Travel is always an adventure.. sometimes a frustrating one…but always an adventure

When I was a kid the biggest trip I went on was a car ride along to Chicago O’Hare Airport with my mom to drop my dad off to fly somewhere exotic for his two week annual Navy duty. I was small and this airport was “big” back then. Now it is a monster of an airport and the newest terminal above takes a half hour for me to walk from one end ( because that’s always where my plane ends up) to the other end ( where either customer service is or my next gate for departure is) 

Never Fails.

Saturday we arrived at Tucson airport and once again found that our plane would be late. Often that happens at our small airport.This of course isn’t a big deal to retired folks like us, unless it means a domino effect with the other flights of the day that will change our lives. And that’s where we ended up. One delay led to a second delay which in turn led to our gate agent trying to help us and then wiping out all our further reservations and finding out everyone in the world is traveling this weekend to Europe and theres hardly any seats available when she tried to rebook us.  We finally took what we could, knew we would spend the night in Chicago and hopefully get our flights rebooked and get on our way. . This is where that long hallway pictured above comes into focus… .we walk all they way down to the end for Customer Service only to find that there is hardly any human contact with United Airlines anymore and they want you to serve yourself with the Application they provide.  Needless to say it was a very frustrating service. A wonderfully nice woman was finally available and  able to give us vouchers for food and room reimbursement so I guess the long walk was worth it. As a Warning to All: United Airlines App is crap and their embracing of technology is not for the ease of the customer…

My voucher

My lovely traveling partner

The morning found us able to enjoy breakfast with Albert’s sister Jeanette and family before we started the rest of our journey. There are Silver linings everywhere if we look!

Monday afternoon we arrived at our destination. Along the way we met many retirees who were heading to meet their ships for tours. There must be a hundred different tour companies offering similar trips.It is exciting to see. The impact of US visitors must make a difference to the economies of all European countries. I just wish more young families could afford to travel. Perhaps if we encouraged travel amongst our population there would be more  understanding and less Nationalism in our country. Its does really help to see how we fit in a global picture. 

Driving from the airport to our downtown hotel. There’s always something different to see

 A very stylized Eagle I think

 Of course we must know where Mickey D’s is!

Just average suburbia

The view from our hotel top terrace.

We made it!!

After a nice hot shower and a restful nap it was dinner time for us. Most of Europe dines later in the evening so we headed out to grab a table early without reservations.

The inside of Porc &Predzli a Hungarian cuisine restaurant

Very cozy and comfortable. We were the first diners!

My first glass of Hungarian white wine. Our waiter helped pick it for me. It was delightful! He recommended much of our meal and every single dish was a hit!

Al and I shared most of our meal. This was the Goulash soup and it was rich and delightfully flavored with Paprika. I could have drank the entire bowl and licked it clean.

 And desert! We ate other entrees but I was so hungry and it all tasted so very good that I forgot to take pictures. This is an Apple pie with Carmel and bacon. The apples were wrapped inside a ball of pastry and the taste was out of this world! Bacon makes desert taste better!

Night time outside the restaurant

 The streets are lively and the buildings are beautiful at night. We wish we had energy to roam around more tonight but it will have to wait till tomorrow…we’re beat!

Leaving on a Jet Plane…

 

Next week we head away from the desert for the Rivers of Europe. This will be our spring adventure this year. Although we have been to some of the cities on this trip before, we already have our list of places we can’t miss seeing.  Our first ship ,The Vidar, will sail us along through the heart of Europe and I imagine we will see enough castles to last a lifetime.  

After arriving in Amsterdam we will board another ship,The Gefjon for a cruise around Holland and Belgium looking for spring tulips. 

Since this is a much shorter trip than the world cruise was, our luggage will travel with us. Now my biggest challenge is just what will I pack to keep me warm. Remember, I live in a desert and any temp below 65 feels like the arctic for me. Tomorrow I will shop for shoes as I figure my usual sandals will not fit the need for warmth.Here in Tucson I wear sandals all year long (in winter with yoga sock-no toes) ,Ive been told ,by my traveling partner, that I will need to up my game with actual shoes. Wish me luck shopping!

We are arriving in Budapest a couple of days early so we can go wine tasting in the area and Tokaj tasting. We remember our last visit to the area and want to make sure we revisit some of our best memories.! This trip we are also researching interesting sights by using the Atlas Obscura. The listings of interesting, off the beaten path things to see sounds exciting and unusual. It’s just the thing for us since on our last visit we crammed in as much of the popular tourist sights as we could. 

I’m going to try to stay updated as much as possible so you can “travel along” . This is a pretty busy tour with new ports daily so won’t guarantee I’ll be prompt.  We have reached the age where the number of sights aren’t quite as important to us as the quality of what we see and experience. 

Bon Voyage!

Our final touring destination is York

 We’ve come to the final destination of our tour! We travel from Edinburgh to the English city of York.

After a long day of driving, we are settled in our home for the stay and decide to find a snack, The Exhibition Pub seems like just the spot.

 

Its a right old pub. No snacks except crisps and drinks. 

We try a variety of crisps and get drinks.

Afterwards we set out for a quick look at the town..

The botanical garden is down this way

Wow! Didn’t expect ruins. Beautiful

St. Mary’s Abby

 
More ruins of the Abby

One of the city gates in the wall surrounding the city

The Ouse river

Interesting buildings along our walk

We were just walking along and checked into one of the many churches here in York/ The York Oratory.

Touring the Mister:

The minster is quite large and magnificient  

 

See the scaffolding behind the Constantine statue? 

Repair/restoration of the blocks are being done..

It was quite interesting to watch these young masons work to duplicate exactly the stonework needing repair.

And of course the Romans have been here!

A Roman column found here

The nave

The kings chair

An official map of the minster

The stain glass work throughout was an incredible example of medieval glasswork

Statues of the 15 kings create the screen of the organ/

The flooring in a chapel

This is where the above flooring is

The ceiling above the decorated floor

The stain glass is a marvel. Most of it is original from 1400 or so.

The choir left. This is still an active church

A young prince’s tomb. Medieval era.

After the Munster, we got on the HOHP and toured around the city.

The site where the entire Jewish population of York died. They were blamed for bringing the black plague to the area and Londoners who came to York attacked them . Instead of allowing that, it seems like they all committed suicide rather than be killed by others. 

Medieval glass windows 

Old pub

Recreating a French knot garden

More views of the city wall

We ended our bus tour with a stop at the National Railroad museum 

The oldest carriage car in the world

Our ride back into the city center from the museum.. always wanted to do this!!! walking the “Shambles “it used to be the butcher district with meat hanging outside the stores.

The medieval shops have the overhang

But the street is soooo very narrow!

Our last activity was to walk along the top of the city walls. This gave us some spectacular views of both the Minster and the gardens in the area. 

 

It was a full day of sight seeing and tonight we are heading our to celebrate our 43rd wedding anniversary at a local restaurant. Then back to get our suitcases partially packed and ready to get into the car and head to our Heathrow Hotel.

 The Star Inn the city was a very nice restaurant along the river. You entered by walking under the city walls.

 Along with Susan and Stephen we had a wonderful dinner and celebrated our anniversary and the ending of our UK tour. I find myself looking forward to getting near the airport because that means I’m closer to home. Its been a wonderful trip and I will evaluate and wrap it up when I return to home. I think Dorothy (wizard of Oz ) had it right… There’s no place like home!