Oct 5, 2023, Budapest

This morning, we get up around 9 AM after some much needed sleep. Elee has heard of a famous pastry shop called Gerbaud and we head out in search of it. We go the wrong way and stop to ask a few people and we still don’t find it. So I opt to activate my phone’s GPS (I have several days saved up on my phone plan) and it leads us straight to the place. So we have around 5000 steps in before breakfast!

I order bacon and eggs and Elee orders a custom layer cake that is decadent and delicious! We look up the local Hop On, Hop Off Bus and buy tickets online. We see there is a bus stop at St. Stevens Basilica and we walk there. It is a half mile away or around 8-10 minutes. The Basilica is fantastic and we buy tickets to go inside and even ride the elevators to the top! Maximum of 4 persons in the elevator!

I love plays on words and this is no exception! The elevators can only carry 4 persons at a time! As the sign says, “4 Smelly Persons”, LOL

We photograph the city from the top and marvel at the architecture of the city. It is simply stunning! we get back in line to ride the elevators down. There are two sets of elevators, the top set only takes 4 people at a time and the lower elevators take 6. So we cue up and make our way down and out. We inquire and are told where the Hop On Hop Off Bus stops and we make our way to that spot.

Our legs and feet thank us for the break and we ride around the city on the top, open air deck of the bus. We notice that this bus is very similar to the buses around different cities in the world and we are wise to stay seated! This city is the same as others in the fact that they trim the trees so these buses barely fit under them! At one point a branch even smacks me in the head! Keep your arms and body inside the bus at all times!

The bus mainly tours the Pest (pronounced Pesht) side of the river but eventually goes over a bridge to the Buda side for a while. Yes, you heard me correctly. How many of you knew that Budapest (pronounced Boo-da-pesht) is made up of two cities, Buda and Pest? And did you know the original city was called Pestbuda (Pesht-boo-da)? Interesting what you find out when you travel! We get many photos of different parts of both cities including daytime shots of the famous Parliament Building on the Pest side of the river. We are staying in an apartment about 8 blocks from Parliament, about a ten minute walk!

We get off the bus at the river and walk about a quarter mile to find the famous Shoe Memorial that remembers the 3,500 people, 800 of them Jews, who were shot into the Danube during the time of the Arrow Cross terror that occurred in late 1944 and early 1945, shortly before Russia liberated Hungary from the Nazis. The sculptor created sixty pairs of period-appropriate shoes out of iron. The shoes are attached to the stone embankment, and behind them lies a 40 meter long, 70 cm high stone bench. At three points are cast iron signs, with the following text in Hungarian, English, and Hebrew: “To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944–45”. People com along and put different flowers, flags, colored shoelaces and other decorations on them!

We walk from the shoes about 10 blocks to our apartment and lie down and rest for an hour or so. One and a half hours later we head out in search of dinner. Elee has spotted a specific restaurant she would like to check out and I put it into my GPS. 8 or 9 minutes later, the GPS says we have arrived. we are in front of a bank. We walk into another nearby restaurant and they direct us a couple blocks away. The place we are looking for is called ‘Corso’. What we are directed to is called ‘DomoCorso’. We figure it is one and the same so we get seated and have dinner. We are a little disappointed because the menu is not the same as what Elee saw online. But the food is good and there are a couple live musicians to entertain us and we enjoy!

We then walk across the street to the river Danube and we board a riverboat that was included in our Hop On Hop Off Bus from earlier in the day. So it is after dark and we get to take photos of the lit up buildings on the river! Including the famous Parliament Building that is so famously photographed! A narrator gives us background on the buildings and their significance to society.

As we are finishing our hour and a half tour, a full size River Boat comes powering up the river and we turn to take photos of it. Suddenly Elee exclaims, “Look, it is our cruise ship!”. Sure enough, it is the Emerald Sun, the ship we will board tomorrow for our 8 day River Cruise! We get several photos of the ship and our river tour ends.

We head back towards our apartment and agree to stop for a glass of wine. Suddenly, we find ourselves in front of ‘Corso’, the restaurant we looked for earlier! We check the menu and sure enough it is the one Elee saw on line! We get seated and decide to at least have a glass of wine here. Oh well, we’ll have to get a taste of Foie Gras somewhere else!

We take a couple selfie photos with the illuminated buildings in the background before arriving back at our apartment and turn in for the night.

See you all tomorrow!

Oct 3 & 4, 2023 Travel Days!

We arise today excited for our newest adventure! We zip up our bags that were mostly packed last night. Just the final essentials to put in and we/re ready to go! Our shuttle driver arrives on time. All is good. We are traveling with full size Check In Luggage this time for laundry mid trip will be expensive and unpredictable. I entertain myself by photographing Southern California from the plane window.

And then a few shots as we land in Atlanta!

Our first flight leaves LAX on time, however, we are informed there will be a delay in Atlanta to go to Amsterdam. (Atlanta has been one of our troublesome airports in the past and has lost our luggage) We attempt to try and rebook our third flight but we are assured the time will be made up in the air. We have been gullible in the past and we wonder if we’ll be caught again! So we board and the first leg of the trip is not only uneventful, but very comfortable! It didn’t hurt that we paid for “Comfort+”! Roomy leg room, Front of the plane, etc. Food is plentiful, yet a bit tasteless. (Can’t win them all!) So we land with high expectations. (Did I really say that?)

As informed in Los Angeles, the flight from Atlanta to Amsterdam is delayed 40 minutes. Did I say 40 minutes? That is airport speak for one hour (if you’re lucky!). Now considering that we only are allotted 1.5 hours in Amsterdam, this will be cutting things a bit close! But we landed in Atlanta 30 minutes early so a 5 hour flight CAN be done in 4.5 hours, right? So that translates to an 8 hour flight being done in less time, doesn’t it? All is good, we say!

Why do I sound like the doomsday predictor? Get a life Don and suck it up! Stop this naysaying! Everything is good so far! We even see the flight crew walk past us and we suggest they ‘Step on the gas!’ They tell us it will be no problem! So calm down! We’ve got this! The Equipment (Plane) finally arrives and it’s taking an exorbitant amount of time for the cleaning crews to finish their job before we can board. Someone suggests that likely someone got sick on the plane and they had to spend extra time cleaning it! Sounds reasonable!

So we finally board the plane and we are off! Into the wild blue yonder! I watch a movie. Then it gets dark. I put on the complimentary blindfold that comes in the Comfort+ Package (along with toothbrush and toothpaste!) and lay back for a much needed nap! Rest comes my way but never in the form of actual sleep. But an hour or two of much needed rest in the middle of the night is welcomed! But anyone who has ever said that the comfort of an airline seat can induce sleep and slumber is quite a bit mistaken! So, after a couple hours of restless sleep and I am awake again! Another movie. And another. I should probably be picking movies that are boring and will put me to sleep. But not me! I like stimulating movies that challenge the senses!

Then Sunrise appears out the window! The angle from my window isn’t perfect but the deep blue sky dropping down the the glowing orange sunrise followed down by the deep blue sea is fun to watch. Pausing the movie to admire Mother Nature’s display over the Northern Oceans keeps my mind active and my senses full! So much for sleep! We have an uneventful landing in Schiphol (pronounced Shih-pole) Airport.

Now that we have touched down, we taxi for what seems forever! We taxi and I look out and the Control Tower looks miles away! In fact, it is! We have landed on Schiphol’s “Polderbaan” Runway! It is literally 3 freaking miles from the terminals! Look it up!!! And at the speed that a jet taxies, it takes us about 50 minutes to taxi to the terminals! Now I have to give credit to our pilots for landing us 20 minutes ahead of (our delayed) schedule! Oh right, that leaves 30 minutes of taxing left to our schedule!

Needless to say, all of the foreboding I have taken to and the foreshadowing that I have alluded to here come true. We remember the Schiphol Airport from our first encounter 11 years ago but it has changed. And not in a good way! This once tiny airport has blossomed into one of the largest airports we have ever encountered! Comparable to Chicago’s Midway or Philadelphia’s International Airport. Travel through them and you’ll know what I mean! We had to walk about 2 miles to only find out that we had missed our 3rd flight! But an attendant was there waiting for us, saying there were 10 more, making it 12 people that missed it. What happened to the good old days that when an airline KNEW people were coming, they would hold the flight for 10-15 minutes???

The plane was right there in plain (pun intended) sight but they had pulled the gate a couple feet away from it and they said the ‘Paperwork’ was already delivered to the plane! But, in the airlines defense, the attendant walked with us back to the point (One mile back!) and helped us rebook our flight 3 hours later!

Now I have to say, at this point, that we had been already traveling for 21 hours with little to no sleep. Miles of walking (I guess we got our steps in!) we were a couple of tired campers! But hey, wait! There’s a restaurant that serves booze AND food! So we manage to spend an hour there. Slightly refreshed, we head for our new Terminal (another mile away!) and we sit and wait, (almost comatose) and our new flight is also delayed almost 40 more minutes! But we hang in there and finally board the final leg from Amsterdam to Budapest!

Elee clears the line and gets seated next to a young lady who is very conversational (to her benefit, considering her exhaustion level!) but I get flagged (Oh great! What now???) and I’m told my seat has been changed. But the good news they tell me is I have an empty row and have 3 seats to myself! Looking forward to this arrangement, i get on board the plane and find I have been assigned to an overwing exit row (that doesn’t have reclining seats) and I actually look forward to it! The plane takes off and I strap myself into the middle of 3 seats and lay down across the 3 seats, not really comfortable, but doable! I close my eyes and try to sleep, fitfully and somewhat unsuccessful for sleep but I get some rest!

We land and I sit up. We have an uneventful time retrieving our luggage (which has actually followed us this time!) and we arrange for a van to take us to our apartment. We chat amicably with the others in the van and finally arrive at our apartment. We have only 10 minutes of difficulty arranging to get into the 2 bedroom apartment and we drop our luggage and grab our cameras and head out in search of dinner and adventure! We buy a few bottles of much desired bottled water at a small grocery store and find a Hungarian Bistro and indulge in Hungarian Ratatouille!

We then drop off our heavy water purchases at our apartment and take our cameras down by the river for some night photos! The sights are fantastic and the Parliament building is fun to photograph at night!

Until tomorrow Peeps!

May 6, 2023 Day in Vancouver

Today we buy tickets for the Hop On Hop Off Bus and ride instead of walk. We are constantly amazed at the architecture!

It rains on and off like yesterday. We stop for lunch and a drink at Joey Burrard. Good food and drinks! The architecture just keeps amazing us!

We get back on the bus and ride it back to the Steam Clock where we get off and walk around a bit.

As the day winds down, we get back on the bus for a final trip out to Vancouver Island and back. Random sights, an Indian Bride, a Hot Dog Cart, and more architecture to check out.

We arrive back at our hotel and decide to have dinner in the hotel pub.

The next morning we go to the modern airport for the flight home!

See you all next trip!

May 5, 2023 Vancouver, CA

Today we arrive in Vancouver, Canada. End of the cruise. We disembark and stand in line to clear Customs, which takes about an hour.

After clearing Customs we get in the line for a taxi. Finally getting into a taxi that takes us to our hotel. We check in and take a few photos out the window of our room.

Then we take our cameras and head out on a walking tour of the city. The architecture of the city is quite modern. Then we come across the “Steam Clock”, a clock powered by the city’s underground steam vents! Not modern at all! By now it is lunchtime and we get a bite to eat and drinks in the “Steam Works” bar overlooking the seafront.

Bellies full and feeling refreshed, we head back outside. As you can see by the pictures, the weather is cloudy with occasional rain. We find a tower building that has an observation deck on top and up we go!

Back down to the street and we take in more sights as we work our way back to the hotel. The Vancouver Library is interesting as it is designed with the Roman Coliseum in mind!

So we find dinner and go back to our hotel for the night. We get ready to turn in but not before engaging in some night photography from our room!

Goodnight all! See you later!

May 4, 2023 Victoria, Canada

We arrive in Victoria and see an anomaly in the clouds. These crazy clouds that look like a row of crashing waves are known as Kelvin-Helmholz waves. They form when two layers of air or liquid of different densities move past each other at different speeds, creating shearing at the boundary.

We have breakfast on the ship and head out into port. Fellow travelers are going to rent a car for the day and we ride the taxi with them to the rental company in the city. We rent a car of our own and head west to Butchart Gardens. Quite the place and our cameras are happy.

Our eyes and camera lenses are entertained to the max! I have hundreds more photos but I won’t inundate you with all of them! This was quite the place to visit! After three or four hours, we check our clocks and see it is time to return the rental car so we head back into the city. We spot a wine tasting store next to the rental store and we stop in. After, we take a taxi back to our ship.

Back on board, we have dinner and kick back for the evening, taking in the nightly show!

Good night and see you tomorrow!