From Bern, we went to Jungfraujoch in the Swiss Alps. It was this opportunity that attracted us to this particular tour. This area has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001. We first took a bus to Lauterbrunnen where we would catch one of two trains to Jungfraujoch. These are some of the beautiful views we saw near the Lauterbrunnen train station. We were appreciative of these photo opportunities because we knew we would encounter a snowstorm at higher…
We began our Rhine, Swiss Alps and Amsterdam Tauck tour in Bern, Switzerland. We arrived a day early and stayed in a very nice room in the Bellevue Palace. These are views from our hotel room. The first picture below is the Albert Einstein Museum. It was within walking distance of our hotel and dealt mostly with Einstein’s life and to a lesser extent some of his inventions. The second picture is the Aare River. It flows through Bern and…
After our time in Paris, our riverboat set sail for our first port of call, Poissy. From there we took a bus to the Palace of Versailles. Both the Palace and the Gardens are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Walking to the Palace entrance, we were struck by the beauty of the gates and fencing surrounding the Palace. The gilded gates were originally built to impress guests and emphasize the grandeur of the monarchy. The gold leaf was a sign…
We left Scottsdale and began driving to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. On the way, we made a lunch stop in Sedona, Arizona. Sedona is famous for its red rocks. I found this explanation of how these beautiful formations came to be. Before the red rock was turned into rock, it was all soft mud and sand. Over a 320 million year period changes in nature helped transform the sand and mud into something more beautiful than we…
We spent most of our time in Budapest on the Pest side but took a taxi to the Buda side to see Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion. Matthias Church, officially known as the Church of Our Lady or the Church of the Assumption of the Buda Castle, is a Roman Catholic church located in the Holy Trinity Square in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. The church was originally built in 1255. It has been called Matthias Church (referring to…
We walked down Andrássy Avenue, a boulevard dating back to 1872. It is lined with expensive stores and old mansions, many of which are now embassies. Andrássy Avenue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first two pictures below show statues that have graced these buildings for many years and now welcome shoppers. The first statue is outside Gucci’s and the second is outside a luxury watch shop. Next is the Hungarian State Opera House. It opened in 1884 and…
It probably seems that the Shoes on the Danube Promenade and the Hungarian Parliament are two very dissimilar topics to include in the same post. I did so because the memorial is just south and across the street from the Parliament building. It would be easy to see them both on the same morning or afternoon. The Shoes on the Danube Promenade is a tribute to the 20,000 Jewish people who died here at the hands of the Arrow Cross,…
On our second day in Vienna, we toured the Schönbrunn Palace. Together with the Hofburg, the Schönbrunn Palace is the other major palace in Vienna. The Schönbrunn Palace and its associated buildings, gardens, fountains and statues are a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Schönbrunn’s history extends back to Middle Ages. In 1569, Maximilian II acquired it for the Habsburg Dynasty. Emperor Matthias used it for hunting and, while hunting, discovered a “fair spring” which in German is translated “schoner brunnnen”…
After touring the Cesky Krumlov Palace, we made our way back to Linz and then departed for Dürnstein in the Wachau Valley early the next morning. Brunch was served on the riverboat so we could make our way to the sun deck in the early afternoon to enjoy the beautiful sites. The Wachau Valley is considered one of the most beautiful parts of the Danube and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, both for its architectural and agricultural history. It…
Our next port of call was Linz, Austria. From there we took a bus to Cesky Krumlov, a small town by the Vltava River in the Czech Republic. It was a feudal town founded in the Middle Ages. It attracts tourists because of the Cesky Krumlov Castle complex, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The first castle was established before 1250 by the Lords of Krumlov. This family line died off in 1302. Other families that followed included the Rosenbergs, who…