Ebensee and Hallstat

Simon drove mum and I up to the Salzburg area and we stayed the night in Pension Sybille at Ebensee, set on the lake. It is a very beautiful area. We went for a walk in the town and had a delightful meal in a quaint restaurant! The next morning we drove to Hallstat, an even more beautiful town set on the edge of the lake, we had to climb down steps to get there, it was absolutely delightful.

Last Day in Budapest

Today we did a tour of the Hungarian Parliament House- it really is a stunning building, and then we went to the Gellert Baths for a dip in the thermal springs, that was an interesting experience- you will notice the absence of photos for that location- you wouldnt want to photograph the bodies we saw!

More Budapest

Parliament House, the Danube, St Stephen's Church- the scenery is just fantastic and as you can see so was the weather!

Budapest

Had a wonderful time in Budapest! Explored the Central Markets, did a Hop On, Hop Off Bus Tour, night cruise on the Danube, toured a Jewish Synagoge, enjoyed lovely cheap food and wonderful weather, a great place to visit!

A Chocaholics Idea of Heaven

Today my sister in law took mum and I out to the Zotter Chocolate Factory at Riegersburg about 2 hours from Vienna. It is a chocoholics heaven. You have to sit through a 15 minute film in German but then the fun begins. You have chocolate fountains to taste from- ranging from milk up to 100% dark chocolate, then you have little poker like machines which dispense slivers of different types and flavours of chocolate to taste. Then it is in to the hot chocolate room where a little cable car delivers different flavours of little blocks of chocolate to put into your glass of hot frothy milk- I had cinnamon and honey hot chocolate! Next stop is the Bollero room where mini concrete mixer type machines deliver little balls of flavoured chocolate- banana coconut, hot caramel- the list goes on. Finally the last stop is the hand filled chocolates with some rather interesting flavours, some very nice- avoid the fish chocolate!

You could eat as much as you like but by the end you were really craving something savoury- but what a great way to spend your day. Made even better by the delightful weather, lovely countryside and villages we passed through!

Another Day in Paradise

Friday morning we had a lovely morning wandering the market street of Rue Mouffetard- it was just delightful all the food shops and stalls including the boulangeries (bakery), cheese shops, chocolate shops, fruit stalls- there was just such an atmosphere to it all. Mum just had to have some little potatoes that were cooked in the bottom of the rotisseried chicken. We then found the Paris Mosque but it was closed to visitors because Friday is prayer day- just a look into the gardens through the front gate made us realise what we were missing. Then we wandered through some more gardens and caught the Batobus - a hop on hop off boat on the Seine

Night Cruise on the Seine

Thursday night after dinner we went for a cruise along the Seine. It was lovely seeing the buildings all lit up at night and the highlight had to be the Eiffel tower all light up and then when it twinkled on the hour for 5 minutes

More of Our Day in Paris

Next on our list was the La Madeleine Church and while standing at the top of the step one got a lovely view of the Place de la Concorde. Back to the hotel for a break then off to the Luxembourg Gardens, a few more churches then Sainte Chapelle to view some magnificent stained glass windows.

A Day in Paris

This morning we caught a bus down to Hotel Des Invalides which among other things was where the Dome Church or the Tomb of Napoleon is located. A very stunning church where you can see Napoleon's tomb containing the six coffins he was buried, one inside the other! This was just one of 7 churches we visited today. We then went to the Gardens of Musee de Rodin for a bit of culture!

Breakfast in Paris

Breakfast this morning was an apple pastry from a bakery and fresh raspberries from the market at the end of the street. As you can see I am working hard to put back on those 5kgs the hotel scales tell me I have lost! We also sampled some chocolate macaroons and some florentines today- I forgot to take a photo so I better buy some more tommorrow to photograph!

Paris Day One

Having a wonderful time in Paris- for someone who had to be told she was going to Paris, my mother is showing no signs of wishing she didn't come. We arrived at our hotel about 4pm, so after a short break headed out for a couple of hours. We first went to Notre Dame, which blew my mother away. We stayed for Vespers - whatever that is - it involved singing, so it was lovely to just sit and listen.

There was no shortage of places to choose for dinner in the Latin Quarter so had a 3 course meal for 12 euro each. Our hotel room has some scales - I like these ones very much, since arriving in Paris I have lost 5 kilos so I better do some eating to put that weight back on!
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Vienna City Centre

Today we went touring in the city centre. We did a tour of the Opera House which was bombed during World War 2. There was some of the original building that remained but much of it had to be rebuilt. It was a beautiful building. Next we visited Parliament House which is a stunning building again some of it was damaged in the war and parts needed to be rebuilt. Wherever you go there seems to be one stunning building after the other.