Wow! Wow! Wow! We've never said "wow" so many times. We saw so many incredible things that it just boggles your mind...gorgeous country, soaring cathedrals, charming markets, amazing architecture and museums, fabulous boat rides on amazing rivers, stunning castles and palaces, ancient walled cities, too many cobblestone streets to number,...and this doesn't even count the fabulous food in each country.
Here follows the briefest outline i can muster and some favorite photos. Be sure to click on some of these to see amazing and stunning vistas. And keep in mind i have several hours into this post before i even get started here!
Days 1-3 We had a lot of travel issues trying to get to Istanbul (visualize missing flights in both New York and Amsterdam and getting rerouted to Turkey through Paris!) As a result we missed out on a day of Istanbul. Between jetlag and only 4 hours in the hotel for sleep, we basically muddled through this amazing city like zombies.
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| The women had to wear scarves in the Blue Mosque |
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| The underground cistern is mentioned in Dan Brown's newest book Inferno. |
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| Booth after booth offered the same spices and Turkish delight candies. Mark in the spice market. |
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| We walked outside the spice market right into an anti-american/israel rally. |
Day 4 We flew to Bucharest, Romania where we stayed 2 nights.
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| This is the 2nd biggest building in the world after the Pentagon: House of the People. Communist leader Ceausescu built it to stroke his big ego! |
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| This is Revolution Square where in 1989 protesters forced Ceausescu to flee with his wife. They were captured and executed a few days later. The people of Romania do not love this monument which reminds them of a speared potato. |
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| The LDS meetinghouse in Bucharest |
Day 5 Enroute to the city of Brasov, we stopped in the mountain resort of Sinaia to see the
beautiful Peles Castle. (couldn't take photos inside.)
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| View of Brasov, Romania out of our hotel window. Day 6 We drove to the nearby Bran Castle, often referred to as Dracula's Castle. Many historians agree that Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), the model for Bram Stoker's Dracula, lived here during his raids in Transylvania. 
the courtyard of Bran Castle
the city square in Brasov
We tried galuste cu prune, which are plum dumplings.
Not quite as good as these:
We enjoyed these in several countries- called Kurtoskalacs-
a thin yeast pastry ribbon wound around a wooden cylinder, heavily sprinkled with sugar,
and baked over an open fire. The outside is sweet and crispy and the
inside is soft and smooth.....delish!!!!
Day 7 We bussed to Sibiu, the largest and wealthiest of 7 walled cities constructed in the 12th century.
 
Day 8 Sighisoara is another ancient walled city in Romania.
It is the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, known as Count Vlad Dracula.
Back to Sibiu for the rest of the day...
this was my favorite eastern orthodox church because of the gorgeous
murals. This photo shows The Prodigal Son.
we visited a local market where we bought some honey for Grammy.
We had a traditional Romanian dinner in this amazing restaurant cellar:
cabbage rolls with polenta, and papanasi for dessert- which is a popular
donut or dumpling with cream cheese. Mark says he could never learn
a foreign language and i agree; he asked me why i didn't finish eating my placenta!
Day 9- We bussed to the "scariest castle on earth" - Hunedoara Castle in the
Transylvanian Alps. Count Vlad Dracula was a prisoner here for 7 years. It was
amazing, but we didn't like all the torture items on display!
Day 10- We've been making our way west and today we crossed the border into Hungary.
Buda and Pest were 2 cities on either side of the Danube until 1873. Here we are on the Buda side at St. Mathias church. The architecture in Budapest is stunning.
 
Of course we HAD to try some authentic Hungarian goulash....yum!!!
Day 11- Today we drove to Vienna, Austria where we had time for a short city tour.
Day 12- This was a highlight day!!! Vienna!!!!
my favorite palace: Schonbruun...summer residence of the Habsburgs. Amazingly Stunning!!!
St. Stephen's Cathedral- couldn't stop saying WOW! simply breathtaking!
On our own for lunch we found this little cafe and this is what we ate:
tortes and hot chocolate...$6 for 6 ounces.
(It was rainy and cold today!)
We had free time and decided to go to the Art Museum. This photo does
not do justice to the scope of this museum!!! It was AWESOME!
Haven't we seen this painting before in an Ensign???
For dinner we were bussed up the mountain for dinner.
I had schweinsbraten mit kraut und kartoffeln (pork with saeurkraut and potatoes)
and Mark had wiener schnitzel mit kartofflesalat (breaded and deep fried veal with potato salad)
YUM!
Then we drove back to the city for a Strauss/Mozart concert...loved it!!!
Day 13- Today we left Vienna and headed to Salzburg.
Along the way we stopped in the Wachau Valley for a 2 hour cruise on the Danube. Not only were the vistas absolutely stunning, but we had a delicious lunch: Wachauer Palatschinke for Mark (Wachau pancakes filled with homemade apricot jam, chocolate sauce, roasted nuts and whipped cream), and for me: Gulaschuppe mit Geback (goulash soup with a bread roll.) This was another rainy, cold day.
We disembarked in Melk to see the monumental Benedictine Monastery....it literally drips with gold!
the view from the monastery was gorgeous!
We finally made it to Salzburg where we had time for a city tour. We took the (scary!) funicular up the side of the mountain to the fortress where this photo was taken overlooking the old city and the river.
 Fun for Less treated us to a traditional Austrian dinner this night in the old city. The pork and coleslaw was good but no one liked the semmelknodel...the round ball in this pic. Later learned that it was a bread dumpling, but these sure didn't have much flavor!
Day 14- Today we did more touring in the old city of Salzburg. I adored this little town!!! Especially the shopping! Check out this amazing row of shops with the cobblestone street.
You've gotta click on this picture to appreciate the novelty of this charming street! and my hat!
How do you like my new hat? I bought it in Vienna. It was COLD this day! We enjoyed lots of free time today.
We found my favorite souvenir here...an adorable cuckoo clock.
It was hard to choose which flavor of pretzel to try. We went with an apple one.
We got lucky walking back to the hotel where we discovered a folk dance festival in the gardens. There were dancers from: Czech Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Latvia, and Slovakia.
We were on our own for dinner. We opted to go to a Sound of Music Dinner Theater. The menu was delish, and the movie we saw about the real Maria Von Trapp was great. But the best part of all was getting to sing along to all my favorite songs!!! (the apple strudel for dessert was pretty great too!)
Day 15- This morning we crossed the border to Czech Republic. We were heading for Prague and stopped in the most beautiful little village in the whole world: Cesky Krumlov. Can't help but show you my favorite photos because they turned out so good!
This is a pic of the outskirts of Salzburg. We've never seen country this gorgeous.
View from the castle in Cesky Krumlov.
Love this shot. This view was breathtaking.
This one too!!!
Still in Cesky......It was still cold today....another cute hat and scarf...these are from Salzburg.
They say that Prague is the most beautiful city in the world. Clarify that....the most beautiful OLD city. This pic isn't very good but click on it to see the grandeur of the city streets. It was absolutely amazing to be there. We had time for a short city tour before heading to the hotel.
Day 16- This was our last day before flying home. And what a day. We toured the old city, took a boat ride on the Moldau River, saw the changing of the guard, visited St. Vitus cathedral, and had lots of free time to explore and shop.
look at the cathedral in the distance
another amazing experience and lots of WOWs in this place!
boat ride on the Moldau
We sat on the top deck of the boat and it was COLD! They gave us blankets to wrap up in.
This hot chocolate is the best ever hot chocolate we have EVER had. Look at it dripping off the spoon!
I really like this picture of Michael Wilcox. This was the site of his last "talk"...
"The Gifts of Europe." It was so moving that our guide, Ari, was bawling by the end.
Isn't this too cute? There were all sorts of vendors and musicians and artists on the bridge.
I fell in love with the marionettes in Czech Republic. This shop had amazing
(and expensive!) puppets. I bought cheaper ones and am quite delighted with them.
Look at the size of this little house! There is a whole row of them on the "Golden Lane" which date to the late 1400's. The emperor decided to give the space there to the castle marksmen who guarded the fortification. But there were 24 marksmen and a lack of space. So the marksmen had to build very small houses for them and their families. Just delightful!
and so is this final treat of the trip. This is a potato, all in one piece, deep fried and salted. Yum!
Thanks for reading my post. It has taken me hours and hours to finish, but I really wanted to share the amazing things we did and saw (and ate!) in Eastern Europe. It was an amazing adventure and I would go back in a heart beat. We now have wonderful memories and a way to re-live the experiences via this blog. Thanks kath!
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