Budapest - Part I

We got to Budapest after a long and hot train ride from Zagreb, arriving about 4:30pm. The scenery from the train was mostly rural. A significant part of it went along a huge Hungarian lake - Lake Balaton. Apparently, this is the place where Hungarians go to relax in the summer. It is also an important wine region that produces good reds and whites as well.

We got to our hotel (Charles Hotel) by bus from the train station. We kept our eye out for pick-pockets having heard that they hang around the train station. But it seemed okay. Apparently, the government has improved security around the railway station.

After checking into our hotel, we decided to try out their restaurant. Per recommendations of our waiter, we had two Hungarian dishes - a Goulash and a paprika stewed veal with gnocchi. Quite tasty but a bit salty.

The following day we put our hiking shoes on and walked all around. We started out on the Buda side of the city by seeing the Buda Castle and its caves. These are a labyrinth of caves about 1200 meters long, in limestone, dating back a half million years when they were naturally created through water flows. The caves were used in medieval times to as current as in the days of the Cold War. Very cool and at times eerie, but it was nice to get cooled off from the heat outside.

That night we went to a concert by the Danube Symphony Orchestra at a beautiful Duna Concert hall. The orchestra played lively Hungarian and Romanian folk dance music and works by Haydn, Liszt, Berlioz, Brams and Strauss. One of the orchestra members played a cimbalom, a traditional Hungarian instrument that's played like a zylophone and sounds a bit like a piano. It was a really good show with some of the music definitely having that vibrant Gypsy feel to it.

Budapest has lots of bridges. One morning we started off rather late, but again we managed to do quite a bit of walking on both sides of Buda and Pest. We criss-crossed the Chain Bridge and one other one and saw the St. Stephen's Basilica, the Opera House, the Fisherrman's Bastion (a Romanesque looking castle with a great panoramic view of Pest, and other sights.

We went to a very nice wine cellar and bought two wines that are distinctly Hungarian: a white Vorcsoki Furmint and a red Egri Bikaver. We opened them that night. Both were very good. Another day we got a chance to just taste some Hungarian wines. We found a small restaurant on the Pest side, Klassz, that was willing to give us small tastes of some of Hungarian's better reds. Unfortunately, there aren't many opportunities to just sample wines of the region - usually you need to get the entire glass or bottle. But this place helped us out. At the end, the manager didn't even charge us for the tasting. We told him that he needed to develop this type venue for wine lovers.

Overall, we're really enjoying Budapest. We find the Hungarians to be very friendly and helpful. Many speak excellent English.

I'll post this as Part I - since we're staying in Budapest for five days.

Zagreb, Croatia

We arrived in Zagreb in the early evening. After finding a couple of hostels with no vacancies, we decided to check into a 3-star hotel for $110 a night - not usually our style, but it was getting late and we were tired of looking.

After getting settled in, we walked along a beautiful series of parks and buildings about one kilometer long towards the main square in town (Trg Jelacica). Past that there are dozens of outside bars and restaurants. It seems that people here really enjoy sitting at an outside cafe/bar with a beer, a coffee or what ever - often it is a couple of young women. There seem to be many more women around than men.

The following day we called a youth hostel run by an Austrian lady. It was a tram ride away from the central city, but was quiet and inexpensive.

Zagreb is full of squares, parks, historic buildings, monuments, museums and churches. Architectually, it is a beautiful city that wreaks of history. The old part of the city has a cathedral with two tall splindly spires that looks very similar to St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna. One of the more interesting places we ran into on a covered street corner had a distinct religious feel to it, with candles burning and people praying at a small prayer area - it turned out that it was a site that the Virgin Mary had been spotted. We actually met an Israely couple who are touring the world with the primary goal of visiting and documenting the sites where the Virgin Mary has been seen.

We found a wine shop that turned out to be the area's oldest wine cellar. The man running it was friendly and gave us a taste (more like two glasses) of some Malvacia produced on the Istra peninsula. Very nice, dry, good balance, with a hint of grapefruit. We ended up buying a bottle of it and a bottle of Palvec, a zinfandel clone, that we didn't get to taste. But he assured us that it was a good, full-bodied red.

The Dolac market is right in the center of town and is very colorful, with a myriad of bright red umbrellas, many varieties of fruits and cheeses and souvenier shops. One floor beneath the market contains all the meats, more cheeses and fish.

On of the more unusual places we visited was the Mirogoj Cemetary. It sort of reminded us of the Pere Lachaise Cemetary in Paris, where the likes of Chopin, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf, and Jim Morrison are burried. The entrance to the cemetary is quite grandeouse, looking more like a castle than anything else. The main mausoleum has some very ornate graves. Most of the headstones have the word Obitelj on it followed by the family name. It seemed that the word was related to "obituary". But we later found out that it is the word for "family".

This is our second time in Croatia and we have yet to make it to Dubrovnik and to Plitvice Lakes National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site. From the photos I've seen, it is full of waterfalls and turquoise lakes, many that are interconnected. I suppose we'll be saving this for the next time.

A couple of things we noticed in Zagreb is that graffiti artists have tagged every available wall in the city with the exception of some government buildings. It just seems to be an accepted form of expression. The other thing we've noticed (and not just in Croatia) is that half the people smoke. The evil tobacco companies have really done their marketing job extremely well here.

In the morning we got a tram to the train station and found our way to the train to our next stop - Budapest.

Maribor, Slovenia

We took an early morning bus out of Bled to Ljubljana and then a train to Maribor, the eastern part of Slovenia. What's nice about Slovenia is that the distances are not that great, so most train and bus rides last only one or two hours. Maribor is on the Drava River. There's nothing much special about Maribor. We came here to taste some of the wines they make in this region.

After touring the city, we opted for renting a car because there were no available winery tours. It's pretty much a do-it-on-your-own sort of a thing. In the morning we got our car and headed off to a place called Jeruzalem - these people are very religious about their wines. We drove about an hour in a pretty flat area. Then the terrain turned into lush green hills, Jeruzalem lies about 200 meters above sea level and has about 20 wineries.

After talking to a woman at a local "vinotek" (and tasting some of the area's white wines),she suggested the Puklavec guest house/farm/winery. It didn't take us long to find it. Puklavec sits on a knoll and has a 360 degree view of the valley. With fruit trees and a view of rows of grape vines, it's quite the place. Blusch, the wine maker, makes Chardonay, Muskat Otonel, Sauvignon (Blanc), Rose Modri Pinot (a wonderful rose from Pinot grapes) and a wine that is only produced here called Sipon. Sipon got its name from the days of Napoleon. As the legend goes, the wine and its grape had no name until Napoleon had a taste. After drinking it he repeatedly said "Se Bon!". So the wine makers began to call the wine Sipon (pronounced shi-pon). Another wine Blusch make is ice wine, but only if it freezes.

In the evening we had a farm-like dinner served family style. It was simple but tasted delicious. Even Diane could not resist eating some of the home-made sausage. Needless to say, the meal was acompanied by plenty of wine. After dinner, Blusch took us to his cellar where I got to taste some barrel samples. One of the wines he was aging was a Chardonay. It had a nicel crispyness to it with a touch of carmel and honey. Very tasty. He told me that he and hiis family grow about 60,000 vines on 15 hectares. From that he makes and produces about 5000 cases of wine. He figures that each vine he has produces one bottle of wine.

The following day, we got up and had a hearty breakfast and drove back to Maribor, where we got on a train to Zagreb.

Bled, Slovenia

It was about a two hour bus ride to Bled. One can't resist getting the camera out at first sight of the turquoise-colored lake. In the middle of the lake there is a small island with a very picturesque church on it and on one side, there is a dramatic view of a castle on a sheer cliff with a church by the lake. It's really a fairy tale setting. After a little search, we found our hotel - the Mayor Pension.

When we got to Bled, fortunately the weather began to clear a bit. The jagged peaks of the Julian Alps (named after Julius Cesaer) became more visible. We spent one day hiking around the lake, renting a row boat and rowing out to the island church in the lake, and hiking up to the castle that dates back a thousand years. The next day we took a bus to Bohinj and its lake. We then hiked to Savica waterfall, a splendid sight (the name for waterfall here is "slap"). It's a dramatic sight because the water rushes out of the middle part of the sheer granite cliff falling several hundred feet. On the way back, I noticed some interesting sail boats that looked like miniture versions of 12 meter racing boats. There looked about two meters.

At night after dinner at a more upscale "gostilna", we stopped at a vinoteka where were able to taste Slovenian wines. We met the owner and some really nice Slovenian wine affecianados and ended up spending far more time there than we had anticipated. It didn't make it easier to get up the following day when we were taking the bus to the eastern part of Slovenia.

With its fairy tale setting, Bled appears to be a popular spot for weddings. During our short stay, there was one wedding at the island church and another one at the casle. I believe both involved Americans.

Some comments about Slovenia - we find it to be a very clean country, with not much litter (not even cigarette butts in spite of a number of smokers). We drink the tap water right out the tap everywhere. It tastes great. Public transportation is efficiently run, well organized and not expensive. Slovenian people are very friendly and helpful. Most speak reasonably good English (thank goodness, because their language doesn't come easy to us). We are lucky in that there are not that many tourists here. From what we've been told, that's partly due to the cold and cloudy weather and due to the economy around the world. Of the wines we have tasted the white wines fare better then the reds. The only reds we have liked are from the western region near the Italian border.

We have now arrived in the eastern part of Slovenia, known for its excellent white wines. We are staying in the city of Maribore, will rent a car and tour some of the wineries. Ciao.

Bernau, Germany to Lubljana, Slovenia

We took an early morning train from the Prien station, near Bernau. Our first stop was Salzburg, Austria. The train then headed onward past idealic Alpine mountain villages in the Austrian Alps, along emerald green rivers and waterfalls, verdant meadows and other villages, some that were in the clouds. Truly quite spectacular. We both got a little sleepy but I tried to not shut my eyes not wanting to miss any of the grand scenery. At one point, a number of passengers got off. It was at Bad Hofgastein, which looked like a ski village (sans snow). We changed trains near the Slovenian border at Villach.

We arrived in Lubljana in the pouring rain. Diane waited at a bus stop with our baggage while I checked a few places for rooms. They were booked. We ended up finding a nice youth hostel (H2Ostel) right along the Lubljanica River, very near the old city center. Lubljana sits on a site that has been inhabited since the Celts and the Romans. There are beautiful bridges along the Ljubljanica River. One of the bridges is the Triple Bridge, or Tromostovje, that consists of a main bridge and two parallel bridges originally intended for pedestrians. There's also the Shoemakers' Bridge that once was a gathering place for the city's cobblers. Very noticible is all the construction that's going on and the beautification projects. You really get the feel that this city is on the upswing in trying to attract tourists and their money.

In the morning we took the funnicula up to the castle. It was a scenic ride up but the castle itself was not much since they mostly they are busy restoring it. There are lots of sidewalk cafes along the river, ice cream venodors, bars, restaurants and shops. We noticed that at 5-6pm, they are all pretty much empty. But by 8pm things start picking up. Here, people only start going out later in the evening, much like in Italy or Spain.

We booked a tour for Thursday to the Adriatic port town of Piran, which included a visit to a castle and a cave. Our tour guide was Sabina, a young Slovenian woman who spoke good English with an easy going personality. We were picked up with a large van - a total of five of us. Good group. Our first stop was the 700 year old Predjamski castle. It is a dramatic castle shoe-horned into a limestone cave. The story goes that the man who built, Erasmus Leuger, stabbed a relative of the emperor. He then fled and along the way started robbing many of the wealthy. At that point, the emperor (one of the Habsburg's) got the governor of Trieste to have him arrested. It took a year to capture him because the castle was pretty secure. But the job was finally done when they were able to cannonball Erasmus as he was sitting on the toilet. As always, a servent had betrayed the master.

Our next stop was the Skocjanske Jame (Caves). After we started going into the cave, it looked like some of the others we had seen with the typical limestone columns of stalegtities and stalegmites. But after we entered the second large chamber we started hearing the roar of water. It was an underground river. At first we saw a bit of the river from afar. But a few minutes later, the roaring river in this cavernous space was fully evident. It was a Lord of the Rings setting. We walked on a bridge and looked nearly 500 feet below to the roaring river. Our guide told us that the river entered the cave just up ahead and went underground all the way through Croatia and part of Italy to dump into the Adriatic Sea about 75 miles from where we stood.

After coming out of the cave, we had to walk quite a ways back up. But the views continued to be spectacular. It was an awesome experience, comparable to that of the Grand Canyon.

On our way to Piran, our tour guide told us that the road we were on was once known as the Amber Road. It was built by the Romans almost 2000 years ago. Before that, this area was occupied by the Celtic tribes.

Piran was a typical Italian or French quaint Mediteranean harbor town. Very charming. Diane and I walked all through the small cobble stone streets and ended up at the church of St. Georg, which had a panaromic view of the entire harbor area. After a bit more walking, we finished our tour at a local pub, sitting down with a glass of the local red wine, Refosk.

Earlier on we had tried Terano, which is the same grape that's used to make the Refosk, but is grown in a red clay soil about 30 miles north east. The Refosk tasted a little fruitier with more body and structure, which may be because of the warmer climate. I did enjoy the Refosk more. Undoubtedly this will require more research.

Tomorrow we're off to the town of Bled. It has a story book castle on an island in the middle of a lake. Stand-by.

Germany, Austria and Slovakia

Per plan, Erika was there to meet us for the drive to Bernau. After our traditional walk at the Chimsee Lake and a day of rest, the three of us were on our way to Vienna. Our first stop in Austria was Spitz, a smal town along the Danube River. We found a small winery and tasted nice white wines (Gruner Veltliner, Weissen Burgunder and Riesling). We also tasted a light red wine called Zweigeld. We stayed in a small Gast Hause (guest house) near the winery. After getting settled, we went for a walk to the ruins of a castle that dates back to the 1200 and overlooks the Danube. Quite spectacular.

The next day, we back-tracked a few miles to cross the Danube to the Melker Stift. It is a huge monastary built in the 12th century that rooted its teachings St. Benedict and was later turned into a monestary and a school (which is still is today). After the visit we continued on the Danube wine trail and spent the night at another guest house in Weissenkirchen in Wachau. Our room had a panoramic view of the area and of the Danube.

When you meet an Austrian, he or she will typically greet you with a "Gruss Gott", which means Greet God. I started saying it too but got some interesting looks when a couple of times I mixed up the main vowels and said "Gross Gut". I tried. Diane just said "hello."

Vienna is a cosmopolitan city with wide boulevards, beautiful parks and lots of coffee houses. It's the home of Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, Wagner, the Waltz and of course Apfel Strudel. The ubiquitous coffee houses are viewed as an extention of the Viennese living room. Vienna dates back to the Celtics and the Roman Empire. But most of today's beautiful architecture is due to the the Hapsburgs and others who ruled the area for latter centuries.

Some interesting facts we learned: Beethoven lived at eighty different addresses, mostly because he liked to play piano until late at night and he often didn't pay his rent. Napoleon occupied Vienna twice before being exiled to Elba. He married the daughter of the Austrian emperor and she bore him a son who the Viennese were very proud of. Unfortunately he died from a lung disease at twenty-one. The Danube is very important in this region because it was strategic in trade and transportation between the West and the East. It also marked the bounderies between countries. Vienna is the home of Freud and psycho-analysis. Freud's couch, however, now resides in London. Vienna is the only European capital that grows grapes and makes red and white wine. The Third Man, with Orson Wells was filmed here, part of the scenes being filmed at the ferris wheel.

One of the more impressive palaces we saw was the Schonbrunn Palace, the home of Emperor Franz Joseph and his wife Maria Theresa. Both were interesting people in that he considered himself to be the people's public servant and worked tirelessly towards that goal. She in her independent approach to her position as a dutches. Together they had 16 children, in which the daughters were always married off to build strategic relationships between countries.

After Vienna, we went to Bratislava (Slovakia) for the day. Also on the Danube, Bratislavia is the capital. We only went to the old city - nice, compact with a lot of charm, but nothing out of the ordinary. After seeing so many charming towns, one can get dispassionate to the sight of yet another cute town square, a majectic castle, a beautiful cathedral or yet another ornate "rathause" (city hall).

Tomorrow we are taking the train to see some of the countryside of Slovania, ending up in its capital of Ljubljana.

The Netherlands

Diane and I flew to the Netherlands separately, she from California and I from South Carolina. We met at the Central Train Station in Den Haag. We each had a walkie-talkie, that we used to find each other.

Den Haag is a comfortable city. It's easy to get around and we know it well. We stayed at the Centrum B&B, a short walk from the train station - nothing fancy but very convenient. We toured the city center, took the tram to the Schevenigen boardwalk and enjoyed a fresh herring at the harbor (downing it with a Heineken). On our second day we met with my Dutch cousin, Anke, walked the Den Haag Woods to her apartment and had a traditional "rijsttafel" dinner together near Anke's home. Unfortunately, we didn't abide by the saying that you don't eat Indonesian food at a Chinese restaurant (and visa-versa). At best, I would say that dinner was mediocre and lacked Indonesian authenticity. Live and learn.

In Amsterdam we stayed with our friends Maria and Maarten. Together we went into Amsterdam to the Rembrandt Museum's exposition of Jan Lievens, a friend and colleague of Rembrandt. Afterwards, our friends' son, Geert, picked us up in his small steel-hulled skiff to cruise the Amsterdam canals. We stopped along the way and stocked up on Heinekens and chips. A perfect way to spend an afternoon in Amsterdam. After the canal cruise we had a fabulous and more traditional Indonesian "rijsttafel" at the Blau restaurant. There must have been twenty or so dishes, each with a unique flavor. We devoured the entire meal as if we hadn't eaten in a week. Afterwards we met up with Geert and Fanilla for an after-dinner drink at their home. All-in-all, a nice way to conclude our visit to Amsterdam.

The following day Maria and Maarten were kind enough to drop us off at Schiphol for our flight to Munich.