Hungary & Croatia -- Travel and Day One

Wednesday Helen and I arrived at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport about 11 a.m. and started on our travels with a 12:40 flight to Chicago. A few of the Star of the North Band group were on our plane; many others had left earlier and met us as we all boarded the Lufthansa flight to Dusseldorf which left at 5:10 p.m. arriving on Thursday about 8 a.m. German time, about 20 minutes late. Had to rush to the next flight which left almost 15 minutes late, arriving in Vienna about 10:30 a.m.

There we gathered on our double-decker bus pulling a trailer filled with luggage. There are 55 of us currently, to be joined in two days by 5 others who took a different route and were held up by thunderstorms in Detroit overnight. This is a "temporary" bus since the one we were supposed to have had air conditioning problems; in Budapest we'll get the permanent bus and driver (all going well).

The bus left the airport at 11, heading for downtown Vienna and a tour of the city led by a guide who joined us for that purpose. We spent about 2 1/2 hours driving around the older part of the city, stopping at a couple of places for a better look, but still a rather perfunctory tour. Since we were in the city for the purposes of plane arrival, I'm glad we had the opportunity for a little sightseeing anyway.

Stopped at the Hundertwasser House. Friedrich Hundertwasser was an artist who abhorred straight lines as evidenced by buildings he had constructed.

He also saw no need for windows to be similar much less identical (as evidenced above) and thought that trees as well as people should "rent" apartments.






Definitely eccentric -- perhaps a trifle crazy? . . .















We saw what our guide called the "ferry" wheel built in 1898 by Emperor Franz Joseph. It has only half the "cabinets" (cars) of the original. Looks to me like an early prototype of the London Eye. I would have loved to have had the chance to ride on it. . . . No time.






We then drove out to a "far" neighborhood of the city where in the late 17th century Prince Eugene built a summer palace to which to retreat from the winter palace in the center of the city. A quite impressive summer place.

The building now houses a museum, its most famous piece of art being Klimt's The Kiss.

We drove by and over the Danube River several times on our bus tour. Not that blue, or beautiful, but still a nice river with lovely waterfront.


And there were some interesting uses along the way, including this swimming pool on a barge which we were told is used quite a bit by downtown workers to get some exercise.


Having finished our tour we returned to the airport to pick up some, unfortunately not all, lost luggage (mine arrived with me just fine) and then begin the drive to Hungary. It took a little over an hour to reach our destination; the border crossing was a breeze with the bus waved on through with no one checking our passports.

Arrived in Mosonhmagyarovar, Hungary, (no, I don't know how to pronounce it) a little before 5 p.m. and checked into the Hotel Thermal. There are hot thermal springs here; don't know if we'll have time to participate. Had a group dinner at 7:30 and then I retired to my room to catch up on e-mails and write this. There's a great, free, wi-fi connection in the room.

Off to bed now. Hope a good night's sleep cures jet lag.