In this post, I have the beautiful Chain Bridge and Hungarian Parliament Building along the Danube River in Budapest Hungary. I loved this city. If we can ever get over, around and/or past COVID-19, I hope to go to Budapest again.
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This is the Szabadsag Hid bridge in Budapest Hungary. Translated that means Liberty or Freedom Bridge. It took 2 years to completed with the opening in 1896 with Emperor Franz Joseph putting the last silver rivet in the iron structure on the Pest abutment. The bridge connects Buda and Pest across the Danube River. It features art nouveau design, mythological sculptures and the country’s coat of arms on the sides. Interestingly, this was the first bridge in Budapest to be rebuilt after being badly damaged in World War II.
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This little village in Austria was very cute. Unfortunately, nothing was open during our stop, but we had a good time walking around anyway. Since we had some time left over before our boat left, I took some photos with the drone. I loved how colorful the village is and the rain in the distance. By the way, our river cruise ship via Gate 1 Travel was great.
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I hope you had a great weekend. I enjoyed my weekend hanging out with MJ and Blair. We did some yard work, some chores and took Blair to the airport…. Nothing special, just a nice relaxing weekend with the family.
Tonight’s photo is from the magical Bratislava Slovakia. I loved this little city. In this photo you can see the UFO Bridge (called that due to the odd-looking observation deck), Bratislava Castle and the Danube River.
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When Blair and I traveled to Ukraine to visit Chernobyl, we stayed in a little village called Slavutych. From here, we traveled by train each day back and forth to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to explore the nuclear power plants, Pripyat, and the surrounding area. On our last morning, we talked to this church in Slavutych to photograph this wonderful facility. I don’t know anything about their traditions, but I found it interesting that the church had no pews or chairs inside. During the service, everyone stands.
As you can see, it was a foggy morning with a gray sky.
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During our recent trip, we had a great few days in Budapest Hungary. This is a wonderful city. One of our stops around the city was this amazing market. You could buy just about anything you want and the place was packed with people. The building was completed in 1897.
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This Benedictine abbey in the town of Melk Austria sits upon a hill top overlooking the Melk village and the Danube river in the Wachau valley. The abbey was started in 1089. The abbey started the monastic school in the 12th century and today has over 900 students. This building was built starting in 1702 and finished in 1736. I took this photo inside an internal courtyard.
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How is your Wednesday? I hope you had a wonderful time.
Chernobyl Bus Station: I took this photo during our trip to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone in Ukraine. This bus station in Pripyat is pretty cool. As you can tell, mother nature is taking over……
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This beautiful palace sits on a hilly back of the Dnipro River in downtown Kiev Ukraine. Blair and I had a hard time capturing a photo of this building without hundreds of military soldiers around it. They were expecting protesters, so they called in the military to guard this and many other spots in the city that day. Let’s just say it made for an interesting day within the city.
This is the official ceremonial residence of the President of Ukraine. It was originally built between 1744 and 1752 for the Russian empire royalty. It also serves as the residence for Governors-General in the 18th and 19th centuries. Sadly, it was burned down by a number of fires in the 19th century but was reconstructed later using old drawings and watercolors as their guide. In the early 1900s, it was part of an agricultural school and museum. It was badly damaged in World War II and restored again in the late 1940s. Today it serves for official functions for the Ukrainian President.
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This amazing facility is still functioning as a monastery in Kiev Ukraine. It is located on the Dnieper River in a beautiful portion of the city. It was built in the Middle Ages by Sviatopolk II Iziaslavych. Unfortunately, the original cathedral was demolished by the Soviets in the 1930s and was reconstructed in 1999 after the Ukrainian independence. Blair and I climbed bell tower in the surrounding walled structure to get this photo.
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This is a great walled city. This should be on your vacation wish list. The ancient city is beautiful with amazing history. We spent some time walking around the top of the wall taking photos like this one. As you can see, the city can get busy with tourist as it should for such a cool spot.
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I took this detail photo of a column base which is part of Erechteion during our last Europe trip. This structure is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis in Athens Greece. This temple was built between 421 and 406 BC by Phidias (sculptor and mason) and Mnesicles (architect). The entire Acropolis is wonderful as an archaeology site with lots of small details. It’s worth the hike up the hill to this spot.
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This Croatia city is beautiful. The ancient walled city within Dubrovnik is a wonderful location….well worth the trip. I took this photo standing on top of the ancient wall looking down at the marina. You can see some of the wall on the left side of the photo. I want to go back right now…..
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Marina
