Linz and Salzburg

Coming in to Linz was quite a beautiful scene. The park on one side of the river goes for miles with skate parks, soccer fields, kiddie areas, jogging trails and lots of early morning activity. The castle on the hill is seen for miles and the industry on the other bank of the river is clean and productive looking.We hopped on a bus for the trip to Salzburg as soon as we landed. The guide on the bus was informative about this city and the countryside as we drove.
This gorgeous lake is multicolored and the rocky mountains around it really set it off. It is called Crescent Lake (actually I can't find the real German name - but it is like crescent or moon or something.)
We arrive in Salzburg after about 1 1/2 hours on the bus. The stream running through is called Salzach and it was a natural deterrent from enemies for the fortress on the hill in medieval times. The important salt mines and trade began this city centuries ago.
Now ... this is absolutely the most adorable pedestrian shopping street I have ever laid my baby blues on.  Don't you just LOVE the cute wrought iron signs and narrow cobblestones (oh, you can't see those) and great stores.  SOOO CUTE!!!
Oh, and this actually is where Mozart was born. 
..... and the 15th-century Dom Cathedral where he was baptized.
..... AND here is where Julie Andrews and the Von Trapp family hid from the Germans. See behind the stones in the gated area. (I think the middle daughter did good for just not freaking out here in the dark cemetery)
Oh, wait! A three story shop that is dedicated to CHRISTMAS decorations. John was in heaven!
Yet across the "street" was another little boutique with MILLIONS of decorated pastel Easter eggs.  Again, right up my alley.

All-in-all a very cute city, even though it rained on us as we were trotting our way back to the bus. (all 113 of us)

Durnstein- Scenery- Bicycles

Another beautiful day in which to wake up. We arrive in a small village up the river in the Wachau Valley.  Grown here are apricots, white wine grapes, and it looks like a variety of other things. It is green and hilly and the river is busy with barges for trading.

John and I take off with about 15 other passengers from our ship on a gorgeous bike ride . The vineyards and farmlands are everywhere you look along the river and across a couple of bridges.
In the tiny villages along the river are well tended gardens with peony's, poppy's, and roses in full bloom. There is an old abbey on a distant peak. We are told that all the land we are biking around is still owned by the abbey. The bike trail takes us through farmland growing wheat, barley, lots of potatoes and wild poppies, as well as along the river bank. Not traveling up the hills, we just observe them from a distance.  We stop for some German brown bread, pate, & wine (or gingerale).  Beautiful day, beautiful ride.
Durnstein is the village along the river where we dock. There is an Augustinian Monastery with a baroque blue tower and adorable little burgher houses built from the 16th through 18th century. Notice the castle ruins (Kuenringerburg) high above the village where Richard the Lionheart was held captive in 1192-1193.
This 19 mile stretch of river cuts through a protected rocky gorge in the foothills of the Bohemian Forest.
John is always up for a good game of chess. Our token kid on board knows who to ask.
Next stop is in the quaint Austrian town of MELK. This 900 year old Abbey sits above the granite cliffs of the Danube. Once a Babenberg Castle, it was given to the Benedictine Monks.
An important center for learning in the Middle Ages, this library contains more than 80,000 medieval manuscripts.  Seriously awesome room!
.... and the chapel was incredible as well. With the gold work and paintings and marble walls and carved wood, and.....  you catch the drift.
Here's a picture "window" like I would imagine in a pleasant dream.

Bratislava then Vienna

We woke early after cruising all night through Hungary. This is the top deck of the boat where I came out to see the sites and read a book that my friend Debbie gave me for my birthday. The Middle Place is a quick, easy, read about dealing with family and illness.

There are 11 locks to pass through on the trip from Budapest to Passau and here we approach "Gabcikovo" the first and largest of the locks.

 John was making sure the ship was not getting too close to the cement wall of the lock . "Is 5 inches too close?" They hook the ship up to 3 points along the wall and the hooks move up with the boat as the water rises.

They had 3 big river boats in the lock with us, and we are 410 feet long.  The lock is 902 ft. long by 112 ft. wide and the water rises 59 feet. Did I mention we are 5 inches away from the wall?

Here we are at noon coming into Bratislava in Slovakia.  You can see the Castle fortress in the background all dressed in scaffolding. Many buildings were dressed like this along the way and this city in particular had MUCH construction and renovation going on.  

Here is the bridge the Soviets built that the locals call UFO bridge. Across on the other side of the river you see an apartment city where the people lived in the 1960's and 1970's when in full swing of Soviet rule. The apartments are practical and quite boring looking compared to other architecture around Europe. I guess some of our apartments built around that time are similarly boring.

In contrast you see the beautiful wrought iron and carved work of older buildings.

Another beautiful opera house. I swear there is music on the streets and in the buildings wherever  you go.

We toured Bratislava for about 4 hours, then headed to the ship 

for some yummy food and musical entertainment. A Slavic 

concert master and conductor that could play 7-8 instruments

masterfully.

To bed ... and then we magically wake up in VIENNA!

This cathedral is another built to St. Stephen.  It is in the center of the "Wien" circle and there are horse drawn carriages as well as tourist buses all around. 

It rained on us and we had a wordy, kinda annoying guide, but the city is 

pretty fantastic.

The walking plazas also go in a circle where the fanciful mostly pastel buildings house shops, restaurants, and apartments on the upper floors.

We went into Mozart's apartment and were sorry we waisted our time. Apparently Mozart lived in many cities and apartments . Just ask someone in our last city or our next city and they'll point out his house.

In the afternoon we took a bus to Schonbrunn Palace. A similar style to Versailles in France, it was pretty fabulous inside. The art, walls, lights, fireplaces, wood floors, ceilings, and more were impressive.

Here is an example of the large dance, meeting hall on the 3rd floor.

This whole wall is done in burled wood. The many pictures are surrounded with elaborate filigree gilded in gold. Rococo style is

evolved from baroque. It is frivolous and includes swirls and 

fancy carvings in frames, art, furniture, and other small details

in the room.

The fireplaces can't be opened in the main rooms and are instead stoked and filled from behind where the servants can access them without entering the room.

Then there are the gardens.  Baroque in nature, everything is symmetrical.  As far as the eye can see, the gardens go on and on. 

Also on the grounds is a zoo, restaurant, orangerie, school, and nearly anything else royalty could use.

We finished off the night with a concert in another big, cool, old

building.

A quick stop in a city that could use some more of my time.

It All Started in BUDAPEST

I will start this post with a little disclaimer. "If you don't want to see, learn about, be bored by, or otherwise hear about my fabulous trip to Central Europe you should just stop now."

I want to journal this trip so when I publish my memoirs I will have some details, so I totally understand if you want to tune me out right this second.

We arrived in Budapest after a long but comfortable first class flight that our 120

thousand per ticket United sky miles paid for. (We actually had to buy a second home to accumulate said miles.)

The first picture is from our Marriott hotel room overlooking the Danube River whose bridges connect Buda with Pest (since 1849 after Count Istvan Szechenyi missed his fathers funeral because the river had thawed out making it impossible to cross). We had a great view to the south hills of Buda and the main downtown area here on the Pest side.

We went out to a cute little Hungarian restaurant that evening. The dinner music was the first of many ensembles that we listened to while on the trip consisting of a typical 3 man group. This includes one man on the bass violin, one on the violin, and the third on the cimbalom which is a cross between a piano and harp played by striking the strings with a mallets and is the national musical instrument of Hungary. Very Fun!

The next day we explored around the city. We walked to the metro which was the oldest line in Europe, and rode to the main park which used to be the hunting ground for the kings. There are hot springs all over the city and people use them for warm bath houses. We went to Szechenyi in City Park and just swam in the semi warm pool with bubbles and whirlpools for playing. The architecture was baroque style and pretty cool. Much of the city was restructured for the 1896 celebration of the millennium of the city and

this was the style of choice at that time.

We continued to walk and ride around town and the water front buildings and shops were the heart of the city. Here is an outdoor cafe (again with the 3 man band) near our hotel with a great ambiance and goulash for our eating pleasure.

The next morning was my 51st birthday (oh ... did I say that out loud?) we started off on the trolley along the river bank toward the Great Market Hall where farmers, butchers, bakers, and handicrafters, sell their wares. We bought some beautiful tablecloths and a few little gifts for our family and friends to remind us of Hungary.

We bought a lot of Paprika (just crushed dried chili peppers) in sweet and hot type, so I'll try to enjoy using that in my cooking for the next several months.

Hungary has won't be using the "Euro" currency until at least 2012, so it was interesting using the forint and converting it 200 to 1 dollar.

We walked all the way down the pedestrian shopping mall and saw the 1st McDonald's behind the iron curtain, many other "western" stores, and many quaint and very Hungarian ones too.

On to St. Stevens Basilica. (St. Istvan's that is)

Ornately decorated in gold with Steven strategically placed in the front and center, the church was full of marble and included many styles of architecture. 

The climb to the top was worth a fabulous view of the city.

Sunday morning found John and I looking for an address off of the Metro near Castle Hill. We found the nondescript street and it appeared to have many houses and/or flats that didn't look like a church of any kind. But alas we found this glass door that looked as if it had been ordered straight from Salt Lake City and a logo that although had very interestingly spelled words, looked very similar to something we'd seen before.

Here is the Opera House where we heard Xerxes by Georg Friedrich Handel. Good music, weird interpretation of story. I surprisingly loved the male high soprano (sopranista).

This large statue is called the Liberation Monument. Located at the Citadella on a hill seen by much of the city she is holding a palm branch. This replaced the Soviet Soldier with a red star that used to adorn the spot after 1989 when the Soviets left.

Checking on to the ship in the afternoon following a drive around town with a couple we met a church, we see a nice little room and planned itinerary for the week. 

Looks like fun!

We met some nice people at dinner and prepared for a beautiful week up the Danube River.

Next morning the bus takes us around Budapest. 

Guides talk about the sites and we started out at Heroes Square in City Park. So many beautiful buildings and 1000 year history that was celebrated in 1896. 

Then up to the hill side to the castle and Matthias Church. It is a Neo-Gothic style with gilded Moorish inspired painting in geometrics throughout. The porcelain tiled roof is many brightly colored hexagons and is uniquely vivid.

In the afternoon, John and I went on a "Jewish" city tour through the old WWII ghetto and 3 very different synagogues. 

The first is the Great Synagogue on Dohany Street. The biggest in Europe and the most Christian influenced architecture I had seen in a Jewish structure.  The alter was in the front instead of the middle of the room and there were pulpits on the sides for the lecturer to talk.

The stars that decorate the facade of the building are 8 sided instead of David's 6 sided star, and there is an organ in the building that has to be played by someone of another faith on the sabbath.

Outside the synagogue is a memorial garden and cemetery. The mass graves are from deaths in 1944 -45 near the end of the war when the Nazi's decided that they needed to quickly move in on their allies and exterminate the Jews, where they had before mainly concentrated on the Jews in countries that were their enemies.

This weeping willow "Tree of Life" depicts all of the Hungarian Jews who were killed by the Nazi's. Each silver leaf has the name of a family who lost a loved one in this tragedy.

This is a picture of the extermination order for 11,000,000 (eleven million) Jews from different European countries.

This is the second Synagogue we entered and is quite orthodox. What beautiful painted walls, beams, pews, and columns this place has. The men had to wear yamika's in all the working synagogues we entered.

This old synagogue has been in disrepair since it was bombed in WWII. Half of the walls and dome still look beautiful, but much of the rest is unrecognizable.

... And we're off.

The ship is going up the river on this warm 75 degree evening.  Everything along the path is lit up spectacularly. 

We pass the Gresham Palace, the Chain Bridge, Castle Hill, Matthias Church, Parliament, Margaret Island and off  through the green lit part of the bridges in the dark night. What a spectacular place to start an anniversary trip!!