About Elaine-iaK's Travels

As a graduate of Recreation Administration, from San Diego State University, I have made recreation and travels my career and life’s passion. After graduation, I traveled solo for one year throughout the South Pacific, doing travel photography in a wide variety of settings. Upon my return, many of my photographs became the subjects of my newly created line of handcrafted photographic greeting cards, "Exquisite! By, Elaine", a business I have had since 1986. Check them out at: http://ExquisiteCards.fototime.com . In 1983, I began teaming up with my mom, Goldie, teaching arts & crafts to cruise ship passengers, aboard Princess Cruises and Royal Caribbean. In addition, I lectured on travel photography, as well as Australia and New Zealand history, aboard Princess Cruises. In 2004, I formed a new teaching team with my recently retired husband, Bruce, who serves as my "humble assistant" until 2010 when the cruise lines shifted the arts and crafts program to mostly being taught by their own staff. Currently, our favorite mode of travel is by river boat. Along the way, we enjoy poking around small European towns, meeting the people, seeking out interesting photo subjects, and always stopping at every chocolatier to make a purchase. Adding to my chocolate label and wrapper collection is a bonus! And, as a U.S. Masters swimmer, if I can find a pool to get in a swim with the locals, all the better! Cheers! Elaine-iaK ~ Believing in your dreams can be far more rewarding than living by your limitations~ -Karla Peterson

NUTS ABOUT NUREMBERG

Posted on August 1, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

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To be quite honest, just the mention of “Nuremberg” used to turn my stomach, given all the history I learned at Jewish religious school about Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Actually, I used to have just as negative of a reaction to hearing the word “Germany.”

As time marched on, I grew up, the Berlin Wall fell, and Nazi Germany was further in the past, I became more open-minded about the place I had vowed never to visit.

It wasn’t until my first river cruise in 2002 when our program director, Tia, raved about Germany and said it was her favorite river cruise itinerary. I remembered thinking to myself, “Really?”

I ended up loving Germany so much when I visited on that very river cruise itinerary (in 2011), that I so eagerly wanted to return—even to see Nuremberg. After all, I have met so many wonderful Germans since then, and most of them are so terribly ashamed of that darkest period of their history. I also reminded myself I am an open-minded liberal Democrat who firmly believes in this current election cycle’s favorite DNC slogan, LOVE TRUMPS HATE. (I need to buy the t-shirt!) Why should I paint a wide brush of hate against all Germans and all of Germany when the vast majority of Germans are just as repulsed by the thought of Hitler and the Nazis as I am?

As it turned out, Nuremberg is a charming, beautiful, and delightful city to explore on foot, and we did just that. In addition to our excellent walking tour that begun outside the walls of the Castle of Nuremberg, Bruce and I hoofed it all around the old city, walking in and out of the cobblestone streets to explore the beautiful architecture. What a fabulous and memorable day!

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An interesting bridge on our way to Nuremberg

On the way to Nuremberg, we passed through the Berching Lock with a 55.8 ft height difference! Believe it or not, this wasn’t anywhere close to the 81(!) ft. height difference of the locks we passed through after leaving Nuremberg!

The town of Reidenburg, on the way to Nuremberg

Our walking tour began outside the walls of the Castle of Nuremberg, one of the most important imperial castles of the Middle Ages.

The Old City, just on the other side of the arched tunnel was charming!

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Before 12:00 Noon

As the bells chimed at Noon

We enjoyed meandering around the Farmer’s Market as we waited for the church clock to “perform.”

At one point, the skies looked quite threatening!

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Notice the prices (in Euros) of these truffles!

HUUUGE mushrooms!

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This was an amazing miniature at the fabulous Toy Museum.

This miniature basket measured no more than two inches wide!

We were fortunate to wander into one of the churches just in time for a free organ recital!

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Upon arrival in Germany, we noticed many VERY long words on signs and began to count the letters in search of the longest one. Our search was over in Nuremberg when we found this one at 22 letters!

Coming up next: Cruising the Main-Danube Canal and Main River.

KICKIN’ AROUND KELHEIM

Posted on July 31, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

One of the advantages of booking a tour with Vantage Deluxe World Travel is that when they say their river cruises are “all-inclusive,” they mean it. Most tours are included in the price, whereas with other river cruising companies, more of the tours are optional. Once our cruise and air were booked through Vantage, the only thing Bruce and I had to budget for was tipping, because even beer and wine were included with our dinners and a few cocktail parties. Vantage also made it convenient for us by registering our credit card for the tips to be billed automatically at the end of our cruise. We could make adjustments to the amount or allow them to charge their suggested rate to our bill.

Although we chose to book one of the optional tours (it was fabulous!), we decided to pass on an optional tour to a monastery when we arrived in Kelheim. Having some time to kick around independently and at our own pace was a nice alternative for the day, and we thoroughly enjoyed it (even though it rained at times).

The River Voyager was tied up on the riverbanks just a fifteen-minute walk from the town center, so we enjoyed the casual walk through the neat and tidy residential neighborhood, admiring the gardens along the way.

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In town, we were delighted by the colorful buildings and enjoyed just poking around. It was also the perfect opportunity to stock up on Milka chocolate on sale at Edeka. As an extra bonus, we scored an awesome money-saving coupon somebody had left behind on the shelf. She scores!!!

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Once again, Bruce was my willing “Sherpa” to carry the haul back to our cabin. In the end, between Milka (Germany), Boci (Hungary), Figaro (Czech Republic), Clever (Czech Republic), and a bunch of other miscellaneous bars I purchased along the way, he counted an embarrassingly abundant load of 66 bars (many of them HUGE) that I loaded up in my roll-aboard, along with my laptop and other essentials, for the flight home. Lifting the hefty suitcase into the overhead compartment was not Bruce’s idea of fun, as I surmised by the look on his face…

…But, I digress.

Kelheim! (Chocolate has a way of getting me off topic.) This cute little Bavarian town is small— just under 16,000 residents. It is situated at the confluence of the Danube and Altmuhl rivers, and we found it to be quite charming and attractive.

Here are some scenes from our (at-times) rainy walk around town:

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Next up: Nuremberg

RAPTURED BY REGENSBURG

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

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What a beautiful city! One of the best preserved and most intact medieval cities in Germany is Regensburg. Dating back 2,000 years ago, it was founded by the Romans. Today, there are 150,00 residents in Regensburg, and the city draws 2 million tourists each year. In addition to tourism being very important economically for Regensburg, the automotive industry is a top revenue producer, mainly from BMW which produces their cars there.

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During our walking tour of the old city, we saw the oldest “fast food” restaurant in the world. Founded over 500 years ago, “Burstkuchl” the historical “Wurstkuchl” is world famous for its sausages and sauerkraut.

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Curiously, the towers we saw scattered throughout the old city were built in the middle ages for no reason, and they weren’t used for anything.

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The cathedral we visited was built back in the 13^th century, and the second half took 200 years to build due to the lack of money.

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After our walking tour and exploring the town on our own during our free time, a group of us joined Vicky (River Explorer Tour Director) and Renata (Concierge) for a pub crawl. The first stop was back at Burstkuchl for Jacob beer. As a surprise, Vicky and Renata treated us to plates of sausages and sauerkraut to share and enjoy with our beers.

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Feeling happy and relaxed, we were off for a beautiful stroll across the bridge to our second and final pub crawl stop at Regensburger Sital Brauerei, where they have been brewing beer since 1226. It was love at first sip; the best beer I had ever tasted! We enjoyed our beer in their biergarten along the river, and it was a gorgeous evening.

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Regensburger Spital Brauerei

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On the way back to the boat, we watched the kayakers in the river below the bridge, paddling against the current and surfing the churning waters at the point. It was such a great way to end a fabulous day!

Check out the kayakers on the left side of the river.

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Next up: Kelheim

PRETTY PASSAU

Posted on July 29, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

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By the time we reached Passau, “The City of Three Rivers,” my hip was nearly back to normal, and I was able to join the walking tour through the first city established in Germany and located strategically on the convergence of three rivers: Danube, Inn, and Ilz.

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What a lovely, photogenic, well-preserved medieval city! Although it has had quite a history of flooding (as the photo below demonstrates), it has survived and thrived.

Have you ever wondered where the saying, “That man is not worth his salt!” originated? During medieval times, Passau was and ancient Roman colony, and Roman soldiers were paid “salt money,” salarium argentum, from which we take our English word, “salary.” Salt was a valuable commodity, and it was as valuable as silver.

How about, “Walls have ears.” Where the heck did that saying come from? Back in the day, castles of the wealthy were built with double walls so servants could walk between the walls to stoke fireplaces from the back to reduce the amount of smoke exposure. Out of sight, out of mind; so, juicy gossip was overheard by the servants and passed between each other.

Those were two of the interesting tidbits we learned from our guide, and we also learned that Passau (and all of Bavaria) has five “seasons”: winter, spring, summer, fall, and lent. During lent, eating bread and drinking beer is permitted, and beer is consumed in massive quantities!

Our walking tour concluded at the cathedral where we were fortunate to enjoy a beautiful organ concert performed on their world-renowned organ that has 17,954 pipes and 234 stops. That first number is not a typo, my friends; you read that correctly! The tallest pipe is eleven meters high, the shortest measures ½ cm high, and it is considered the largest Catholic church pipe organ in the world.

The frescos and ornate artwork throughout the church were so detailed and beautiful, we spent the entire performance swivel-necking to take it all in. Gorgeous!

St. Stephan’s Cathedral was finished in 1688.

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St. Stephan’s courtyard fountain

Side door to St. Stephan’s Cathedral

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Panorama of ceiling

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More scenes from Passau:

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Town Hall ceiling

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Coming up next: Regensburg

WATCHING THE WACHAU

Posted on July 28, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Having a “relaxing” day on the ship to recuperate after receiving the injection for my raging hip tendinitis was a good thing—and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Although, as you can see by the quotation marks above, relaxing is relative; it depends on who the person is doing it.

Me? I never stay down for very long, especially when I’m traveling. The River Voyager cruised past photogenic scenery too beautiful to pass by without jumping to my feet to snap a few photos from time-to-time.

While making our way to Vienna, we cruised the Danube which is Europe’s second-longest river at 1,770 miles long. It passes through ten countries, including: Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The 20-mile long Wachau Valley, between the Austrian towns of Melk and Krems is (in my opinion) the most scenic section along the Danube, and we took in the beautiful scenery along the way.

There were many charming towns as well as gorgeous castles, monasteries, and terraced vineyards we passed along the (at-times narrow) Wachau Valley section of the river.

The following are scenes we enjoyed along the way:

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Durnstein, a very upscale village that was visited frequently by Princess Diana, is also known for its wine.

Spitz, “Land of 1,000 Buckets,” is known as a wine-producing region in Austria.

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Melk Abbey, in the town of Melk, is a Benedictine abbey that was built between 1702 and 1736.

It was beautiful to see the sun finally shining! As we cruised through Austria, their nation’s flag was flown with the Vantage Deluxe World Travel flag.

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Next up: Passau

VIBRANT VIENNA

Posted on July 26, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Vienna was our next stop after a wonderfully relaxing full day of cruising on the Danube. At 94 degrees, the temperature was about 15 degrees above the normal average, and it felt very hot!

I could have used a dip in this interesting floating pool!

The highlight of our walking tour was visiting the library of the palace that dated back to 1774. It was stunning!

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St.Stephen’s Cathedral was photogenic as well; especially the 250,000 colorful enamel tiles that covered the roof, and the enormous stain glass windows. Like most of the cathedrals we have seen, though, there was scaffolding in place where workers were cleaning the façade that had been damaged by pigeon droppings. Many cathedrals and historic buildings throughout Europe now have screen covering surfaces to prevent pigeons from taking up residence and damaging the stone with excrement.

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There are 250,000 of these enamel tiles!

Look closely at what is hanging from the ceiling of the cathedral. These are all hand-crocheted lace doilies that have been stitched together. I believe the words projected on each of these translated to love and peace. (I forgot to write it in my notes.)

During our free time after the tour, Bruce and I wandered the streets I had strolled back in 2007 when I had visited with my mom. There were a lot of changes—many more modern chain stores had replaced the small local businesses and patisseries. Still, the smaller cobblestone alleys had picturesque cafes and boutiques that were pleasant to explore.

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By the time we had returned to the boat, the previous days of walking miles over cobblestones, climbing a lot of stairs, and trekking up the hill in Prague to see the view below from the castle, my hip rebelled. Surprisingly, it wasn’t the hip that had been operated on in December, 2014; it was my “good” hip.

Knowing I couldn’t let my hip go untreated, I sought medical care the following day. We would be in Vienna until 3:45 AM, so I asked the concierge, Renata, where I could go to get checked by a physician. Being a Sunday, my only option was the hospital emergency room. There was another gal on board, Betsy, who was having a problem with a leg injury, so Renata insisted on taking us by taxi to the hospital and assisting us.

Betsy, Renata, and Me

Thankfully, Betsy and I both had taken out Vantage’s travel insurance, because all expenses were covered with no hassle, including the 60-euro round-trip taxi ride clear across the city to get to hospital and back. Unfortunately, the first hospital we went to wouldn’t treat us, because there was nobody there to x-ray my hip or administer an injection. On Sundays, you’re out of luck. Unless you are an admitted patient, there is only one place to get medical care—the other hospital also located on the outskirts of town. Renata called another taxi, and off we went to Krankenhausseelsorge, the other hospital with a very long name.

While Betsy received treatment for her leg, I was sent off for an exam, x-ray, and injections. What was thought to be bursitis was calcific tendinitis, and the x-rays showed plenty of evidence. The doctors who claimed to speak “little” English ended up being a breeze to communicate with, and they were wonderful. I received an injection of short and long-term anesthetic in my hip, and I was sent away with a cd of my x-rays and a stronger anti-inflammatory than the Meloxicam I had brought on board, just in case.

What could have been a miserable experience turned out to be no big deal, and the three of us made the best of it. We got to know each other during the long taxi rides, had a lot of laughs, and we bonded. In the hospital, while Renata went to check on Betsy, she made a detour to the cafeteria and surprised me with a couple of cutely packaged Lindt chocolate bars to cheer me up. (She knew how much I loved chocolate after I asked her the first night of the cruise where the closest grocery store was located in Budapest, so I could purchase chocolate the following day. It turns out she loved chocolate, too, and she shared some of her private Croatian chocolate stash with me. We were instant soul sisters! The following day, she was afraid we wouldn’t get a chance to make it to the store, so she even purchased a few of the bars I was looking for when she went shopping for herself and gave them to me as a gift. We laughed, because we had bought chocolate to Renata as a gift! We ended up giving each other the exact same chocolate!)

By the evening time, the short-term injection alleviated the pain enough to be able to join the other passengers for a trip to the beautiful Kursalon Wien music hall for a private concert just for our group. After being served a glass of champagne on the terrace, we were treated to a fabulous one-hour performance by a nine-piece orchestra, two opera singers, and two ballet dancers. The repertoire included several recognizable favorites, and the variety of classical music, opera, and ballet was a perfect cultural mix. All of us agreed it would prove to be one of the highlights of our trip!

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Enjoying champagne on the terrace with Bruce. This concert was a casual event exclusively for Vantage, so it we were told to “Come as you are!”

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LOTS OF LOCKS!

Posted on July 25, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Cruising the rivers of Europe as I have done four times now, I have noticed one thing in common with the passengers on each of those cruises. When the ship enters that first lock, everybody flocks to the outer decks, balconies, or lounge windows to watch. Shutter bugs jockey for the best vantage spot on deck and click photo after photo. Conversation between passengers is a lively affair, and everybody is amazed and enthralled by the process. Smiles all around!

As the cruise continues (and the ship has entered lock after lock), less and less passengers casually meander out to the decks to have a look. Several photographers still bring their cameras (just in case), but less of them actually use them. There is some passing interest, but not quite the enthusiasm exhibited during that first lock experience.

By the final lock (in our case on this cruise, lock number 71! on the Main River), nobody budges. For passengers who happened to be out on deck already, they may watch, but with little interest. Card players continue with their games in the lounge, readers don’t bother looking up from their books, and conversation between passengers is about everything except the lock.

Photographers? Pfffft. Why bother? It’s just another lock.

On this cruise, we passed through a LOT of locks! Locks 1 thru 16 were on the Danube, locks 17 thru 37 on the Main-Danube Canal, and locks 38 thru 71 were passed through on the Main. By the time we arrived at Kostheim Lock, the 167 passengers on board were lock-ed out!

Just how do those locks work anyway, and why did we have to pass through 71 of those darn things? I will plagiarize from www.someinterestingfacts.net and quote: “Locks were invented to let boats travel up and down gradients on water. They work like an ‘aqua lift’; the boat is enclosed in a chamber, which is either filled with or emptied of water. This commonly carries the boat up or down a height change of several metres.

Where there is a steep gradient to climb, there are numerous locks spaced across the gradient. These can either be individual locks separated by a lock-free waterway, or a ‘staircase’ – these are faster as the ‘upper’ gate of one lock is the ‘lower’ gate of another.”

The largest height difference (81.92 feet!) we experienced in locks was on the Main-Danube Canal at the Hipoltstein, Eckersmuehlen, and Leerstetten locks. It was an amazing feeling to see those huge concrete walls surrounding us!

During our cruise on the Danube, the River Voyager climbed to the top of the Continental Divide, 1,331 feet above sea level—the highest point in the world a boat can climb! Over the course of our 106 miles, we passed through 16 locks climbing 220 feet up, and 574 feet down.

Here are some scenes during our cruise to Vienna:

There were many cute little fishing cottages along the river.

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I took a quick break from my yoga session for this shot! I had the entire deck all to myself this morning- nice!

We will be entering the lock behind the boat on the right.

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Look how close we were to the lock on the starboard side!

One of the passengers, Dave Henry, snapped this shot of me measuring the distance from the boat to the wall of the lock.

BREATHTAKING BUDAPEST

Posted on July 24, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

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The evening of our first night on board was absolutely magical. After dinner, Captain Ziggy took us on a cruise up and down the Danube, so we could enjoy the beautiful lights of the city. Hilly Budha lined one side of the river and looked quite dramatic with the monument high up on the hill lit up in changing multi-colors. The flat Pest side featured the Parliament Building brightly lit in gold. In between, gorgeous bridges were dramatically lit as well. Breathtaking! This was sure to be one of highlights of our European river cruise.

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After we docked, I grabbed my little pocket-sized tripod for a walk with Bruce to shoot photos from the bridge crossing the river in front of our boat. When we passed under the bridge during our cruise, a young crowd of revelers yelled greetings from up above. It was quite a scene, and it looked like one big happy party. We wanted to see what all the fun was about.

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The previous day, Hungary had won their soccer match to advance to the next bracket of the European Soccer Championships (ultimately won by Portugal), and Europeans take their soccer very seriously. This was huge, and the party from the day before just kept on going. The city had shut down the bridge to traffic, and groups of revelers congregated with plenty of food and drink (mostly drink) to celebrate.

The crowd was boisterous, but well-behaved—except for the blatant disregard for the sign that warned, “PLEASE DO NOT CLIMB ON THE BRIDGE!”

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At one point, a guy started singing Hungary’s national anthem or team’s anthem (I’m not sure which), and everybody on the bridge joined in. What a scene!

Between the cruise, party on the bridge, and photographing the city around me; it was an uplifting and enjoyable way to begin our journey on the Danube.

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The following day, we were treated to a panoramic city bus tour of Pest, and a walking tour of the town of Budha high up on the hill. We had a panoramic view of the Danube and Pest down below, and we learned a lot of interesting history and facts about Hungary throughout the tour.

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A country of 9.8 million people, Budapest is home to 1.7 million of their people. (Perhaps the percentage of foreigners isn’t higher, because the Hungarian language is extremely difficult to learn. There are more exceptions than rules making it very confusing.)

Exporting machinery and car parts is a large part of Hungary’s economy, in addition to assembling Audis and other automobiles. They also produce chemicals and pharmaceuticals for export.

Although Hungary still uses the Forint (HUF) as their currency, they are a member of the European Union.

Education in Hungary is very good, and students are required to take exercise classes as well as learn a second language. Most choose to learn English, and the younger people speak the language quite well, because they must pass a test in English to graduate.

Attending university is free for students who earn good grades in high school, but students must sign an agreement that they will stay and work in Hungary for the same amount of time they spent getting their education.

In addition, we learned much about the history of Hungary. I don’t fill my head with dates I will never remember, but there was one fact that stood out as being quite sad: Hungary lost every war it had ever been in. Every single one.

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Matthias Church, located on the Buda side of the river on Castle Hill.

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The view from Fishermen’s Bastion

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Across the river from Buda is Pest, and the Parliament Building of Budapest.

The streets of Castle Hill, on the Buda side of the river.

Following our tour, we walked up to Great Market Hall to buy Boci chocolate bars (for me!), and smoked paprika (for Bruce!)

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Renata, River Voyager’s concierge is a fellow chocoholic and Boci chocolate lover, so we picked up a bar for her at the market. Little did we know, she was afraid we wouldn’t have time after our tour to shop for chocolate, so she ran up to the market and bought us THREE bars! (More about Renata in Vienna…)

Our boat was tied up near “The Whale”

We had a beautiful departure from Budapest, including passages under (very) low bridges. Two days prior to our arrival, the river levels were too high for riverboats to pass under these same bridges.

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The Parliament Building (shown above as viewed from Buda)

Next up: LOTS OF LOCKS!

Note: If you were having trouble getting photos to load up in previous posts, it wasn’t you (or your computer); it was me! Photos can now be viewed for recent posts, and I am working to correct the problem in old posts.

BRATISLAVA TO BUDAPEST

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

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On the way to Budapest to meet the River Voyager, our home for the next 16 days, our pre-extension group enjoyed a wonderful community-hosted lunch in the tiny village of Dunaalmas, Hungary. We were greeted by the villagers dressed in traditional Slovakian costumes, and one of the little girls held out a basket of freshly baked flatbread with garlic butter, similar to Indian naan. Next, we were given glasses of locally-produced liquor to enjoy before watching flat bread and strudel-making demonstrations. Some of the group rolled up their sleeves to assist, but I got a kick out watching the older of the two girls teaching her little sister the fine art of making strudel. At her young age, she was already an expert at handling the dough.

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Lunch was traditional vegetable and beef soup served in a crock with a pastry cap baked over the top. Along with some tasty local wine, we were completely satisfied. Then, the strudel was served. It kept coming, and coming! In all, we had three types of strudel: cottage cheese, apple, and cherries with poppy seeds. It was amazingly delicious (especially for not being chocolate!), and we were overwhelmed by the feast we had been served.

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Needless to say, the remainder of the bus ride to Budapest was quiet. Very quiet. I think most of our group crashed on the bus for an afternoon siesta.

Upon arrival to Budapest, we were welcomed aboard by the entire staff of the River Voyager, Vantage Travel’s newest riverboat in their fleet. Just thirteen voyages old, the 175-passenger (and 46-crew) vessel looked sparkling brand new. I was impressed at how much more beautiful and technologically updated it was compared to the previous Vantage riverboats I had traveled on in the past.

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What we didn’t know until just recently is that we came very close to not being able to cruise the Danube at all. Just two days before our sailing, the river level was too high from flooding for riverboats to be able to pass under the lower bridges. If that had still been the case, we would have had to be bussed from place to place—not our idea of a river cruise! Needless to say, all of us aboard the River Voyager feel extremely fortunate to be able to cruise the Danube, Main, and Rhine!

BEAUTIFUL BRATISLAVA

Posted on July 21, 2016 by Elaine-iaK's Travels

Although I had been to Bratislava in 2007 during a river cruise of Eastern and Central Europe, this was Bruce’s first visit to this part of Europe, and I couldn’t wait to share it with him.

Slovakia, formerly part of Czechoslovakia, became a separate country when politicians decided to break the country in two without referendum, much to the chagrin of extended families and friends who were geographically instantly split into two nationalities. It is now a small country; just 19,000 square miles and 5-1/2 million people.

As soon as we arrived in Bratislava and settled into our hotel room at the Sheraton, we took off for a walk to the old town. Our beautiful, very modern hotel was located along the promenade of the Danube river, so the fifteen-minute walk each way was very pleasant and picturesque. (Although, “Blue Danube” is a misnomer, as you will notice in my photos.)

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Much of the old town is reserved for pedestrians with just service and emergency vehicles allowed. The Cobblestone streets are narrow and lined with outdoor cafes and shops giving the old town a quaint and charming feel. In the late afternoon, the cafes become filled with locals gathering with their friends after work, as well as tourists from the river boats that line the banks of the Danube.

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It was hot outside, so we opted to eat inside at one of the casual dining spots that brewed their own beer. A delicious dinner for two with side of veggies and a couple of beers cost only $27—reasonable for Europe in our opinion.

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We found the prices in Czech Republic and Slovakia quite affordable. Travel experts are spot-on when they say that Eastern European countries are the best travel bargains on the continent.

The following day, our group took a wonderful walking tour back to the old town. Walking tours are an excellent way to learn about the history, culture, and customs of a place, and we always enjoy them wherever we go. It was nice to get filled in on what we had seen the day before, and for me, it was a refresher from 2007.

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The highlight of the day, though, was hiking up the narrow spiral staircase of the main square’s bell tower to take in the view of the old town below as well as the castle located high up on the hill behind the town. (We could have walked up the hill to the castle, but the unseasonably hot weather– 15 degrees above normal—made it an easy decision to opt for the tower instead.)

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The 360-degree view was breathtaking, and I had a great time using the panorama function on my little Panasonic Lumix!

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By the late afternoon, we were tuckered out from the heat, so we headed back along the promenade to our hotel to cool off before dinner. Between our walk to town, the walk back, and then repeating the whole process again in the evening for dinner, we put a lot of cobblestone miles on our feet!

Our Thai dinner at the Green Buddha was worth it though. Our sampling of traditional Hungarian/Slovakian meat-based cuisine was enough for us, and we were ready for some Thai curry. Who knew we could get a delicious Asian meal in Bratislava? It was fabulous, and we enjoyed the ambiance while dining outdoors on the narrow, shady cobblestone street.

Strolling along the river promenade on our way back to the hotel was so enjoyable on the warm summer evening. Crowds were gathered in the cafes and river-front park, and the atmosphere was vibrant yet relaxed. What a wonderful way to end our stay in Bratislava!

SCENES AROUND BRATISLAVA

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Coming up next: BRATISLAVA TO BUDAPEST

Elaine-iaK's Travels: A Traveler's Tales of People, Places, Photos, Pools… and CHOCOLATE!

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