European Vacation Part II

Well I hope you enjoyed my post about my European vacation part I.  If you haven’t seen it you can catch up here  So here goes for part II.

When I last left you we were headed to Budapest.  We arrived in Budapest late in the afternoon.  We had a quick dinner at the hotel.  We stayed at the Radisson Blu Beke Hotel and it was very nice.  A wonderful buffet for breakfast and dinner was offered.  There was also this amazing little gift shop in the lobby of the hotel.  I can neither confirm nor deny that I did some damage on my credit card there. ha ha. We signed up for a city tour at night. Oh my goodness it was beautiful.  It was just getting dark when we took off so the city had a glowing shimmer to it.  We visited Heroes’ Square and had a drive through the city which was especially beautiful at night.  Our driver took us to the top of Gellert Hill (Citadel) where we saw the most spectacular view of Budapest. Gellert Hill is 771 feet high.  At about 9:00 PM buses and cars travel this winding road so that everyone can get the best view of the city at night.  Budapest is often called ‘Paris of the East’. I can certainly see why.  It is beautiful!!!

 

The second day we were in Budapest we left the hotel early in the morning and did some sight seeing in the city.  Budapest is another beautiful city but I think so far Prague is still my favorite.

We visited the 13th-century MATTHIAS CORONATION CHURCH.  That is the steeple from the church in the background.  You may have noticed that some of the pictures I take are at an odd angle, that is because the buildings are soooo tall and I am trying to get all of the building in the picture.  I actually went down the street a bit to get the shot of this steeple.
The pictures below are from inside the church.  The church was packed.  It was hard to get a clear shot without someone’s head in the way.

This picture of the city was taken from the towers of Fisherman’s Bastion, Fishermen’s Bastion is only 100 years old but it offers some of the most beautiful views of Budapest.  

One of the seven towers you can view from Fisherman’s Bastion
    After we did the city tour we did a boat ride on the Danube River.  It was slow and lazy and cool and just what we needed after our hectic time in the city.  We saw some amazing views of the city from the River.

After the boat ride we went to a wonderful Hungarian restaurant and had a Hungarian specialty dinner with all the trimmings, and lots of singing and dancing.  I will tell you the Hungarian Goulash was not like the goulash my mama used to make.

When we got back to the hotel the streets were wet from a recent rain.  The city looked dark and glittery and beautiful.

After a couple of days in Budapest we traveled to Vienna Austria. It is approximately 174 miles from Budapest to Vienna.  The countryside was beautiful.  We arrived in Vienna in the afternoon and did a city tour with a city guide.  It was hot!!!!  Vienna was experiencing some of the hottest temperatures in recorded history.

Tyler loves ice cream!!!!!

After our city tour we did a tour of the Schonbrunn Palace.  It was huge!!!  We only got to see a small part of it and we couldn’t take any photos inside.

 

In Vienna we stayed at Roomz Vienna Prater.  It was probably one of my least favorites of the hotels that we stayed in.  It was actually a newer hotel on the outskirts of town.  The air conditioning didn’t seem to be working properly and they never came by to clean the room.  We had to ask for towels just to get us by.  Lots of people complained about the air but it didn’t change anything.

 We had a wonderful dinner at this little restaurant

We were serenaded by this precious man playing the violin and when we told him we were from Tennessee he played the Tennessee Waltz. 

Our last night in Vienna we went to one of the City’s concert halls.  An opera house orchestra and soloists performed famous works by Johann Strauss, Lehar, Mozart, and more.  It was a wonderful time and even Tyler liked it.  That’s saying a lot for a seventeen year old.

We are now headed to Salzburg and I will share the rest of the trip with you there.  There was just too much to put into this post.  I have lots of exciting things to share with you in Part III.   I promise it is the final post about my European Vacation.  See you then.

In the meantime.  Remember.

Love your day your way!!!!