Sunrise Fishing

I have been wanting to get on the water by sunrise, and I finally did it! It takes a bit of effort to pack the boat and walk it down by 6:30.

I caught two little pikes or baby muskies. I can't tell the difference.

The water was the smoothest I've ever seen it.

 

Construction Progress

 

The corner where our street hits the parkway is torn up.

We went for TWO YEARS without lights around the lake due to copper thieves that kept stealing the wires. The park district switched to aluminum last year. Looks like were going to be without lights again for a while.

The RCBs (reinforced concrete boxes) started showing up. They measure 6 x 6 feet on the inside dimension. The idea is to bury them down the middle of the street with a very shallow slope so that the storm water slows and drops all its sediment. 

Day 8: BUD to YYZ to MSP

I was pretty psyched about finally going thru Toronto a.k.a. YYZ. One of my favorite bands is from Canada, and they have a great song called YYZ. It starts with a rhythm that is the morse code for the YYZ airport call sign the drummer heard on his friend's VHF radio.

We had bulkhead seats right behind first class with tons of room, so it was a relaxing flight across the ocean.

YYZ was not what I had hoped it would be. Oh well, it's one stop closer to home.

 

Day 8: Budapest Morning

On our final day, we had a few minutes between 6 AM and our bus departure to the airport, so we took in as much as we could.

All over the city are these bronze statues. Some are big, some are small like this guy. Once you start looking for them, they are all over.

We only had time to go around the block adjacent to our hotel, but it was worth it.

 

Night 7: Budapest

Once we got back and cleaned up and cooled down, we relaxed and enjoyed our last night in Europe. 

I made it up to the rooftop bar to check out the view and enjoy one last European beer.

The Grand Opening photographer was still there when I came back.

 

Day 7: Hot Budapest

After lunch, we split up and did our own exploring in the heat. It was 100 in the shade. The Danube was so low, there was chatter about pulling the plug on the nuke plant due to lack of cooling water.

We walked across the Chain Bridge and down the river in the heat to check out the Parliament Building. It was HOT and we got overheated.

Fortunately, we were able to locate a public house attached to an old monastery on the river that had cold drinks and shade. The official drink of the trip became the Aperol Spritz. 

 

Day 7: Budapest Gourmet

We made it from the Budapest train station and to our hotel. Our last night on a boat had been in Vienna. Fortunately for us, our good travel karma was with us and we had a beautiful hotel and we were there for the grand opening of Gordon Ramsay's latest restaurant!

We had some true Hungarian Goulash and some pork schnitzel. RK got the fish & chips that looked amazing.

 

Day 7: Train to Budapest!

In Vienna, we took three Mercedes minivan cabs. Despite being the same make and model, they varied in their condition. By the time we took the one to the train station, it sounded like the rear axle was going to lock up.

I was excited that we got first class tickets! I have ridden first class on trains in China and Japan, and those were great experiences. Not the same on the Hungarian train to Budapest.

It took us three hours. The bus ride ended up being six hours. By the time they arrived at the hotel, we had already explored a bit and had a great lunch.

 

Night 6: Vienna

We spent our second night abord the Jarl parked at the dock in Vienna. That night we were told that the river was impassible to Budapest and we would be talking a two and a half hour bus ride first thing in the morning. We started looking into the route on Google Maps... If it's only 2.5 hours, then why is Google Maps showing it to be 5+ hours??

We talked with our cruise director about taking the train and he agreed it would be faster and less fussy, so we bought tickets and kept it to ourselves.

 

Day 6: Vienna

After the Imperial Treasury, we wandered around the city and grabbed a late lunch in a restaurant from 1619: The Black Kamel.

Each street had something spectacular to offer. 

The heat was unbearable the entire trip. We all thought we would melt at Schonbrunn. 

 

Day 6: Imperial Treasury

We ventured out on our own and hit the Imperial Treasury: the place where the Hapsburgs kept all their jewels, crowns, and valuable things.

This is the horn of a unicorn!

There was an entire wing devoted to relics. The European relics (especially those in the Imperial Treasury) were much more than the usual finger bone or kneecap of a saint. This is one of the nails that was used to nail Jesus to the cross. 

This is the Sabre of Charlemage from somewhere between 900 and 950 AD. Everything here really brought us closer to the past. It was a weird feeling seeing these actual artifacts of legends.

 

Day 6: Vienna Subway

I got up early and took the subway downtown to see what it was like. Not bad!

 

Day 5: Schonbrun

We spent half a day at Schonbrunn, an old country retreat on the edge of old Vienna. It some nice gardens and really large lawns that must take forever to weed and mow.

I think you could easily spend a week here exploring the grounds.

The gilded ballroom was decorated in the style of the White House Oval Office. Gold knick knacks everywhere!. 

 

Day 5: Vienna

We slept on the boat at the Ybbs Dock and rode the bus to a new boat at the dock in Vienna. Same layout and everyone got their same cabin number. 

Then we were off to explore Vienna! We did the guided walking tour. First stop: The Hapsburg Palace.

St. Stephen's cathedral was one of my favorite churches with its gothic architecture.

All the buildings featured the same Viennese style.

 

Day 4: Gottweig Abbey

We took the bus from Ybbs to Krems (where we supposed to dock last night) and up to Gottweig Abbey atop a hill overlooking the valley. It was beautiful, but HOT.

The church is very ornate. This is the1761 pipe organ has over 3,000 pipes. I'd love to hear it played!

The view from the abbey hilltop was spectacular.

 

Day 4: Ybbs!

We were supposed to dock in Krems, Austria, but the docks were full so we cruised back upriver to the charming town of Ybbs. It's not a regular stop on any of the cruise lines' routes, so it is not a tourist trap. It was one of our favorite explorations.

The town's modest church was spectacular.

We ducked into a dark tunnel and stumbled onto this gem of a cafe in the courtyard of an old building. Within 20 minutes the place was packed with locals and they were turning people away. We had two drinks each and the bill was 10 euro.