Today on the exploration agenda is more of the Pest side of Budapest. We are taking it easy today by having a nice, long and relaxing breakfast. After the breakfast we are heading towards the Danube to see the Parliament Building, The Great Synagogue, Gellert Hotel, Great Market Hall and St. Stephens Basilica, among other […]
To the Hunt
Meanwhile in the other room at Zeller Bistro a fox hunt themed bachelor party was taking place. 14 crazy Englishmen, a bachelor dressed like a fox and a lot of toasting. There were two different toasts given in about 5 minute intervals – To the Hunt and What Did The Fox Say! As the table […]
Zeller Bistro
As my wife said, when you come to Budapest but don’t stop by Zeller Bistro, for dinner – you have wasted your trip here. Zeller is a very small bistro on the Pest side of the city, family own and family run. They also own a small farm and make their own wine and some […]
Pest side of Budapest
After a nice visit to Buda site of Budapest we crossed the famous Chain Bridge, to Pest side of the city. This, architecturally speaking, is the modern part of the city. Pest side of the city is a treasure trove of Art Deco, Neoclassical and Classical architecture, perhaps mores than Prague. For me that is […]
Buda Castle
Buda Castle is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest, and was first completed in 1265. In the past, it has been called Royal Palace and Royal Castle. Buda Castle was built on the southern tip of Castle Hill, bounded on the north by what is known as the Castle District which is famous for its Medieval, Baroque, and 19th-century houses, churches, and […]
Fisherman’s Bastion
Fisherman’s Bastion is a terrace in neo-Gothic and neo-Romanesque style located on the Buda bank of the Danube, on the Castle hill just behind the Matthias Church. It was designed and built between 1895 and 1902. Its seven towers represent the seven Magyar tribes that settled in the Carpathian Basin in 896. The Bastion takes its name from the guild of fishermen that was responsible for defending this stretch of the city […]
Budapest
The name “Budapest” is the composition of the city names “Buda” and “Pest” Dating back to before 1 AD Budapest is the 25th most visited city in the world and 6th most visited city in Europe. Budapest is extensively dotted with World Heritage Sites which include the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes’ Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, […]
Communism You Say
Placed stragegically close to our hotel is Budapest’s legendary – New York Cafe. Voted as one of 10 most beautiful cafes in the world – this newly renovated cafe was a longtime center for Hungarian literature arts and poetry, right from its opening on October 23, 1894. This truly is a dazzling and spectacular place, […]
Weekend Pad
This will be our home – away from home, away from home for the long weekend while we explore Budapest. So far our impressions are pretty good and we are looking forward to staying here and sampling the breakfast tomorrow morning, and each morning after that. We are about 10 minute walk away from […]
Budapest – Hungary
We are going to Hungary for the long weekend. In our sights we have Budapest, what we understand to be an amazing city full of splendid cafes, mineral baths and spicy paprika and goulash among other more cultural things.
Munich
We are setting off for Munich – once again. A bit of paper work to deal with at our favourite place the Polish Embassy.
Service Time
Spring means more travel time, Alfa is getting its first service after 21, 000 km of happy travels we did in it.
Riquewihr France
The name of this little village of 1500 just rolls off your tongue – Riquewihr, Riquewihr, Riquewihr. This little village is located about 5km from Ribeauvillé or 6km if you take the scenic route through the winding roads leading through the vineyards. Riquewihr is an old wine trading village , famous for it architecture and for the Riesling and other great wines […]
Exploring Ribeauvillé
We were not early out of bed today, but in the morning on the way down to the main market square in search of suitable place to sit outside for breakfast we got to explore a bit more of this amazing little town. Ribeauvillé is almost like a medieval movie set – all homes are […]
Around the city
We are continuing to enjoy the beautiful spring weather. It’s is warm, it is dry and it is very sunny.
St. Nicholas and St. Ulrich
Located in the district of Nuremberg Mögeldorf the fortified churches of St. Nicholas and St. Ulrich are situated right next to the Haller Castle. Together with a number of small artisan homes a walled park with a bridge and a bridge house this neighbourhood was originally settled somewhere around the 8th or 9th century. […]
Castle Tour
Today is the first day of Spring. Today is also the first day we were comfortable enough to go out in shorts and a t-shirt, although after an hour we though we were a bit overdressed. We have been planning to take a tour around the entire castle defence walls or the old town since […]
Crazies are out
At the end of the boulevard, the canal that feeds the castle moats turns into a lake. There is a huge park on both side of the lake with cafes, a boat rental and a lot of walking trails. Since last year, we also have a fancy new sand beach. The park was full of […]
Busy Bees
With spring comes warmth, with warmth come flowers and with flowers come bees. They waste no time and they are hard at work – just like us.
Bismarck
At the end of our short street is a boulevard that separates our neighbourhood from the moat canals and the parks down below. On the boulevard there is a massive statue dedicated to Bismarck. It is quite old and a bit damaged, undoubtedly by both wars. This place is great for either getting to the […]
That Kind of Day
No matter where we go, the patios are full of people sitting around and enjoying the wonderful weather. A couple of days ago somewhere by Frankfurt we set a new record for the daily high it was 23.7C. We are out and about in t-shirts wondering if by the weekend we will be able to […]
Kids + Travel = Loot
Here is some of the stuff that we acquired in London. As it is clearly evident most of it is from Harry Potter Studios. Good times.
Home At Last
Home sweet home. We knew today was going to be a long and challenging day. We knew we would not make the train, and there was a chance we would not make the shuttle bus to the train station, which means we would have to take an even later train. Not to mention the issues […]
Relaxing in London
After Changing of the Guard ceremony, or rather, before it actually concluded we set off across St. James’s Park to Piccadilly and a wonder around Regent Street, essentially circling around Soho for a bit of exploration. I think we all are a bit tired so today we are taking it easy. We went back to […]
Break Time
We went to see the Queen today but there was a scheduling problem with the palace. So instead of high tea we settled for watching the change of guard and a coffee.
Change of Guard
Today we went to Buckingham Palace to see the change of the guard, us and about 1000 other people with nothing better to do on a beautiful spring day. The whole ceremony is quite long, with much fanfare and massive crowds and not a lot to see. It seems there is not one place that […]
Covent Garden
After our museum visit, we had a nice dinner in a traditional English Tavern and then headed out to Covent Garden which is a trendy boutique area in London. Then a quick stop to King’s Cross for a visit to Platform 9 ¾.
Natural History Museum – Treasures
There are a lot great exhibits and some real treasures. There is a tooth which was found by the side of the road which gave birth to the study of dinosaurs, the first adult skull of a Neanderthal ever discovered, the first edition of the “On The Origin of Species” by Darvin, a dodo skeleton, […]
Natural History Museum
To your average creationist this place is hell and Darwin is the devil, to the rest of inquiriting minds this is a place of amazement and wonder. The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. Each exhibit hall is more splendid the the […]
British Museum
It appears that whatever the French have found first or did not lose in war is at the Louvre in Paris, the rest of the world’s treasures are in London at the The British Museum. The Rosetta Stone, the oldest chess set, the Portland Vase the precursor to Wedgwood China, The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, Colossal red granite statue […]
Trafalgar Square
After London Eye we set out for a walk across the river towards the Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street and the British National Museum with a quick stop at a pub for some fish and chips.
London Eye
We woke up to a spectacular spring day in London. It is the sort of day you wish you were going on the London Eye simply to see the entire city with beautiful blue sky and some white clouds. That is exactly how we started our day today. First thing after breakfast we set […]
Hogwarts Castle
Just the Hogwarts castle – so real and so close you can almost touch it, if it wasn’t for the barriers and the security and the CCTV…
Harry Potter – Hogwarts
The second studio is dedicated to animatronics, the concept art, prints, magic wands, the entire Diagon Alley and of course larger then life model of the Hogwarts Castle which was used for all of the outdoor scenes and fly by shots. The size of this model is hard to describe because words like huge and […]
Harry Potter – Outdoor Sets
Once you take it the splendid wonder of all the indoor sets, in the courtyard between the two studios are some of the outdoor sets which were used in the movie. Those include the Hogwarts Bridge, No. 4 Privet Drive, The Night Bus, The flying ford Angila, Little Whining and a few more chess pieces. […]
Harry Potter Sets
The first part of the tour is on the sound stage where the Great Hall scenes were shot as well as some of the other iconic sets from the movie, such as the Boys, Dormitory, Gryffindor Common Room, Potions Room, the Burrow, Hagrid’s hut, Umbridge’s Office, the Dumbledore’s Office, the Ministry of Magic etc.. It all […]
Harry Potter
This adventure took about 4 or 5 hours to get through but as Boris said, it was the best day of his life. Harry Potter Studios just outside London are well worth the time and the money for any Harry Potter fan. Even before you enter the studios, you are immediately impressed by the […]
Tower Bridge
It is hard to say what is more iconic in London – The Big Ben or the Tower Bridge. I think we would be hard pressed to pick between the two. After a bit of rain, the sun come out which made for some spectacular looking skyline.
Piccadilly
Until the 17th century the street was known as Portugal Street. Piccadilly is a famous road in London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to in the east. It is completely within the City of Westminster and it is one of the widest and straightest streets in central London, and it is always busy.
Fish and Chips
These were done just right with mushed green peas. Not only did we have a Polish waitress her uncle lives in Edmonton. Small world.
Costa Coffee
After an eventful day yesterday we are starting off slow today. First order of the day – sleep through the breakfast at the hotel. Second order of the day – find a place to sit, relax and enjoy a morning cup of coffee and watch the world go by.
Amateur Hour
We constantly aim to elevate the amateur way of traveling – this trip is no exception. We set off from Nuremberg to Frankfurt on the train. We did not want to chance getting stuck in traffic or a snow storm or getting stressed about getting there on time. We would arrive in Frankfurt with 2.5 […]
Glorious
It is absolutely glorious outside. T-shirt and a sport jacket kind of day, although there are people wearing shorts already we are not as adventurous.
Germanisches Nationalmuseum
The German National Museum is quite stunning. It is a mix of ultra modern and old gothic buildings, including an old church. Some of the old buildings date back to 1525. Some of the most valuable exhibits in the museum collection are the oldest known wooden globe which predates Columbus’ discovery of America and a […]
Back to Prague
We spent another great day in Prague and we did not step foot into a single church. Right now it is our go to city for a day trip. We have been to Munich 5 times already but that was out of necessity, we have been to Prague 3 times because we wanted to go […]
Paul our Friend
Starting your day off the proper way with a nice light breakfast and a hot coffee. We love coming to Paul when in Prague.
Going Back – To Prague
It is another weekend and we are setting off to Prague for another day trip. It is an amazing city, and we love it there. In the caravan following us are Mozejkos, we are going to explore this town a bit more.
Great Danes
Our Danish friends are here for a week. First order of the day is to go out for a walk after a big brunch. The day did not live up to its +15C today but any day without snow, wind or sleet we will take. Beautiful day to be outside – tomorrow a day […]
Get Informed
Let your voice be heard. On the anniversary of Aaron Swartz’s tragic passing, leading internet groups and online platforms announce Day of Activism Against NSA Surveillance Mobilization, dubbed “The Day We Fight Back” to honor Swartz & celebrate the anniversary of SOPA Blackout
NEWS
Massive but orderly lineups, and much excitement was caused by Nuremberg getting its own Dunkin’ Donuts. We went out to find it today. For those of you who have visited us here, the store is close to the main train station, and the 3D cinema, or a 5 min walk from our flat. Today, […]
Recent Comments