A beautiful morning to head off yet again through the French countryside – that, by the way, smells continually like hot, squished grapes in the sun…
…and down this small lane is my accommodation for the night… A medieval water mill and command post of the Knights Templar…
~ Bella
Finally, my time comes to leave Munich and I get a car to the airport where I collect my rental…
Meet Clio – my companion for the next few days…
Dear Clio did her best, but anything over 150 she felt decidedly unstable… I did however manage to get to 185 for a brief moment… Hey, it’s the Autobahn! One needs to do these things!
Our first stop was an abbey that supposedly has an incredibly library, however it was closed…
Not to worry – it was fun wandering through the grounds…
In case you haven’t guessed by now, I didn’t exactly take the straightest route from Munich to Cherbourg, but rather meandered through the French countryside…
Time to stop for the night and I found a delightful hotel where from my window I could hear birds happily twittering away…
…and off again in the morning…
~ Bella
I knew the day would come… Farewell to my beautiful Vienna… Although I do not want to live there, I would love to visit a couple of times every year – perhaps have a home in Scotland and one in Vienna… Hmmmmm, that’s a lovely idea! 🙂
Our driver picked us up from our respective hotels and off we set…
Our first stop was going to be Melk Abbey, however …
Let’s just say actually getting there was proving more of a challenge that it was worth…
…so, we headed off again and waved to it from the highway…
…and headed back up into the Alps…
…and that was just the beginning of our journey…
~ Bella
As we were touring through the Viennese countryside and in particular the Wachau Valley, we came across quite an assortment of ‘interesting’ sights…
Yes, these are headless people, complete with a happy birthday version of ‘do not cross’ police tape…
…and a park for bees…
The leaning tower of Wachau Valley, perhaps..?
…and another abandoned castle…
…and another abandoned castle…
This was funny… Donna went off to explore the abandoned castle and came across this fellow having trouble getting his popcorn machine over the bump – so, of course, she lent a hand… although when she attempted to use her charm and his gratitude to let her in, unfortunately the language barrier prevented a successful transaction… 🙂
Hmmmm – you may note that we are on the ‘wrong’ side of the barrier… and the lady was sooooooooooooooooooo grumpy that she had to let us out… 🙂
This is the ticket office – seriously!
…but this was only still part-way through our day-trip adventure…
~ Bella
What a magnificent day! Slept in, then rugged up (it was minus 1 outside and lightly snowing), walked literally 3 minutes past the opera house where I stepped into a horse-drawn carriage and rode around Vienna for an hour, had a magnificent lunch, strolled home via a stop in a very cute clothing and accessories shop (hmmmm, pretend I didn’t say that! – and the bags (yes, plural) full of goodies I brought home from the store are a figment of your imagination – note to self: may need bigger suitcase!), did about seven or eight hours of work that I love, and now am curled up posting this! Magical day! and another thing checked off my bucket list!
(below) Fashion, cafe, lingerie, jewellery, Lindt chocolate, all within the magnificent Hotel Bristol building… and Coca Cola (I am a Coke Zero fan)! What more could a girl want!
I showed immense intestinal fortitude today – I walked past this beautiful bookstore without going inside…
This (below) is just one of the many bump in-out doors in the Vienna Opera House. It is fun to imagine all the stories they could tell…
…and literally about three minutes after I left home, here is my ride…
…der Fiaker!
“The term “fiaker” originates from the French and refers to the hackney carriage stand in the Parisian Rue de Saint Fiacre. In 1720, the carriages – which had previously been referred to as “Janschky” coaches in Vienna – were renamed “fiakers” (and numbered).
Then the carriage trade really began to boom: more than 1,000 fiakers were on the road in Vienna between 1860 and 1900. The carriage drivers were often characters that were known throughout the city and also sometimes performed as singers. They were appreciated for their discretion, especially when one or the other fine gentleman was amusing himself in the fiaker with his paramour. Probably most famous among them was Josef Bratfisch, the royal coachman of Crown Prince Rudolf, who brought the prince’s lover Mary Vetsera to Mayerling in 1889, where both lives found a tragic end.” [from the wien.info site]
…and in case you are not up on your history, Crown Prince Rudolf was the only son and heir to Franz Josef I (who was Kaiser of Austria when the opera house was opened and whose name I read in gold every day as I look at the beautiful building). When Prince Rudolf died (how he died is a whole other story), the next in line to the throne when Franz Josef passed away was Archduke Franz Ferdinand – and if that name rings a bell, the assassination of he and his wife lead to WWI.
This little white four-legged fluffy wanted to eat the big white four-legged ones!
You will have heard of a schmuck, yes? Well this is where you buy old (antique) ones!
I love amazing doors – and Vienna is full of them!
…and I love reflections…
Even the patterns in the cobblestones are beautiful…
Coming around the edge of this building… this is what heaven looks like to me! You could transplant me back to anywhere from around 1840 to 1910 (when King Edward VII died and the world ended) and I would be a very happy pixie… To a large extent, I live elements of a Victorian/Edwardian life – long skirts, silk handkerchiefs, fountain pens, wax sealed notes and letters, my outlook, values… and as much as I adore my convertibles, give me a horse-drawn carriage any day…
Although, I am the first to admit, I could not live the amazing life I do without my technology…
Yes – this (below) is definitely what the world of my own creation looks like… Not a modernly-dressed person in sight.
Is it just me, or does this guy on horseback appear to be looking backward over his shoulder for something?
These girls must have a headache by now…
Re Pinocchio (below), did you know that the town in which it was set, of the village of San Miniato Basso, was originally named Pinocchio? …and that the inhabitants of San Miniato were called Pinocchi or Pinocchini? It’s amazing the useless information that is stored in my brain… 🙂 But then again, I guess I need to give the Hamsters that live in my head something with which to play every now and again…
…and in front of us is again, the opera house – back to where we started…
Time for lunch…
Then back home and back to work – only to hear a few hours later music coming from below…
…and another glorious day draws to a close here in magical Vienna…
Goodnight, all…
~ Bella
Curled up in my lovely apartment, and I begin to hear a thudding cadence approaching…
At first I thought, oh, it’s a small parade or something…
…and then they kept coming…
…and coming…
…and coming…
…and coming… For almost an hour they kept coming, despite the snow that was beginning to flurry…
…and somehow it just didn’t quite seem right to have a huge protest in front of the beautiful Opera House, but each to his/her own…
…and still they kept coming…
…and coming…
…and coming…
…and coming…
…and coming…
…and then the police kept coming…
…and coming…
…and coming…
…and still they kept coming…
…and the police kept coming…
…and they kept coming…
…and coming…
What were they protesting?
If you read the signs, it’s not just one thing… This seemed like a protesters’ catch-all march.
Some were protesting against the Austrian government, some protesting against the Hungarian government, some protesting against human rights abuse in general, some protesting against human rights abuse in particular countries, and just like the protesters, the reasons for protesting kept coming and coming and coming…
Well, after standing at the window for an hour or so snapping away, my frozen fingers and I are about to jump into the shower and get all glammed up for what I expect to be a marvellous night – I am headed to the magnificent Kursalon Wien for a four-course fine-dining meal, followed by an evening of Strauss, Mozart and more…
Such a contrast!
Well, life’s never boring… 🙂
~ Bella
Although I forgot to program fine weather into the holodeck for this trip, I had a marvellous time travelling by road from Budapest to Vienna, with a stop-off in Bratislava in Slovakia.
While there are no border crossings for passport checking and the like, one does need to have a sticker for the particular country’s highways on which one wants to travel – so there are what look like toll booths with kiosks from which such stickers may be purchased. This is the one going from Hungary to Slovakia…
…and then on to Bratislava (and apologies about the rain-blurred images…)
This part of the world certainly likes statues of military guys with no heads… Note to self: at some point, find out what that is all about!
The view overlooking the mighty Danube is impressive, even in the rain…
…and then down into the old town…
This (below) is the same fountain as you will see in an early photo a little later…
Bratislava is known for its quirky street art – and it seems Napoleon had a hard night…
…and misplaced his shoes…
This little guy is world-famous… Meet Cumil, the sewage worker…
This is where my driver and I stopped and had a delicious lunch…
…and then across the way to the patisserie…
This (below) is the photo of the fountain to which I alluded earlier…
A woman I find fascinating – Sisi, aka Empress Elisabeth of Austria…
This door is magnificent!
…then on to Austria…
…and buying another sticker – they are available both single journey and annual passes.
Welcome to the outskirts of Vienna…
…where if it doesn’t move, it is tagged (although thankfully, the street artists are very respectful of historic buildings)
…the beautiful River Danube…
…and finally…… THIS is the view from the apartment I have leased for a month!
Welcome to the world-famous Vienna Opera House…
…and as the sun sets, the lights come on, and it appears even more magical…
What a delightful day!
Goodnight, my Friends… Sweet dreams…
~ Bella
Until this trip, I had no idea Hungary had wineries – let alone over one hundred of them just in this region only thirty minutes from Budapest! …and if you think that is a lot, consider that once there were over 1,000 wineries in Etyek.
Crossing the beautiful River Danube once more (you will be familiar with many of these sights from my other posts)…
…and this (below) shows the statue on top of the Citadella…
…we head out of town only about thirty minutes to our first of three stops…
By the way, this bridge looks upside down, don’t you think? 🙂
…and we enter the Etyek region where grapes have been grown since Roman times.
Although the snow in Budapest melted days ago, up here there are still the remains of the major snowfall we had last week…
…and this is our first stop – and yes, it looks just like a house with a lot of vines in the back yard – primarily because that’s what it is…
…and the red-coloured building next door – another house with lots of vines in the back yard…
…but this house has been converted into a tasting area for this winery that has about three hectares of vines, if I remember correctly, that are scattered in various places through the area.
The winery is run by a husband and wife team – and they both also hold down full-time jobs – and they have a young family! She is a teacher and he sells wine-making equipment for a large company.
The wines we tasted in each of the three places were all very ‘clean’ and ‘fresh’… I guess another word that comes to mind is that most of them tasted very ‘pure’ – like mountain spring water – but with a kick! 🙂 I bought a bottle of this one to bring back with me.
Also, all the wines we tasted bar one were all blends… They were all delicious!
Oh, and our tour was conducted by City and Wine, and they could not have been more lovely. Initially, I had booked on another day but since I was the only person booked, Eszter contacted me and asked me if I would like to change to go with a group – and so I ended up with a most delightful small group consisting of Eszter, our wonderful guide, Joseph, two young men from Finland, and two young women from … the Scottish Highlands!!! Remember where I spent a glorious week or so over New Year’s in Scotland? That’s where they live! (well, not in Ardoe House, but in Aberdeen).
After a fabulous tasting – and fascinating conversation about the impact of WWII on the area, we head off…
No, it doesn’t all look like this… Little by little they are laying paved roads, etc…
…and on the way, we drive by the Korda Filmpark. Named after Sir Alexander Korda, this site is fast becoming one of the busiest film studios in the world.
Korda has one of the biggest sound-stages in the world with an area of 6,000 square metres and an interior set buildable height of 20 metres.
While (below) they may not look like much from this side, the Filmpark has ten HECTARES of backlot sets, including (thanks to Wikipedia for this next bit):
New York/Brooklyn Set
Built for Hellboy II: The Golden Army, the backlot includes a full Brooklyn street block with four-story facades on sides, a movie theater, bank, restaurant, repair shop, freight loading docks and fire escapes. The length of the main street is 120 meters which runs into 60 meter long side streets at each end. The width of the paved road is 14.5 meters, with 3-4 meter sidewalks on each side. The large backlot area makes it possible to extend the set on all sides. The street façade can be modified to suit production’s needs.
Renaissance Set
The backlot was designed by Francois Seguin & Jonathan McKinstry for The Borgias TV series . It portrays numerous regions of historical Italy, from The Vatican to Florence. The more than 1 hectare renaissance city has various styled buildings and gates, courtyards, alleys, interiors, prison cell, a piazza and Vatican façade.
Medieval Village Set
Built for the World Without End miniseries, the 12,000 square meter set is situated in a natural environment next to a lake and forest. The set portrays a village from the 13-14th century with various houses, fortress wall, central square and ambulatory. Most of the houses include interiors.
…and we continue on to collect our Finnish friends…
…who (below) have been to – you guessed it, yet another house – only this one houses one of Hungary’s most famous chocolate makers! They did a chocolate tasting… Note to Self: how on earth did I miss that one?! 🙂
…and to our next stop…
They even made freshly churned garlic butter for us… Yum!
…and note the size of this cellar – that is the entire cellar for this winery!
…and again off and on our way… although by now we were all much more jovial and strangely louder… 🙂 The Hungarians certainly believe in giving value for ‘tasting’ – make it more like ‘drinking’, since no glass was ever just poured with only a tasting-sized amount. So, now about six or seven glasses of wine later…
…we continue on…
…to our third and final winery, where we had more ‘tasting’ and a delicious dinner…
…and about twenty minutes later we are again crossing the River Danube and back to home sweet home to my magnificent hotel… which I discovered was the Nazi headquarters in Hungary during WWII.
It was a glorious afternoon – and thank you to all my new friends who made it even better!
~ Bella
Entering through these reasonably ‘normal’ looking doors of the Urania – pronounced oo-RAY-ne-yah – of this theatre / cinema, one has no idea they are actually a time machine, transplanting one back to the late nineteenth century…
…even the previews were of old movies, and of theatrical productions…
Oh, and the movie I saw was “The Shape of Water” – an astonishingly crafted piece of work!
I headed back to my lovely hotel, and was greeted by each of the staff, and even the musicians all nodded hello to me – I felt like a celebrity!
…and then discovered that the maitre’d (who reminds me of Carson in ‘Downton Abbey’) had organised the staff to move furniture for me – seriously! He had noticed that I was never truly comfortable on the chairs – and the tables with sofas were all set for multiple people. So, he arranged for a table for one to be set at a sofa – just for me!
…and in the elevator going up to my room, there was a man in the elevator with a bunch of roses – and he gave me one! He said very shyly, “your smile deserves a rose”.
I kissed him on the cheek as I exited the elevator and he blushed a bright red…
What a delightful day!
~ Bella
PS: It is Sunday as I am finishing and uploading this post, and after a big day yesterday, I decided to stay in and read, watch some documentaries on my laptop… and so ordered room service.
The man on the other end took my order and then said, “do you have any sparkling water in your room?” – turns out, they all now know I love to have sparkling water with dinner..!
“No, I don’t,” I replied laughing. “I will send you some,” responded the man on the other end of the phone.
Did I mention I love it here? 🙂
PPS: When the lovely waiter brought my lunch, he asked if I was going to be down in the restaurant later this evening. I said I wasn’t sure, and he replied that the maitre’d had asked him to inquire so that they could make sure they reserved “my table” for me…
Needless to say, I will be going downstairs later…
Bliss!
There is a first time for everything – and today was my first ‘ruin pub’ experience in Budapest, and also my first visit to the magnificently beautiful cinema here!
The day started with me going off exploring… OK, so I wasn’t able to go far, but one doesn’t need to here. There are cool venues, oddities, sculptures, almost everywhere one looks…
…and THIS, my friends, is a ‘ruin pub’…
Once the site of the Nazi Jewish ghetto, the historic Jewish Quarter of Budapest became dilapidated after WWII. Even as recently as the early 2000’s, there were still a number of abandoned buildings scattered through the district – when some enterprising people decided they would make excellent sites for bars and pubs!
…and here is where I am sooooo happy I have begin experimenting with 360-degree photos! Here is what it looks like as a flat image…
…and this is your chance to kinda-sorta see what I saw [just use your mouse/fingers to move around the 360-degree space]
Brunch of champions…
…and then off to find the cinema… and just wait until you see the cinema!!! Oh – my – goodness!!!
~ Bella
