maintenance - ignore

Just keeping the blog alive so I can finish it off someday.

Special note

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GRANDPA!!!

A day in Vienna

A huge cotton candy! We also had a dough boy. The vendor thought we were crazy when we asked for powdered sugar instead of garlic sauce or cheese.

We arrived in Vienna with no plan at all. We didn't even know whether we would spend the night there or take the train somewhere else. We considered going to Berlin and then to Zurich, but the Berlin train, and almost every other night train out of Vienna, was booked. Rather than bother searching around for a place in Vienna for the night we decided we might as well go back to Zurich. That turned out to be a good choice. But it meant we only had about twelve hours to see Vienna.

Our first stop was ice cream. We went to a very good shop near St Stephen's and then walked over to the church. No photos allowed inside. That's okay. The best thing about St Stephen's is the roof, anyway.

Currant and apricot. Soo good!

Sighisoara surprise

From the picture above, Sighisoara looks very nice. But that is not the impression we got when we got off the train in the morning at a  horrible looking station. Contrary to our research there were no lockers or left luggage area, so we headed off with all our luggage to the Old Town. At least, that is what we hoped. There was no tourist info at the station either, just a woman who told us to walk "that way" for "a while." We walked that way for quite a while. It was hot, the bags were heavy, and T refused to walk. The neighborhood was looking worse and worse with bars on windows and stray dogs. Finally we saw a farmer's market. We went in thinking we would buy the kids ice creams and then take one of the taxis outside to old town. The market was a little seedy. When we came out the taxis had all scattered, but there was a police car. E somehow asked the officer for directions and we set off again. This time the houses started looking better and better and with E scouting ahead a little we ended up where we wanted to be. He found a tourist office immediately where they gave him a map and offered to take the luggage he was carrying. We left the rest of the luggage at the sister hotel of our Brasov hotel, and we were off.

Enormous bags of cucumbers and peppers. 

The produce isn't handled as carefully here as in Switzerland.

Romanian history day

From Brasov we hired a tour guide to take us to Bran Castle, which inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula, and the Rasov Fortress. As soon as we got in the car our guide asked if we were interested in hearing some Romanian history. We were, so he started, "Well, forty two thousand years ago..." and four hours later ended with dire predictions of an inevitable invasion of Romania by Russia.  It was pretty awesome. We also learned about geology, the logistics of paragliding in the Brasov region, lies the American media tells, religion, cultural differences between German and Romanian residents, and about a monk who could see the future. 

This is the secret staircase in Bran Castle

Because Romanian currency has bills down to the value of about $0.30, coins aren't so common. 

That explains the bills thrown down the wishing well.

After the castle, we went to the Rasov fortress. But first we were treated to a quick detour up to a mountain ridge with a beautiful view on both sides. There were tons of wildflowers and it almost looked like Switzerland. We could also see where someone had been cutting the grass by hand with a scythe. That didn't surprise us too much. From the train we had seen dozens of horse drawn carts piled with hay, dirt, or whatever else.

Brasov

A typical Brasov building, very pretty, but a little crumbling

Brasov station

Somehow, our train from Budapest to Brasov arrived two hours late. So we decided to have a relaxing day around town and just sort of get the feeling of the place. Before we left for the trip, R mentioned that she was hoping to go somewhere that felt different, and I think Romania satisfies that. The train station has a sort of left over Soviet feel, horse carts are used for work rather than tourists, and even the money is different: it has an unusual texture and each denomination has a transparent figure.

Creepy transparent clown

We took a taxi from the station to old town. The first cab we approached told us the ride would cost 30 euros ($45). We just laughed at the guy and told him we'd be taking a bus. We must have looked like hard core cheapskates because the price came down very quickly. The next guy in line quoted 30 lei ($10) so we went with him. Later we found out it should have been $3. Oh well. We were dropped off by our hotel right on the old town town square. On the hill above old town is the Brasov Hollywood sign.

Dandy bike

Our ride around Margaret Island

This is E writing. On our last day in Budapest the little ones were exhausted and needed a day off so A stayed at the apartment with them (and packed) and R, S & I decided to go to Margaret Island, a small island in the middle of the Danube, and pretty much in the center of the city. We had planned to take a boat to the island but just missed it, so instead we walked. Budapest is a very pretty city, so the walk along the river was very pleasant, and the bridge across to the island had nice architecture (lots of statues!)

Not in a city

We weren't in a city today! We took a day trip outside Budapest to the Skanzen in Sztendre. It has houses, barns, farms, workshops, etc from all over Hungary that have been moved and reassembled in village scenes. Like Ballenberg in Switzerland, it is organized by geographic region.

E had worked out how to get there, but there were a couple of unsure moments:

This is the tourist information available in Sztendre.

The bus from Szetendre dropped us off here. 

Do you see a huge open air museum? Or anything?

But it was fine. We found the Skanzen and managed to pay with the help of an English speaking on-looker. And we figured out the train that took us around the museum with the help of a friendly family which spoke English and had a little boy T's age. T was shy at first but soon made friends and offered the boy a Mentos. 

The museum is pretty big, and it was very hot, so we paid for the train to get from one end to the other. The museum also rents bikes and scooters. The train was an old car from the 1930's with a wood interior which looked like an old trolley or cable car. The conductor was awesome. He gave everyone (even us, with the help of a map) advice on where to get off and what to see. He let T and L blow the horn. He lifted all the kids, even S and R, off the train because it was a bit high. He should get a raise. The surprising thing about the train - it was in operation until the 80's!

Beautiful Budapest views

This is S writing! On Saturday we went to a little playground and a beautiful castle with a lot of weddings. 

While Daddy bought train tickets, the littles, R, and I enjoyed a cute little playground down the street from our apartment with Mama. 

This is Fisherman's Bastion in the Castle district. It's a really big wall that goes around and you can get lots of really good views from there, which is probably why people like having their weddings and doing their wedding pictures there. I believe we saw on that day five. 

Baths

The Baths

This is E writing.

We've had beautiful, hot weather in Budapest so we decided to spend an afternoon at the baths. Unfortunately kids aren't allowed unless they are potty trained, and L is doing great but isn't there yet, so A stayed home with the littles while R, S & I went to the pool. 

Budapest is a beautiful city, filled with interesting architecture, fountains and statues (less so of famous people and more like museum pieces of Greek gods, etc).  The baths were no exception.

Outside there were 3 pools. One large one was for laps but it was cold and required a swimming cap so we didn't go in. The other two were almost mirror images of each other and were very warm (31 C) and hot (35 C). I've never been in a pool that was hot tub temperature (almost), but it was pretty relaxing. Some people were playing chess in the water, others were just relaxing. We spent most of our time in the other pool which had a lazy river and some water massage stations.  It was fun.

Afterwards we swung back by the apartment and picked up A & the littles and went to a giant ferris wheel in the middle of town (the Budapest Eye).  It's not quite as large as the London Eye but it does have a good view. T decided he didn't need to go on so he and A played in the park underneath while the rest of us went around. L loved it, calling out "There's my T, there's my mama!" every time they came into view. We also went for ice cream again.

Pickle people

Every kind of paprika and paprika souvenir!

We are in Budapest now! We arrived Thursday morning and were able to check into our apartment right away, which was very nice. Also nice, our apartment is pretty much next door to a very popular tourist destination - the market hall. We went there to get something for lunch. The market hall is interesting because it is a huge old iron building and the stalls are all in sort of permanent booths. Because of that there are lots more meat stands than usual, which made the girls unhappy. The market is so big that there is an Aldi's grocery store in the basement. Because the littles were hungry E and R brought them back to the apartment while S and I went to Aldi's for some yogurt and drinks. However, the market is so big that once we got to the basement we had a hard time finding the Aldi's. First we had to pass many fish stands (I had smelled fish upstairs and couldn't figure out why. I was glad to see I wasn't crazy, or that the meat upstairs hadn't gone terribly bad, which seemed like the other possibility.) And there were pickle people everywhere! Here is the conversation you would have with S if you were here:

S: Name a vegetable!

You: (Your answer here)

S: Pickled! They pickled everything.

Some of the friendlier looking pickle people

Krakow Jewish quarter

The Schindler factory

After packing up and storing all our stuff at the train station, we spent our last day in Krakow in the Jewish quarter. We walked through the Kazimierz neighborhood and went to the Old Synagogue where there is a good museum which gave excellent explanations of the lesser known Jewish holidays. Finally I understand Shavuot. T loved taking pictures of the museum displays.

Puppets in a wedding scene

Purim rattles and scrolls, children's amulets

Water park, Polish style

This is R again!

We are adding pictures to the older posts, but we didn't take any pictures this day, so this will just be words. On Tuesday we went to a big indoor water park that was really really cool. From the minute we walked in we could see many things that we really wanted to do. I instantly grabbed S and dragged her over to a rock climbing wall that was in one of the pools. Then we noticed that there was a volleyball court and some balls around, so I went to ask Mama to play since she used to play. She, S, and I had a really fun game complete with Mama bumping the ball out of the volleyball pool, over the walkway, and into the kiddie area. While I went to retrieve the ball, S and Mama were worrying about the possibility of the ball landing on some poor kid's head. Luckily, no kids were hurt.

Salt mine

Wieliczka Salt Mine

This is E writing. About half an hour SE of Krakow is the 

Wieliczka Salt Mine. The mine was opened in the 13th century and operated continuously until 2007. 

A little exercise to start the tour

The tour of the mine starts with a long walk down almost 400 steps (over 50 7-step flights) to get to the first level of the mine. When the miners were working here these were narrow, slick steps (made of salt).  Now they are wood -- not so bad, but still a lot of walking, especially carrying L & T.

Science park

This is R!

Sunday we had a relaxing morning, which means sleeping in. It was Mama and Daddy's 18th anniversary! Everyone slept in and when we did wake up, Daddy ran to the market to get us some nice fruit for breakfast - L's himbeeren. After a nice brunch Daddy took us to this cool science park Mama found called Lem Science Garden.

Krakow

Sometimes I worry that the blog seems a little braggy, when really it's just meant to be a sort of diary for us and a newsletter for our family. I think I've said it before, but I'll just mention it again: I leave out lots of dumb stuff: like me falling off the ebike or us arriving in Krakow without an exact address for the apartment and having to get help from the police station across the street. Stuff like that, though not so bad, does happen. It's not all chocolates and gondolas.

Anyway, the trip from Warsaw to Krakow was super easy, and the police only took about twenty minutes to find our apartment, contact the rep who was supposed to let us in, and get him on the scene. It was impressive and we had to wonder what leftover cold war tactics they might have used. It's a great apartment and we are settled in for the next few days.

On Saturday we wanted to just walk around and explore Old Town. First we went to a market, though, because I love seeing the different markets! This market had a few things that made it special:

Warsaw

We had planned to go from Prague to Krakow on an overnight train, and had reservations for an apartment there the next day. However, when E went to Zurich last week to reserve our couchettes he was told that we would have to change trains at 3 a.m. So we had to change the plan quickly - and find a way to Krakow in time for the apartment which wouldn't have us sitting on the train all day. The only option was Warsaw. We took an overnight train there instead, spent most of Friday looking around, and took a three hour long train from there to Krakow in the evening. Here we are on the way to Warsaw.
This train had higher ceilings than the first, which was more comfortable. But the bunks wouldn't fold up in the morning.

I'd never really wanted to go to Warsaw since I figured it had all been destroyed in the war, but I liked it very much and am glad we went.

They've done a good job of making the repaired and rebuilt buildings look old.

Last day in Prague

We began our last day in Prague with brunch at Cafe Louvre, where Einstein liked to eat. It was very pretty. L had a Czech specialty which is supposed to be popular with kids - sweetened potato dumplings which looked like white asparagus and were blanketed with poppy seeds. E had some pork which tasted a little like our homemade Christmas sausage.

Really really awesome bike tour

This is S writing again!

The first thing we did on Wednesday was go up to the castle. We saw suits of armor, including a tiny one that looked like T could fit into. We went in the cathedral and saw some nice stained glass. One of the stained glass windows was made by an artist named Mucha. We recognized that it was by him right away because earlier in the week we went to an art museum that was completely his art. One of the pictures there was of a woman in a dead tree and a schoolgirl looking accusingly at her audience. It was very creepy. The description said the girl was accusing people of not buying her school supplies. On the stained glass window it looked like the same girl looking accusingly at the audience again. He has a signature way of drawing little girls. We also saw a smaller church there that was older.

The cathedral had lots of side chapels in different styles

The old church and the cathedral