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What do you REALLY NEED for a 6-week trip? (This list is to remind ME of how to cut 20 lbs. out of my luggage!) Remember, you must deal with the following weather conditions: Cold (below 60 degrees) Cool (60-70) OK (70-85) Hot (85-90) Hot Hot (90-100) Hot Hot Hot (above 100) Rain (snow?) Shoes: Great walking shoes (athletic) and 2 pairs of socks Sandal or flat airy walking shoe (for ... read more

We walked to the Salzburg train station, about 10 minutes, easy walk on flat sidewalks, and caught the 9:51am train to Munich. It was a nice 2 hour ride in air conditioning. We had to transfer to a local train iin Munich to get to the airport. Then we had to take a taxi, 15 euro, to our Holiday Inn Munich Airport. We had planned to go into the city but it was very expensive and time consuming to travel there: 10 euro shuttle back to the airport, 20 euro to and from the city, and 10 to shuttle back. We decided to hang out at the hotel, which was very modern and nice with good AC and WIFI. We took a walk and explored the village next to the hotel. The hotel recommended Italian restaurant ... read more

We had breakfast at the hotel, quite a lovely buffet, almost as nice as the Gellert in Budapest. Gary went to his meeting and I went to check email. We are waiting for Baby Andy to arrive… Betsy and Matt are at the hospital. No news yet. I walked to the Salzburg town center, going in churches and just poking around as I went. I visited the beautiful St. Andra Church, where I lit a candle for the new grandson coming today. Then I visited the Holy Trinity Church. I made my way across the river and stopped at the Salzburg Museum. It had a great exhibit on Middle Age Church relics and art, which I enjoyed. It also had a video of a man walking around with a video camera, and the GPS recording it ... read more

Today is July 4th: Happy Birthday USA! There are 3 train stations in Budapest: Deli (we arrived there from Croatia); Keleci (more international traffic; we traveled to and from Bratislava and will go to Salzburg); and Nyugati (inland/national trains). We took a tram and the metro to get to the Nyugati station. We were headed to see the Hungarian Photography Museum in Kecskemet. This morning, we had breakfast in the Gellert Hotel, and left around 8:00 am. We found the ticket office and got round trip, 2nd class, for approximately $25.00 USD each round trip. 2nd class was nice: we had assigned seats in a clean, comfortable, air conditioned car…SO nice!!!! The trip was 1 hour 15 minutes. Kecskemet was unexpectedly DELIGHTFUL! We walked out of the train station, through a park, and followed (really) a ... read more

I slept very late this morning, almost 9:30. We had a ticket on the Hop On Hop Off tour bus today. We walked around for an hour to find the starting point. Then we rode around Pest for 90 minutes, listening to recording about the sights, perspiring in the heat. The recording was easy to understand and we learned a lot about the buildings on the route. We ate our sandwiches on top of Gellert Hill during a 20-minute stopover. We had an appointment with Beata Szechy who is director of an artist residency here in Hungary (http://www.hungarian-multicultural-center.com). She had given us specific directions to her house: take the #18 tram to the Deli Train Station, catch bus #51, get off at the intersection of Tamasi Aron and Fodor u.… and 3rd house #34 down the ... read more