James and I lived in Germany from the late 80's through the mid 90's and my Dad just never had the time or finances to visit back then. This time around has been a different story. After living so long vicariously through his daughters, students, and friends, he's finally taken the time to do some traveling of his own and, at 81, finally came to visit us in Europe.
After recovering from jet lag, I took him on a tour around Burghausen and he and Ronan enjoyed the castle and the castle's current exhibition. We drove over to see the
Black Madonna in Altoetting, and we enjoyed a day in Salzburg.
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| Salzburg Castle |
We then went on a road trip to Vienna and Budapest. Unfortunately, we didn't have nearly enough time in Vienna, but we certainly enjoyed our visit to the
Kunsthistorisches Museum there. We saw many works of art from the great Italian and Dutch Renaissance artists, including Titian, Poussin, Vermeer, Breugels. Ronan especially enjoyed the ancient Egyptian and Greek exhibits and we all enjoyed our cake and coffee in the museum cafe, what a beautiful and amazing piece of architecture in and of itself. Unfortunately we have no photos because we thought cameras were not allowed, in fact, they are, just no flashes.
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| Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna |
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| Rathaus in Vienna |
We spent the night in a cosy little pension in the town of Mosanmagyarovar, Hungary, called Feyak Fogado (
about a half hour drive east of Vienna, also not far from Bratislave. It is a spa town and has over 250 dental practices. Apparently a lot of Austrians go to Hungary for major dental work because it's less expensive for those procedures not covered by insurance.
The pension was very inexpensive, comfortable, cosy, with a great breakfast. Almost didn't want to leave. From there we drove another two hours to Budapest the next day and spent 2 nights in another small pension called
Hotel Mohacsi Panzio, which was clean, had personality, and a friendly and hospitable host.
None of us had ever been to Budapest before but we walked into town on the first day and first found ourselves facing the Danube River and the stunning view of the House of Parliament.
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| View of Buda from our balcony |
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| In front of the House of Parliament building |
and found a hop-on/hop-off bus tour for which we purchased a group two-day ticket. This enabled us to get around the city and see most of the sites. Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, divided by the not-always-so-blue Danube. It's a stunning old city with amazing architecture and history. Buda is characterized by the castle on the the hill and the citadel and by numerous parks. Pest has a more lively shopping and restaurant area along with the opera house, museum and Heroes Square, along with St. Stephen's Cathedral where you can see the holy
right hand of St. Stephan. We also enjoyed the castle district where we walked around St. Matthew's Church and the Fisherman's Bastion.
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| St. Mattias Church |
On day two, George and James enjoyed an afternoon at the new Cezanne exhibit at the art museum on Heroes Square while Ronan and I went to enjoy the baths. Budapest is situated on top of natural thermal springs and is therefore known as the city of spas with the
Szechenyi Baths being the oldest. It's clearly a draw for the elderly crowd for its healing and rejuvenating waters. We saw many older men in the outdoor spa enjoying games of chess while soaking up the waters. I really appreciate the fact that Europeans really know how to enjoy the good life and make it accessible to everyone. We paid the equivalent of $10 for the afternoon, could even rent a robe or towel. Massages, spa treatments and saunas were also available to anyone. Maybe if we in the US were to spend some tax money on recreational infrastructure, we wouldn't have quite such an obesity problem. OK, moving on ;-)
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| Szechenyi Baths |
I may have forgotten to mention that our second day in Budapest was my birthday, so after a great dip at the baths, we all met up again and found a cosy and traditional Hungarian restaurant and had a lovely meal, replete with lots of meat, potatoes, schnitzel, schweinhaxen. It was great to spend my birthday with my three favorite guys. I think my dad really enjoyed the trip, he was like a kid in a candy store who's eyes had been opened for the first time. We had a great chance to catch up and reconnect. I'm so grateful that even at his "advanced age" he is still able to travel. After he left us in Burghausen, he didn't head home, but was off to South Africa for further adventures. Go George!
On a last note, we also took him to Regensburg where we lived many years ago, it was great to share our favorite German city with him as well as enjoying an evening with old friends at the Goldene Ente.
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| On the old stone bridge in Regensburg with the clock tower in the background |
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| Old friends from the Ente beer garden days |
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| Ente Beer Garden in Spring |
