Day 92, Monday, November 25th, 2019
We arrived home about 9:00 pm. I only got a couple hours sleep last night…no idea why that always happens right before a flight… so I was very tired before we even started our trip home.
We fly to Toronto on the 787 Dreamliner and we are both impressed with this plane. It is quieter than other planes and the cabin feels more open, less claustrophobic. We are also told that they use less recycled air and more fresh oxygen, which makes passengers feel better during a long flight. We were very lucky and had an extra seat between us on both legs of our trip home. I was able to lie down and slept on and off for about three hours on the flight form Vienna to Toronto. I actually felt better the we landed after a nine hour flight than when we boarded the plane! We had a four hour layover in Toronto and then we board for the last flight home. Here is our next plane, Air Canada Rouge. Not as big or as comfortable as the Dreamliner, but it is only a four and a half hour flight. 
We met this young lady on the flight. Alexa Kubicki is a 16 year old boxer who was returning home from a three month competition tour. She won 4 international Tournaments and received 4 Best Female Fighter Awards over the last 4 months. Next year she will compete in the World Boxing Championship and she is aiming to compete in the 2024 Olympics. I told her I would look for her in 2024.
I tried drawing but was so tired that I had problems with proportion. Not the best likenesses. I did manage to get another couple hours sleep on this flight so that helped.
It was a very long day, more than 24 hours since we left our apartment in Vienna until we walked through the door at home. First thing we notice is how big our house seemed after all the little apartments we stayed in! It was a really good holiday but it is good to be home. This blog is my travel journal of our trip, and I know sometimes the posts were long…so thanks for following along and a special thank you to those who wrote comments or liked a post.
We were pleasantly surprised though to find that food here was reasonable. I bought a cone of yummy hot roasted potato slices for just 3 euros. There were lots of other affordable food options as well as hot chocolate and hot alcoholic drinks and mulled wines for 3 to 5 euros. There are so many people here that sometimes it is difficult to get to the front of a booth to see what is for sale.
Near the booths is an area with beautifully decorated trees and ….
a skating rink! There is a 3,000 m² artificial ice rink with skating paths throughout the park. We watch the kids learning to skate, everyone is having a good time.
This all takes place under a canopy of the most beautiful trees, all lit up with thousands and thousands of white lights.
Just take look at the size of this tree! It is enormous! 
A special attraction is the tree of hearts, and we see couples taking selfies here.
I love all the lights and there is Christmas music playing, children laughing and everyone is enjoying the evening. I am beginning to feel Christmassy!
As we leave the market, I take one last photo looking back towards the Parliament Building…
This is a smaller market, only 70 stalls, and the only decorated trees are the man-made ones. 
We see a booth with goods from Bomo Art, the little handmade book store we visited in Budapest.
There are also some pretty crazy animal candles, cute stuffed gnomes, blue and white pottery and wooden boxes and cabinet with drawers. The tall one with six drawers is ‘only’ 350 euros! That is about $500.00 Canadian. Still nothing I really love to take home with us though.
These little pink snowmen were kind of cute…
and a tree decorated with bird ornaments is different. Only at 10 to 15 euros a bird this would be a very expensive little tree! There are at least 150 birds on this tree, so it would cost between 1,500 and 2,250 euros, which is $2000.00 to $3,200.00 Canadian! No bird trees for me!
The booths are centred around this big fountain…
and there are lights projected on a nearby building, adding to the festive feeling.
It isn’t very warm, the high today was only 9° and it is colder now that the sun has gone down. We want to walk and see some of the streets lit up for Christmas …
but we are both getting chilled so we head home to finish getting ready for our trip home tomorrow.
We visit the Buda side of Budapest today. First stop is the Matthias Church, located in the Holy Trinity Square in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. It has a beautiful tiled roof and a 60 metre tall bell tower. 
There are a lot of people here.
One of the many great views from the Bastion.
We had to wait a bit to find an arch not filled with other tourists. It often takes a while before I can get a decent photo, which involves deciding where I can get the best view and waiting until vehicles and other people are not in my picture frame. Bob is very patient, waiting for me to take photos. I probably take at least 5 or 6 photos for every one I use in this blog.
The Bastion was inspired by the architectural style of the early medieval times. It has many towers and was meant to feel like a fairy tale castle, as it wasn’t built for defence.
I am always happy when I find a dragon!
These medieval church ruins were built into the modern Hilton Budapest Hotel.
The Black Plague caused the death of 30-60% of Europe’s total population in 1691 and 1709. People believed that erecting a column would protect them from the plague. The carving on the top of the column represents the Holy Trinity. Below this the whole column is decorated with smaller statues depicting angels, and saints. The central sculpture shows King David praying to God to let his people avoid the outbreak of a plague. Residents believed the Holy Trinity Column did its job, as the plague never returned after 1709.
On our walk to the nearby Buda Castle we pass these Medieval ruins. Beneath some of the ruins there is a wine cellar which offers wine tastings. It is located below the remains of a 13th century Dominican Cloister, which is part of a huge labyrinth system underneath the Castle Hill. 
King Matthias (1457-1458) adopted the crow as his heraldic emblem after catching one of them stealing a ring, and killing it to get his ring back. These gates are topped with a crow with a ring in its mouth. The gates are very bizarre, almost creepy looking.
This is the back side of the Buda Castle…
and here is a close up of its fountain. Too bad the water in all the fountains in Budapest has already been turned off for the winter.
The front of the Buda Castle with lots of tourists…
and a bride and groom taking their wedding photos. I wonder if the photographer has to photoshop out all the tourists?
We see a large river cruise ship o the Danube.
There are walkways high above Medieval walls.
We walk down a flight of stairs below a statue of the Madonna and baby Jesus.
When we walk across this bridge we can see these same stairs on the far left side of this photo.
We are walking to this little bookstore that sells handmade journals. Bomo Art is a tiny store, less than 2 metres wide! It didn’t have any larger sketchbooks with good paper for drawing. Too bad, or maybe it was good. My suitcase is already pretty heavy with the two sketchbooks I bought in Linz, and the huge Dürer book I got in Vienna.
We watched this street performer for a while and wondered how he was able to hold this difficult pose. We later saw him in a different position but when we walk by again we see a guy lean heavily on him and to our surprise he crumples! Turns out he is a mechanical man! People were putting lots of coins into his can, trying to get him to move. They had no idea they were being tricked into thinking this was a man in costume. 
It is quite cool at night but it doesn’t stop people from sitting outside drinking beer. 
One last walk down the decorated street towards the Christmas Market. There are so many more people out on the streets tonight.
We stop at one of the stalls and I buy a couple small gifts I have been eyeing every time we walk by. 
I also took photos of the food stands. Pork hocks are a big item here! We were going to buy a meal here a few days ago but quickly changed our minds when we discovered that one cabbage roll, albeit a big one, would cost us 5,000 Forints, the equivalent of $25 Canadian! A small plate with a sausage and two small helpings of side dishes was $35.00! We were rather shocked at how expensive it was. We saw other tourists change their mind and refuse to purchase what they had ordered when they realized the price.
I saw lots of these sparkling balloons and thought they were so pretty. They were even nicer in person than in the photo. We spend the rest of the evening tidying the apartment and packing for our drive to Croatia tomorrow. Oh, and the puppet show we saw ws ‘Coraline’.
Many of the buildings in this neighbourhood are old and in need of repair but the murals do brighten up the neighbourhood.
Bob tells me to look inside this little blue van…
It is set up as a little dining room! It is kind of cute, except I look in the front seat and it is dirty and cluttered with junk. Not very appetizing, 
There are many shops and workshops tucked into the buildings on narrow streets, sometimes even in the basements, like this bike shop. I think my bike riding daughter will appreciate the sentiment of the sign above this door.
This is probably one of the most colourful doors I have ever seen.
The buildings here have very interesting architectural details.
Seems every city we have ever been in has an Astoria Hotel!
Loved the room at the top of this white building. Imagine living there.
The Holocaust Tree of Life Memorial was funded by the late American actor Tony Curtis in memory of his Hungarian-born father. The names of 30,000 Holocaust victims are engraved on the leaves of the metal tree. The tree resembles an upside down menorah and is located on top of the mass graves of thousands of murdered Jews.
The tree is located behind The Dohány Street Synagogue which is also known as the Great Synagogue. It seats 3,000 people and is the largest synagogue in Europe and the third largest in the world. We didn’t have time to go inside because we want to go to a thermal bath today.
One more interesting building on our way back to our apartment. The top doesn’t seem to belong to the bottom.
The Széchenyi Spa Bath in Budapest
This pools for lane swimming, not for us today.
We like this pool as it is warmer than the first one. 
Inside there are fifteen more pools. This is one of the warmer ones and the only one that has comfy lounge chairs, so we stay here for a while. I sit beside Bob, in the corner and do some drawings of the bathers. Budapest didn’t have any life drawing classes, or at least none that I could find, so this will do instead. 
The building is magnificent but it is starting to show its age here and there. I think it might need a renovation before too long. This is a great place for people watching, and we do come in all shapes and sizes!
By the time we go back outside it is dark, and the steam is rising from the pools. We were thinking of taking a boat ride on the Danube tonight but we decide to stay and enjoy more time here.
There are more people now than when we first arrived, and most of them are much younger than us. We see a few other grey-haired ‘oldies’ but we are few and far between. We spent more than five hours enjoying the baths, and we both feel nice and relaxed.
I laugh watching these two guys. They are dressed the same, stand the same and both are smoking and looking at their cellphones. They even both take a drag on their cigarettes at the same time!
Budapest has very pretty manhole covers.
Bob tells me we are going to the top of that hill across the Danube River on the Buda side of the city. I am quite happy to hear there is a bus that will take us most of the way.
The metro stations in Budapest are very deep underground. They were built so that they could be used as bomb shelters. I wonder what would happen if a bomb fell above a station full of people. How would they get out…would they be trapped by all the rubble? Then I decide that they could walk down the tracks and maybe get out at another spot. Bob says I think too much!
We are on top of Gelléert Hill and it was only a short climb from the bus stop. There are great views of Budapest looking to the East…
and the West.
Bob called me over to watch an older man operating a shell game near here. He had a cardboard box and three shells, and people bet on which shell a pea was under after they were shuffled. We were astounded that he was able to convince people to bet 400 or 500 euros. 
It is getting windy so we start down the hill. We are walking down…
through a park with lots of trees…
and a couple playgrounds. This one takes advantage of the hillside. We tried this slide too.
This cross is about halfway down the hillside and marks the location of the Cave Church directly below it.
This statue of St. Stephen is near the entrance to the Cave Church.
For more information and photos about this curious church check
A bit further down the hill we peek inside the Gellért Hotel…
which houses one of Budapest’s thermal bath houses. It looks very fancy.
Here is a view of the cave entrance from the street below… 
and the Liberty Statue at the top of the hill.
We walked back across the bridge to the Pest side of the river…
and visit the Indoor market. 
I thought these kohlrabi were huge but the radishes were enormous, about the size of an egg! I’ve never seen radishes that big! We have supper here but unfortunately the food wasn’t really all that great. 
On our walk back home we pass through the Christmas Market and I notice these teapots. I would have loved to have bought one but worried about getting it home in one piece.
These necklaces are made with seed beads! Imagine how long it would take to make each one.
We are staying in the Old Jewish Quarter and the roads are very narrow and crowded. As we leave this area, the roads widen and there are many pedestrian-only roads and big plazas. This large ornate building is the first large building I see on the main Street near our apartment.
We walk towards the nearby Christmas Markets. There are lots of small wooden ‘cabins’ filled with beautiful crafts. I loved these dried fruit ornaments, but I am sure that I wouldn’t be allowed to bring these through Canadian Customs. Too bad, they are lovely and smell wonderful.
There are several stands with all sorts of candies…
beautiful felted hats, that are priced starting at $150.00 CAD.
This our first Christmas tree of the year.
This ‘Little Princess’ is the first of many statues we see on the streets of Budapest.
Another ferris wheel, but we decide to pass on riding this one. 
St. Stephen’s Basilica is in the centre of Budapest.
The inside off the church has lots of gilded ornamentation and a beautiful dome.
The main attraction in this church is the thousand year old mummified right hand of King Stephen. If you want to see this relic, deposit a coin and a light comes on to view the hand.
These two borzoi dogs looked like they needed a bath and brushing. There are lots of dogs here and they live their lives on pavement. I kind of feel sorry for them.
The Fat Policeman Statue represents how hearty the Hungarian foods are, and rubbing his tummy is supposed to bring good luck. There are many ‘good luck’ statues on the streets of Budapest.
The Hungarian government erected the ‘Memorial for Victims of the German Occupation’ statue in the middle of the night in July 2014.
Some seed pods from one of the trees near this statue are interesting.
There is a statue of Ronald Reagan in this plaza as well because of his efforts to end the Cold War.
There are so many ornate buildings here…
like the Parliament Building! It is so big I can’t get it all into one photo.
Across the river we can see the Buda Castle.
Bob takes a moment to sit with the Hungarian poet Attila József…
and then we walk onto the Chain Bridge with its guardian lions for a view of Budapest from the river.
This is the Pest side of the river, the side our apartment was on…
and this is the Buda side. These two cities were united in November 1873, and the name ‘Budapest’ was given to the new capital.
I don’t know what this building is but it had delicate golden trim that sparkled in the late afternoon sun.
We find a statue of Roskovics Ignác, a famous Hungarian painter, on our walk along the Danube River.
Walking through the Christmas Market on our way home I notice this jar of pickled onions! They made me laugh!
and the beautiful Marble Hall.
I particularly wanted to see Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, but was pleased to find his Judith painting here as well.
The Kiss is one of Klimt’s most well known paintings. It is a large painting, 183 x183 cm.
It is nice to be able to see the painting details up close.
I am also surprised by how many Egon Schiele paintings are on display. It is quite special to be able to see the original paintings of some of my favourite works by these two painters. I didn’t realize that these paintings were so large. Looking at reproductions in books can be deceiving. The Embrace and…. 
the Family are both much bigger than I imagined…
as are these paintings.
Schiele’s Self Portrait is the smallest painting, about 41 x 33 cm.
I didn’t know Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon was here either. I am so glad I was able to visit this museum. This painting is enormous, 272 × 232 cm!
This painting shows the Vienna Naschmarkt in 1894. It has changed a bit over the years!
We meet up in the gardens outside the Belvedere and then walk towards St. Charles Church. 
There are so many interesting buildings along the way.
We had a huge surprise when we entered St. Charles Church. Two enormous floating mirrored balls that reflected the church…
and us. We are almost in the centre of the reflection but we are very tiny. “Aerocene” is a contemporary art installation by Tomas Saraceno, an Argentinian artist who lives and works in Berlin. The floating reflective balls are 10 and 7 metres in diameter.
Then we notice the scaffolding that goes high up into the dome, and that is where we are going to go! We thought the elevator ride we got a ticket for would be inside a bell tower. Nope! We ride to the top of this scaffolding and then climb a bit further, onto that platform you see leading into one of the round windows in the dome!
Looking down from the top of this ‘elevator’ we notice a workman adjusting lights high up in the dome, yet still far below us!
We have a great view of the dome paintings. It is interesting the way the gold highlights look up this close…
and we have a great view of the other dome paintings. We are crazy high up!
Bob walks back down to this viewing platform so I can get a photo. Notice how he is suspended…nothing below him!
This photo shows the platform that Bob was standing on in the last photo.
We spent quite a lot of time way up there in the dome, and it is getting dark when we get outside. If you look closely you can see some people standing in the round window on the dome. That is the window we were standing in! What an amazing experience. There was restoration work carried out in the dome and the elevator is being kept for a while. The fee to ride up into the dome is a way to make more money for further restorations.
Walking back towards the metro we pass the Opera House…
and take photos of these performers from Tibet. They have a performance later tonight and were taking publicity photos outside the Opera House.
While the men posed, some of the women were busy applying their makeup. 
This is a a huge paper art installation we pass in a walkway near the metro.
A close-up shows lots and lots of writing, musical notations and random marks.
We get home, have dinner, then I head off to a drop-in drawing session with a Meetup group at a pub called Monami.
I had coloured some of the pages in my sketchbook at home before the session. Interesting to draw on but they don’t photograph very well. 
We were pretty much rubbing elbows as we drew and my views weren’t always great but it was lots of fun.
I finished the session with a 20 minute leg study. I felt quite comfortable going out in the evening by myself. The metro is easy to navigate and there were lots of people about.
as well as all sorts of candies, dried fruits and some rather exotic looking products in the fish market section.
Near the Naschmarkt we find this interesting tribute to the Orson Wells movie, The Third Man. It is possible to tour the sewers, right under our feet, where part of the movie was filmed, but we pass on that today.
There is a statue of Mozart, right beside a Hop On Hop Off bus station. We sit and have our picnic lunch and watch tourists jump off the bus, snap a photo from quite a distance, and then jump back on the bus to get to the next destination. This sure isn’t the way we do it! We sight-see very slowly and leisurely, stopping often to look at the sights, people watch and just enjoy where we are and what we are seeing. We are very slow tourists!
This equestrian statue of Emperor Joseph II, erected in 1795 is the oldest equestrian statue in Vienna.
We make our way to the Albertina Museum, which we will visit another day. There is a Durer Exhibit I am looking forward to seeing. This is a street view from a corner of the Albertina.
Of course there are several churches on our walk, and we visit all of them!
This broad pedestrian Kärntner Strasse is packed with people and lined with shops and places to eat. This road dates to 97AD when it was a Roman road that went from Vienna to the border of Italy and Slovenia, and eventually all the way to St. Petersberg, Russia!
I thought that the Zen-Doodle like designs on the clothing in this shop were interesting. 
The modern Haas House offers interesting reflections of St. Stephen’s church.
The St. Stephen’s Cathedral is huge, and ornately decorated, outside… 
and inside.
Just behind the cathedral we see a group of people taking part in a drinking game. The guy in the blue jeans drank his big can of beer twice as quickly as the guy dressed in brown!
The Stock im Eisen is part of a tree that has hundreds of iron nails pounded into it and dates from 1440. No one is sure why the nails were pounded in but it is thought that is was for good luck. It is located on the corner of a building and is protected behind plexiglass.
The Holy Trinity Column, located on a street in the inner city of Vienna, was erected after the Great Plague epidemic in 1679. It is one of the most well-known sculptural pieces of art in the city.
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I thought it interesting the way the paintings on the dome extended over the sculptural trim around the round windows.
The end of each pew is beautifully carved with different finials of three children’s heads. We sat for quite a while listening to the choir practicing. 
Back outside, there are interesting details everywhere I look, like these sculptures holding up balconies.
I loved this building. It looks like a castle. I wouldn’t mind living here! 
where the customers are served champagne as they shop! Sigh…an experience I am sure I will never have!
There are Roman ruins… 
and beautiful statues on the corners of buildings. 
This is the building that houses the Austrian National Library, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, as well as the Spanish Riding School with the world famous Lipizzaner stallions. We will visit both of these on another day, 
It gets dark earlier now, at about 5;30. The buildings look pretty all lit up. This is the other side of the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg Palace. We saw the backside earlier in the day.
Time to head home. This subway station has colourful murals. Our apartment is very well located on the U6 subway line, so it takes less than a half hour to get home. Somehow even our ‘easy’ days end up being quite long. We left before noon and it will be after 7:00 by the time we get home.
I liked this one of the young man with the bandaged nose.
Our drive to Vienna was long and uneventful. We stayed on the freeway and it still took us about 5 1/2 hours. We had to wait about an hour for our Airbnb host to meet us, but we found a parking space just outside the apartment and our car was warm, so it wasn’t too bad. It took forever to figure out how to pay for street parking but we finally sorted it out. We take our rental car back tomorrow so we just need parking for one night.
It is only one euro admission to the Bavarian National Museum on Sundays. The first rooms we enter have incredibly beautiful wooden sculptures, many of which still have their original painted colouring. The sculpture of Christ is from 1200, the Apostles are from 1505, and the woman with children is from1300. All the pieces are in amazing condition…it is hard to believe that they can be this old.
These were two of my favourite pieces. The Mary on the left is from1300 and is larger than life size, while the second Virgin Mary is from 1500. Notice how her finger marks her place in the book she was reading when she is surprised by the angel. She is much smaller, probably about 30 ” tall. They were both exquisite.
This dancing fellow from 1490, is exceptionally animated for such an early carving. The detail of the hands and drapery in the group of figures was so beautifully done. I have a heck of a time drawing drapery, and I can’t imagine how anyone can carve it so well.
We don’t know what this skeleton astride the lion is about but it was interesting. Unfortunately most of the signage is only in German, 
There is a room full of armour…
and another room with models of many towns. This is Munich in 1580 and we are able to recognize some of the buildings that are still present in modern day Munich!
There are enormous detailed tapestries on the wall. We are amazed at the excellent condition of these tapestries.
This small panel from the mid 1500’s is only about 6″ tall and is made with intricately inlaid wood. It is incredibly detailed.
The child’s outfit is from 1547 and the dress from 1630. I wonder how these have survived all these years. Their tiny hand sewn stitches are visible and there is some wear and tear but they are really very well preserved.
The next room is filled with amazing cabinets. I love boxes and cabinets with lots of drawers, and I have never seen anything like these. The coin cabinet of Maximillian I was made for his collection of gold coins. Each of the rows is a shallow drawer with fitted spaces for the coins. It is made of ivory, lapis lazuli, silver and enamel, so of course it must have its own storage case! The case on the right hinges open in the middle so the cabinet can be inserted for safe keeping.
This cabinet was built for the Electress Maria Ana. The ivory cabinet is gorgeous with lapis lazuli panels, but then I walk around to the other side and it is even more beautiful, with silver and enamelling. This cabinet has 176 drawers and secret compartments for storing precious objects! Wow!
These huge globes were interesting..
and then we walked into the next room with these monumental wooden figures!
Don’t you love the faces on these sandals?
Downstairs there are several rooms that appear to be taverns. We aren’t sure, because all the signage here is German. I think the domed object in the corner is a stove to heat the room.
Back upstairs, there is gallery of about 1,000 ivory objects and I wonder how many elephants died so these could be created? This ivory carving was one of fifty or so. The background sky is so thin that the light shines through it.
The Rape of Proserpina on the left is carved in ivory, and the porcelain centrepiece on the right depicts Neptune being drawn by seahorse and tritons. They were both completed in the mid 1700’s.
I thought this tapestry was particularly colourful and beautiful. Notice the details in the close up of the pelican.
Some of the musical instruments on display are rather strange. Bob is wondering how to play the double layer of 19 strings on this one… 
and check out the crazy wind instruments.
There is a wonderful display of clothing from the mid 18th century. Even the pet monkey had stylish togs.
But take a look at the undergarments women wore! 
I love doors and this museum has many. The front door opens automatically when we approach. Seems weird for such an ancient door.
We walk along the river on our way to Maximillianstrasse, where all the fancy expensive shops are located.
On the way, a firetruck pulls up and the firemen check behind bushes and in garbage cans, then drive away. We wonder what they are looking for.
We window shop where the wealthy people shop! The two outfits on the left are only 42,400.00 euros! The red outfit is only 26,300 euros! At today’s exchange rate that is over $100,
The stores are closed so they only leave the ‘cheaper’ watches in the windows. Notice the empty stands for the more expensive ones.
We pass more very loud, very energetic Chilean protesters on our way home.
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