Central Europe

We passed briefly through Innsbruck on our way through stunning Alpine mountain scenes to the town of Garmisch Partenkirchen. We stayed here for 3 nights at a lovely quiet Gasthof which was a relief after the hustle and bustle and all night traffic in places like Florence and Rome. Fresh autumn apple juice everywhere pleased Caitlin, and we enjoyed a lovely walk in the mountains using a cable car to avoid the long climb. 

We also took a bus from here to see 2 of King Ludwig's castles - Hohenschwangau, his family's summer palace, and Neuschwanstein, the theatrical, fairytale castle he ordered nearby but was uncompleted on his death - though the "cave grotto" on the second floor, amongst other fantasy flourishes was finished. Being Bavaria, good beer and hearty food was plentiful, although the music and thigh-slapping dancing which accompanied it was of more dubious pleasure.

After Garmisch we spent one night in Salzburg, taking a pleasant walk along the hills and through the city streets, with some good fresh snacks and micro-brewery beer at an organic festival beside the cathedral.

A longer train trip was required to reach Budapest. The sightseeing highlights for us here included the Skanzen open air museum just outside Szentendre - similar in idea, but larger, than the excellent Weald & Downland open air museum near Chichester. Here a large number of village houses from the different regions of Hungary have been recreated in village clusters, and mostly fully furnished. We had a demonstration of the water mill complete with Hungarian commentary (of which not a single word of this difficult language was intelligible to us), Caitlin got to try her hand at doing the laundry the old fashioned way, and they had the best children's playground so far!

The following day, we spent several hours trying nine of the thermal pools in the city park - ranging from 20 to 40 degrees, inside and out, with and without bubbles, some with powerful whirlpools. 

The pools were a good way to relax before the overnight train to Bucharest. This was comfortable enough in our 3 bed compartment, although we were a little delayed by a problem with the overhead power lines. Caitlin's birthday breakfast on the train contained mouldy sliced bread, and no hot water to go with the Nescafe, but Caitlin was much more interested in the few presents we had managed to assemble - and the Hungarian card that we hoped said "Happy Birthday".

We had one night in Bucharest. After a lunchtime pizza (a birthday request) we toured the palace of the parliament - Ceausescu's grotesquely large, and undeniably grand, presidential palace, second only to the Pentagon in terms of building area. Bucharest clearly has some way to go to match the tourist infrastructure, or consumer society, of the more western and central parts of europe.

The overnight train to Istanbul took a few hours longer than scheduled - 23 hours - because of some middle of the night delays and the train was a bit seedier, but still OK. However, having to get off the train at 4:30 am for visa processing was pretty unwelcome, even if expected.

And so to Turkey. We arrived in Turkey on the 18th and met up with our friends Andy & Cindi. They've had to return, so we've travelled on to the weird landscapes of Cappadocia. More on that another day. Currently slightly scuppered on the photo uploading front - the Turkish government seem to have censored our blog so can only use my mobile to make this post. Love from the 3 of us to family & friends. A, S & C