grantwendy

Three days in Istanbul Easy to get to the Sophia Hagia. Just walk across the street. This is the oldest mosque and now deconsecrated and a museum. It dates from the 500's and probably the oldest building we have ever been in. It has a beautiful dome which was the biggest dome in the world for hundreds of years until the one in Florence. The walls are covered in gorgeous tiles and mosaics. The Blue Mosque, more famous but younger in an old way and a working or should I say praying mosque is just across the other side of the square. Here we have to cover ourselves, legs shoulders and heads but don't worry they have the have the means to help us. Also we have to remove our shoes.The word blue becomes obvious inside ... read more

Ok Toto, it's fair to say, I don't think we are in Kansas anymore! Arrived at midnight, thank goodness for the transfer. Young Man explaining to me that my husband phoned ahead especially to have the roses painted on the side car for his beautiful wife with the accompanying hand kissing of yourself. Now I remember .... The italians learnt the art of seduction of the Turkish man .So after the pilot telling us that everybody needs visas and seeing everyone run to the cue for the visas. Waiting in the cue seeing Australians and Canadian needing US$60 visas and starting to think uncharitable thoughts about Denise - hello we get to the front of the cue and hand over the passports only to be told NZ's - oh they nice people no visa required. so ... read more

Hmmmm so maybe Budapest is the most beautiful city....... woke up this morning opened the curtains just as we were docking right outside the Budapest parliament buildings......what a view right outside our bedroom window. Later the start for our tour of Buda and Pest. Originally two towns on opposite sides of the river that decided the join together. Buda is the oldest side with a gorgeous fort which includes the Fisherman's Bastion that has a gorgeous view over the city and of course a very historical castle and cathedral. Here we visited a museum of List and were treated to a beautiful piano recital given by a Professor of Music from the university with a beautiful violin accompanist. This part has been built on a lot of limestone caves that have been joined together to create ... read more

So you can keep your Rome's, your Florence's and your Venice's. The most beautiful city in Europe is Vienna. My senses have been in overdrive today, We started with the grand tour as we usually do, this morning both by bus and foot. The beautiful Baroque architecture which I love. The grand duke in the 1850's decided to pull down the old city wall to extend the city and replace it with a ring road. So now there is a beautiful avenue flanked with the most beautiful buildings built in the old style. Except for the museums of which there seems to be a museum for just about everything, these buildings were often the palatial homes of the rich. Now they are hotels or apartments etc. Vienna is a very green city with some 800 parks. ... read more

Arrived in Passau this morning and on the bus at 8am for the two hour ride to Salzburg. Now I remember how I loved the Austrian scenery 25 years ago. Love the way the farms have no fences, they appear to be rolling meadows. We stopped on the way into Salzburg at the beautiful Schloss Hellbrunn. A castle built by one of the archbishop princes for use as his day castle. Hense it has no bedrooms. But we had not come to see the castle infact we had come to sing a duet, boys with girls "You are sixteen going on....." You guessed it, we had found the famous gazebo from the sound of music. Turns out the people who bought the chateau where the film was made got sick of bus loads of people singing ... read more