Budapest

At last we arrived in beautiful Budapest and it certainly lived up to its reputation.

As it was Sunday there was free parking available in the city centre - fantastic - where else in the world would you get that, and the Chain Bridge was closed to traffic but was open as a market, where they were selling amongst other things sweet bread on a roll - very tasty.

We checked out the Cathedral - absolutely magnificent.

We stopped overnight in Budapest - so next day we went on a boat trip on the Danube, fortunately and unfortunately the Red Bull air display was on so we got great views from the river of the planes but the boat could not go up river as the planes were flying under the Chain Bridge.

In the afternoon we went up the funicular railway and checked out the Fisherman's Bastion and the Royal Palace - which is used as a museum of art.

Definitely a place to go back to.

KOSICE

This was one of those rare rainy days - though it was still warm.

Here you can see some of their sites including the best ever fountain display I have seen.


Here Suri is in the underground archaeological excavation site right in the centre of the town.

This is the Plague Column built in 1723 to remember the plague that went through the town at that time.


This is a dragon sculpture, where the stream disappears under the street.



And of course our usual coffee and cake - this time it was Chinese style apple fritters - mmm.

After Poland we headed into Slovakia, it was not easy to find, as the road signs just disappeared but we persevered and ended up in a lovely town called Bardajov.

This was a very quiet town which had a lovely old square with an impressive church and old town hall, here you can see Suri next to some old bells just outside the church.

I climbed to the top of the church bell tower for a great view.

Nearby was a particularly beautiful church, which as we stepped inside we found a wedding going on - this was not the first that we observed and would not be the last on this trip.

Oswiecim: Auschwitz & Birkenau

No Words.

WARSAW

Much of Warsaw was destroyed during WW2, but has now been rebuilt - pretty much as it was, and to some extent it is quite difficult to tell that the new buildings and cobblestones have only been there for a few decades.


KRAKOW

Set above the rest of the town is the old town which overlooks the river is the remains of the Old Royal Castle and the impressive Cathedral.




In the newer part of town. I climbed to the top of this tower, at the top was trumpeter who played each hour for a few minutes.











Looking down from the church tower - great view - in the centre was a market and to the right we enjoyed ........ another well deserved coffee and cake.




One of the many street artists that were to be found in most of the towns and cities.







The river Wisla - the longest in Poland runs majestically, we took a stroll along the towpath as it was a warm day, before we headed off South.

MALBORK CASTLE

Malbork was as far North as we went - just SE of Gdansk.

The castle we saw on our visit is absolutely enormous.

Of course it has been added to and rebuilt many times since September 1309 when the Grand Master Siegfried von Feuchtwangen moved the Teutonic Order's headquarters to Malbork, these were the sort of Knights we see in films - lots of blood and gore and fighting.























Inside much of the place has been repaired and improved but this ceiling was a bit special.











Check out this massive medieval portcullis - this would have made getting inside very difficult - if not impossible.








On our trip we saw fields and fields of so many different things growing - there certainly was no shortage of veg.

Here Suri checks out a tobacco plantation, in the background there are barns where the leaves were being dried out - fascinating.











Also fascinating was this plane on the forecourt of a petrol station - not sure how it got there and it certainly was not going anywhere now.

POLAND - POZNAN

Our first taste of Poland proper was when we discovered Poznan - a small town with a lovely square - Stary Rynek that had narrow colourfully painted gabled houses both within and around a large open square, which had lots of places to sit and have a coffee and watch the world go by, which we did.






Here is the old Town Hall or Ratusz, which is now a museum with some very interesting pictures, photos and memorabilia about the town and surrounding area.

We were followed around and watched by the staff very keenly - as if they were not sure what we were going to do.





Many of the houses had statues and other interesting carvings on the corners.

In and around the square were some beautiful churches, many restored after the bombings of WW2








We discovered that each town has a symbol with some sort of historical reference to it here in Poznan it is 2 goats and they are to be found on everything as souvenir items and also as here as statues in a small garden just a short walk away from the square - cute is the word I think Suri used.




Close by in the small village of Kornik is reputedly one of the great castles in Poland, it was very interesting, but a little on the small side, though it did have lots of antiques inside. Here I am outside of the castle enjoying an ice cream.




Most nights we did not have any difficulty finding accommodation - here is the view from the window of a Polish Motel that we stayed at in Gniezno - I think we were the only people staying there as we saw nobody else except the staff - it was very much the sort of place I imagined was all the rage in the communist years - very austere, dark and a little musty, I could visualise old men in uniforms sitting in corridors drinking vodka.

Berlin

We took the hop on hop off tour bus around Berlin, which I think is the best way as the sights are fairly spread out in the city, whilst there we saw this amazing bike being ridden by 6 people - wow is this what they mean by people power!!!


The previously divided city is now very much one city as such a lot of redevelopment has gone on and continues to do so.


Here we are at Checkpoint Charlie famous in so many films made about the cold war and its affect on Germany and Berlin in particular.








Check this out - is this the wall? Was I there to help pull it down.

No but we did see and touch a very small section preserved - sort of for us tourists - just a short walk away from here. Oh and of course you can buy a tiny section of it ... really - no I did not buy one.


This is apparently the last Russian flag left flying in he City - somewhat torn and tattered












The Berlin Cathedral is absolutely enormous we went up the stairs and were able to walk around the outside of the dome - where there were some fantastic views all around the city.

Inside was pretty good too.




On the recommendation of William, we went to the Babylon - Myths & Truths exhibition, which was fascinating though I am still not clear about the myths - or were they truths - you have to see it for yourself - highly recommended.

POTSDAM

Located just south west of Berlin - Potsdam is a truly historical place.

Set in the Neuer Garten the Schloss Cecilienhof is where Churchill, Truman and Stalin carved up Europe after WW2, it is a lovely house and as you can see they keep the geraniums in the garden as it was on the day of the meeting.

Just up the road is an enormous wooden windmill, now restored and in very good condition.










The Gardens of the Sanssouci Park are absolutely beautiful as is the Schloss Sanssouci and the Neus Palais.

We had a day here wandering around the gardens, and doing the tours of the 2 palaces and still there was not enough time to see and take in everything - the place is simply enormous.

There was lots of restoration going on and quite right too.

Here are a few pictures of our day there.

Antwerp - Belgium

Our first stopover, we stayed at a youth hostel in the centre of town as we really could not find many hotels in the area - very unusual.

Antwerp is a really lovely town with a magnificent main square just around the corner from the beautiful Cathedral and some very unusual building designs.

And of course Belgium Chocolates - who can resist them - we certainly could not