Category: 2Cs OverCs

Wednesday 1 May 2024

We leave Hungary and head for Turkey. Not with any Greece.

We arrive in Istanbul

It’s May Day. Labour Day. There are 250,000 people marching, against Erogan’s decree not to march. The entire city is locked down and barricaded off. We are met at the airport by a car, and the driver warns us that the usual 30 minute trip will take longer and that he will take a most circuitous route in order to get round the demonstration, which was extremely widespread. These photos were taken from the car

Indeed it was a slow trip. It took us 2 hours to get to the hotel, and even then it wasn’t actually the hotel. Our driver finally took a one way narrow street the wrong way, up a very steep hill, and stopped at the barricade. He then made a phone call and opened the doors. He removed our suitcases and the barricade was opened for us. A pair of porters (is that a trunk of porters?) met us and escorted us across a deserted highway, into the staff entrance of the hotel, through a maze of corridors, up a service lift, down a corridor, up another service lift and voila (as they don’t say in Turkey) we were in the lobby. It’s now nearly 8pm and I am whacked. Straight to bed for me. She turns on CNN and discovers that there have been 257 arrests in Istanbul.

Here’s a photo from our hotel room. This is the street we crossed to access the staff entrance, and the next morning when all demonstrations are forgotten

Thursday 2 May 2024

Neither of us are feeling good today, and we cancel our tours. I spend the day in bed. Cherrie walks up to the Pera Museum, which she finds interesting

The Galata Tower was on our list to see but it is closed for renovation. Looks like lots of stairs to me, so a good thing.

On the way back Cherrie indulges in coffee and a sandwich

What a city of contrasts

She delivers me a curious salad croissant, complete with microwaved lettuce, and she has also visited a pharmacy to stock up on potions for both of us.

What a sad sack of a day in Istanbul. Oh, and it’s still raining.

Friday 3 May 2024

Today we cram as much as we can, but it’s not enough. First to the Palace area where we visit St Sophia’s Mosque (Sophia is not a woman. Of course she’s not. Sofia is a term for something. We’re only half functioning and so cannot complete this explanation)

Wonderful trees outside the Palace

Speaking of the Palace

A nice view of the Bosphorus from the Sultan’s terrace

Did I mention the cats?

We are both tiring, and so a quick visit to the Grand Bazaar before returning to the hotel

Will these bugs ever leave us we wonder? At least we’re losing weight. Oh, and it’s raining.

Saturday 4 May 2024

A quick run around the Blue Mosque

Before the full treatment at the Turkish Bath. How I wish Cherrie had had a camera with her. Actually, reject that thought. We are starkers, all modesty scrubbed away. Covered in very expensive mud of some sort, we are seated opposite each other on low marble benches and next to a marble basin which continually runs water. Not recycled I pray. It has already taken both attendants, hers and mine, to extricate me from the bench to an upright position once and here they are about to have another go. But this time, all that is achieved is my projecting across the marble floor on my large and very slippery bum. Laughter all round. In a military operation of kinds (Tim, Derek, remember) I am upright at last. We exit the Haman two hours after entering. We are the only ones shining. It’s still raining. But it was a memorable, and wonderful, experience.

At midday we board a boat for a two hour cruise of the Bosphorus. My knowledge of world geography is surpassed only by my knowledge of quantum physics. I did not know that Turkey is surrounded by three seas. The Black, Aegean and Mediterranean. Nor, that Turkey occupies two continents. Even Istanbul sits in both Europe and Asia. It is the Bosphorus Strait that separates them.

The rain has stopped and the sun comes out for a brief moment

We sailed with dolphins

That sun was fleeting

Cherrie takes the wheel

To get a closer look at Popeye. Olive Oil and SweetPea were below deck, making spinach pie

Curious pruning

At 2pm we are all boated and washed out.

Back to bed, but we do rise for a stroll to dinner. We have difficulty finding food that appears appetising to us, but needs must. How else will we keep our figures? The crowds of Istanbul are out and about

In bed before 8pm. At the end of our trip we have one more day in Istanbul before flying home. May we please be feeling better by then, so that we can experience this city with all faculties in working order

Sunday 5 May 2024

It takes 20 minutes to get to the airport on this sunny Sunday morning. We arrive at 11.20am for a 1.30pm flight. And just as well, too. So many people, so much confusion. There is a queue for the wheelchairs, so I walk to the gate. It’s a distance but we take our time and arrive to another very long queue. A very nice wheelchair man, as it were, spots me, and in an instant I am sitting at the head of the queue, with my carer close behind.

The sun is shining into the plane. We’ve now seen Turkish sun.

We were booked to do a balloon flight over Cappadocia at 5.30am tomorrow. But we are in agreement that such an early start, in what will be very cold temperatures, is not good for our health, so we have cancelled.

Saturday 27, Sunday 28, Monday 29, Tuesday 30 April 2024

Roger is waiting for us on the pavement when our taxi pulls up from the boat on Saturday morning. He lives on the Champs Elysees of Budapest, a short stroll from the Opera House. His apartment is superb, and of course beautifully designed by this world admired, Tony Award winning designer.

The weather is just glorious and we waste no time getting out and about. Roger takes us on the underground train to a square and then leaves us to our own devices. The underground here is the second oldest in the world, next only to London, and the wonderful thing is that all public transport is free for people over 65. Just carry ID to prove date of birth and you can move around the city freely, literally. Both Cherrie and I are insulted when we are not asked for our ID.

First stop, first of many beautiful wide open spaces, is Heroes Square, with the National Gallery to one side

We determine to return here to the Gallery either on Tuesday and walk over to the adjoining City Park

Which is seething with families and frivolity. This fellow was playing I’d Rather Have a Hammer Than a Nail. Of course he was

And then found ourselves in the middle of an enormous fete, or fair. Not sure the difference. Let’s call it the Fair of Disaster Management

Uncharacteristically, we managed to get through without a disaster, and found the Museum of Ethnography

An amazing building which curves out of the ground. We climbed to the top

And admired the views

We walked back to Roger’s, admiring the amazing architecture of this beautiful city

Roger had made a dinner booking at a local restaurant and we enjoyed shared plates and a lovely local wine. Followed by a cocktail opposite the Opera House

On Sunday we headed off early to explore the local area.

All the buildings in this beautiful city are spectacular

Just like my mother, I’ll chat to anyone who’ll listen

And as we walked past the theatre, renowned for Shakespeare, we found this statue. The photos are not as clear as I’d like, but the skull is holding the head. Alas poor Hamlet, I knew him

There are lots of statues in this beautiful city

Today we take Roger to lunch by the Danube. Both Cherrie and I feel we are coming down with colds, so rather than the long post lunch walk we had planned, we return to the apartment to rest.

That part of the blog was written on Sunday. Since then I have developed bronchitis and Cherrie a razor blade throat. We did half a day on Monday, I was in bed all day Tuesday and on Wednesday we flew to Istanbul, where we have rested far too much. Still not great, but soldiering on. Fortunately, I had bought antibiotics with me.

Here follow photos of Budapest. No commentary, sorry.

The only real explanation need to be the bathroom atomiser. Back in the ‘90s Roger designed sets and costumes for a wonderful Australian musical by the late, great Nick Enright and Terence Clarke called SUMMER RAIN.

We did fit in a tour of the splendid Opera House

We flew out of Budapest on Wednesday morning. But, we’ll be back. We missed too much and there is so much to see. And our world renowned, Tony Award winning, designer friend says we are welcome!

Next stop, Istanbul

Friday 26 April 2024

We pulled into Budapest at 10 last night

And this morning it’s the same, without the lights

What a city to end the cruise in. We have one more night on board before we go to stay with Roger Kirk in his Budapest abode. Included in our cruise is a “Panoramic Tour of Budapest”, still with walkie non talk, and we are excited to see what is clearly a very beautiful city

There’s much building work happening, still catching up from the Communist regime

We head up to the Castle, which is a good idea obviously because a few others are there before us

Who do you think the castle belonged to? Well, Marie Theresa of course. She clearly needed a castle or palace for each of her 16 children

The hordes had invaded the Church

We escaped as quickly as we could and sought the views. A little bird told us where to go, as it were

For the views

And so we did

Others found a cosy coffee spot

And I found the Dunce’s caps

We returned to the boat for lunch

And then immediately headed out on foot to find a memorial we had seen from the bus. I shall translate this plaque below for the ease of my reader. TO THE MEMORY OF THE VICTIMS SHOT INTO THE DANUBE BY ARROW CROSS MILITIA MEN IN 1944-45. ERECTED 16TH APRIL 2005

Clearly very moving.

Back on board, we pack and head up to the final dinner, which can’t start until the verbose ‘Hotel Manager’ makes a speech, a long one, which includes him singing “My Way” with frightfully clever new lyrics. You can imagine how much we loved that. But then we had to listen to the Captain talking about how we were the most amazing group of passengers they’d ever had on board and how they long to see us back on board very soon.

Out of our cabin at 8am tomorrow, and off to meet Roger. Budapest has already stolen our hearts.

Thursday 25 April 2024

It’s glorious today. The sun shines and the weather warms. We give a thought to the ANZACs, and as we make our way down the river we see blue sky

We docked in Bratislava early this morning. Bratislava is the capital of Slovakia and is quite delightful.

They say that the locals bathe in beer but we have yet to see any evidence of that. They are hard workers though

We follow the Coronation path, which is marked in brass crowns set into the pavement

Following a coronation, in this Cathedral

the Monarch would walk down this route to be adored by the crowds

Some had to be assisted

We are relieved that we don’t have to order food here because our Slav is a bit rusty

And we would have had to order from this

We made time for a coffee

But not an electric one

Before reboarding the boat, we headed to the Art Gallery, which opened at 10am

Except on a Thursday. When it opens at 12. Our boat departs at 11.30!

But at least we saw that many hands make light work

Proceeding down the Danube, we pass through the largest of all the lochs. It was a 30m drop

We sail for the rest of the day and see the occasional castle, as you do

Budapest tonight

Wednesday 24 April 2024

As we approach Vienna, we spot the tallest building in town

To whom do you think it belongs?

It’s cold and it’s wet. This is no way to see Vienna. But we head off on our walking tour anyway

Vienna does not feel like the City of Music today.

We wonder if this had anything to do with Mozart’s erratic behaviour

We admire Marie Theresa, Queen of the Habsburg for 40 years from 1740. The only female ruler, but I think the real reason she is on a pedestal is because she had 16 children.

It’s not easy to see the sights of what is clearly a beautiful city in these conditions. But our tour guide understands that. So she takes us to the shopping centre.

We divert

And take ourselves off on a non talkie, non shoppy self tour.

We find a flower stall

And the Opera House

Traffic appears to be a problem to some

We have noticed graffiti everywhere we have been in Europe and the Viennese have allocated this section of wall for graffiti so that they are not tempted to deface old buildings

Apparently there is enough confusion to warrant this

We are in Vienna, and so we feel it obligatory to have a coffee and cake. We resist these

And settle for a Sachertorte. Delicious

This afternoon Cherrie heads off on an excursion to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsburg rulers for generations. Ironically, ‘Schonbrunn’ means ‘beautiful spring’. Lost in translation today.

Cherrie particularly wanted to see the gardens

but she was not allowed to go alone so she had to spend more time in the Palace than she would have liked, and less in the gardens. She took this from inside the Palace, but alas no time to get there

But, she did get to a little section of the gardens. This photo shows the front of the Linden tree hedging and the reverse side showing the huge trunks

Some are clearly allowed access, just not Cherrie

And so our time in Vienna has come to a soggy end. This is a wealthy city and back on board our onboard entertainment director tells us about a man who went into a bank with a very large bag. He goes over to the teller and whispers “I’ve got a million euros in cash in this bag”. The teller replies “No need to whisper sir. Poverty is nothing to be ashamed of”