Vienna and Budapest

Monday

Early wake up, followed by an excursion onto the Vienna streets to find coffee and breakfast. We went to a little cafe first, ordered some coffee but could not seem to get any food (even though there was a menu board). So we drank our coffee and left (after many many attempts to catch the waiters eye to get our bill. We wandered down the street a little and ended up finding a nice restaurant to grab some food at.

After breakfast we made our way to St Charles Church which was amazing. Many of the frescoes inside were still being restored so there was scaffolding and an elevator set up that were were able to use to get up near the top the the church to view the paintings close up. The scaffolding continued up with some winding stairs all the way to the very top of the dome (45 meters up). Needless to say, Sandi did not do the stairs to the top, in fact she chickened out soon after getting off the elevator halfway up and went back down.

Next we went to the Naschmarkt, a large 2 block long outdoor market which mostly consisted of food stands (fruit, pickles, meat, spices).

Our next stop was the Cafe Sacher, home of the famous sacher torte. The torte was delicous (and the cafe beautiful).


After our 'lunch' we went to the Opera house for a tour. The tour even brought us back stage to see the stage hands setting up the sets tor that evening's show of La Traviata. It almost made me want to go back into theatre, but then I reliazed that I would have to learn german to work there.

With our main plans of stuff to see for the day complete and a couple hours to spare before meeting the tour group we decided to wander the back streets of Vienna. We stumbled on an amazing little pancake cafe an had a snack.

After our snack were wandered around a little more and stumbled on the Dominican Church.


It was here that we meet a friendly american man who vacations every year in Vienna and offered to show us a few more sites. He brought us to a great old concert hall and the jesuit church. We were fortunate enough to visit the jesuit chirch while an orchestra were rehearsing.

We also saw the Anchor Clock. We unfortunatly had to cut the private and very informative tour (the guy was a history prof) short so that we could make it back to our hotel on time.

At 6pm we met with our tour group for the first time (they seem like lovely bunch - 38 of us total - mostly auzzies) and got some more travel instructions. afterwards we ventured back to that pancake cafe for dinner.

Tuesday

Today was an early start as we had to leave Vienna for Budapest. we had a very filling breakfast buffet in the hotel and were on the road by 8am.

We stopped at the border of Austria and Hungary for a quick bathroom break. it was here that we encountered the first of many pay toilets here in eastern europe.

.5eruos to use a toilet, guarded by what our TD (tour director) called a 'toilet dragon' (an old babushka in charge of the washrooms). We also did an exchange of a few euros for the Hungarian Forint (Our TD calls these non-euro currencies 'Monkey Money'). 2.5 hours of driving from the border and we reached Budapest. Our first stop was on the citadelle above the city to get a good view of Budapest.


When were arrived in Budapest we got to go on our first optional excusrion: The boat tour. We had our own private river boat, and a full spread catered lunch (with campagne) and we saied up and down the Danube river taking in the sights of Budapest.


Next the tour group went on a bus tour of the city. We got to stop in Old Budapest, on castle hill. Here we got to drive past the buda castle - the old royal palace which is now just art museums.

We also got to see the Matthias Church and walk around the fisherman's Bastion.




Dinner was done with the group at an old restaurant with live folk music and some really great tasting food.

I suppose I should also mention that the hotel we are staying in is superb. Its 113 years old and enormous. It also has an elaborate pool.