The Joys of Retirement Production Company

We took a bit of a detour,  flying home thru Istanbul,  but we made it.   April 6 and 7 were Travel days.   We found a great points deal so we took it!  Business class all the way.

Flying over the Polar route, along the way. Over Canada and the west.

The recap,  70 days, (10 weeks), 22 flights,  24 different beds (BnB, Hotel/cave, and ship), 11 countries (Greece, Malta, with a quick touch down and layover in Italy, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey. Romania. Bulgaria,  Serbia,  Croatia,  and Hungary) on 3 continents, ( Africa, Asia, and Europe).  and 2 cruises!  We walked 189+ miles, give or take a few!  A Great trip.   Thanks for hanging in with us and following our adventure.   See you for the next one…. in a couple weeks!😉

At Liszt airport,  one last goodbye

There are a bunch of whimsical mini statues all over Budapest! The artistic antics of Mihály Kolodko, a guerilla sculptor, a Ukrainian citizen with Hungarian origins, who began surreptitiously placing these around it city,  unannounced.   Today they are even on Google Maps!  We had fun searching some of them out and walking the city to photograph them.   3 miles later,  plus a couple public transportation trips,  here are our findings.

https://budapestflow.com/hidden-mini-statues-budapest/

Kolodko’s first miniature statue was from the cartoon show A Nagy Ho-ho-ho Horgász” (“The Big Ho-Ho Angler”)  character Főkukac, a happy little worm who is no longer bait. He sits overlooking the river! 

It was a fun treasure hunt,  and good exercise.   There were a few large bronze stairs around a well!  Here are 3 we photographed.

The last one!  At Lizst airport in Budapest

We took the metro down to Vorosmarty Ter, where an Easter market was happening for dinner.   We found the public transport is free for seniors!  So we are taking advantage!

There, we found these 2 singing and playing this instrument

A little walking around and we found 1 of the little sculptures, hidden around the city.   Tomorrow we will hunt for a few more! 

Views around the city,  this woman I know we saw 10 years ago,  on the same corner!

Our last official tour in Budapest, we joined the noon tour of the beautiful Parliament building.

Inside,  it is even more spectacular

While we are sightseeing in Budapest. PM Netanyahu of Israel is visiting with PM Orban on Hungary.   We see flags and blue lights on the chain bridges

In a poignant memorial,  the 2 Prime Ministers placed flowers at the memorial of the Shoes on the Danube

1000s off Hungarian Jews, almost 600,000, we’re killed by the Hungarian Nazi party on WW II, many lines up on the river bank,  told to remove their shoes, which were considered more valuable than the people,  and shot.  The memorial shoes all sizes including children’s shoes,  and is a horrifying reminder of the cruelty of the Fascist regime.

PM Orban has agreed to remove Hungary from the ICC, the international Criminal Court,  which has put an arrest warrant out for Netanyahu for his response to the October 7 massacre.  The ICC  neglects the fact that the killings of 1000s of Israelis was an unprovoked,  brutal, vicious,  invasion of Israel by Hamas.   It is good to see nations standing by Israel after this horrible attack on its people.

Our day on our own in Budapest,  we wanted to do this palace, so we booked our own tour (@ 1/3 the cost of the Viking excursion) worth Get your guide.   It was a favorite of the Austra-Hungarian Queen Elizabeth,  with of Emperor Franz Joseph, known as Sisi.  We have visited her palace in Vienna, Austria, Schöenbrun.

We learned it was much more than that,  a Palace of an aristrocratic family before Sisi and Franz Joseph owned it, the Andrassy family,  who were prominant in the development of the Austria Hungarian dynasty and a famous Budapest family.

We cruised in at dawn,  and disembarked our cruise by 9 for a city tour of Budapest.   First we traveled to the Buda party and the Mathias Cathedral and the Fisherman’s Bastion with the fabulous view of Pest

Mathias church

After a drive we arrived at the market for lunch and shopping

Our opted for the Hungarian Dinner and folk music show for dinner tonight.   Food was delicious,  music was lively and the dancers were having a great time

Our last day on the Danube,  we have a rural Hingary tour.   We visited the cathedral in Kalosca for a beautiful organ concert.

After that incredible instrument and concert in that beautiful church,  we visited a horse farm!  And had a very entertaining show there,  as well as a wagon ride!  Each bus was escorted into the arena by a rider!  The showd off their skills riding and cracking their whips ( which never touch the horses,  just make noise!)

On our drive to and from the village and farm,  we saw several stork nests

An enjoyable day with quite a contrast on entertainment!  We loved it!

This is our first visit to continental Croatia altho we have visited Zagreb, the capital,  Istria and the Dalmatian coast 2 times. This area is the bread basket of the country.

We stopped at a farm stay place for a sample of rural living.  

Driving thru the villages

We also visited a small church and had a concert from a local musician

We toured the old fortified city center of Osijek