Danube River Cruise~ Budapest

In April 2018, we were blessed to enjoy a Viking Cruise of the Danube River and visited Budapest, Vienna, Passau, Regensburg, and Nuremburg.

When Covid first began in 2020, I started this post and never finished it!!! 

Fast forward to 2021. We began making plans for a 50th anniversary trip so I started thinking about finishing this post which is only a tiny part of the Danube Cruise. I highly recommend  Viking Cruises. Viking takes great care of you and the travel is very pleasant because you can travel a long distance and not have to change hotels. Your floating hotel allows you to sightsee during the day and travel while you sleep. It is fun meeting people from all over the world and the food is wonderful. 

 We arrived in Budapest late afternoon and boarded our ship. After getting settled and given our itinerary it was time to enjoy our first dinner aboard the Viking Cruise longship. Then after dinner, we cruised the River Danube and saw the beautiful city of Budapest all lit up at night. It was a gorgeous full moon which always makes me happy!

This is the Szechenyi Chain Bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest.

This is the capital building. Budapest is the capital city and largest city in Hungary.

The capitol building is huge and sits high up on the hill. Quite impressive on a night cruise.

The bridges are all so pretty.

The Parliament Building is one of the most recognized buildings in Budapest as seen in the iconic Viking Cruise commercials.  

This Art Nouveau design bridge is called Liberty Bridge and was the first bridge to be rebuilt after all the damage from World War 11. 

This is another Viking longship we passed as we cruised the river in Budapest. Keep in mind the ship is moving while I photographed the sites. It was also hard to see the buttons on my camera. But it was a very exciting experience seeing these huge and beautiful buildings as we cruised by.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I still haven't finished this post on Budapest. The draft is dated May 21, 2021. It is now February 2022! I know but life gets very busy.  As you can see I am very behind on blogging about our wonderful travels.  

Matthias Church was built in the 13th century. But in the  1883-1896 restoration the Matthias Church received a colorful tile roof. It is decorated in Hungarian Zsolnay tiles of bright orange, brown, green, red, and white.

 Fisherman's Bastion is one of the top Budapest attractions. The seven turrets represent the 7 Hungarian tribes who founded the present-day country in 895. The views from Fisherman's Bastion are extraordinary.

This is the statue of St. Stephen the first Hungarian king, in 1906. 

I always enjoy seeing a model of the area. It gives you a good perspective. Matthias Church is enormous. It is one of the city's oldest buildings and is located on Buda Hill in front of the Fishermen's Bastion. It is a Roman Catholic church with Gothic Revival architecture.

Side streets with restaurants

I really wanted to walk across this bridge and look out on both sides of the river but time did not allow and I snapped this photo from our bus. 

The first time I saw this type of roof was Hotel Dieu in Beaune, France. You can view that post here.

These large WW11 photos made a lasting impression on me. Budapest was an interesting city viewed at night as well as during the day. I am glad we were able to see both.
We did take a fabulous anniversary trip to Italy and France in late August and early September. I blogged about the Tuscany portion here. I don't believe I will ever totally catch up blogging about our trips but I have hundreds of photos. 

Valentine Fun

Valentine's Day is just around the corner. I'm dreaming of a Galentine's Party with girlfriends! It has been so long since I entertained. Covid please go away so our lives can get back to normal.

In the meantime, you are invited to a virtual Galentine's Party. 

I've set the table with my very best china, crystal, silver, and linens especially for you. We have candlelight and fresh flowers cut from my own garden!

The camellias in this arrangement are Julia France, Blood Red, La Peppermint, Debutante, White by the Gate, Pink Perfection, and one other that I'm not sure of its name.

The red container is hard to see in pictures but it works well at Christmas and Valentine's.

My wedding silver flatware is called Buttercup. I love that it is written on the back of the spoon!

I adore using the Crown Linen Designs napkins and table runner that I won in the Monday Morning Blooms giveaway last November. Thank you again, sweet ladies and Crown Linens for your generous giveaway!  View the giveaway post by clicking on the title below.

                           Candlelight and Roses

I love the 'barley twist' crystal pillar candlesticks! Not sure if barley twist applies as a description except for wood or not! Does anyone know? The pillar candles are old as the hills! Only me saves things so long! However, have you shopped for candles lately? They are hard to find these days.

 I did not buy a single item for this tablescape. Usually, I do buy flowers but thankfully this time I did not have to.

I almost waited too long to cut the camellias. The large red camellia is called Blood Red and this is the largest blossom I had ever had! The picture does not do it justice.

All the elements for a tablescape blend together but if you leave one off it does not work. Centerpieces always catch my eye first.  The silver tray under the flowers was a wedding present that I cherish. I enjoy using my fancy things and reminiscing about who gave them to us. 

I purchased the round velvet placemats from Crown Linens and have enjoyed them so much.

This is my last year's Valentine post.  To view the post click here.



What are your Valentine's plans? ❤️❤️❤️

Colorado Christmas

My husband and I had a wonderful trip to Colorado Springs visiting our son and his family for Christmas. The views were wonderful right in their neighborhood.

It was a joy to view the sunrise from their kitchen window every morning.

It was enjoyable to view the moon every morning, too. 

I never tire of sunrises and sunsets. Psalm 19:1-6 is especially meaningful to me:

Let this scripture soak into your entire being. 

" The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.

They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. 

Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world,

In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.

It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, 

like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens

and makes its circuit to the other;

nothing is deprived of its warmth."

This shot was particularly beautiful! You can see the sunrise lighting up the mountains through the trees.

On Christmas Eve, it started snowing which was a delightful surprise.

It became a 'thing' to jump in the car and see this view a short distance from their house. This was Christmas morning.  

And the result: A spur-of-the-moment, unplanned,  beautiful, and treasured family Christmas picture. A mile-high Christmas.

I installed an app on my phone that you can take out unwanted signs etc. I put my best picture on Instagram stories where I had removed a street light and now I can't find it. The app is called Lightleap. 

Pike's Peak is prominent in Colorado Springs. We hope to ride the cog train to the summit on one of our visits. It has been in operation since 1891 and recently has undergone a $100 million renovation. 

My grandson and his friend had a great time making a snow fort.  They worked very hard packing snow in plastic containers to build their fort. There was always so much going on, I didn't take this picture until two days later when the snow had begun to melt.

 When I say, there was always a lot going on I mean there is always activity in the kitchen and food prepping going on. Here is an example of one fabulous meal we enjoyed.  I can still smell the scent from this leg of lamb roasting.  My daughter-in-law, Sarah, loves to cook. She served delicious roasted potatoes and a salad along with the lamb. 

Our Christmas present from our son's family was a two-night stay at The Boardmore Hotel in Colorado Springs. We spent one night and insisted they stay the next night. 

The hotel is a huge complex and has numerous restaurants.

The lake was very icy and full of geese, swans, and mallards. The swans with their long necks are able to eat from the feeder. 

Swans feeding on the icy lake.

This is a picture made from the window in our room of the sunrise on the mountains.

The 10-foot tall gingerbread house is a great hit with all ages. The pastry chefs create a new spectacular creation every year. There is a video showing former pastry creations over the years that is quite interesting.

The sheer volume of ingredients used to create the house is amazing.

Later in the week all six of us enjoyed a winter tea tasting brunch at Glen Eyrie Castle there in Colorado Springs. It was a cold snowy day and their winter brunch was a special treat.

The Glen Eyrie Castle is now owned by The Navigators, a Christian organization headquartered in Colorado Springs.

Will is 11 and Elise is 9! My other two grands are 17 and 19! Time is passing too fast! 

Fast forward a few days and our Alabama family joined us for a ski getaway at Keystone, Colorado. It was about a two-hour drive for us coming from Colorado Springs. 

Now, we are a group of ten! My daughter-in-law got a new Cheese Raclette appliance for Christmas. The cheese Raclette experience was so much fun and the large round table at the ski house was perfect for our family of ten.

After eating, we played games and there was a lot of laughter. It warmed my heart to have our family together again. 

Have you ever enjoyed a Cheese Raclette experience?

                   I hope the video works.

Three of the grandkids had fun making a fort from all the snow on the deck at our rental chalet.

The men worked several hours the next day shoveling the driveway so one car could get out of the garage. It was a lot of work to get the snow off the cars too. 

The day we left it was beautiful after all the snow from the day before. The snow-laden trees made you feel like you were in Narnia.

 I don't have any pictures of the other two days but the day I tried to ski the weather was brutal. Truly a blizzard! Not good conditions. I was disappointed but you can't plan the weather! 

We had a wonderful time as a family sharing meals, talking, and laughing. The time passed so quickly. I'm usually taking pictures but I didn't this time. I am shocked I did not insist on one group picture.

Our flight home left from Denver very early. This sunrise was ethereally beautiful captured from the back seat of my son's moving truck as we drove to the airport.

Having been gone 18 days, it was hard to do my usual blog visiting and commenting in December and January.  I have missed reading your posts and even missed the deadline on the usual tablescape blog hop I usually participate in.   Hopefully, things will get back to normal soon. January has flown by. 

Stay warm and safe!