OOOps! foto four of last blog is the packing mess before the house sold. View from the balcony of apartment is as follows ... Also wrote the previous entry while still in Sudbury ... so confuse-ed... read more

OMG ... it has been such a long time since my last entry. Am still alive and more than kicking as%! Today have have stood silent among the trees watching bluejays greedily snatching peanuts at the feeder.Snow is fluttering down picking up speed and intensity. That means more shoveling. If the cabin were painted brown and had heart shutters I would be in a highland vale in Switzerland, or Austria or Bavaria and all that needs be done is step outside and imagine. Am at the moment experiencing with astonishment and disbelief the Disney Park Parade. All this without breakfast ... birds come first and also the need for a fire ...its -22 outside. The Parade is too tooo tooo much! have never been will never go and anyway its not live.OMG and the crowds are ... read more

Beijing Subway had 2.18 BILLION riders in 2011 and had a one day record of 8.59million riders April 28, 2012 Beijing is forth in track length -372km.- after Shanghai, London and Seoul. It is forth in annual ridership after Tokyo, Seoul and Moscow. ...hoping to be riding this subway this time next year ... well may be after the Oh Tannenbaum time ...2012-12-09 ... OK that was a while ago! Was plagued ... no pun intended ... with thoughts of pollution, chicken fever, dengue flu, population pressure,lack of language skills-mandarin or cantonese- and the plague so postpined the idea. But when I went to the dentist she and her husband had gone on a two week trip to China with Sinorama Holidays Inc. Their enjoyment and recomendation influenced my thinking. Am leaving Nov.10 for Beijing, joining ... read more

Buda lies on the hill side of the Danube and Pest, the flat area, lies opposite. The st of the name is pronounced with the 'shh' sound. Goulash is a soup not a stew. I only saw Bobosh Torte once and did not taste it. There was an opportunity to shoot with a bow and arrow (as Hungarian warriors are depicted) on the hill during the Goose Festival. Many buildings have been carefully restored. Many more are in need of attention. May 30 The seven day visit to Budapest needs to be summed up in one blog. The arrival day counts as day one only because the arrival was at such an ungodly hour ... 08:30 ... thankfully not too early for the man Sandor from the Blue Danube Hostel to pick me up in his ... read more

The word hall in medieval times translated to salt. I have had a fascination with salt ever since my Father made me a model of a salt mine as a Christmas gift. “Hall's Old Town is the mother of all medieval city centers.” Like Luebeck in Northern Germany loved how the streets meandered one into the other past church spires and brick works a thousand years old now holding either a hair salon, bakery or paper shop. “The two marvellous squares and the labyrinthine layout of the side streets are unique in the world.” I walked from my hotel, Gasthof Badl, on the other side of the River to the cemetery past an active convent. In the cemetery I spied a nun caring for the sisters laid to rest in the cemetery. A baker advertised strudel ... read more