Days 27 and 28

Budapest Finale

This will be a long entry because we did a lot in a short amount of time.  There are many pictures!  IF any picture looks interesting, you can click on the picture to enlarge it!

The river (the Danube) continues to rise!  They are trying to limit the flooded area and we are amazed at the amount of work they continue to do.

Our last days in Budapest were excellent - good friends, good fun, and good food!  This is a biking city with lots of bike paths.  Unfortunately, many paths are under water, and once we left the area near our bike shop, the crowds of people looking at the flooding clogged the dry sidewalks along the river.

Not everyone rides solo.  There is the beer drinking option where you have a designated ‘steerer’ and the rest of the riders pedal and drink beer.

We didn’t see TV monitors for ESPN, but if nothing else, you get to claim the whole designated bike lane.

Once upon time, there was an empire in Central Europe called the Austrian-Hungarian or Hapsburg.  The church above is one of several examples of the Austrian-Hungarian empire that existed until the end of WWI. They, along with Germany, lost that war, and the empire collapsed.

The spectacular structure (above) and other beautiful medieval architectures (below) can be seen within what they call the Castle District.  

From the Castle District, you get great views of the Hungarian Parliament Building on the other side of the Danube.  If you don’t make it to London to see their parliament, this one is almost as big.  We learned hey were happy to have become a democracy after years of Soviet rule as well as being under Nazi control (World War II).

We found that getting around to see all the sights is best accomplished from an open-topped tour bus.  The head-set for each seat lets you choose your language, and the sombreros keep the sun out of your face and tell people it’s finally sunny weather.

The beauty of the city is in lots of places.  If you like to take pictures, this is a great place to be with a camera.  It’s probably one of the prettiest cities in the world.   

Opera House - like many buildings, this one is decorated with beautiful statues and/or gargoyles

The facade of the upper four floors has etched ‘grafitti’

One of many buildings with domed roof(s)

Devilish ornamental light fixtures 

Gellert Bathes just beyond trees

There are over 50 mineral bathes in Budapest. We went to the largest and most famous one on our last afternoon in this city. It was quite an experience!  

And the food was excellent, too.  While there were lots of outdoor eateries along the Danube, our favorite place was TomGeorge Italiano.  One night, Dan and Jan wanted something other than goulash.  Italian food sounded good, so even though we were in Hungary, we tried the italian restaurant with the non-italian name.  The food and wine here are five-star but the price is reasonable.  Over a few nights, we tried many things including the ‘Strangled Priest’ pasta dish.  

There is only one thing you need to be wary of food-wise in Budapest.  Hungarian paprika tends to be very spicy - hot!!

We head home today and Jan and Dan head to Prague so they get some more vacation.  Even with the rain and swollen rivers, our journey and our company was great!

We will come back for a river cruise some other year.  It was a great idea, but it was an unfortunate time this year because of the floods. 

Days 24-26

Days 24 and 25 were travel days.  Our journey on Day 24 was from Rovinj to Zagreb, Croatia, by bus.  In past visits, we had rented a car as we were going to the airport.  This time, we were headed to the center of the largest city in Croatia to be ready to take a train to Hungary.  It turned out to be a good (or lucky) choice as it poured rain and a professional driver who knew the route took care of getting us to Zagreb.  While in Zagreb, we got word that the river cruise, which was to start in 36 hours, was going to be converted to a bus tour due to flooding on all the rivers we were to cruise!  

This is the Danube in Budapest 

We had been watching the news in Europe for several days and wondering if and how the cruise could take place.  Other river cruise operators had canceled their cruises.  Ours, unfortunately, waited until the last minute, and several people traveled to Europe with no idea that the cruise was about to change to a bus tour.  Included in that unfortunate group were our traveling companions, Jan and Dan Studer.   We tried to forewarn them, but they were already on their way and didn’t have a phone or computer.

When we got to Budapest on Day 25, we got a first hand look at the worst flooding in Central Europe in 400 years!  We would have much preferred not being part of this history.  The cruise ship boat launching docks were inaccessible due to the flood water. This picture shows where we were to have boarded our Viking river boat.

It was great to tie into Jan and Dan.  We were walking to the hotel from the subway station and they were headed to dinner in a city of almost 2 million people.  We were very lucky to find them a few blocks from our hotel and quickly headed to a dinner reunion.

Someone claims that the French stole the recipes they call theirs from the Hungarians.  All we can say is the food was mostly excellent as evidenced by this fillet mignon wrapped in bacon and served with miniature dumplings and mushrooms with a cheesy-meat gravy.  

None of us was pleased with the late cancelation of the cruise.  We recognize and understand natural disasters, but we don’t appreciate the late cancelation that Viking made when the rivers had been flooded for several days at least.  For Dan and Jan, they had just flown to Budapest to start a vacation, and the news was worse for them than for us as we’ve been on vacation for almost four weeks!

Jan and Shari looking for the cruise boat to board.

As we have done in the past, we adapted.   Budapest is a very interesting and BEAUTIFUL city - more in the next post!  We were to stay in our hotel, the Starlight Suites, a four star hotel only one block from the Danube, for only one night, but now we are staying for a few days.  

Those of you into pickleball have probably heard us discuss sandbaggers a time or two.  Rarely have we captured a sandbagging moment in one photo, but here it is:

We will do our best to make lemonade (or limoncello) out of lemons.  We always do!

Days 20-23

Croatia

Rovinj, or Rovigno as the Italians would call it, is sometimes thought of as the Little Venice of Croatia. It’s a beautiful place located due east of Venice on the other side of the Adriatic Sea. Unlike Venice, there are no canals, but there is beautiful scenery and the water is clear, warm, and photographic.

It’s here that we learned a few years ago that Klarich (spelled Klaricj here) is a popular Croation last name.  We even heard it’s the ‘Smith’ or ‘Jones’ of last names in this country! 

Several of you know we have been here before.  It’s a great place to relax and enjoy the sea.  We got the same apartment with this great view of the small and quaint harbor.  

Every time we come here it seems better, which is not always the case with repeat visits to other places. Riding bikes every day on a path along the sea is an activity we both enjoy.

It’s not Spain, but the tapas we discovered this time were a new delicious dish from a great little restaurant called Segutra.

It’s still one of the prettier cities we have visited.  Simple things they do with flowers make a simple walk in the old town an occasion.

Three years ago we got lucky and found this great pizza place in Rovinj.  This part of Croatia had been Italian for centuries.

The bigger discovery was Predrag Carlo Lazic.  He was a friendly waiter with a big smile and a love for conversation.  We saw him again in 2011 when we visited our second time.  This time, he generously offered to take us for a ride on his boat to Vrsar, a coastal town about 10-12 miles north of Rovinj as the crow, or seagull. flies.

Boats are parked four or five deep, so first Predrag hopped from boat to boat to get to his, which was in the very last row.

Leaving Rovinj, we were treated to some views of the town we can’t get from the shore.  As Predrag would point out as this picture does, most of Croatia is rock.

The sea was fairly calm, and that made the hour-long trip to Vsrar very enjoyable.  It was calm enough that one us got to enjoy the trip from the crow’s nest.

Once in Vsrar, Predrag took us on a walking tour.  One of the highlights was looking down on the town from it’s highest point, the bell tower.

We walked through both sides of the small seaside town and also enjoyed some local wine and discussion about Croatia and life in general.  

The sun had already disappeared as we left Vsrar and headed back to Rovinj.  On our darkened ride home, we were accompanied by a pod of bottlenose (blue) dolphins!  That made the special trip complete.

It was an evening to remember!  Thank you Predrag!

Days 18 and 19

Day 18 was mostly a traveling day - all on Italian public transportation.  We took the bus from Lucca to Florence, a high speed train from Florence to Venice, then a water taxi to our hotel on the island.  The bus and train both left exactly on time and it was all very clear where to go.  When you arrive at the Venice train station on the water, boat travel appears to be chaotic.  There are dozens of boats moving in both directions on a small canal  and a variety of boats to choose from.  There also seemed to be at least twice as many people here than there were on our last visit 9 years ago.

Yes it was a wet and grey day, if you can’t tell. The water boat was a challenge to use, especially with suitcases with what seemed like the mass of humanity getting on and off at every stop.

When we finally arrived at our hotel, we learned why not to book a 2 star hotel.  While the view from the entrance onto the local canal was pleasant (see below), the room was tiny and we had to improvise storage for the 2 suitcases and 2 small back packs. It was our second worst hotel room ever, but it still had a high price tag.

We won’t relive our worst hotel until Jan and Dan Studer join us later on our journey - in about a week.

Venice is still very beautiful and is definitely worth visiting (once), but there were so many people walking down the narrow sidewalks that at times it seemed like walking down the strip in Las Vegas on a popular evening.    

The smaller canals can be just as colorful and interesting as the Grand Canal.

It’s such a unique city with all it’s canals, bridges, narrow streets, and beautiful buildings.

We left Italy on a high speed ferry (with airline seats) to cross the Adriatic to Croatia.  We are very ready for summer to begin.

Days 16 and 17

Most Italians seem to follow one of two sports, soccer or biking.   It was an interesting surprise to witness a ‘new’ sport while in Italy called Urban Golf.  

A couple of players stopped by the restaurant where we were having lunch in their outdoor eating area.  They were carrying one club each and a swatch of artificial turf.  The pinkish little ball was soft rubber, but would go quite a ways if hit correctly.  The white paper was a set of maps for the 18 ‘holes’.  The fairway in the picture above is the narrow street leading to the people you can barely see.  It looks a bit intimidating.  

The piece of astro-turf makes any location playable - Have Turf Will Golf.  The biggest problem is people getting in your way. This picture was taken on top of the wall.

Since the players we saw were all novices, they didn’t get much attention except from a certain paparazzi.  They all seemed to be having a special urban adventure.

We meet lots of interesting people in Italy.  It’s tempting, but we rarely ask to take their picture.  An exception was the man on the right (below). He looks a bit like a movie character - a little like Guiseppe, Pinnochio’s ‘father’.  Instead, he was an Italian math professor, and spends a good part of his retirement days at this piazza (town square) hanging out with his friends.   What a great face and mustache, and he was a very pleasant person to talk to.  The man next to him was a talkative banker.

However, not every conversation we have is successful or completely friendly.  

Our days in Lucca have finally come to an end.  We’ve had plenty of time to relax and enjoy a slower pace of life.  Our apartamento didn’t look like much from the street, but it was very comfortable (deluxe) and spacious on the inside.  As we have said, you can’t judge from the outer facade.

It’s the dark-shuttered yellow building in the center of the photo partially hidden by a tree.

We took one last ride around the wall today.  It seems like many things we see while riding the wall are a slice of Italian life.  This guy is not only getting his riposo, he’s studying for his next big test.

We probably forgot to mention how one’s family includes the family pets, and how dogs are allowed into restaurants with their owners (if well behaved - the dogs).  If the dogs are small enough, they ride on the bike too - if well behaved.

One last ride!  On to Venice tomorrow.