Mike and I got back a week ago from an eastern European extravaganza. We started our trip by staying a night in New York. It was so much fun to be back in the city and walking around. The weather was perfect and I was so excited to be there. We(Mike) had cheesecake at Carnegie Deli, we ate lunch at Patsy's(my fav!) and walked all over midtown and the upper west side. It made me miss the city.
The next day, we were off to Budapest. What an amazing city. We were staying in the castle district and had an amazing view of the Parliament building. Budapest has, until fairly recently, been under communist rule and that was evident in the way the city looked. There were all of the old historic buildings and churches and the newer communist era buildings that look more like government housing projects surrounding them. We visited churches, museums, cafes, a Jewish cemetery and the Jewish ghetto used during WWII.
After a few days, we drove up to Vienna. Vienna is more like Paris in terms of how it looks. I loved all the old buildings and castles. We toured the summer and winter palaces of the Hapsburgs and they lived it up. These places were amazing. I loved the grounds of the summer palace. There were trails where you could walk or run for miles. Vienna had a lot of neat museums and FANTASTIC strudel and croissants. I don't even like croissants that much, but these were unbelievable. I could eat ten a day. We even took part in a Milk protest. Apparently the farmers want more money for milk. They were handing it out with yougart and Mike was in heaven. Mike also enjoyed talking in his German accent, and talked frequently about Puten Schnitzel(sp?), which is some kind of Turkey something.
The next stop was Salzburg. Holy Cow, that is a beautiful city. We went on the Sound of Music tour, where they take you to the different places where they filmed and tell you about the real story of Maria and the Captain. We even got to sing along to some tunes from the movie. This was definitely Mikes favorite part!! I was actually a little worried that he would hate it and be cursing me for making him go, but I think he enjoyed the scenery and was glad there was only minimal sing along time.
Once we left beautiful Salzburg, we drove to Cesky Krumlov an old castle town in the Czech Republic. It is this old castle built on top of a hill and the smaller homes that surround the main castle building, but still within the castle grounds. It was very quaint and there was lots to see. We only spent an afternoon here as we were excited to get to Prague.
I have been wanting to go to Prague forever. The old town takes your breath away. They have buildings there built hundreds of years before America was even discovered. There is this cathedral inside the old Prague castle that might be the most spectacular church I've ever seen. It looks a little like Notre Dame, but not as clean. I loved walking around the city and across the many bridges.
This was an amazing trip. We had a great time and would not have been able to do it all if not for Yasmine (our GPS). I named her. She was apart of the family by the end of our trip and I was sorry to return her to the car rental people.
