Dec 05 Budapest

I woke early and grabbed a shower and shampoo, my best effort. There is not a lot of soap here and a shortcoming of tissues. Otherwise I love this little hotel. Breakfast was delicious with a few different things to try like veal liverwurst. The restaurant is downstairs.

Looks like a 1920s's underground speakeasy! Charming in so many ways. Stuart had things to do on his computer. By the time my hair was dry, we took off for a lunch/dinner and then to a grocery store. Not a lot of energy today so we stayed in. It is also sprinkling. No responses from Debra, but I guess they got off all right and they are in Zurich by now for their layover. Upon return, we had a gin and tonic in the hotel bar. We played Phase Ten in our room before bed.

Dec 03 & 04 - Vienna, Austria & Budapest, Hungary

 Dec 03: We woke early enough but markets don't open until at least 10a. We had breakfast (included) in our hotel, Hotel Graf Stadion. Some time was spent on the computer. Stuart went online and got our train tickets for tomorrow to Budapest. They printed them at the front desk, so we are all set. Then we were off to a market. The market we went to is by city hall. I'm not exactly sure the name of it, but I took a picture of it! We strolled around, and I had some rose gluhwein and Stuart had some orange and ginger gluhwein. We walked all around looking at the different booths. He got some ornaments for the group he's bringing on the Yuletide cruise. For food, we ended up having a pulled pork bratwurst sort of sandwich. It was on a flatbread-likebread with cheese, onions, and mustard. It was good.We also had a gluh gin with it. After a feq hours, we headed back to the hotel and stopped at the grocery store along the way. We got a salad to share tonight before the concert.

The concert fell through for us, Stuart was especially tired and didn't want to face the cold. I agreed. We played some phase ten and then went to bed.

Dec 04: We are up early, dressed, and off to breakfast.In the hotel. When we came back, we packed everything and headed out to the train station by Uber. We were there in plenty of time. Finnally, our train showed up on the departures, and we headed to our platform. They keep talking about work on the railway and the tardiness of some trains. Our train is running about 6 minutes behind, but it really doesn't matter to us as we have no plan in Budapest tonight. 

It is quite cold cold outside but there's no snow on the ground. The fog is hanging very low and the trees are all bare. There are fields that look like something could possibly be growing in it, but i'm not sure about that since it is so cold.

There was constant coughing and nose blowing on the train. I'm glad it's just three plus hours that were on the train because I sure don't want to catch anything. I hope we don't!

Arrived to the train station with no problem and got an uber right away. We were off to the Cotton House Hotel in no time at all. What a quaint and nostalgic place.The wallpaper is two different matching designs. All the furniture is beautiful reproductions, all matching the little area rugs all match, there's like a Tulouse-Lautrec picture over our bed, and a kind of roaring twenties theme throughout. Of course, there's a TV on the wall complete with remote. Nobody wants to be without that! 

We went to cross the street literally.Steps away to For Sale Pub and had a huge dinner that we shared and there was still some left over. They did have live music that we enjoyed for a little while. Two men with the keyboard and a violin. The violin player asked where we were from. When I told him California, he played, I left my heart in San Francisco. Cute place with hay and peanut shells on the floor, friendly staff.

Back to the hotel and a few games of hase Ten and off to bed. We didn't do much today but we are tired.

Dec 02 - Vienna, Austria

We awoke at the hotel and had some coffee in our room and downstairs. We were too late for breakfast and too early for lunch.So we shared a half of sandwich from the little market area inside the hotel.

We got an uber to our hotel. Hotel Graf Stadion. We told the desk clerk about our dilemma last night, but she didn't really say anything about it. She said, your room is ready and it was. It's a charming little room. 

We spent a good part of the afternoon there.Because my tummy was not feeling great. We headed out for some early dinner.Because stewart has made concert reservations for tonight. We chose the destination that was only a three minute walk. However, on the way there we came upon a restaurant that looked too good to pass up. Marienhof was the name of it. After perusing the menu, Stuart decided on the Elderflower Spritz, and I decided on the Autumn Aperol Spritz. Both were delicious. For a starter, he had cream of garlic soup and I had cream of pumpkin soup, also very good. My soup had pumpkin seed oil on it, whick seems to be on the seasonal items. For our main Stuart ordered pan fried butterdumplings with egg and I ordered Styrian fried chicken breast. Both are considered classic menu items. There were many items to choose from, so it was hard to decide. Stuart was not fond of his but I loved mine. The chicken breast was nicely coated and cooked. On the bottom of the plate was a cold potato salad that was tangy and delicious. Next was lamb's lettuce and the chicken on top of that. Of course, we skipped dessert. It was a quick walk back to our hotel. We played Phase 10. We were tired and skipped the concert tonight. We changed it to tomorrow night. It was good to have a fairly restful day. 

Dec 01 - Train to Vienna, Austria

We were up into the train station with plenty of time after getting there. We had a coffee and an apple crumb cake. My coffee had Baileys in it. It was delicious but it tasted a lot stronger than just Baileys in it. Our seats are good, both together and facing backward for a short part of the journey, then forward for most of the trip. We did get first class train tickets, so we have service from the waiter the entire time, they bring you food to your seat. The views are absolutely magnificent. We can't always get good shots outside of the train because of the lights inside the train, but it is like a winter wonderland out there. Even though it's an eight hour+ ride on the train. We are glad we did the train instead of a plane because of the views. The trip has been amazing until we got to some stop, which I forget the name of. Now there is a problem with the track ahead and they're working on it. We are stopped here for an unknown amount of time. We are about thirty minutes out of Linz. It ended up being about a 1 hour stop. It will be good to get to Vienna and our hotel. Even if it is still early, we are tired. It is only 4:30p, but it is dark already. 

 

There was another glitch of course. I did not realize check in time was only until six o'clock. I was supposed to contact them 48 hours ahead if we were going to be late. That didn't happen and we could not figure out how to call the hotel. Finally we did call the hotel and got a message in German and couldn't figure out what to do. So Stuart to the rescue once again, he booked the Marriott for tonight. Even though it's not very late, we are pretty tired. The hotel gave us a complimentary drink in the bar and we ordered a small pizza item to have before going to bed. It has been a day full of beautiful scenery and delights. Tonight it is cold with a little rain and we are tired. 

Nov 30 - Switzerland

We had a tiny breakfast in the lobby of the hotel and now we are awaiting Brian and Michele to go on the train for 1 hour to Einsiedeln to see the markets there. It was a beautiful ride there with sights of the Alps, the lakes, and the snow-covered fields and hills. That was almost as wonderful as the markets!

On arrival to the market we promptly had Gluh Gin! It was very good. Not exactly sure how they make it, but I will find out! We took the path of slow incline up toward the cathedral tasting many things along the way. I found it interesting that at the Cathedral they have statues of crusaders. It is called the Abbey of Einsiedeln, and it is one of the most important baroque monastic sites and the largest place of pilgrimage in Switzerland. The Black Madonna of Einsiedeln in the Chapel of Grace attracts around 800,000 pilgrims and tourists every year. The community of Benedictine monks has around 40 members.

We are tired after almost 14,000 steps yesterday. We came back down the slope to the train station and headed back to Zurich. We went directly to Brian and Michele's home for Fondue dinner. It is very gracious of them, as they are tired too. Michele prepped the fondue and made a delicious broccoli salad. (she sent me the recipe). We had a little tour of their 3-story home, and it was lovely. They have some amazing views from the top floor and a balcony. Not too inviting this time of year but I am sure it is in the summer and spring. 

Brian walk us the short distance to the Uber pickup point and we were back to the hotel in no time. It is sprinkling but not much.  Another great day!

Nov 29 - Switzerland

Nov 29: Slept pretty well last night. Had a coffee in our room and then came down and had a coffee and a tiny bite at the hotel restaurant. We are staying at the Marriott Courtyard. After coffee we waited in the lobby for Brian and Michele to get here. We're going to Christmas Markets today in Zurich. They met us at the hotel and we walked to the train station and took the train to our first market; Zuricher Weihnachtsallee (I think). We had a great time at two different markets. The first market had cute little vignettes set up for people to sit in to relax or eat or whatever you wanted to do. It's a cute idea, very festive. I never saw this before. We also saw Zurich Lake and Brian's office (where we stopped to use the facilities).

The next market was the Lindt Chocolate Market. Near that was the train station, so we also bought our tickets for the train to Vienna. 

We were going to have fondue at their house tonight. But we are just too tired, so that is scheduled for tomorrow night. After they left and we rested, we split a hamburger in the hotel restaurant. Everything is very good here and the services impeccable. 

Heading to Zurich, Switzerland

Nov 27: We went over to Deb and Sam's in the morning and gave the family the advent puzzles I got them. Back to the house and did a few more things. Then it was on to the airport where we had a nice lunch.I had the nachos and Stuart had a hamburger. Now we're waiting for our flight.

Nov 28: Our flight is direct from LAX to ZRH (Zurich). The plane left Los Angeles ten minutes early. We had wonderful seats in business class. The service was impeccable, and most of the food was quite good. It was all served on glassware and with real silverware. We were offered all kinds of things. This is all NEW for me! I usually fly economy! Thank you Stuart! For beverages, there are many to choose from, but we both tried the Swiss drink that they were offering called Swiss Alpine Essence. It has a lot of Elderflower in it, and it smelled wonderful. It tasted pretty good but kind of sweet. When we arrived, the captain asked everyone to stay seated because somebody was being escorted off of our plane by the police. I'm not sure why and there was never a ruckus on the plane for any reason we noticed. The man was seated about 10 seats in front of us. The lines for passport control are enormous. We waited about an hour for the 2 minute process. It's a good reminder to get a wheelchair when entering a new country like this.

We took an Uber to our hotel. We planned to take Brian and Michele out to dinner but we were beat. They happily joined us at our hotel and we had a drink and small meal there. Of course, I met Brian in Prague in 2023, but now I met Michele. She is a delight. Tomorrow the will meet us here and we will head out for the markets.