The weather continued as the warmest in years. We loved it.... read more

Day 17-Prague 9/2-Wednesday We had overcast weather again today. We started the day with a group tour of the Little Quarter. The first stop was the Wallenstein Palace Garden, the largest and most beautiful garden in the neighborhood. Aside the garden was the most unusual wall. It was an artificial wall of stalactites. Embedded were a few strange looking faces. We never heard the meaning of this wall. After the garden we walked up through the Little Quarter towards the Charles Bridge. As we walked we spotted an interesting courtyard of a restaurant with two mechanical men working as a fountain. The hips of the men rotated from left to right as the men seemed to be urinating into the pool. Instead of being an adults only we could see a “Children’s Zone.” I guess their ... read more

Day 15-Budapest to Prague 8/31/10-Tuesday Want to know our weather? No you don’t. We had rain and cold today. You’ll see in the photos. We wound down our cruise today. Last night we had a nice cruise around Budapest on the Danube. We would have been happy to have a few more days here but we are excited about the next stop, Prague. The trip north was on a motor coach. There were about 35 people from the ship that were joining the final leg of our trip to Prague. The scenery was interesting but nothing unusual except for a large number of wind turbines. On the way to Prague we made a stop in our sixth nation, Slovakia. We stopped in Bratislava, the capital city. It is a city of about 430,000 people on the ... read more

Day 13-Budapest, Hungary 8/29/10-Sunday Yet another beautiful, clear day. I started this day with a brisk walk with Jay to buy tickets for a tour of the Parliament. We were lucky since we got in line about 9:30am and had our tickets by 10:00am. We chose to do our tour at 2:00pm. So, after returning to the ship, Jackie and I set out for a trip up the ridge on the Buda side riding the funicular. To get there we crossed the Chain Bridge on foot. The views from the top are really spectacular. We walked around the Royal Palace and took some photos. We heard that both the Germans and later the communist party used this building as offices. It was bombed by the US during WWII. The gardens around the palace were in full ... read more

Day 11-Kalocsa, Hungary 8/27/10 Yet another perfect weather day. We are so lucky… The stop today in Kalocsa was mostly a rest day for us. The tour group had an optional tour available but we chose not. We wanted a slow day and we got it. The only thing of note was a paprika processing plant. All of the farms in the area were full of plants. They appeared ripe for picking. I wanted to pick and few to bring home but Jackie stopped me. Tonight we set sail for Budapest, our final city on the Danube. We should arrive early and get started sight seeing in that big city. Stay tuned… ... read more