesting.  The mini operatic concert was an extra 500 Florins each and the photography license was another 500 Florins.  ( I think she had x-ray vision and could tell how much cash I had.)  The opera building is beautiful and the history is pretty amazing, The  building is 140 years old and never had a fire or got bombed in two world wars or the 1956 revolution.   So, almost all the building is original.  The architect was very forward thinking.  It was the first building of its size to have central heating an cooling.  There are vents below each seat to provide airflow and hot air is vented out the top of the dome by convection.  Central cooling was provided by big blocks of ice which would cool outside air by 4 or 5 degrees to make the opera more comfortable.  When refrigeration air conditioning was invented it was easy to retrofit and it became the first air conditioned opera in the world.

We hopped a bus back to the tram, then took the tram back toward the hotel.  While were looking for a pay-as-you-go SIM card for the phone we found St Michaels was having a concert that night.  We went to a pizza place, we found walking around before, for dinner.  It was good and reasonable.  Dinner with desert for two was 3210 Florins or about $15.  Then we figured out that they had free WiFi and used the iPhones to Skype and check the e-mail.  

While we ate we decided to go to the concert.  But, I had to get more cash.  With Florins you feel like you are spending a lot of money… the concert was 13,000 Florins or about $65 for both of us.  The church is an  odd mix of old an new.  Repairs were sometimes uneven, and there was no stained glass in any window.  There were areas that clearly were still needing repair.  But, when the string orchestra started playing I understood why this was the location chosen for the concert.  The smaller church had beautiful acoustics and each note was deep and rich and vibrant. Just hearing the beautiful sound in that building was worth half the price of admission.  The program by the Duna String Orchestra easily covered the other half:

J. Pachebel  Canon

A. Vivaldi  The Four Seasons - Winter

J. S. Bach  Air

G. F. Haendel  Water Music

A. Vivaldi  Gloria (three movements)

W.A. Motzart  A Little Night Music

A. Dvorak  Slavonic Dances

E. Grieg  Holsberg Suite (Prelude, Sarabande, Air)

F. Liszt  Hungarian Rhapsody

And, that was the end of our day in Pest, tomorrow it is off to Buda on the other side of the Danube.

Day-11 On to Budapest

After getting up and getting ready we had time to go down to the breakfast at the hotel.  It was excellent and we enjoyed the time to get ready for yet another day of travel.  The day is beautiful again as we leave Vienna… We are off to bring the rain to Budapest today so we will have achieved a perfect record of rain while we are on the trip.  The U-3 underground dropped us right at the train station so we made it to the train in plenty of time and found our seats in the First Class car.  It is pretty cool we are facing each other across a table and we have our own window.  

For about 40 Euros per person extra we could have upgraded to Premium Class on this train.  We would get lunch and free drinks for the three hour trip…  Didn't seem to be worth it, so we just went 1st Class.  As you can see the seats aren't bad… even in 1st class.  

One of the hardest  things to manage is the public transportation system when you don't know the language.  But, there is  a standard that mask this workable, "The direction is shown by the last stop on the line."  That saved us again in Budapest.  We bought a three day ticket to cover our entire stay (about $18 each) and headed for Astoria where our hotel is located.  The room is huge.  Since we got in early… we took off toward the Danube and took a river cruise.  That was a great idea,  We got introduced to the city from the English language commentary on the boat and came up with a few ideas for our must see list.

We rode the tram to the end of the line just exploring and looking for a place to eat… After that we headed back to the general area of the hotel and found a "shopping" street a couple of blocks off the main street that had stalls and restaurants.  We picked one and had dinner.  The presentation was so unusual I took a picture of it.  We wandered back to the store and picked up a large bottle of water and finally headed back to the hotel as it was getting late.

Internet access is going to be a problem for the blog.  I may have to write and then post when I can get access.