Budapest Hungary Trip

We normally drive or fly and rent a car on all of our trips.  This time the we decided to take one of the post outdoor recreation bus trips.  It was an excellent price for a trip to Budapest Hungary. It was a 24 hour trip, we left at midnight for our 8 hour ride, the bus was so packed that we were not able to sit together on the bus. Since we rode the bus we had to walk or take the hop on-hop off tour bus around town. So Budapest is actually 2 cities divided by the Danube river, Buda on one side and Pest on the other.

Heroes Square, this site is to honor the seven chieftains of the Magyars as well as their Tomb of the unknown Soldier.

Construction on the site began in 1896 and finished in 1900

I love the antlers on the horses bridle.  We also found a Geocache on the back side of the wall that gives us 12 countries that we have found a Geocache in!

 Across the street from Heroes Square is the Museum of fine arts and Palace of Art, we didnt go into them we didnt think we would have enough time.

We went to see Vajdahunyad Castle, built 1896-1908.

There are different styles of construction within the castle area.

The castle grounds church was 

St Stephens Basilica completed in 1905

 Beautiful stained glass work

Awesome red marble and the domes and ceiling reliefs are beautiful

 The main altar is amazing

 I have said before I love pipe organs, every churches is different. 

 Nice little park that we walked through.

 We love to find local street vendor food to try.

 Raoul Wallenberg memorial bench, Raoul was instrumental in saving the lives of around 100,000 Jews in Budapest during WWII

 The hop on hop off bus stopped running at 5pm so we had to do the rest of our sightseeing on foot.  Across the river is the Buda Castle, we didnt have time to go see it.

 Matthias Church view from the river

 The Hungarian Parliament looks good at night. 

 Chain bridge built 1840-1849, The bridge was luckily spared during WWII.  We had a good time but we have decided we enjoy having our own car to be able to get where we want to go. 

Spring Break, Italy Edition.....day 8 Venice

 Venice is a beautiful place.   

 Zackary is great at adding filters to his pics they look like postcards.

 The grand canal is big and busy, there is no reason to spend loads of money on a gondola unless you just want pictures and memories of it.  It is just as easy to use the public transportation boats and travel the waterways.

 There are no shortages of gondolas and people spending loads of cash to ride them.

 It is a whole different world watching the locals travel on water and park their boats at the local docks.

 There is just a maze of waterways and narrow roads.  The Venice card is well worth the money you get public transportation, wifi, and bathroom visits.  You can also add entry to the museums and churches but we chose not to. 

 This pic that Zack took looks like a painting.

 We went to go see the area that has the Venetian glass makers and watched them hand blow some glass.  Unfortunately you can not take pictures.  The hand blown glass is amazing, super detailed and works of art. 

 There was one place we went into and they had hand blown chandeliers that where 2 stories tall hanging from the ceiling, they had a life size all colored glass trike that looked like you could start it up and drive away.

 As beautiful as this place is, to me it is a place that you go see once and then you are done.

Spring Break, Italy Edition.....day 4 Florence

Florence was our next city.  We did not get tickets ahead of time so we didn't get to see all we wanted.

 The Ponte Vecchio or "Old Bridge", crosses the Arno River.  First noted in 996 it has been destroyed and rebuilt a couple of time the last was in 1345.  

It was used by butchers and leather workers for years but the smell was so bad that it was outlawed and it has since been a place for high end gold jewelry merchants. 

Some of the gold shops on the bridge.

 We did not purchase our tickets to the Uffizi Museum ahead of time so we just walked thru the center of it.  In here there are works of art from all of the masters, Di Vinci,  Durer, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Raphael and many others. I hope to go back to see it.

 Just a few of the awesome pastries throughout Italy. 

We went to the Piazza Della Signoria to go look at a copy of Michelangelo's David since we didn't get the museum tickets in advance. 

 The fountain of Neptune (1565)

The Loggia dei Lanzi built 1382 is full of statues dating back as far as the 1500's.

The Florence Cathedral completed in 1436 it has the worlds largest brick dome ever created. 

 The green, pink and white marble really make this massive cathedral stand out.

 You can see in this picture the massive size of the cathedral.

The Dome.

 We ended our Florence trip at the Piazzale Michelangelo, this square was built in 1869 for all to enjoy the views of the city.  If you had enough money you could drive this Ferrari. I just opted to take a pic of it. 

 Awesome views of the city.

Here you can see the Cathedral in the center of the picture.

Prague, Czech Republic (czech: Praha)

This was a very busy 4 days "off", we ate Thanksgiving dinner at the on post dining facility then went to a Christmas market, Friday we went to Munich, Sat we went to Prague, Czech Republic, then Sunday we went to a couple more Christmas markets.

The Guinness book of world records lists the Prague Castle is the largest ancient castle in the world engulfing over 753,473 square feet.  The history of the castle dates back to 870AD.  No i did not forget to put a 1 in front of the date this site dates back 1143 years!!

 St Vitus Cathedral founded in 1344

Awesome Gothic construction

 Such a beautiful Church

 Compared to the churches we visited so far this one is pretty plain if you can even say this is plain.

pulpit

 The High Alter

This is the stained glass above the main entry way.

 The stained glass is beautiful

 The wall fresco's looked very old.

Although we didnt go in, this is the St George Basilica founded in 920 it is the oldest surviving church within the castle walls.

 it was pretty cold out

 Jonah and I at the old castle wall

 A view of Prague through the castle wall port hole.

A better pic of Prague from the castle grounds. You can see the Old Charles Bridge that we walked to which was our halfway point to where we had to meet the bus.

Typical street in Prague, as you can see the buildings are quite different than those in Germany

 

St Thomas' Church founded in 1228 and rebuilt in 1720, I couldnt find out much history of the church. The most detail info I found was at

 http://www.praguewelcome.cz/srv/www/en/objects/detail.x;jsessionid=75E49C248323FED3CA9FF102A129765B?id=55766

 Although the second set of doors where locked I was able to take these photos, another beautiful High Alter and domed ceiling.

 Two of the other alters.

 I could stare at these ceilings forever.

 Some of the other alters and the pulpit.

 St Nicholas' Church in Lesser town square is on of three churches in Prague named St Nicholas Church. It was completed in 1710.

The high alter with a huge dome above it. The entire church is composed of polished artificial marble.

 The ceiling fresco are awesome and hard to get  a clear pic of

They where all painted from 1753-1760 AMAZING!!

Close up of the High Alter, Kim got a weird feeling because Jesus on the Cross is dwarfed by the Bishops all around the alter

A better pic of the dome over the High Alter.

Jonah and I went up to the second floor, there was a showing of 10 pieces of artwork on display all painted from 1673-1674

 This alter was to the left of the High Alter

 The alter on the right side of the High Alter

The pipe organ above the entrance

Built in 1745-47, the main pipe organ has over 4,000 pipes, some up to 20' in length.  Mozart once played the organ during his stay in Prague as a guest of famous composer František Xaver Dušek

 The view Jonah and I had from the upper section

Another one of the ceiling fresco domes

 Powder Tower or Powder Gate is one of the original 13 city gates dating back to the 11th century

Powder Tower or Powder Gate It was used to store gunpowder during the 17th Century so hence the name.  If you look you can see men dressed in period clothing playing brass instruments for the people walking by.

The Charles Bridge crosses the Vltava River, construction started in 1357 and was completed in the early 15th century, its over 2000' long

 The Charles Bridge tower

You can read more about the history of the bridge at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge

 Prague's Astronomical clock on the old town city hall was installed in 1410!

 It is the third oldest astronomical clock in the world and the oldest that is still working.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prague_Astronomical_Clock

The back side of Old town city hall.

I hope you liked our rendition of Prague.  Let us know what you think.  Give us some suggestions on hat to see in Europe as well.