Out of our 505 pictures (yes...over 500 pictures...we had just gotten a new camera!), this was our one token family shot. The background, Hofburg Palace and the Fiakers, or horse-drawn carriages, in Vienna.
So, I'll give you our "whirlwind tour" of parts of Eastern Europe in list form...(I have to admit, this is somewhat selfish, as I'm doing this so that I do not forget where we went by the time I do our scrapbook pages...which, at the rate I'm going, could be 10 years from now!)...along with "a few" pictures! (Feel free to skip through and simply look at the pictures...it won't hurt my feelings...I'll never know!)
We began our tour in Bratislava...we had never thought about going to Slovakia, but this is where the cheap airfare landed, so we spent a night and half day there. Again, interesting place. We stayed in the Old Town, in a restored 600 year old building...kinda interesting really.
The sights on 19 March...Bratislava:
1. St. Michael's Gate
2. Old Town Square
3. Bronze statues around square
We stayed in this hotel, on the narrowest pedestrian walkway in Bratislava.
In front of St. Michael's Gate.
Ooooo...the Paparazi!! These statues were so great...I think 5 of them in all but we had to search them out. It was fun!
Then, it was on a 3 hours train ride to Budapest, Hungary. Thanks to our brother-in-law, we were familiar with what we "needed" to see in Budapest.
The sights on 19 March...Pest:
1. Opera House tour (one of our absolutely favorite parts...liked it better than the Vienna State Opera House!)
The sights on 20 March:
1. St. Istvan's Basilica
2. Hungarian Parliament
3. Chain Bridge to Buda (did you know that Buda and Pest are actually separated by a river...the Danube and were joined by this wonderfully ornate bridge, along with another small town way back when, to become "Budapest")
4. Castle Hill-hiked up to see the castle/Royal Palace , Fishermen's Rampart, St. Matthias Cathedral and a fabulous lunch at the Riverway Cafe)
5. Deak Ferenc Square (main town square)-with a park for Jackson!
6. Great Market Hall
7. Vorosmarty Square-just so happens that it was their Spring Festival, so we saw a Budapest outdoor market as well...for those of you that have been to Germany, it was very similar to a German Christmas Market only in the Spring!! So, we opted for a glass of Mulled Wine...mmm, yummy, as it was a bit windy and chilly (although sunny...we had fabulous weather!)
8. Danube Boat Tour at night-(beautiful city at night!)
St. Istavan's/Steven's Basilica
Hungarian Parliament by day...
Hungarian Parliament by night...on our Danube Boat Tour
On our hike up to Castle Hill...aren't the cobblestone streets cool?!!?
The Fishermen's Rampart
View from the Rampart
The sights on 21 March...Pest:
1. Andrassy Street/ut- along here we saw City Park, Szechenyi Baths, Vajdahunyad Castle (Transylvania Castle), Benedictine Chapel, Hero's Square, Museum District, and a view of the Gundel Restaurant
2. Oktogon Square
3. Franz Liszt Square (where we saw a few statues of Liszt)
4. Lunch at Gerbaud Coffee Shop (famous place to have coffee...it was one of the most beautiful "coffee shops" I'd been into!)
5. Back over to Buda to Gellart Hill to view the Citadella, Gellart Baths and Hotel and a wonderful view of Budapest. Jackson would probably pick the trip down the hill as his favorite, for it was then that we found a park with 6 different slides...he would have stayed there forever!
6. Stroll down Vaci utca (street) and a view of the first McDonald's behind the Iron Curtain...who knew?!!?
Szechenyi Baths...yet another thing you can't pass up seeing in Budapest as they are known for their thermal baths (with Jackson, we weren't able to try them...maybe some other time=) )
Heroes Square...a square with lots of statues of important Hungarian people...didn't "know" them but cool nonetheless!
Yes, we acquired a helicopter balloon on the walk to Hero's Square. The $12 balloon promptly deflated that night...oh well.
In front of the Citadella with Budapest city in the background (we are standing on the Buda side!)
Cody and Jackson in our hotel lounge/restaurant...one of the cutest pictures of them I think!
The next day, it was onto Vienna, Austria...we caught our 3 hours train late morning and arrived in Vienna around 2:30pm. THIS was our favorite city out of the three.
The sights on 22 March:
1. Tram ride around part of Vienna to Prater (amusement park), although not opened now because it's low season...we did know that in advance.
2. Dinner at Cafe G-something or other...it was good Viennese food.
The sights on 23 March:
1. Hofburg Palace to include the inside of the Imperial Apartments-saw Spanish Riding School and Burgtheater
2. Parlament
3. City Hall
4. Vienna University
5. Lunch at Cafe Mozart (beautiful again!!...and you can't go to Vienna and not eat at Cafe Mozart)
6. State Opera House tour
7. Stadt Park-saw statues of composers
8. Votive church
9. Freud Park
10. MuseumQuartier (cool walk and area!)-it was dark at this point, so we viewed many of the buildings at night as we walked to dinner...absolutely stunning city at night, just as Budapest was!
11. Pizza for dinner...yummy!!
We weren't able to take pictures in the Imperial Apartments, but, we could in the Silver Collection area. Cody laughed as he took snapshots...I had finally found someone with more dishes than me, my mother or mother-in-law! I loved it...Cody and Jackson...well, I don't think they liked it as much as I did.
The Parlament...
Now...THIS is a City Hall!! My favorite view of this was all lit up at night.
Here's a familiar name for you...on the wall of the State Opera House. His friend, Beethoven, was next to him, along with some other familiar names.
See...Jackson was interested in these tours, museums and cathedrals...we have proof!
The sights on 24 March:
1. Schonbrunn Palace-viewed Royal Palace Apartments which was part of the Royal Palace, Gloriette and Gardens
2. Lunch at the Opera House Cafe
3. St. Stephan's Cathedral
4. A "snack" at the Original Sacher Torte Cafe-again...can't come to Vienna and not have a Sacher Torte!!
5. House of Music-this was a neat interactive museum...we even got to conduct an orchestra!!
6. Dinner at a place called "Wienerwald"...we ate there because it had a funny name!
Schonbrunn Palace took about half a day to do. The gardens were beautiful, even now! It, however, was a bit windy, as evidenced by some of the pictures!
The Gloriette at Schonbrunn Palace...a nice hike up, but a beautiful view of the palace below.
Cody took a trip up to see the bell in the bell tower, so he had a "bird's eye view" of St. Stephan's Cathedral. We spent a lot of time in this Cathedral...absolutely stunning, beautiful and humbling. Jackson loved the paintings in this Cathedral more than any of the other ones we went into. Interesting...
I have to admit, I talked about our trip to eat a Sacher Torte many times, as I didn't want us to skip it! All in all, it was a chocolate cake with a rich hardened chocolate on the top...good, but not "to-die-for!" We got some posed pictures in Cafe Sacher, but I just thought this was too cute...can you tell our son shares my love for chocolate?? He actually ate most of Cody's...you know, since Cody isn't a big sweets fan!
The sights on 25 March...Vienna:
1. One last stop at the Opera House for breakfast...they remembered us from the day before!!
2. Stroll through Vienna city centre again to include Hofburg Palace (that's when we got our "family shot"...see above) again and the Volksgarten...with a mini-park for Jackson.
3. Lunch at Cafe Demel...a much recommended cafe...it was fabulous!
5. St. Peter's Church
St. Peter's Church was ranked #1 on the Trip Advisor sights to see, so we thought it was worth a stop inside. We were glad we stopped! We were even blessed with the lovely voices of a choir giving a concert when we walked in.
And, then, we jumped back on the afternoon train bound for Bratislava...this one was only an hour...bus to the airport and hopped on a 9pm plane back to Edinburgh!
WHOO!! We had a great time and absolutely could not believe that we got all of what we wanted to see seen! Jackson did awesome and seemed to have a great time walking, running, climbing statue platforms, putting faces with composers' names that he's listened to since he was 4 months old, and guessing what form of public transportation we were going to take next. This trip was another hurdle for us...as we used EVERY form of transportation possible...car, taxi, airplane, boat, tram, metro, bus, train, walking, running...you name it, we did it (ok, I take that back, we did not use a bicycle, motorcycle or wagon...and we opted to skip the "fiaker" or horse drawn carriage, although that was an option!)! What we discovered...it can all be done with a 2-year-old, and, our 2-year-old LOVES any form of transportation...he would have gladly jumped on the horses if we had let him!!
I leave you with one last photo...our son, on top of the base of a statue/monument. He had a grand ol' time!! (Oh, and Guppy...of course he went with us...and made the finale picture too!!)
And, I'm never loading this many pictures in a post again (it took waaaaaay too long!!)...well, at least until the next trip!
4 comments:
woo hoo! I can't wait to show Apu some of the pictures from Budapest! Looks like y'all had a wonderful time :) Remind me to tell you the story of Apu and the Operetta - or even better...when you see him again in person, you will have to ask him. The way he tells the story will have you laughing because of his accent!
Looks like you guys had a FABULOUS time! I'm sure you loved all those dishes :):) And travelling with children is definitely fun (and challenging at times, at least it is for us!) - but it is so worth it! Love you!
Looks like a wonderful trip. The only city I had been to was Vienna so I greatly enjoying visiting through your adventures. You got some great pictures too!
Amazing! Love the pics...and you guys look like you're fitting right in!
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