Hungary and Vienna, Again......

Hi Guys

Well I am back in Austria, again!! We had another day in Budapest, we went into the country to visit another outdoor museum. This one had small villages, that had been transported to it, so you could see Hungry through the ages, in one place. It was very interesting, similar to the one I went to in Lithuania, but this time it rained all day, it was freezing and I was wet and uncomfortable.... They made us wait in the cold for lunch, a piece of fresh made bread with some garlic sauce on it, hardly worth the wait, or the cold I could feel coming on. But other than the weather is was okay, we had a ride in a train, well one carriage really, but the villages were cute.


Chicken coops beside one of the houses


The animals were pretty fiercesome too..


This is what I mean about Budapest, the view from my bedroom window. One way is nice, but turn your head a fraction and... you see what I mean.

We also had a tour of more of Budapest and saw some old Roman ruins, when they were excavating them they found old Roman tombstones in a burial site. The guide was telling us some of the inscriptions, apparently the Romans were not very religious, but they did have a sense of humour. One tombstone was from an actor, and it said.
“I have died several times in my lifetime, but this time it was serious.”
Another said
“I lie here for you to read the lines, better for me to read them, so lie down.”
I have seen enough Roman ruins, so I did not photograph them.

We then headed out of Hungary and into Austria. On the way the highway passed through a natural parkland, and so the animals do not get hit by the cars while passing from one side to the other, they have put in bridges for them. It was rather cool the way they worked it.


From a distance it looks like a bridge with weeds all over it, but in actual fact, it is only menat for animals not people, so it is covered with trees and bushes.


A sign in an Hungarian carpark, you can work out what it means....

As you know, Kearie and I have already been to Vienna, so the next three days will be chill out time for me. On the way here we stopped at a small town for sightseeing, guess where? Yep Baden, the small town Kearie and I took a day trip to, so I just had lunch in a nice beer garden and left them to the sightseeing. But I did notice this phenomenal car, check it out...


The woman walked up, got in and drove off up the street... It would be usless to me though, you couldn't even fit a can of paint in it, let alone any wood for renovations. Unless it comes with a little trailor..hmmm worth a thought.... Isn't it darling!!

Yesterday I did the morning included sightseeing tour and then just wandered about a bit, looking for a laundrette. I didn’t find one... Kearie and I used one, but it is on the other side of the city.. So I went to the Supermarket and came back and did some more bloody hand washing.


I came across this little guy in Vienna

This hotel is 4 star, very flash and I hate the place, no free WiFi... The sods!! So I have to payed them 9 Euro’s to use the bloody thing as I need to book my flight to Edinburgh. Yes I have decided to return to Scotland and my lovely friend Sheonagh has said it is okay and she can put up with me one more time for a few days. The woman is a saint!!


My room, they could have kept the bath robes and given me free WiFi, that would be service.

Today I am going to enjoy a day off, I shall just vegetate here in my room and totally take it easy. The tour only has a few more days to go and then I shall head back to the wonderful English speaking countries, with English speaking television... Oh the joy!!

Cheers for now
Lones

Slovakia and Hungary...

Hi Guys

It seems as though I have done so much since my last post. We dined out again in Prague and then headed through Slovakia to Hungary.


The waiter pouring wine from a pipe like vessel, he was really good and never spilled a drop all evening..


And there was dancing and singing, play that funky music white boy!! Well you get the gist... It was a great evening.

We then headed for Budapest in Hungary, but first we had to travel through Slovakia and stopped for lunch in the Capital, Bratislava.. I had chicken and chips for lunch in a small restaurant. I thought, "What can go wrong with chicken & chips." Well the chips were burned and the chicken wing still had a feather attached, deep fried and crispy mind you, but a feather?? So you know when you are in Slovakia by the burned chips and the feathers still attached to the deep fried chicken...


Everywhere is tourist oriented now, but these were cute.


It was pretty though. I would have liked to spend more time there.

We have had a pretty full program in Budapest and today we are off for an all day tour to a museum of local villages that has been set up in the country. I hope it is as nice as the one in Lithuania, it was great. I woke this morning at 4am with a leg cramp and as I cannot find my Lavender oil I am still awake... I have already called Learra and my sister Narelle was staying with her, so have had a chat to both. It is now 6:45 and guess who is going to fall asleep on the bus today?


Dinner the first night in Budapest, the music was really excellent and I loved the venue..



Some of the local Romany dancers doing Gypsy dancing. We also had typical Hungarian dancing as well. It was a good night.


Budapest has some really lovely old buildings, sadly, unlike Prague, most of them are falling into disrepair. The Soviets did nothing to upkeep them and in the 20 years since the Hungarians haven't done much either. Though to be fair they tell me their economy is very similar to the Greeks, so God help them.


The renovator in me wanted to grab a trowel, some spak filler and a paint brush... The place could be really beautiful with a little effort and a lot of money...


This church has been cleaned up and it looks wonderful, our guide said the church was black during her childhood.


But many are still waiting for some TLC..


Look how darling some of the streets are though... Awesome


Another wonderful dinner cruise last night, this time on the Danube.... I really am enjoying all this

That about puts you up to speed. I hope you are all having as much fun as me..

Cheers for now

Lones

Prague and an update on Kearie...

Hi All

Well as M&M pointed out, I haven’t updated you all on Kearie lately, sorry I have been emailing people about her and forgot I hadn’t updated you guys. Kearie was given the crappy job with very few shifts, so she started looking for her own and she found one.... She is a manager of a store near Hyde Park, it is called Rachel Riley and it sells vintage clothing. Here is the link to the site http://www.rachelriley.com/
Kearie served Steven Spielberg’s wife the other day, complete with body guard. She also served some British celebrity that she did not know, the other staff told her who he was after he had left. She seems really happy and has made friends with some of the people she is sharing the house with. They went to Brighton the other day and she seems to have really settled in.

Okay, back to me... I am in Prague at present, and yes I am thinking of you all, working away, doing the hard slog. This is where I had lunch yesterday, where did you eat...


The main square in Old Prague, I was thinking of you all, I swear!!

Prague is wonderful, every time you turn a corner there is something else to make you go Ooh, Aah or some other appropriate sound. The place is gorgeous... The buildings are magnificent and the river is beautiful.


The river


The streets


This amazing clock tells time in the 17th century time, days and seasons as well. It was awesome, on the hour the twelve apostles pass by the two little windows (which open on the hour), 6 on each side... And a little dude plays the trumpet from the top of the tower too..


2 of the apostles, don't ask me which two..

We dined on the river last night, the landscape was breathtaking. We even passed through a lock, so the folks who hadn’t done that before were amazed. Being an old pro, that didn’t impress me much.. lol


The buildings were lit up beautifully..


This one came out a bit dark, in reality, it was wonderful..

Today I visited my first concentration camp, it was very sobering. It was not a extermination camp, but still 35000 people died there. Mostly of starvation and disease, others were sent to Dachau. Gosh it is hard to comprehend how evil people can be. I am feeling very sombre today and very grateful that I live in current times and in a wonderful country.


One of the cells that held up to 130 men. This camp was for political prisoners, academics and communists... Our young Guides great grandfather was held there for 3 years.


A poignant reminder

Cheers

Lones

Windscreen, Windscreen, Windscreen... YES YES YES!!

Hi Everyone

Well thank you for all the lovely comments and yes, I was extremely fortunate to be in the right place at the right time. I had no idea the Oktoberfest was happening until I arrived. The same as in Avignon with the music festival, just lucky I guess.

Yesterday I started the new tour, as you know I was really worried about my room mate after the whisperer/hisser... Well guess what, not the bug this time, I am the windscreen. There are only 2 female passengers travelling alone, and the English lady must have paid the supplement, as I have a room of my own... Yes!!! How cool is that. But I would advise you to pay the supplement, if you are ever thinking of travelling alone, Remember Johanna is still out there and SHE DOES 3 TOURS A YEAR!!!! So be warned... I also managed to get a seat on my own on the bus...Bonus, bonus, bonus!! I am loving it so far.

Well we left Munich this morning and travelled to Nuremberg, we didn't get to see much of the place, just the centre square really. But it is a nice town. Lots of rebuilding after the war, as it was almost flattened. It is kind of bad of me, but I wasn't feeling all that sympathetic, not after seeing all the cities the Germans flattened of the countries that didn't start the bloody war.. So my bad, but I was like, "yeah well, if you hadn't started it"!! Not that I said anything, I just thought it. There were a lot of bullet holes or shrapnel marks on the buildings, I am not sure if they are from the war or from the 1968 uprising. But they are still there of a reminder of something. The buildings are amazing, I am not sure what I expected, but not the wonderful architecture that is here. All the buildings built in the Soviet time are horrible, boxes with no redeeming features at all, but the ones prior to that are amazing. I love looking at them.


This fountain is in the square in Nuremberg. There is a brass ring in the fence surrounding it. You are meant to turn the ring 3 times and make a wish, I did, but no idea if it works


There was a market in the square, I loved these little creatures, but unfortunately I cannot take them home ot Australia.. Otherwise I would have brought heaps of them. They were adorable

We then travelled to the Czech Republic, no border guards anymore, we just drove straight through. The country is beautiful, very like Bavaria so far. We stopped in Plzen, where Pilsener beer is made. It was also a nice town, I liked their square. I had lunch in a small take away restaurant, a bit like McDonald's only crapper... I got my chicken & chips and I took one look and thought "You know when you are in the Czech Republic, when the chips are burned and the chicken wings still have feathers on them." No kidding, one of the wings still had a feather coming out of it, with little fluffy bits and all, except it had been deep fried, so the fluffy bit was crispy...

The Czech Republic has twice been joined with Slovakia, once after the first world war and again after the Soviets took over in the 50's. The Czech's and Slovakians had no say either time. But in 1993 they once again seperated and are now two seperate countries. They refer to it as the Velvet Divorce, as both sides were agreeable to the seperation. See you can still learn something on this blog..


The square at Plzen, it had a market too... The buildings were amazing and many of them had bullet holes too.


This statue to the Virgin Mary and Baby Jesus was erected by the population after the Black Plague, in gratitude for surviving and as a plea for the plague not to return. Legend has it that they buried some of the plague victims upside down, under the statue, but no written evidence can be found.... Really? Who in their right mind would write something like that down, weirdo's...

We then travelled to Prague, we arrived early this evening, so haven't seen much yet, but I do like what I have seen so far. A very pretty city.

I have a hotel room to myself and finally Internet access, the last hotel wanted 22 Euro's for it, yeah right. like that's going to happen.

So that is all for today. Talk to you again tomorrow hopefully

Cheers
Lones

Oktoberfest... What a festival..

Hi Everyone

Well the Oktoberfest is awesome. I went to the parade yesterday and it was mainly a parade for the beer makers, with a bit of wine growing thrown in. It was some parade, it reminded me of what my Mum used to describe the Bendigo Easter parade as, before it became crap.. It was amazing, lots of floats with the most wonderful horses pulling the wagons, 2, 4, 6,8 and even 10 horses in the teams, all decorated to the hilt, it was brilliant. I have taken about 250 pictures, and as I am sure you do not want to see 200 pictures I have made a couple of montages, so you can see the horses and floats.


The horses, see brilliant...


The floats were amazing yesterday, today they were even more amazing and diverse.. but I made the montage yesterday, so you have to deal with it!!

The German word for Munich is Munchen, with little dots over the U. I wonder why everytime I see them in national costume, I think of Munkins... Maybe you can tell me...

Cute little beggers..

The parade yesterday went for 40 minutes, so I decided to go see the one today. Well it went for hours, it wasn't just the beer makers this time. It was hunters, and villages, farmers and organisations. It started at 9:20 and was still going at 12, when I left, okay it was special, but I was starving and my back was aching. I had taken over 250 photo's so I left. I have no idea what I missed, but I was really done by then. It was a great parade, it just never ended. It had something for everyone, even tractors for Ally.... The Germans really know how to put on a parade. Yesterday when I was leaving the small parade, I saw where the horses had waited, and you can imagine how much mess that many horses can leave, well before I had gotten a quarter of the way down the blosk, I was passed by the street sweeper, the Germans are nothing if not organised, I couldn't believe it, within 15 minutes of the parade ending the street sweepers where cleaning up!!


The fashions from the different regions were wonderful. I loved the colour and variety..


Some of the machinery


One of the hunting floats, I am too tired to do more montages.. trust me, there were heaps of floats, all very different, it was well worth seeing..

I am really tired, so that is all for now. I hope you enjoy the little glimpse of the parades. If you can imagine, hundreds of floats, all with marching bands between them, and whip crackers and all sorts of wonderful things, then you will have some idea of how awesome it really was...

Cheers for now
Lones

Mad King Ludwig & my favourite Palace ever...

Hi All

Well I had a lovely day yesterday, it was an all day trip, from 8am to 6:30pm, but well worth it.

I sat on the bus with an Egyptian doctor and although she was very nice, she loved to complain!! First it was the Jews, they are her enemies... Then the food in Germany... Then the tour itself. But never mind I enjoyed it anyway..

We left Munich and drove through some of the most picturesque countryside that I have ever seen, it was adorable, all the lovely Bavarian houses and villages.


I loved the countryside, the mountain backdrops were amazing. It was an overcast day, but fortunately it only rained while we were on the bus.. The clouds on the mountains were beautiful.

We then went to a Palace called Linderhof. I loved it, it is My favourite palace ever and I have a soft spot for poor mad Ludwig the second too. He built this lovely little palace just for one person, he really hated company. It is designed after the style of Versailles and it is gorgeous. All the rooms are small, because it was only for one person, but they are exquisite. The dining table can be lowered through the floor so the servants can lay it with all the food and then raise it back up, and Ludwig would not have to see them, and no one could watch him while he ate. What a introvert!! When he had to entertain guests, he did so in Munich (he hated Munich) and he ordered the orchestra to play so loudly that talking was impossible, he also ordered a huge vase of flowers to be placed in front of him, so he didn't have to see anybody... The poor love really had issues.

But he designed the best Palace ever. I was not allowed to take pictures inside, so I brought postcards. I will take some photo's of them for you to see. It was amazing. The gardens were lovely too. I think I like it best because it was very like Versailles, but not so large, easier to get around and not hours of walking. Ludwig was obsessed with King Louis the 14th and was very envious of Louis's power, as Ludwig was only a King in name and had no power over Bavaria. He has pictures all over the palace of Louis and his mistress and scenes from Versailles, the guy was obsessed..


Photo taken from the quide book I brought, I couldn't get an arial view for you, my broom is broken!!


The dining room, for one. The mat covers the cut in the floor where the table descends, but on the day the mat wasn't there and you could see the line in the floor, around the table quite easily.


The mirror hall, if you stand in certain parts of this room, the mirrors give the illusion of long hallways of chandaliers, very like the halls in Versailles. It was very clever, the illusion of grandure and expanse in such a small area, the dude was smart, just weird!!

I have heaps more pictures, but it takes to long to download them, sorry... taht's all for the castle for now

We then headed for a village called Oberammergau, it was lovely, full of amazing houses and wonderful wood carvings. Apparently in the winter, when the snow is everywhere the villages do wood carving, have done for centuries and they are very good at it. I was not in the market for wood carvings, but I did enjoy browsing through them. They are a very talented bunch.


The village was picturesque, and believe me, i took plenty of pics..


The windows of the shops were full of wood carvings, they were very good

We Then went to Nymphenburg Palace, it is the one they based the Disney castle on, it was okay, but nothing on Linderhof. The palace was never finished as Ludwig died mysteriously and his body was found in a Munich Lake... But even the bits that are finished have nothing on Linderhof. I was not very impressed and it takes a 40 minute uphill walk to get there. So no, I won't be going back. It really wasn't all that. Our guide was not as good either, we passed through lots of rooms and he didn't explain what they were. On the other hand the guide at Linderhof explained everything and gave us a great background history on Ludwig himself, without being boring. She was good.


The outside was nice, but I wasn't taken with it enough to buy postcards of the inside. None of the castle was finished being built, and we only got to see parts of the 2nd and 4th floors, so it was a lot of climbing hills and stairs for very little. I wasn't impressed


But the views were breathtaking...

We then returned to Munich and I fell asleep on the bus again.. but I wasn't the only one, so did the Dr and a lot of other people. It was a long day, with heaps of walking involved, but well worth it.

The Octoberfest starts in Munich today. I will see if I can see any of it. I already passed a family dressed in traditional clothing early his morning. The little boy looked so cute, I am interested to see more.

So that's it for now

Cheers Lones

Norway, rain & Munich....

Hi All

Well going to Norway was a bit of a waste of time, it was fine weather the day I arrived, but I was exhausted so spent the afternoon relaxing and watching telly. It has been awhile since I saw any television and all the Norwegian TV was in English so bonus.. I watched an NCIS that I have never seen and some of the Vuelta (Spanish Tour, cycling). I thoroughly enjoyed myself. The next day it was pouring rain... I was sloshing around Oslo looking for a charm for my bracelet as I have never been to Norway before. Well I barely saw anything, it was no good doing a city tour, it was cold and wet and shitty!!! So I wandered about, got pretty drenched and returned to the hotel and the telly. So much for Norway, I left the next day, about midday, so Norway was really a waste of time.


The view from my hotel


From the train, as I was leaving. Yeah, the rain cleared up!! Norway has lots of pines, it is very pretty really.

I flew to Munich yesterday and had to spend the night in an expensive hotel, over $300 Aus dollars and it was a shit hotel. Don't stay at the City Holiday Inn in Munich, it is not worth the money and you have to pay 22 Euro just to use the Internet. I didn't bother, bugger 'em... It was not one of the best hotels I have stayed in, but it was certainly the dearest. I am now in another hotel, I am here for 4 nights and then start my next tour. This hotel is quite nice, it is in the old city and it is a lovely area, very lively. I have already had about 4 walks around the place. I really like it.

I got out of the train station, looked up and there was the Glockenspiel, (I have no idea how to spell that.) I remember it from years ago, it is still very impressive. I waited to hear the chimes and see the little dudes move on the hour, well another clock chimed and the Glockenspiel just sat there, nothing moved except the tourist, who moved away, what a fizzer. I had a vague memory that it may not have been working the last time I seen it either, but 30 years is a long time and I am not sure. It is nice to look at though.


The Glockenspiel.. Awesome, sin't it??


The little dudes that are meant to do something, I have no idea what, but something!!

I am going to go out soon to find somewhere to eat, I have cased the area thoroughly and still can't decide. The place is awash in restaurants and eating places. Oh decisions, decisions. I am off tomorrow for a tour of the Nymphenburg Place and the Linderhof Palace. It is a day trip, but they are meant to be wonderful. The Disney palace is meant to be taken off the Nymphenburg, so I am looking forward to seeing it. I booked the tour today and leave in the morning. I will not be back until late.


The little square outside my hotel, there are little squares like this everywhere, some bigger, some smaller. It is a really cute area.

Basically the last few days have been very boring, so not much to share with you. Oh by the way, I did get the charm from Norway, not the moose I was looking for, but a squirrel, I am told the place is teeming with squirrels but I didn't see any, they are too smart to come out in the rain. By the time I brought it, I was just glad to get something, nowhere in Oslo sells charms, I found a little jeweller on the way back to the hotel, so beggars can't be choosers and it is from Norway!!


The cloud patern from the plane intrigued me. I wondered how regimented the germans would be if even their clouds formed in rows. The formidable man at reception kind of lived up to expectations!!!

Cheers for now

Lones