Budapest--Pest side

Have to start out with a picture taken from the Buda side to show the Pest castle--in the background. We didn't get to it to take the photo. The Pest side has most of the restaurants, accommodations, etc.

A cafe where we splurged. The Secret Service had their coffee and cakes here during occupancy. Even then, it was the nicest place available. Very elegant...It hasn't changed much.

Our own Secret Service tea party!

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We also stumbled across a great indoor market right near the river. We had langos--big scones with a choice of toppings. We all chose cheese!

Traditional food at the very hip Menza's! We all loved this place--the food and the decor.


Good bye beautiful Budapest!

Camping in Prague

 This is my one commentary on the quirky day-to-day adjustments of life here. First, we were here for two weeks before I realized what this was: an instant water heater for tea, hot chocolate. (It was part of the existing kitchen accessories--though neither a small pot nor a serving bowl were. It's become a part of our morning routine.

 The refrigerator door--everything comes in SMALL packages. And we basically eat everything we can carry home every day. So, while the notion of buying fresh bread everyday was a romantic one for me, having to go to the store every day for each day's food (and schlepping it home) takes some getting used to.

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The bread loaf for toast--comes in 10 slices of 3x3 inches each.

 Our little doll kitchen. We mostly use the stove top--for pasta (with sauce), scrambled eggs (with good bread), Indian curry (with bottled Tikka Masala sauce). Not bad...

 This machine holds 5 kg loads. And we dry them on the radiators--one in each room of the house.

 The WC is separate from the bathroom. It works just fine.

 Here are our book shelves--on a corner and very small, but the floor works fine to hold our books too!

 Here's our drying rack for socks, etc.. It's in a little closet that holds luggage.

Sheet drying on the door--jeans on the radiators...

BUDA-PEST--the Buda side

We arrived in Budapest from Vienna and rode in Europe's first electric subway car/system (not the original car...) to our hotel. It's a cute little blue and yellow car with a circus horn. The kids dubbed it the Happy Train. Two or three "guards" wait at every subway stop to check each individual ticket! It became a bit annoying--and a time-waster for Hungarians, you would think...

 We had to go back to the train station to reserve our couchettes for the return trip. The station was COLD!

 Budapest was two separate cities: Buda and Pest. The two are across the Danube from each other. Each has its own castle and personality. We visited Buda first--it makes up the hills of Budapest; you can see the Pest palace on the opposite side--it's the flat part. This was the first sunny day we'd seen in awhile--the kids couldn't open their eyes.

 Here are the hills of Buda behind the Castle. So lovely!

 Hector messing around... (Mom having a heart attack!)

 The kids catch air! Brady was working his new camera. We spent some time while he practiced the timing feature and the panorama tricks. Will post some of the results.

 A quiet moment for the boys.

 We loved the old phone booths--I don't know if the girls have ever seen one...They call it a kabin here.

 You can get a sense of the old in the atmosphere here. Hard to capture.

An artsy take here of the kids, under the bridge. We were looking for graffiti for Finn's project. We didn't find much graffiti (here or in Budapest in general), but it was fun scrambling around so close to the water while the trams/cars/buses rumbled overhead.

Vienna-2nd day Museums

On the second day, we split up, as Brady and Finn went in search of some graffiti for Finn's project. Hector and the girls and I went to the Schmetterling Haus (Butterfly House) and the Museum of Natural History. Brady and Finn ended up at the National Art Museum.

 These are in front of the museums--in the courtyard of the Museum Quartier. (And here's one more gold guy to add to our collection.)

We stopped for a quick bite at a little stand on the road. Gyros, noodles, pizza--ahh the choices!

Vienna--Kaisersgruft (The Crypt of the Kings)/Rathaus/Zu den Leiserln

 We were able to get into the Kaisergruft before it closed...the Austrians take good care of their royalty. The crypt is housed beneath a small church--certainly of some significance, but don't know what it is..The caskets were all bronze with intricate (and sometimes huge) statues of saints and other creatures.

 Why so sad, queen?

 Here's one of the most ornate examples--on the casket of King Josef Ferdinand I, husband to Isabel

Someone's beloved is sleeping well here.

 Next we took a cable car on the Ringestrasse (the street that encircles the old town); in part, we chose this to warm up a little...

 Note the difference between these shots (taken only seconds apart), the blue comes from the Rathaus--the building where parliament meets. Tonight it was lit up (in blue/purple) for an iceskating fest.

 Pearl and Georgia REALLY wanted to rent skates and joint the skaters, but it was so cold that we opted to watch for a few minutes.

 There was a dj with a local music station and stands selling food and drinks. (Most of the drink choices were too strong for the kids...the music was techno and euro--Hector loved it!

 We armed up here while we pretended to consider which sausage we wanted (we'd already decided on a restaurant for our first taste of wiener schnitzel) and instead had...

 HOt CHocolate!!! MMM.

 I thought it seemed expensive, but wasn't yet used to euros. When we finished the people at the Kiosk had us place the cups back on the rack and gave us a $15 deposit back! Apparently I'd paid for the mugs.

 Here we are at the Zu den Leisn--a traditional schnitzel restaurant.

 The plate they served up was stacked with all kinds of meat fried in a delicious crust. We tried liver, turkey, beef, pork and other? served with some french fries and really good cabbage/root saladAustrian soda.  Even Brady like the cabbage/roots--and we all know that's saying something.

Initially when we ordered, the kids each selected a main plate and Brady and I decided to share a combination for two. The waiter informed us that the combination plate would be enough for us all. Boy was he right! We saved half of what our first order would have cost, and we were stuffed. Needless to say, thanked our waiter for his advice with a nice tip.:)

Vienna--Albertina

We wandered down the main thoroughfare toward the palace. It was a little bit cold but it didn't seem to bother anybody--especially not this guy. We're now collecting "gold men"; this is our third one!

 The kids were intrigued by this window of ball gowns. Pearl wanted to buy one for her junior prom, but alas, they didn't seem to be in our price range.

 We came upon Albertina Theatre--and got some shots of these statues/sculptures--not sure of their significance, but they are interesting.

Which one's the troll?

Lots of names--but the most interesting thing to us was what we found in the back of this:

A geo-cache!!! We signed and dated it along with 50 or so others from the past 2 years.

Proud discoverers!