What's Next

Well, our "big" travel has come to an end for a little while, we need to save up some time and money, but you never know what might pop up, we hadn't planned on either the Netherlands or Eastern Europe trip this year! But we do have some big plans in the distance.

2010 - Total solar eclipse, Tahiti
2013 - Kilimanjaro climb, Tanzania

And Finally, Vienna

From the stunning carved pulpit at St. Stephen's cathedral to the Globe Museum, Vienna was stunning. But even with all of the dedication to arts and music, we couldn't resist the humor of the Opera Toilet...

Last night in Budapest...

We had a great trip with Cat and Ruth and look forward to traveling to our next destination with them...and anyone else who wants to join us! Where to next?! Romania? Uganda? Guatemala? The world's out there...

Opera...

See...we really were there!!

Center stage...
The Royal box...Ruth couldn't work her magic for those tickets sadly!

Photos...finally!

Freaky kid in the subway museum...
The future of our army...a little bit scary!
Make love, not war...
We love giant lions!
So here's what I'm gonna need you to do...look out below!

Home again.... for now

After long days of travel that included one train, 3 airplanes (5 for Ruthie) and 4 countries, everyone is finally back in their respective homes. For those keeping track, it was a Fokker 100 PRG-AMS, 777-200 AMS-DTW, A319 DTW-DFW and assorted 737's to get Ruth to FLL. Even my luggage finally arrived about an hour ago. So it's laundry and a repack for a quick trip to DC tomorrow.
Our trip was fabulous in every way. It was great to share such good times with Jon and Karen. Oh, almost forgot the Opera. We lasted 4.5 of the five hours. Considering it was in German with Hungarian surtitles, I think we did pretty well. I have to confess, I was ready after Act I. By the first intermission, I had no idea what I had just watched. Sparse scenery and very little action left us with few clues. But Act II picked up quite a bit. A lot more action made it much more interesting. Act III was much like Act I. By then we had been moved to box seats so we enjoyed watching from a new perspective.
No big plans on the books right now, but then we didn't actually plan Holland or Eastern Europe so you never know what might come next.
For my friend Mike with the airplane food fetish...



From the Butterfly House in Vienna. Butterflies by the way are challenging subjects.

I am pretty sure this was from St. Stephen's Basilica in Budapest.

My goal is to get photos organized into a Picasa album that I will be happy to share with anyone interested. It's a long term goal.

AMS-DTW

We had a fantastic overnight train from Vienna to Prague. For those of you that have heard the warnings, we were not gassed and robbed. Our cab driver was waiting at the train station with a sign for us at 620 am and whisked us to the airport. We are in AMS now waiting for our connection to DTW before returning to Dallas. I am posting from my phone, so no pics until we get back (unless Jon and Karen hook us up).

So what I'm gonna need you to do...

Well, we are back from a fantastic whorl-wind tour of Budapest with Cat and Ruth. Unfortunately, coming home means going back to work and the real world. As I write this, the card reader is busily downloading the photos, so will post some additions soon.

The trip was great as was the company - thanks to the sisters for inviting us along.

I've been doing some research on some questions that came up along the way - those will be posted soon as well. Ruth, I think your gnat estimates were very high...

More to come.
Cheers and safe travels home to Ruth and Cat.

It isn't all Opera and Mozart

Our first day in Vienna has been great.  We took a walk around the city and saw many beautiful things, then we went out to the Prater in the evening.  It is an amusement area built 100 or so years ago with the world's biggest ferris wheel (at the time).  It was one of the first things, along with the Cathedral and Parliament, to be rebuilt after the war. Unfortunately, my night picture of it didn't turn out well, so I posted one of the newer, smaller, but better lit one.  

The movie at the end is a ride I am pretty sure we don't have in the US, since there are no seat belts, rules and it appeared that jumping and dancing were encouraged with no fear of lawsuits. 

Budapest, day two

Well, we haven't had nearly as much time as we thought to keep the blog up, we have had a jammed packed schedule.  I will try and tell you about everything later, but I want to get pictures up, too. First of all, this is a beautiful city.  I may not have mentioned it, but both of out grandparents on my father's side were born in Budapest (at least that is what my grandmother told me).  So this place has a very familial feel.  It is stunningly beautiful city, with so much to see.  Our friends, Jon and Karen have been fantastic.  I will post a bunch of pictures in a minute and leave you with one good story.  

We were all looking forward to the Opera. Budapest has one of the most beautiful opera houses in the world.  The only down side is that the opera playing, was 5 hours long!  We had a brilliant plan to stay for one or two acts, then go to dinner (especially since the 5 hour opera was sung in German with surtitles in Hungarian).  After the second act, we took a little "unofficial" tour of the boxes during intermission. One of the ushers caught us checking out the fancy boxes, and insisted that we watch the opera from there.  It was pretty cool, we could see into the orchestra pit and it was a fantastic view of the opera house.  Karen will post pictures soon.

budapest

We are here... and it is great to see Ruth and Cat. We had a lovely cheese sandwich lunch, a boat cruise on the Danube, walked the main pedestrian street called Vaci Utca, and then had a traditional Hungarian dinner.... off to bed for an early start. Oh, and gelato is a very very good thing.
Ruth is on a mission for another good cheese sandwich for the trip. Cat and Jon are taking lots of photos and will have some to share soon.
More later.
Karen

So the adventure has begun.  Actually we are about two days in.  Ruthie and I left DFW Wednesday afternoon at 1500 and enjoyed a lovely flight to AMS (A320 for those interested in such things) where we enjoyed a less lovely 5 hour layover and finally arrived PRG (Fokker 100) around 1500. 

We have been walking for a day and a half, summitted several bell towers and climbed the long staircase to Prague Castle.  We have seen the famous astronomical clock, Old Town, New Town, the Old New Synagogue built in the 13^th century and the Dancing Building.  We have crossed St. Charles Bridge and enjoyed a Pilsner Urquell brewed right here in the Czech Republic. 

We were conducting our own early morning self guided tour of Prague Castle before it opened to the public when a Security guard, probably intending to toss us out, gave up when he realized that we could not understand a word he said, and started showing us around instead.  It was the best grunting and pointing tour we had all day.  It was not until later that we realized you needed tickets for that part of the castle.  But we have been operating on the “the door’s open and no one has stopped us” plan.   So far we have not been successfully tossed out, arrested, ticketed or fined.

The weather has been cool but not cold and quite overcast.  We had rain this morning but fortunately it stopped before we were ready to head out bright and early.

We are now on the train heading south for Budapest.  We have left the Prague Station and will be 9 hours in a sleeper car on the overnight train.  Since we have been up since 4 this morning, I anticipate we will be sleeping soundly before long.

Jon and Karen will be meeting us tomorrow.  We haven’t seen Karen since Vegas and Jon since Antarctica so it will be great to spend the next few days with them.

What Jon doesn't know.....

Fear not my friend, you will be put to work. Not only are we expecting contributions of your usual fine work, but thanks to Dr. Chuck, I will be shooting Canon products this trip. So you can add a little instruction to your list of duties.
Thanks for your early post. You know well how we enjoy our contributing bloggers.
Oh, and by the way, it's been all Karen and Ruth. Can't say I've made any significant (or otherwise) contributions to the effort so far either. So it looks like you and me taking pics (and perhaps squeezing in a beverage or two) while Karen and Ruth boss us around.
BTW, I know of only one surprise for you and I can assure you most of the ugly has already been addressed. So rest easy my friend. Although you will not have the votes to override any veto, I think you are in good hands.
See you in Budapest! You're right that is fun to say.

Along for the ride...

Everyone else seems to have a job on this upcoming trip (for Karen and me just the Budapest leg) except for me...so I figure I'd just add my two cents here! All the hard work has been done by Ruth and Cat and Karen. I'm a little nervous about some of the surprise events being planned though...

Hopefully, at least, should be able to contribute some photos along the way - even if they are shot with my Canon. I know there are all sorts of Nikonites floating around this blog.

-Jon

How spoiled am I?

Truth be told... very. Don't let Ruth fool you. She may not claim logistics as her thing, but she has so far managed to book all our travel including several train trips through three countries and tickets to a German opera at a Hungarian venue with intermission at an Indian restaurant. Add Karen's impressive talent and our Budapest leg is shaping up very nicely. I wonder if we could talk Karen into planning Prague, Vienna and Bratislava.......

Time to get ready

Well, the trip to Eastern Europe is right around the corner.  Cat is in charge of all of the pictures since she demonstrated such raw talent in the Netherlands.  Once again she will be shooting with the Nikon D80, but the D90 just came out and it is very tempting for a girl like me.  I get to be in charge of logistics, which isn't my favorite job but I have a bonus this time.  Our friends from Antarctica are joining us for part of the trip and Karen is all about the logistics.  She already found our river tour through Budapest! So here is the itinerary:

Day 1 - arrive Prague early afternoon, tour city.  The one thing at the top of my list is the Astronomical Clock.  We have a just a day and a half in the city so we will have to cram a lot in.

Day 2 - all day in Prague then an overnight train to Budapest

Day 3 - meet up with Jon and Karen, river tour, city sightseeing.

Day 4 and 5 - Budapest

Day 6 - train to Vienna, more sightseeing

Day 7 - visit Bratislava (unless we cannot tear ourselves from Vienna), overnight train to Prague

Day 8 - home. 

We are trying to get to four countries in eight (really seven) days, but it may prove too lofty a goal since I like to stop at every historical thing along the way and these are some of the most amazing cities in the world.  We may have to save Slovakia for another day.  

We should have internet access the whole time so expect daily, albeit exhausted, blogs.

Since we've been gone...

Since returning from our Netherlands adventure, some of the girls and I surprised Ruth in Ft. Lauderdale for her birthday, we dragged Kris to Vegas, I made a quick trip to Colorado and Ruth and I visited best friend Gail in Baltimore then on to NY to see Mel and some of the Holland chicks. So there, now you're up to speed.
Next week I am going to Ft. Lauderdale to visit Ruthie and hopefully celebrate some very big news (more on that when it's official).
Now we are busy planning our next big adventure. Eastern Europe! Ruth and I are planning an October visit to Prague, Budapest, Vienna and Bratislava. We are so excited our Antartcia friends Jon and Karen will be joining us for the Budapest portion of the trip.
So check back, we'll keep you posted!

Queensday!! - Everyone in Holland was doing that!

Greetings from NY. The girls have asked me to blog to you and add a video about Queensday. I have finally recovered enough from this trip to find the time and have the energy!

Here are two videos from the day. This one is all of us hanging out Haarlem before we made out way in to Amsterdam for the true party! NOBODY IS DOING THAT!


This next one shows the boats on the canals. We stood on the Prinsengracht (Prince's Canal) which is the fourth and the longest of the main canals in Amsterdam. After being there for about an hour we realized we were standing right in front of Anne Frank's house.




Thanks it for now from this guest blogger. More when I edit through all of my thousand images and find some great pictures of the sisters...here is one made at the top of close to 400 winding steps!

Excuses, excuses

Just home and trying to catch up. The trip was fantastic but the schedule was a bit grueling. Up between 0430 and 0600 each morning and finally back to bed between 0100 and 0300 each day. If you do the math, you will see we are suffering from some pretty steep sleep deprivation. Going to work on that by calling an early night tonight, so once again, the update will be pushed back a bit. But here's a few pics..

pictures