Farewell Tour: Vienna, Venice and Budapest

Halfway through we decided we would likely, given our ages, never again visit Vienna, Venice or Budapest despite our love of wandering around each.  Hence the title for this entry.

Vienna was as always except that, thanks to Lorrie and Duke, we had a free place to stay.  Nice free place to stay.  The proof is in the photos, see them HERE.

We also had a new experience.  A fairly minor matter but we needed a MD to write a prescription.  A bit of a runaround thanks to Google Maps which sent us on a long walk to a physiotherapy clinic, then a short U-bahn (metro) ride to a very impressive hospital and two, count ‘em two, MDs who spoke excellent English and go things sorted in a few minutes.  A bill is expected sometime this year.  Or perhaps not.

Geri’s enthusiasm for walking is limited and so I did some early morning walks through the parts of the city I like the most.  On my own I also spent a day at the ETUC conference (convention in North American English) meeting a few people about LabourStart stuff and just enjoying the feeling of a union event that size when I had nothing at stake.  Photos of that HERE.

All photos of Vienna, in a number of albums, are HERE.

For the scenery we took a nice relaxing train back and forth between Vienna and Venice.  Budapest too but the train there and back not as scenic.  No Alps.

Venice was Venice.  Our apartment was really very lovely, especially the courtyard.  And for the second time we lucked into a neighbourhood that is still mostly residential, not entirely turned over to tourist scum like us. 

A great town to just walk around in if you don’t mind getting lost.  Snaps of the apartment and city HERE.

Budapest was more of a reunion than even Vienna as while we have only been there once before the hotel we stayed at both times is a place we are very attached to.  Photos of it this trip are HERE and the rest of Budapest HERE.  Note I finally got some photos of the Shoes monument and Geri got her tour of the Hungarian Parliament.