Bratislava

The longest distance we travelled was between Budapest and Bratislava leaving Budapest under a full moon at 8 and not getting to Bratislava until mid afternoon. The Hungarian countryside was not too interesting. I walked around in small circles on a track on the top deck. After about 4 miles, my watch indicated I went a mile. Pretty fast for a geezer but of course it was measuring by GPS  I have a good friend of Slovak heritage who sent me numerous videos of the country. Plus my daughter-in-law is part Slovak so I was prepared for this city.

Again pictures are in random order.

main square of the old town

Most of the many outdoor cafes provided heavy furry blankets

I loved this sculpture. Rubbing the dirty man's hardhat (he is trying to look up skirts)is supposed to bring good luck

My favorite, the Blue Church

This is Hans Christian Andersen with characters from some of his tales. Should have got some hot mulled wine from behind him. Slovakia takes euros unlike Hungary

The Holocaust memorial next to a photo of this beautiful synagogue the Communists tore down to make another bridge. Bratislava is the only capital surrounded by two other countries. Austria, communist free, was so close but impossible to get to without being shot. Communists would not let anyone worship anything. Our Catholic guide had her first communion in her house.

The so called UFO bridge, which has a restaurant up there Same bridge built on the ruins of the synagogue

Why these ugly stepstools along the river? To contain flooding, huge walls were put up along the river. People complained they couldn't sit on a park bench and watch the view thus the stepstools. Didnt see anyone on them. hey finished the ws just in time. In 13 there were devastating floods
 

Inside St Stephen where we spent way too much time. Not interested in relics and the treasury

All in all a charming city. The Prime Minister is a progressive woman, in contrast to the Hungarian dictator

Budapest

 Again blogger is becoming harder to use over time I see that my photos are in reverse order that I took them. We are back after 9 days away. Overall a very good trip with good weather, not 5 days of rain as forecasted. It sprinkled on us once.

We were tested for Covid every day, had to wear masks of varying grades everywhere. Viking took care of all the considerable paperwork with different requirements for 5 different countries. It would have been impossible to do this on our own. The ship was half full and we never felt crowded. The dining room was nearly empty most of the time and served very good food. They also served us unlimited amount of wine and beer.  There was a cappuccino machine with varying degrees of fancy coffee strengths and sparkling and still mineral water plus a variety of snacks we had access to 24 hours/day.

Our room was small and below deck so not much view. But they had fancy linens, toiletries, and even a heated floor. We had internet most of the time except sometimes when we were moving and in Linz for some reason.  I wake up early so I would go up to the lounge watching the world go by, sip my cappuccino and load photos which I took lots of  Steve would join me after an hour and we would have a really nice breakfast  We had one excursion a day, more if we paid extra, but plenty of time to go out on our own.  If we were moving during the day, they would have special events such as wine tasting, strudel making, history lessons, high tea, music. If I didn't get enough exercise on our walks, I could walk on a small track which I did once. There were usually paved paths along the river which I could have used more than the one time I did if I ran out of interesting things to see.

We took Lufthansa to Frankfort to Budapest leaving Detroit from a terminal in which this is the only international flight. It used to be considered a luxury airline but it was very much not and we got off starving.  Air France, which we took from Munich to Paris to Detroit, was much nicer though not as nice as it had been before covid. Viking reps met as immediately upon clearing customs which consisted of us walking through an unmanned gate. No one around to show our considerable paperwork we were told was mandatory to enter the country. We had to wait for this silly couple who was on our flight but waited on the wrong side of the gate until it occured to them to come to us. They must not have travelled much as they thought keeping a passport in their suitcase was a good idea. We met a nice couple while waiting that we would hang around for part of the cruise.

Although Buda, old hilly section, and Pest flat newer section are beautiful Hungary is becoming a dictatorship that Trump and his asshat followers admire. No dissent allowed, very anti immigrant, anti anyone not Christian, voting controlled, no gays or anything antifamily. We had a guide who told us amazing things: no fish in the Danube(the cormorants will be disappointed with that) Hungarians were victims of the Nazis, not collaborators,  they invented the word Hello which sounds like can you hear me in Hungarian, invented do-Re-Mi, have no Covid so no one need wear a mask, highest vaccination rate in Europe,  and have the 2nd oldest subway system in Europe.  Only the last thing she said was true.  I initially was pissed at her but then she was forced to say what she did. Telling the truth isn't allowed.     Only in Austria did they owe up to the responsibility  of serving Hitler. It was not discussed in Germany. The Slovaks and Hungarians insist that they hated Nazis but the truth is they didn't do badly under them especially compared to being under the Soviets for45 years did. 

We were in Budapest two whole days and then sailing away at night under a full moon drinking too much pear schnapps

Parliament building and one of their fancy brigdes Their biggest attraction, the chain bridge was covered with scaffolding

Beautiful fountains all over

St Stephans in Pest

Rubik cube trees in honor of its Budapest inventor

  Budapest has the largest synagogue in Europe. Some Jews returned but given the current political situation probably their situation isn't good. This is the Tree of Life. Each leaf, there are many, has the name of a victim. The Hungarians were so helpful in rounding up Jews, some survivors  said they never saw a German until they got to the camp. Raoul Wallenburg, A Swedish architect and diplomat educated at the University of Michigan managed to save thousands of Jews by calling them Swedish subjects keeping them in Swedish safe houses. Although the Nazis were not

 amused, it was the Soviets who ultimately killed him 

interesting market near our ship. No one wore masks inside except us  Lots of paprika stands

residential area of Buda

I assume Wallenburg lived here in Buda Can't read Hungarian

Details inside St. Mathias

Interesting Pest building

House of Terror where dissidents of the Soviet regime would be tortured

The synagoge

Lit up Liberty statue across from boat put up by the Soviets to celebrate the Hungarians being liberated from the Germans  It was surrounded by soviet notables since removed

Us on the first day  I apologize for the mess this post is. For some reason I can't even see what I am typing

So much garden clean up to do here

Walnuts keep falling on my head

 

my mother in law right before she was diagnosed with covid

we went out to dinner for Allie.s 8th birthday on a beautiful fall night

Hannah enjoying her ice cream

beautiful fall sunrises  Probably nice sunsets too but by then I am too tired to get up to look at them

our house

puppy and granddaughter are getting bigger

Every year Grand Rapids used to have a big art fair They changed it to every two years but last year was Covid so I went back after 3 years Much smaller

Steve amid suspended rocks

iconic blue bridge

gerald ford museum

collection of primitive Presidential paintings each featuring one aspect of their term

hmmmmm

fountain of lights

I liked the dragon

repurposed instruments

I liked the gorilla

We are having Indian summer which extends my gardens and exercising outside For whatever reason, our area has a bumper crop of black walnuts. Even when it is calm I am showered with them falling when I run through the woods here. They are heavy  Also no fun to bike or run on top of their piles. Free food but very difficult to extract the meat. First the shell needs to be cracked with a hammer and the meat is embedded in black bitter goo.  I did this as a kid and my fingers were stained badly

We still have covid no thanks to the selfish, ignorant people who refuse to be vaccinated.  I did get my booster approved for us geezers on the first possible day  Steve's vaccine is not approved yet but presumably lasts longer than mine. We are travelling to Hungary in less than 2 weeks and muct show a PCR negative test that is less than 72 hours old. Must be a hard copy so timing will be tricky as it takes a day to travel and test results can take 2 days  We have to schedule this well in advance  Around the time I got my first va ccine, there were free testing facilities all over Not anymore  Maya's class was quarantined for a week since a classmate had it so back to zoom school, a pain for working parents especially single ones like Naomi who has gone back to school.

 Turned out impossible to find one in 48 hours but she ended up buying a test kit  Again, tough given her circumstances. Fortunately they accepted it. My childhood friend who was hospitalized with Covid did survive but was too tired to tell anyone  I had assumed she died but she is alive. Her Trump poisoned sister kept trying to stop her from being treated as she thought the hospital had an interest increasing the Covid death rate. Again no logic.  I did find out that FEMA will reimburse us for part of my mother in law's funeral expenses as she died ofCovid  We will see in a couple months.

The country is becoming more and more divided. What I found in my Facebook feed today

"No society ever thrived because it had a large and growing class of parasites living off those who produce" Thomas Sewell

At least nobody like it but I am thinking of defriending her

as I believe pretty much the opposite. Really sounds like something Hitler would say and we know how he defined parasites.