Budapest – Memento Park & Onyx
Budapest Thursday, December 6 Today we drove from Szekszárd to Budapest's Memento Park. After the Soviets left Hungary in 1990, the Hungarians took the Communist statues and put them in a special park to remember their oppression. We visited Memento Park, even...
Szekszárd
Szekszárd Wednesday, December 5 Today we had a wine tasting at Bock and then headed out to Szekszárd. When we arrived, we checked into the Takler Kuria Hotel & went to dinner at Optimus Restaurant (Bodri Winery). We also had a tour of the Takler Kuria cellars. ...
Villány
Villány Monday, December 3 After the churches in Pécs, we drove to Villány. This village is tiny and filled with wine tasting venues all lined up down the main street. We stayed at The Crocus Hotel, which is operated by Gere Winery. We have stayed at some...
Pécs
Pécs Monday, December 3 After checking out of the hotel, we walked to the Mosque of Pasha Gazi Kasim. This church-turned-mosque-turned-church-again sits in the middle of Széchenyi square. There were many variations of a church before the Turks took over the...
Pécs
Pécs Sunday, December 2 Hotel Palatinus was beautiful. The lobby was entirely built in Art Nouveau, from stained-glass windows to the details in the ceiling work. The economy rooms need a bit of help, though, so stay in the renovated rooms if you decide to go. We...
Bikal
Bikal Friday, November 30 - Puchner Castle Puchner Castle Hotel is a very neat place to stay. The suite we had was amazing and the bed was the most comfortable one of our trip so far. They have two major bathhouses with mineral water baths. After relaxing...
Hévíz
Hévíz Thursday, November 29 The first amazing thing we saw today was the view from our room of the sunrise over Lake Balaton. After this (and our breakfast of coffee and cold cuts), we went to Festetics Palace in Keszthely near Hévíz. This palace was built in 1745...
Badacsony, Lake Balaton
Badacsony, Lake Balaton Wednesday, November 28 To sum up Viking: If you want a vacation where you want to put forth no effort at all, Viking is good for that. You pick your excursions and they give you an itinerary and shuttle you wherever you need to be. Plenty of...
Budapest, Hungary
Budapest, Hungary Tuesday, November 27 This morning we boarded a bus to go to our final destination, Budapest. The bus was a smooth drive, but took about three hours from Vienna to Budapest. Entering Budapest was almost magical. On the outskirts of the city are...
Vienna, Austria
Vienna, Austria November 25th Today we headed to old historical Vienna. The locals use the German version of the city name – Wien, pronounced “Vee-in.” Just say it really quickly. We walked from the Austrian parliament Building to Heldenplatz, or Heroes’...
Krems
Krems, Austria November 24th Göttweig Abbey, which began in 1083, is located near the historic city of Krems. There are 43 monks who live here without many modern luxuries (like air conditioning & electric lights in some rooms). They run an active winery and own...
Český Krumlov & Linz
Český Krumlov & Linz November 23rd From our port in Linz, we took a 1 ½ hour bus ride to Český Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Flowing through this village of 13,000 is the Vltava River which winds around their 13th Century castle. This castle was built from...
Passau
Passau, Germany November 21st, 2018 We landed in Munich, Germany around 9:30AM. The airport shuttle took us to passport control. Once through, we collected our bags and found the Viking representative. We boarded a large bus and traveled through the German countryside...
Hungary
November 20, 2018 Today we fly to Germany. In Germany, we will board a Viking River Cruise, sail for a week, and end up in Hungary. Our Itinerary: Munich, Germany Passau, Germany Linz, Austria Krems, Austria Vienna, Austria Bratislava, Slovakia Budapest,...