Europe 2017: Day #32/33 Heading Home

Sunday, 3 September 2017
Monday, 4 September 2017

Two days in one due to the fact that the flight took so bloody long. Or at least it felt like it.

It was raining in Budapest when we got up, and it had cooled down somewhat.  This was probably a good thing for us as we had been aware that Melbourne was getting another dose of winter weather and we didn't want to be too disoriented when we got back.

Budapest main cathedral

By the time we'd spent two or three hours walking around Budapest again, Robyn was looking like she was ready to drop.

Ahead of us we had a 5.5 hour flight on Emirates from Budapest to Dubai, a 2.5 hour layover, and then another 13.5 hour flight down into Melbourne.  I decided to request a taxi a fair way before our scheduled departure time thinking that we could just find the correct gate and then just sit and wait.  I'm glad I did.

The check-in area of the Budapest airport was packed when we got there.  Being in the wrong queue and receiving a stern look from a very officious looking lady - an easy thing to do and we were glad to see we weren't the only ones - then getting stuck in a long winding line waiting to check-in and drop off our bags had Robyn wondering if we were going to make our flights.  Disaster avoided as we moved through the first obstacle only to find ourselves waiting to clear carry-on bag checks, then a walk through duty-free to yet another long queue for immigration.

Budapest just has far too many flights out at the same time for the airport to be able to cope.  The duty-free area looked good but the official stuff (immigration, check-in and security) is crammed into far too small a space.

Inching forward I was wondering if we'd make it this time when the lines opened up a bit, and we made it through just as the first boarding call for our flight was being made. I didn't see any point in hanging around looking for a seat outside so we just headed on the plane and tried to get ourselves comfortable.

And then the fun started.

A group of about 15 women, accompanied by one or two men, got on and all sat in the seats around us.  All was good until another passenger pointed out that one of the women was sitting in his seat.  I'm not sure how much English was understood by the group but there was certainly a lot of arguing, finger pointing, laughter (from a young teenage girl in the middle of the group who was obviously enjoying herself immensely), more arguing and moving of seats.  With about 5 minutes to go till departure we had already had three different people sitting next to me and the one that ended up there should really have been two rows behind on the other side of the plane.  The poor male air steward who came along to fix the mess did his best but gave up and just told them to find a seat and stay there. And after he left all was quiet. Very much ado about very little indeed, and lots of fun to watch.

Dubai was the same as on our way over - walk, train, walk - even though out ticket indicated that we would be in the same terminal for both arrival and departure.  We didn't dawdle this time but headed straight for the Qantas Lounge and got a drink and something to eat.

The flight down to Melbourne was uneventful, or at least it was as far as we were aware.  We had booked extra legroom seats which made the whole trip a lot easier.  Best $90 I'd spent on travel.

It was only after we had landed and were taxiing to the arrival gate that we were informed that we would be held up as there was a sick passenger on board and paramedics had been called. A chat to the nearest steward informed us that we had almost turned back to Dubai during the flight due to the illness.  Luckily there was a doctor on board who was able to administer whatever was required and keep the passenger under observation until we got to Melbourne.

And another long trip came to an end. The kids were there to pick us up, we got home, distributed souvenirs, and went to bed.  Couldn't sleep of course, but that's another story.

Europe 2017: Day #31 A Day Trip Along the Danube

Saturday, 2 September 2017

Apart from Stockholm and Helsinki, Budapest was the only city on our trip in which we would be spending more than three days. That was due both to thinking the city had a lot to offer and also that we felt we would be rather tired by the time to this point.

The second of these was certainly true so we were glad we had our last full day in Budapest touring around the countryside and getting a couple of hours floating down the Danube via the "Danube Bend Day Trip from Budapest".

We got picked up from the apartment by taxi early and, Robyn being who she is, managed to get the best seat on the bus - directly behind the driver.

A short tour through the outskirts of Budapest and an hour or so later we were in Esztergom, a city about 50 kilometers outside Budapest, and the site of the largest cathedral in Hungary.

Cathedral facade

Vaulted ceiling

Once the capital of the country, the city sits overlooking the Danube and towards Slovakia on the other bank.

View of the Danube and Slovakia

And sometimes it's good to get a reverse angle.

View of the cathedral from the Slovakian bank

Lunch followed with an excellent chat with a group of Israeli medicos who were attending a conference in Budapest over the coming few days.  And then it was on to the artists' village of Szentendre.  Full of little cobble-stoned streets, small shops and a market, it is a bit of a tourist trap but wasn't overly crowded, and we ran into a couple of Americans who had been with us on our walking tour of Vilnius a few weeks before.

Szentendre main square

Tiny street between houses

We picked up the boat from the town and then floated back down the Danube to Budapest over the next hour and a half.  Coming into the city in this way gives you a taste of the sights that the river cruise boats get and you can see why these are becoming so popular.

We hadn't done a lot this day but it was a good way to end up the trip in a relaxing manner. We splurged a bit on dinner that night.

Europe 2017: Day #30 A Day at the Opera

Friday, 1 September 2017

We had nothing really planned for this day, preferring to let things take their own course. This was probably due as much to a sense of our impending departure for home, as a feeling of growing mental fatigue.

I'm not sure who suggested the idea of dropping into the Hungarian National Museum, but given it was located directly across the road from our Budapest apartment the idea seemed not only sound but also easily achieved.  Two very good reasons for us on this day.

Two hours later we had a good potted understanding of Hungarian history, which seemed similar to Poland's, with foreign invasions, foreign rulers, empire ambitions, small periods of freedom, fascist and communist regimes and poor political choices, until the 1990s when order appeared to be righted again.

One of the things that Robyn had noticed the day before was the chance to have a look through the Hungarian Opera House.  So we walked there, slowly as the day was another warm one, purchased a ticket for the extended tour, had lunch and generally didn't do a lot, except watch the world walk by.

Front facade of the Opera House

The Opera House is a rather imposing building on the outside and beautifully decorated on the inside. We were lucky that we had visited when we did as the House was due to shut down for about 18 months for a refurbishment within the next few weeks.

The tour ended with a short singing recital where we noticed a familiar looking figure in the audience: Australian actor, Don Hany, was in the group with his daughter. It goes to show how tired we were that I couldn't put a name to his face until we got back to the apartment and looked him up. And, no, we didn't go and ask for his autograph.

By then we were tired again, so we headed for the standard early evening meal back at the Karavan street food place of our first night and it was time for some packing and bed.

Europe 2017: Day #29 Bus Trips and Boulevards

Thursday, 31 August 2017

On our first full day in Budapest Robyn had hoped we might go on one or two walking tours.  At least that was the plan when we left Australia.  By the time we'd arrived in Hungary walking tours were the last thing on our minds, especially now that the temperature was climbing into the low 30s Celsius.

As a result the pre-purchased tickets on the Big Bus Budapest seemed the best course of action. A bus tour around Budapest for an hour, some lunch, a short trip on the Danube (under the same card), dinner, and a night bus tour.  Not a lot of walking, quite a lot of sitting and looking.

The first thing you notice about Budapest is the wide boulevards and the look of the buildings.  Often used as a substitute for Paris, Budapest has a great feel to it.  It's a big city with lots of cars but the wide streets lessen the impact.

Post bus tour and we did go walking a little, though it was only down to the river and our slow boat trip up and back past some of the major city highlights.

The boat dropped us back about 90 minutes later which gave us enough time to wander over to the Budapest market

where the stalls selling garlic, paprika and chilli were fantastic.

Dinner took us back to the Jewish Quarter again, followed by our night bus tour. One I was reluctant to go on but was later glad Robyn had talked me into.

Europe 2017: Day #28 Over Flat Plains to Budapest

Wednesday, 30 August 2017

After the highlights of the previous day our run into Budapest was rather flat, reflecting the long plains that slope down from Slovakia all the way across Hungary to the Danube.

Our first stop of the day was at a new viewing tower for the area.  Designed to look like a wine barrel it gave a good view over the surrounding wine area (not as planted out to vines as much as I would have thought) and down towards the plains of Hungary.

Tokaj viewing platform

Vines in the foreground and Hungary to left of hills in the distance

Then it was a long haul down into Eger, the second largest city in northern Hungary.  A walk around the castle and the old town where we got acquainted with Europe's northern-most minaret, dating from the time the Ottomans controlled this part of Hungary in the 17th century. The minaret is now undergoing repairs and looks like it's about to be launched into space.

Minaret Eger

Eger is a centre of the Hungarian red wine industry and we noted a few Australians in the town square who were heading out for a tour.  But we didn't have time for that unfortunately as we had a lot of distance to cover.  Our guide then had to turn straight around and drive 4-5 hours back into Slovakia so we decided on a direct run into Budapest as the best for all of us.

A few hours later we were dropped a few metres from our last European accommodation at Brody's House in Budapest, and it didn't take long for us to unpack the wine, salami and cheese and take a seat in the courtyard outside our apartment window.

Dinner that night was in a food-truck lot in the Old Jewish Quarter about ten minutes from our apartment.  Budapest has a number of empty building lots that have been taken over by bars and outdoor casual eating combines.  This was one of them.  The beer, the wine, and food was all cheap and all very enjoyable

Europe 2017: Day #27 To Tokaj

Tuesday, 29 August 2017

When Robyn and I first started planning our trip we had thought of ending it at Warsaw. Robyn has come to the conclusion that four nights in a city is a good length of time: day one to cover the travel getting there; day two to get oriented in the city with bus trips and walking tours; day three to include a trip outside the city to an area of interest; and day four to pick up on all the sites we might have missed. A quick calculation on the cities on the itinerary indicated that we would probably utilise a full four weeks at that rate.

Then she started to talk to some Polish friends who told her that we couldn't travel to Poland without visiting Krakow.  So we added that in as, yes, it did look interesting.  But that presented us with a problem: flights out of Krakow were either infrequent or difficult to get into the schedule.  Which brought us to the question of Budapest.  We'd visited the city about 25 years ago on a brief one day tour out of Vienna and had always said that we would like to return if we had the chance.

Rather than go back to Warsaw to catch a flight home we decided to keep heading south, so Budapest was added, and now the holiday was starting to stretch out of control if we stayed with the four days per city approach. Dropping the time spent in each of Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius and Warsaw by a day each helped, and then provided us with the opportunity to take a few days getting from Warsaw to Budapest through Slovakia.

It was beginning to come together and culminated when Robyn found a two-day guided tour starting in Krakow and ending in Budapest running through the Tokaj wine area of Slovakia and Hungary. We were sold.

I'd long known about the Tokaj wine, though don't remember ever trying any, due to the requirement for winemakers in Rutherglen, Victoria, to change the name of the fortified wine they make from Muscadelle grapes, formerly known as Tokay, now as Topaque.  So I was interested in visiting the area.

An added bonus of the tour was a door-to-door pickup and drop off, meaning we didn't have to lug our bags all over Krakow, plus it was a private tour, meaning just us and the driver/guide.

Andre duly arrived at the appointed time and we had no trouble packing our increasing luggage into the van and getting underway.  Our first stop was at Spis Castle over the border in Slovakia. This is everything you think an old castle should be; well, at least one in ruins anyway.  It has a commanding position on top of a hill overlooking a long river valley on one side and the wide plains of Slovakia on the other.  Destroyed by fire in the 18th century you had to have a bit of imagination to picture it in its heyday, which I'm sure was magnificent. I'm also glad that Robyn and I climbed the hill to this castle near the end of our trip after we'd got our legs used to all the steps and walking.

Our guide indicated that he'd never seen the castle so crowded.  We had thought it was a standard work day but were informed it was a Slovakian public holiday.  Given the Slovakian kids would be returning to school on the following Monday or Tuesday, a lot of them and their families seemed to be out and about in the good weather.  Can't say as I blamed them.

We had a rest in the car after the castle and headed to Kosice, the second largest city in Slovakia after the capital Bratislava.  This is a great town, with a wonderful cathedral, and thriving pedestrian zone in the centre. Though the public holiday meant that not everything was open and that there weren't a lot of people in the streets.

Start of pedestrian area with cathedral in background

Cathedral facade

Lunch and another drive got us to the Tokaj winery area in southeastern Slovakia.  The wine area is only 20% in Slovakia - with the rest in Hungary - and we figured we would be staying in Slovakia given the tour company was based in that country.  Didn't bother me, the main thing was we were staying overnight on the Ostrozovic winery grounds, having dinner there, then being taken through the wine cellars and finishing with a tasting.

Winery front entrance

The cellars were something else.  Dug out of the rock under the winery by mining experts, the tunnels were wet and cool with the barrels lining the walls covered in mold sometimes 2-3 cm thick.

The tasting itself was rather amusing, or at least we gained that impression.  Some 13 wines were offered and the 10 or 12 other people had a great time following our Slovakian host.  As the spiel was given in a language of which we understood not a word, I suspected we might have been rather bored.  Not a hope. We had a great time, and the wines were wonderful examples of the many ways that a basic stock wine can be impacted by the botrytis mold.

A tremendous end to a great day.

Europe 2017: Day #26 In the Footsteps of JP II

Monday, 28 August 2017

We started our day with a visit to the Barbican, a defensive structure on the edge of the Old Town.  It's one of only three such fortified structures left in Europe and hence was worth a visit.

There wasn't a lot to see so we headed off into the park that circles the walls of the Old Town, or, at least where the walls used to be.  The park was built on top of the filled-in moat and is a great way to get a bit of greenery into the visual cortex, rather than looking at concrete and brick all day.

As we walked through the park we kept on thinking that in a few months all the leaves will be gone and the snow will have started.  But we would be long gone and back in Australia by then. 

From then on you might be forgiven for thinking that Pope John Paul II and Nicolas Copernicus were the two main people to have lived in Krakow as we kept on running into them for the rest of the day.

In a small square adjacent to the university there was a small statue of the late Pope and inside the university, as we found on the tour we took, were a portrait and plaques and probably another sculpture or two.

Copernicus studied here and the tour highlighted a number of number of telescopes and astronomical instruments, including a copy of the first globe showing the "New World" and one showing the barest outlines of "New Holland" but this one was covered over and unavailable for viewing, unfortunately.

The tour finished soon after lunch which gave us enough time for a rest prior to heading out to the Wieliczka Salt Mine for another tour starting at 4pm.

This was completely unexpected to me, though Robyn had had it recommended to her by someone at work and I'm glad she did.  After walking down 400 steps we then walked for a number of kilometres admiring the tunnels, the massive chambers and the chapels, all carved out of the rock salt.  We ended up some 130 metres or so below the surface, and two hours after arriving were crammed into a tiny lift and hoisted back to the surface.

Underground ballroom

Of course, John Paul was also depicted in sculpture underground.  He had visited there as a child, as a student studying in Krakow and had been due to visit again as Pope when he returned to Poland, but had fallen ill and had been forced to miss this stop.