This is part of a series called Pan European Sojourn 2023
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- The start of our Pan European Sojourn
- And we’re off — first stop Palma de Mallorca!
- Alicante, Spain
- Sète and Aigues Mortes, France
- St. Tropez and Gassin, France
- Portofino and Camogli, Italy
- Paris and Angers, France
- Bucharest, Romania
- Into the Carpathian Mountains — Peles Castle
- Brasov and Sighisoara, Romania
- Bran Castle and the legend of Dracula!
- Vidin, Bulgaria
- Valiko Tarnavo and Arbanasi, Bulgaria
- Rolling down the (Danube) river and Golubac Fortress, Serbia
- Belgrade, Serbia
- Novi Sad, Serbia and Vukovar, Croatia
- Pécs, Hungary
- Budapest, Vienna, and end of trip
At the conclusion of the cruise, we extended for 1.5 days in Vienna. Since we disembarked the ship in Budapest, we spent about 3 hours zooming around in both the Buda and Pest sides of the Danube. We had been to both Budapest and Vienna before, so we focused on “what’s new” or interesting that we hadn’t done on previous trips. In Budapest, the big news was all the construction that is going on on the Buda side. Apparently, they are building a big new government complex that doesn’t blend in with the historical structures in the area and the locals are not happy about it. On the Pest side, we went back to the Great Market Hall. Sadly, a number of market stalls are closed due to high prices and lack of availability of product. The good news is they still have caviar and foie gras, but at higher prices than the last time we were there.
While we did a walking tour through the historic district of Vienna, we were really focused on other things — not the least of which was food, whether eating pork schnitzel (huge!) at Figlmuller’s and Wurst at Bitzinger Wurstelstand by the Albertina Museum. And, speaking of museums, we visited the Belvedere Palace Museum (itself a UNESCO World Heritage Site) to see their extensive Gustav Klimt collection. That evening, we went to the Auersperg Palace to attend a concert of Mozart and Strauss by the Vienna Residence Orchestra. The concert was wonderful, but wearing a sport jacket in a tight space with no air conditioning made for some discomfort. We got back to the hotel about 11:00 pm and left again at 3:30 am to catch our flight back home. Now it’s just getting back into the time zone. While I didn’t have any real expectations about this nearly monthlong trip, it really turned out great — lots of fun, learning, and friends! I have to say, though, that it was shocking to travel to some of the more well known tourist destinations of Western Europe with their opulence and contrast it to Eastern Europe with many countries just recently emerging from Communism and/or rebuilding after war. That’s a lot diversity in such a small geographic region!
We arrived in Vienna in time for dinner. We had to make a stop at Figlmuller’s for schnitzel. We almost ordered one per person; luckily the waiter explained things. That is one big schnitzel!
… and look what we found! While only medical marijuana is technically legal in Austria, enforcement is lax. I wonder if Escobar is getting royalties for this.
Stopping for lunch at the Bitzinger Würstelstand Albertina, one of the iconic wurst houses in Vienna. Satisfied customers!