Wednesday, June 18 – Szeged to Vienna

Weather was again good today - warm and mostly sunny.

Everyone was pretty pleased with our hotel last night. Rooms were large and well kept. Breakfast room was quite charming. Overall, a good place to stay.

We drove from Szeged to Budapest, where we dropped Anni and Willi at the train station after two and a half days with us. Willi has been quite a good sport. He loves biking and hiking and does not speak English, so trudging around cemeteries with a bunch of uni-lingual Anglophones was not his idea of a good time. But he chipped in and helped out because he knows it is important to Anni. Anni has been very helpful and genial.

From the train station we drove to the citadel overlooking the city. While all the viewpoints were accessible, most of the facilities, shops, and attractions were closed behind a security fence watched over by security guards. There was no indication that we could see what the problem was, but it seems to be pretty long term, as they had plumbed in a temporary toilet facility. Since there was nothing to do after taking in the view, we left early.

We stopped a few miles to the west for our last village – Many. In early versions of the itinerary, it had been on the list for our tour of the Schilgebirge, but because that was such a long day and because it was so close to the highway back to Vienna, I moved it to today.

From Many, it was on to Vienna, where Barbara, a certified tour guide gave us an interesting commentary as we drove around the inner ring road. It is quite a beautiful city with beautiful buildings and parks. Of note were several statues of composers, such as Strauss, Beethoven, and Mozart where, in other places, you might expect to find politicians and generals.

We made a brief stop at Barbara’s house where we were all impressed by the house they had built themselves. We then drove to a nearby Heuriger for dinner. To make a long story short, a Heuriger is a place licensed to sell its own new wine to the public. The rules have evolved over centuries to the point where they are basically local wineries and restaurants. Anyway, Barbara treated us all to a few pitchers of wine and we had a very good meal, many of us choosing authentic Wiener Schnitzel. We said our good-byes to Barbara and left for the hotel. Barbara had become a real favourite with everyone over the last ten days and she really appreciated the opportunity to visit the place her family had left under most unpleasant circumstances many years ago.

I had received an email from the hotel several days ago at they would not be able to accommodate our bus. Not much notice to make alternate arrangements since we were already on the road and they had had the reservation for months! When we got there, there was no place to park even to unload passengers and luggage. After a couple of trips around the block, Johannes squeezed into a place across the street adjacent to the tram car tracks, leaving what he thought was sufficient space for the tram to pass. Well, apparently the tram driver disagreed. While we were at the hotel desk checking in, a neighbour from across the street came to tell us that there was trouble. Johannes went out to find a stopped tram car, a fire truck, and a transit police car all parked in the street. While one of the officers recorded his license number, another told him to move the bus. That is probably not the end of this story.