One That Got Away



View of  Budapest from Buda castle - Parliament Building
on the left.

We arrived into Budapest a little stressed and later than we predicted. For reasons known only to the satnav it took us on a very protracted route, but we finally got to our hotel, the hotel Central 21, we had an excellent room, on the first floor looking out onto a courtyard. The weather had cooled quite considerably and after unloading our kit, we changed into our jeans to go out for something to eat and drink, a short distance from the hotel.


The Opera House



Sat morning the 2nd July was again very cool (only 22 degrees), as we were about to leave the hotel to do some tourist stuff, it started to chuffin well rain, but that didn’t stop us hardy annuals, out came the brolley and off we went. However,first things first, we had to get some money (their currency is the Forint and there’s around 264 forint to the euro) Often cited as one of the most beautiful cities in Europe, Budapest, with its extensive World Heritage Site includes the banks of the Danube, the Buda Castle Quarter, Andrássy Avenue, Heroes' Square and the Millennium Underground Railway, the second oldest in the world. Other highlights include a total of 80 geothermal springs the world's largest thermal water cave system, Dohany Street synagogue, the largest in Europe and second largest synagogue, in the world and Parliament building the third largest– it is the principal city of Hungary with a population in excess of 1,720,000 residents and attracts about 2.3 million tourists a year.


Looking across the danube to Buda Castle

We spent two full days catching the sites, one or two of them had that real ‘Wow’ factor like The Parliament, built between 1884 & 1904, in Neo-Gothic style on the bank of the Danube, and serves as the permanent seat of the national Assembly. There were other really magnificent municipal and Church buildings (St Stephen’s Basilica) and also some outstanding commercial buildings like The Parizsi Nagyaruhaz, which opened on the main shopping street in 1910 as a department store, built in Art Nouveau style; The former Gresham Palace, once the offices of Gresham Insurance Brokers, London, now the luxurious Four Seasons Gresham Palace Hotel, also built in Art Nouveau architecture, a real joy for the anorak brigade, sadly I include Ann and me, when it comes to buildings. I’m afraid the weather on Sunday didn’t improve a great deal, if anything it was slightly worse as the rain, when it started to fall, did persist and made sight seeing on foot, a little slippy!!



Having fun with the auto water fountain



C'mon Ron you can do it, look it's easy,
lift the right leg first then the left



On Monday the 4th we set off for Bratislava the capital of Slovakia (430,000 population), 130 miles in a north westerly direction. The weather was still grey and overcast, temperature 22 degrees, but no rain about. On the way, we stopped off in the small town of Visegrad famous for the remains of the Early Renaissance summer palace of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary and the medieval citadel. We walked around this partly restored citadel, which has been made into quite a tourist attraction, with good English historical translation, certainly one we enjoyed. We continued on our journey towards Bratislava and just before the border into Slovakia we passed through the town of Esztergom. My goodness, there right in front of us stood this immense domed building. It turns out to be The Primatial Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St.Adalbert - It is dedicated to the Saint Mary of the Assumption and Saint Adalbert.



Basilica of the Blessed Virgin Mary 


It is the tallest building in Hungary and the 18th biggest church in the world. Its inner area is 5,600 m². It is 118 m long and 49 m wide. It has a reverberation time of more than 9 seconds. Its dome, forming a semi-sphere, is situated in the middle, and it has 12 windows. It is 71.5 m high inside, with a diameter of 33.5 metres, and is 100 m high from outside, counted from the crypt. The main altarpiece (13.5 × 6.6 metres, depicting the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, by Michelangelo Grigoletti) is the largest painting in the world painted on a single piece of canvas.

All this amazing stuff and we never got to see it, we rode on by, not ever realizing what the building was or what significance it held, and to make matters worse, we later discovered that it attracts a million visitors a year. (The One that Got Away).

We arrived into Bratislava at 19.00hrs, we found the Hotel Medium, and unloaded our kit. We were quite impressed with the hotel, they welcomed us with a bottle of champers, which we guzzled down obligingly. We showered, changed our kit and went down to dine in the restaurant, before retiring to bed for a well earned sleep.



A Modern day Bratislava Castle.

Tuesday morning started with some warm sunshine. The currency in Slovakia is the Euro so there was no pressing need to get some money. We spent the day trying to discover Bratislava. Unfortunately for us, we arrived during a two day national holiday, literally everything, everywhere was shut, including many of the museums, historical places of interest and even the retail shops. We walked around and around, we went up to Bratislava Castle, but were frustrated as that too was closed (due to refurbishment). In the end we gave up and stopped for a drink in the main street and done a little bit of people watching and just enjoyed the surroundings in the sunshine.



   On Wednesday morning before leaving Bratislava for Austria, we booked our next hotel (Hotel Europahaus), over the internet. Austria would be our 12th country and Vienna the capital city, our destination, only 50 miles due west. The barometer had picked up and temperatures once again were into the 30’s. Less than two miles out of Bratislava we crossed the border trouble free into Austria, (there was no border control). An hour and a half later we arrived into the beautiful city of Vienna. With the assistance of the satnav (now back on full duty), we made our way through the labyrinth of streets to the hotel Europahaus, tucked away in a green oasis, about 20 minutes from the city centre.




Belvedere Palace, cascading waterfall and gardens.

Vienna is the capital of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states that make up Austria, it has a population of about 1.7 million (2.4 million within the metropolitan area, more than 25% of Austria's population). It is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre, and is the 10th-largest city by population in the European Union. Vienna is host to many major international organizations, such as the United Nations and OPEC. We spent three wonderful days in awe of Vienna, it is an incredibly beautiful and clean city with so much to see and do in and around the city. In 2001 the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. I’m not going to go into detail at what we saw or what we done, because there was so much, what with 27 Palaces for starters.......Do I hear cries of ‘oh come on Tone’, or shouts of joy?. However, be assured, it is most certain a destination we would gladly return to, at some point in the future, God willing. Oh go on then - just one little comment about the nature of the Austrian people; they are immensely obedient and will not, at any cost, stand outside the law. Even to crossing the road they will wait till the green man says ‘Yes it’s ok to cross’ although there would be no traffic in sight – this was ‘Big Tone Territory’ I would smile to myself as we crossed the road, the chuffin red man flashing and their faces convulsed. I’m really not convinced it was fear of disobeying or just downright envy. Whatever, it made me chuckle!!!!!!!


Jaw dropping - Another typical example of the
wonderful Architecture

On Saturday 9th July, we left Vienna in temperatures of 35 degrees, heading due north to Brno in the Czech Republic, approximately 85 miles away. Our ultimate destination was the city of Prague and Brno was a reasonable place to stop off. Co-incidentally, Brno does have a motorbike racing circuit and as LUCK should have it, the next stage of World Superbike happened to be taking place at the circuit over the same weekend 9th and 10th July. Well I can hear one or two of you saying ‘I bet, what a coincidence that was?’ well, I’m not goin to be drawn on that one, but I did get a ticket and I did go to the circuit late Sat afternoon, and all day Sunday (after Mass).
 

Come on my son!



The temperature on the Sunday was in the mid 30’s, Ann stopped at the Hotel and enjoyed the glorious sunshine around the pool, whilst I biked over to the circuit (about 7 miles away) and watched and enjoyed the thrills and spills of the real racers - it was most unexpected!! I even got a little sunburnt, but it was worth it!!!

For those of you who would like to know the result........

But, the real coincidence was, that Katherine (daughter No 2), along with her cousin Charlotte, were both at the F1 Grand Prix, Silverstone at the same time (Paps watchin motorcyclin in Czech Republic, kids watchin F1 in UK – how good is that). They bought tickets for the whole three day event and really enjoyed the experience, if not the result - Katherines a Vettel fan, but probably would’ve been pleased for Allonso, the winner.

And so hear endeth this blog, On Monday morning the 11th we’re off to Prague, the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic.

Luv and prayers to everyone back home

The Easy Riders xxxx