St Marks Basilica

The Basilica of Saint Mark with it's gold interior. The remains of Saint Mark who wrote one of the books of the bible and met Jesus is buried here. During the crusades, his body was stolen from Constantinople in a pickled pork barrel and brought here.

The interior has millions of tiny mosaic tiles that are covered in gold leaf.

  These full size bronze horses were part of the booty taken from Constantinople in 1204. They are believed to be 2000 years old and used to be outside St Marks. The replicas can be seen in the top picture at the bottom of the great window.

For more on Saint Marks Basilica:

St Marks Basilica

Venice!

Venice the city of water, canals, bridges and gondoliers. We arrived as the sun was setting and the buildings were bathed in a golden glow.

This is the Rialto Bridge which was the first bridge built crossing the Grand Canal. Kathy and I got caught up in the experience and decided to have a dinner at a restaurant right here. We knew it was expensive so we tried to keep some of the costs down by getting the kids personal pizzas but it still cost us $170 USD!
Not all the restaurants are like this. We got caught in a tourist trap that night but the next day we found a restaurant off the beaten path that had great food and fed everyone for $30. Lesson learned!

The Beginning of Carnival

We went to a festival celebrating the beginning of carnival where the Mayor hands over the keys of the city to the master of the carnival. They also make straw effigies that they put up on posts and burn at the end of Carnival. Often they have the names of political figures or others who have done something wrong. The idea is that they can vent their anger over someone and be done with it for the new year.
More about the Carnival at:
Rijeka_Carnival

English Books!

Our new American friends let us borrow some English languagebooks for the rest of our time in Croatia. I love the look on Audrey's face!

Austro-Hungarian Empire

Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. We saw their Schönbrunn and Hofburg Palaces in Vienna. It was a very interesting part of European history that occurred before the First World War. Sadly, she was assassinated by an Italian who wanted to kill a royal and she just happened to be nearby. He stabbed her in the heart and she did not even realize she had been mortally wounded until they removed her corset. You can read about it in the following links.
Elisabeth_in_Bavaria
Franz_Joseph_of_Austria
Rick Steves on Hofburg Palace

Emperors were the King of Kings with an example being Napoleon who was a self proclaimed Emperor.
Emperor Information from Wikipedia
I found out that there is only one Emperor left in the world and he belongs to the The Imperial House of Japan which is the oldest continuing hereditary monarchy in the world. The current emperor is His Imperial Majesty the Emperor Akihito
Emperor of Japan Wikipedia link

Eurail Plans

Starting to plan our 3 month Eurail travel starting in March. Planning to go to Paris, then EuroDisney, Florence, Rome, Herculaneum, Sorrento, Naples then Greece. Then back to Europe either clockwise or counterclockwise. London, Berlin and my birthplace, Grostenquin, France are somewhere in the plan.

Vienna (Wien) Austria

We made it to Vienna where we stayed for 2 days with Barbara who is the mother of my friend Stefan who has just moved to the U.S.
In the background is the 18th century Michael Wing of Emperor Franz Joseph's Hofburg Palace.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hofburg_Imperial_Palace 

Not sure whose nose is longer!

St. Stephan's church

The view from the top of the church. I lost track of the number of stairs after 300.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vienna

Bratislava, Slovakia

Funky bridge we crossed on our way into Bratislava.

Bratislava_Castle

Soviet Car

Also called the "paper car" and took about 15 years to get one after placing your order. It had a 2 stroke engine with 2 cylinders that you had to add oil to the gas.
One of the Soviet jokes about this car was that you could double the value of it by filling it with gas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trabant

We saw a about 10 Trabants honking and leaving a trail of exhaust as they passed by us downtown Budapest.

Soviet Momento Park

This is a park outside of Budapest where they put some of the statues from the Soviet era.

These "boots" are all that is left of the statue of Stalin that was torn down in the 1956 Budapest uprising against the Soviets.
http://www.szoborpark.hu/index.php?Content=Latnivalok&Lang=en

Medieval Renaissance Restaurant

Guy enjoying the attention of a belly dancer at a medieval renaissance restaurant. There were fire-eaters, jugglers and even a sword fight. Great fun for the kids!

No forks, flagons of ale (or pop) and a large bib.
See some of the action at:
http://www.sirlancelot.hu/index.php?lang=en

Another Shot of the Chain Bridge

Budapest Castle Hill Funicular

We took the Funicular, which is a type of train that goes up a hill, to the top of Castle Hill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest_Castle_Hill_Funicular

St Stephan's Basilica

 Went to St. Stephan/s Basilica today. The original dome had collapsed in 1868 due to bad design.

The church has the remains of St. Stephan's hand who was the first King of Hungary (c. 975–1038).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Stephen%27s_Basilica

Best McDonalds so Far

This is the inside of a McDonalds in Budapest.

Fishermans Bastion

Statue of King St Stephan. I had told the kids that depending on how many of the horses legs were in the air told how the rider died. However, according to Wikipedia:
"A common belief is that if the horse is rampant, that is with both front legs in the air, the rider died in battle. If the horse has one front leg up, the rider was wounded in battle or died of wounds sustained in battle, and if all four hooves are on the ground, the rider died of causes other than combat. However, there is little evidence to support this belief."

Ok kids, don't smile and act like a statue.

The seven towers here represent the seven Magyar tribes that first came to Hungary in 896. It is called the Fishermen's Bastion because there was a large Fish market here in medieval times.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fisherman%27s_Bastion

Budapest's Architecture

Parliament building in the fog.

Many buildings here have this type of Neo-gothic facade.

Jam Packed Streets for New Years in Budapest

The kids getting a whiff of the hot Hungarian donut they are about to devour.

Hungarian Forint

Even though Hungary is an European Union member, they still use the Forint. This bill is worth about $100.

Buda and Pest

Budapest was actually two cities, with Buda on the left and Pest on the right. In the picture you can see the Chain Bridge over the Danube river.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budapest

Sebastiani Family Crypt

 

Sebastiani de Porta family crypt from my mothers side in a Budapest cemetery.