Paris ~ ♥ Rue de Grenelle



We arrived at Charles de Gaulle Airport on a SmartWings flight from Prague in the early afternoon.



Charles de Gaulle Airport, Terminal 3
 is rated, by at least one travel writer, as
 the 5th worst airport terminal in the world

Collecting our bags, exiting the terminal, and hailing a taxi all went smoothly and quickly ... Gus begs to differ as to the terminal's ranking. Our ride into central Paris took, at most, 45 minutes. Ian and Judy's apartment building is in the 7th arrondissement (Left Bank) ~

105 Rue de Grenelle

We entered a passageway which led to a courtyard. To our left was the main entrance to the building. Here, we rang the apartment button marked M et Mme Irvine. The door unlocked and we took the elevator to the 4th floor (equivalent to the 5th floor in the U.S. since, in France, the ground floor counts as zero). Our friends were waiting ...

Prague: Bohemia's Mistress

Our next three days began at night. We arrived in Prague and settled into our hotel, Le Palais and headed out to dinner.




Gus and Joan

Our hope was to enjoy a traditional Czech supper in the Vinohrady neighborhood. A wonderful evening and a short walk left us at Hlučná Samota.




We entered through the bar...

Vienna: The Elegant City

Our morning started early. We would travel to Vienna by train. Our schedule called for a departure from Budapest-Keleti Rail Station mid-morning  ~



railjet High-Speed Train

the train ride was comfortable and took a bit over 2 1/2 hours. We arrived at Wien Meidling Rail Station mid-afternoon and soon found a taxi which transferred us to our hotel ~




DO & CO Hotel 

The DO & CO Hotel is an architecturally adventurous and sybaritic hotel experience in downtown Vienna. Four floors of the steel-and-glass building have been transformed into 44 unique cone-shaped guestrooms. Located in the Inner City (Innere Stadt) across from the magnificent Gothic Cathedral of St. Stephen (Stephansdom).

 

St. Stephen’s Cathedral, view from in front of our hotel

 

 Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral,

during Saturday's afternoon mass

We were facing a pretty tight evening schedule as we had tickets to a performance at the Mozart House (Konzerte im Mozarthaus) at 6:00 pm ... giving us only an hour and half before showtime. We settled into our rooms, freshened up, and changed into our evening-out clothes. The Mozart House was just a few blocks away, yet Gus got us turned around and definitely lost. Mark came to the rescue and pointed us in the right direction ... we retraced our steps, took a right (a previously misplaced left), and found ourselves in front of Mozarthaus. We had time to find our seats and spend a few minutes admiring the splendor of the room before the performance began.

The repertoire, preformed by four virtuosic musicians specializing in Vienna Chamber Music, was to include works of Haydn, Schubert and especially, as in the tonight's program, Mozart.

 

 

String Quartet No. 14 in G major K. 387

Budapest: Paris of the East

Flick through the history of Budapest and it’s abundantly clear that for every flourishing of the arts and music,

Hungarian State Folk Ensemble

for every golden decade filled with pastries and coffee,



Hungarian Kremes

residents have had to endure less lovely periods. Suffering invasions by the Turks, the Germans, and the Communists,

The Hungarian Revolution of 1956

the city’s Magyarians developed a taste for both decadence and rebellion, tempered by a sunny resignation.

Blog Truancy

It has been 461 days since our last post. Rather than not Wandering and Wondering, and having nothing to write about, our absence is simply due to Gus being a bit lazy. Since returning from our 2011 RTW we have been to Lake Tahoe, New Orleans, New York City, Southern California (Xmas with family), Bodega Bay, Southern California (Joan's 40th High School Reunion), Cambria, and Phoenix.

 

Emerald Bay, Lake Tahoe
 



Bacchanal, New Orleans
 

Grand Central Station, NYC
 

Pinnacle Beach, Bodega Bay

Moon Stone Beach, Cambria
 

Pizzeria Bianco, Phoenix

Now...with a gracious invitation to spend a week in Paris with two dear friends we decided to make the most of our airplane flights and scheduled a prelude to Paris. Central Europe beckoned us; it met our three criteria ~ safe, haven't been, and affordable (cheap).  First stop Budapest...