Saturday, July 27, 2013

Budapest, Vienna and Prague

I was lucky enough to spend much of July traveling within Central Europe, visiting Budapest (Hungary) as part of my graduate work, and then was joined by my wife for about 2 days each in Budapest, Vienna (Austria) and Prague (Czech Republic). I'm not a good photographer and I didn't use a fancy camera, but I took lots of photos – everything that follows was taken with my iPhone 5.

This will be an unusual blog post for me in that it will be 90% photos and just a few words. Please let me know whether this was interesting for you!

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We started in Budapest since that's where I had been studying for the past two weeks. I already had the lay of the land and a few sites for us to visit. Budapest is a great walking city, and out location, right near the Chain Bridge, meant that we could enjoy both Buda and Pest very easily.

The "castle" is now a museum

A group of grad students (including me) on the first night. I'm on the right side in the black shirt

Istvan, the first king of Hungary



The "Baths"

The "Baths"

The Chain Bridge

The palace, lit up at night. This was the view from my hotel

Hungary loves Ronald Reagan for his role in ending the cold war and bringing down the wall

St. Istvan's Basilica

In a wine cellar. We sampled 7 local wines and then had a great dinner.


Castle, lit up at night

Hungary's largest Basilica, at the Danube Bend



At Hero's Square

At Hero's Square

At the market

At the market

Ready to eat a Langos

Have a Langos with cheese and sour cream (like I do)

6 ft tall Michael Jackson made of Marzipan. I'm not kidding.

Tacey shows poise





We took a 3 hour train ride to Vienna where we enjoyed museums, concerts, palace tours, and just seeing the architecture and stopping at cafes.


St. Stephen's

St. Stephen's


St. Stephen's

St. Stephen's

St. Stephen's





Photo of my thumb. But look carefully and in the lower right there is an interesting building.



Albertina Museum

Albertina Museum

Albertina Museum

Wiener Schnitzel

Mozart Conert





Mozart Concert - they wore period costumes

Mozart Concert - Tenor and Soprano also wore period costumes



A palace



A palace











Excellent sidewalk cafe, across from the Albertina Museum

Sausage at the Mozart Cafe

Cheese at the Mozart Cafe

Coffee and sweets at the Mozart Cafe













Interesting metro station

On to Prague, 5 hours by train from Vienna. Prague was amazing. Not so refined as Vienna, but with a fabulous mix of museums, palaces, old world and new world eateries and great beer! Some call it the "Paris of Eastern Europe" and for good reason. Sophisticated, high-end stores and great streets to stroll.



Old Town Square

Old Town Square

Pilsner at Wenceslas Square

Pilsner at Wenceslas Square























"Selfie" at the Charles Bridge











The Astronomical Clock

After a 3 hour walking tour, I asked for the "largest beer you have" and the gave me this!


Vivaldi's Four Seasons as performed by 2 violins, a viola, a cello, and an organist

Slow Roasting Pig

Some for me (I tried but couldn't finish it!)


Karlsberg Castle

Karlsberg Castle

Horses shuttling people to Karlsberg Castle

Karlsberg Castle

Karlsberg Castle

Karlsberg Castle

A sausage lunch after Karlsberg Castle

Market near our hotel

We had a wonderful time in Budapest, Vienna and Prague. We made the most of our short times visiting, and will remember the trip for the rest of our lives!

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