Wedding Trip

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Day 1

We flew out of Philadelphia on US air taking off 45 minutes late. Pilot wanted to top off fuel tank due to concerns over fog in Paris. I had a chicken dish for dinner and Valerie had pasta. I bought Shippen a glass of wine which I had previously promised.

Landed at 8am Paris time. after saying our goodbyes to Shippen, Valerie and I made our way through the maze they called Charles DeGaulle Airport.
Not getting much sleep on our way across the Atlantic Ocean, George slept most of the way from Paris to Vienna on Austrian Airlines. Austrian airlines was nice. the lunch was Black forest ham, mashed potatoes and green beans with a basil cream sauce.

When we arrived at the Vienna Hilton hotel, the doorman said it best
when he saw us yawning "Good Night, Vienna". It was only 2pm Vienna time. We made our way to our room where we were greeted by a stranger, a lady with one naked breast (see first photo ) Geo took a 3 1/2 hour nap and was awakened by Valerie to have an early dinner. George had the buffet while Valerie had a traditional Austrian dish of beef with onions. We then called it an early evening.

Day 2

George awoke to fresh squeezed orange juice, bacon with a lot of meat, cooked tomatoes with cheese on top and scrambled eggs. We rushed to catch our tour shuttle to find it was raining outside. Enjoyed city tour which included a tour of Schonbrunn Palace. Rooms were spectacular. After our tour, we went to Sacher hotel and met a couple from Texas who invited us to join them for a Sachertorte. (see 2nd photo).

On our own, we took a guided tour of the Opera House. It was magnificent. They do a different performance every night and we watched them construct the scenary for that night's performance.
(see 3rd picture).


We headed back to our hotel where George took a 45 minute nap. Then off to wine tavern tour which included a ride on the Giant Ferris wheel with wonderful night views of Vienna The dinner was held in a tavern originally built in 1609 and we were entertained by opera singers during dinner.

Day 3

George awoke refreshed having slept the whole night through while Valerie tossed and turned all night due to the hard bed. Valerie slept on the bus the entire way to and through the Vienna woods. We arrived at Mayerling hunting lodge where Crown Prince Rudolph supposedly committed suicide in 1889 along with his mistress. The stop was short and disappointing. The tour guide says there is new evidence that perhaps Rudolph was murdered. We then stopped at the Abbey of Heilgenkreuz, built in 1133. The
chapel had wonderful inlaid rosewood pews that portrayed different scenes which had been done by a local carpenter in the 17th century. We were only allowed in for a brief time because the monks had to pray. The last stop of our tour was seeing the largest subterranean lake in Europe, which once was a gypsum mine. Later, the Germans built parts of bomber plans in the caverns which were later assembled elsewhere. Valerie stayed in the coffeeshop while George took the tour down a narrow 450 meter tunnel then down 86 steps to get to the lake which was a pale bluish-green color and 3 feet deep.

That afternoon we basked in the sunshine outside the Opera House and wrote postcards. It was the first day we had seen sunshine since we had arrived.

Day 4

We decided to cancel our scheduled tour on the Danube to Melk because all the boat trips were being cancelled due to the high water level of the Danube. This was dangerous because of the submerged tree trunks could damage the propellers. We decided to spend the day exploring the things in Vienna that we had missed previously as this was our last day in Vienna. We took the shuttle to the Vienna Hilton in central Vienna and had breakfast at a local cafe. George had a typical Viennesse breakfast of a hard boiled egg, rolls and hot chocolate. I ordered scrambled eggs with sausage. It was very good but looked like an egg pizza with sliced hot dogs on top. Afterwards, we took the #1 tram to Hofburg Palace. We actually had to wander for an hour before we found it because it was not clearly marked but we did explore several beautiful parks and monuments along the way. We found the Hofburg Palace did not compare with the Schonnbrunn as far as beauty was concerned but the stories about Franz Joseph and the Empress Elizabeth were interested. We then went back to our hotel where we relaxed for the rest of the evening and to get ready for our trip to Budapest in the morning.


Day 5

General Observations: I am sad to see how much graffeti there is on all the buildings In both Vienna and Budapest. It is as if nobody cares. Also, Nothing "Blue " about the blue danube. It is muddy brown.

Today was our last morning in Vienna. We had another wonderful breakfast at our hotel. The weather has finally cleared so we had a nice view of the river. We took a cab to the train station and caught our train to Budapest. All efficiency stopped at that point. Our train left 35 minutes late and arrived over an hour late in Budapest. We did meet a very nice Hungarian couple who helped us with understanding that train annoucements and how the passport stamps were handled. The police for both Austria and Hungary walk past us on the train within a few minutes of one another and each has to inspect your passport. They warned us not to put our passports away after the first inspection and said there would be another inspection which was a great help. They also shared some plums with George. We finally arrived at the Eastern Railway Station (Keleti) where we missed our connection with the Marriott taxi. The maverick taxi drivers were everywhere but we had been warned not to use them. The tourist information bureau was very helpful and called the Marriott for us for another taxi.

After our arrival at the hotel, we sat and had tea and a dessert buffet which was very good. We then had dinner and took a stroll along the Danube. We were pretty tired at that point so we called it an early evening. The food here has been terrific.

Day 6

We started off the morning with breakfast at our hotel which was very good but discovered the cost was $31 per person which was more than Valerie's filet mignon dinner had cost the previous evening so we'll be finding a new option for breakfast. We then took a hop on/hop off city tour which was excellent. There was a demonstration celebrating Hungarian freedom at the Heroes Square. The city is very beautiful and the tour guides spoke excellent English. We had lunch at a restaurant recommended by the tour guide. It was a beautiful room with lots of wood paneling but we were the only ones there which felt very strange.
At that point the entire band along with a gypsy violin started playing just for us and all Valerie saw were dollar signs adding up. George had goulash soup and Valerie tried a garlic pork dish with roasted potatoes. The potatoes were good.

After lunch, we strolled down a center shopping street with antique stores and souvenier shops. There were some beautiful antiques but no bargains. Valerie bought a beautiful shawl at one shop. The clerks were very friendly and had visited Camden.

Back to the hotel where we took a nap and then had tea and cakes again.

We finished off the evening with a night boat trip on the Danube seeing the beautiful lights on the Chain Bridge and the buildings on the shores of the Danube. Our trip included a narration showing the interiors of the buildings we passed along with a history of Budapest. The trip was very romantic.

Day 7

We started off the day with breakfast in our room. Then took a tour of the Parliament building. It is a magnificient structure with amazing decorations. Our guide, Elizabeth, was very nice and told us about the revolution in Hungary in 1956. Even though it had been over 40 years, you could see she was still upset. We also met a couple from Hawaii who have friends that escaped after the revolution by hiding in the countryside in a haystack. The Soviets machine gunned the haystacks and captured the couple but sent them home because they were still teenagers. We learned that a Hungarian congressman meets only on Monday and Tuesday and makes $4000 per month.

We then caught the tram and the metro and went to the Szechenyl baths in the City Park. It was a beautiful day and we had a great time there. The water was wonderful. ( See Photos )

We then made our way to the Opera House where we took a tour of the building. Valerie finally gave up because of all the stairs. George thought it was more beautiful than the Opera House in Vienna. We had lunch at the Callas restaurant across from the Opera House and had the best beef goulash.

It was a good day for George because he finally found a chocolate mousse cake at the Intercontinental Hotel and finished off the day with an ice cream sundae outside the metro station near our hotel. It was just the perfect day to sit outside.

Day 8

We woke up on our last day in Budapest and Valerie has developed a minor cold. We packed and checked out of our hotel. Had a wonderful breakfast outside. George had an omlette sandwich but they baked the meat into the bread not the egg. We have had some wonderful bread during our stay here. We then took the metro and a tram to the Gellert hotel. The hotel was disapointing and we did not go swimming. We then walked back to Pest from Buda over the Chain Bridge. We strolled through the market square and had lunch. George had more ice cream and we found Valerie a pair of Birkenstocks. We then returned to our hotel and will take a taxi this evening to catch our overnight train to Prague.

Day 9

Arrived in Prague at 6am after absolutely no sleep on the train. The train cabin consisted of 3 berths. George took the upper one and had to climb a ladder to get in. Between the border stops and the train stops, it was not a restful night. We were met at the train station by the taxi driver from the hotel who was very nice. We weren't able to check it but they stored our luggage and offered us breakfast. 9 am Eva, our guide, arrived and it turns out she planned on a walking tour despite the pouring rain. After about 20 minutes, we stopped at the Municipal House, had tea and breakfast and decided to go our separate ways. Later we took a tour around town through one of the bus touring companies and got to see all the sights. The Palace tour was very interesting but more steps for Valerie. We had to walk back down the hillside through a long series of steps. Had dinner at our hotel which was very good. George had salmon and Valerie had beef stroganoff which came without noodles. It turns out noodles are extra. We called it an early night so we could catch up on our sleep.

Day 10

Valerie was sick this morning so George went for an hour and half walk seeing the sights. He found a wonderful restaurant called the Sarah Bernhart associated with the Hotel Paris. It turns out the picture from our hotel room in Paris was of Sarah because the restaurant used the same picture for their sign. It was very elegant. We had 2 different versions of soup: George had a spinach soup with salmon and a poached egg on the bottom and I had the Czech potato soup. They were both delicious. Afterward we strolled
through town and found the Museum of Communisum. The Czechs had gathered all the former Communist statues of Lenin, Stalin and Marx. There was also examples of posters showing the propanganda used by the Communists. they had a very interesting display regarding the building of the large statue of Stalin that was built to overlook the city. It was torn down in 1962 but we saw where it was located and it would really have dominated the city. The final section had a documentary regarding the Czech rebellion against the Communists and their eventual overthrow in 1989. The weather was terrific today so this evening we went to the main square in
Prague and had dinner at one of the sidewalk cafes. The dinner was not very good but the sunset was beautiful. We then explored the shops before calling it a night.

Day 11

Our final day in Prague we decided to tour the Skoda auto factory. It is located about 1 hour outside of Prague. We toured the museum where they had the actual early cars built by the company. It allowed you to follow the progression of the factory from the early touring cars, through the changes brought on by WWII and then the cars produced under the Communists which were very utilitarian. The company had now been purchased by Volkswagon and is expanding their line. Our guide spoke very good English but had difficulty deviating from her prepared statements. Whenever a question was asked, she was always say wait and I will answer it. George was lagging behind in order to take photos of some of the older more stylish cars and that was a problem for her. She did not like the fact that everyone did not stay with the group. It disturbed her sense of order. After touring the museum and viewing films regarding the car production and history, we proceeded to the actual factory and were able to see the production of the engine and also watch the
production line in action. The guide explained that the company had made a profit of 11 billion euro in the previous year and had given each worker a bonus based on the profit made. After we returned from the factory, we made our way to the airport hotel because we
needed to be at the airport the next morning by 4am for the flight home. Our taxi driver was in his early 40's and told us stories about what it was like under the Communists and how hard it was for the elderly under the current system because they did not have any
savings to support them because the Communist system that they lived under did not allow for individual savings and they were having
to struggle to survive.

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