My Feet Went from Budapest to Prague - April 2018

Wow, where does one start?  I am sitting in my sunroom at home still dealing with jet lag. Thoughts of the past two weeks continue to roll around in my head.  When I wake up each morning, I have to reassure myself as to where I am after traveling five countries with a different "wake-up" location almost every day.  I have seen everything from cathedrals, palaces, and the Alps to the overwhelming Terezin Encampment which held Jews during WWII as they waited to be sent to Auschwitz.  I have listened to more history than I will ever remember. I, attended a Chamber Music Concert in Vienna, Austria, and, also, one on the last night we were in Prague. I have ridden on the Eye in Budapest, wishing that I had ridden it in London and Paris.

I could go on and on about the places I have seen but it would be meaningless to some and maybe even "bordering boredom" for others.  When one travels, one lives his or her own experience. Two people do not share the exact feeling or emotion for anything they do or see.  Travel is very personal, even if you are among hundreds.  Next to my family, friends, and students, I cannot think of anything I value more.

On this particular trip, I traveled with ten other friends.  We had such a wonderful time together and we met many people from other places in the world.  We flew from Dallas to Frankfurt and then on to Budapest, Hungary, where we stayed a couple of days before boarding our River Cruise Boat.  We sailed for the next seven days along the Danube, stopping at different destinations each day.  We visited great cities along the way, even taking a side day trip to Salzburg where I witnessed the glory of the Alps Mountains.  That moment will forever stand out in my memory. However, my favorite spots were the smaller villages where you seemed to be more among its permanent residents and culture.

There are no adequate words to describe this trip other than maybe, incredible, awesome, inspiring, fun, amazing, just to give you a few.  I am going to post pictures below of this trip.  I have struggled with this blog before as I tried to keep pictures in order, sometimes being successful and sometimes not.  I am going to give it a try.  I hope you enjoy sharing some of the happiest moments of my life.

Almost Too Hard to Believe

I can remember when I was in high school thinking that after hearing a friend was going to Europe, that I knew I would never get to go there.  It was simply too far.  I grew up in a small town in Arkansas and was raised by parents who were very safety conscious.  Anytime we would go from Point A to Point B, it was understood that we were to "call as soon as we got there."  My daddy became very nervous when he had to drive much farther than Little Rock, which was 35 miles from my home town.  He was willing to venture out once a year to Hot Springs which was 60 miles away, but that was just about it.  My mother was the one who wanted to travel and any time she got the opportunity to go on a road trip of sorts with a group, she would go. Daddy always said he couldn't leave the grocery store.  I think my mother was thinking that once he retired, that he would be willing to go on some of those bus trips that you see so many retired people taking. (Funny, now I would be one of those people!) . But, even once he retired, Daddy didn't want to do anything but stay within the city limits of Beebe.  As I look back on that, it saddens me that my mother did not get to travel like she was hoping to do.  She was the adventurous one.  Once at an air show, she looked at me very seriously and said, "I would love to fly in one of those," as the Blue Angels flew overhead. One of my best memories was taking Mother with Robert and John to Maine where she got to see the Atlantic Ocean for the first time.  I can still see her sitting on a rock by the share and just staring out at the water.  She said, " I just can't get my eyes full."  Mother was one who always wanted to learn new things and make new friends.  Could it be that this is where I got my sense of adventure?  I only wish I could have taken her on a trip to Europe.  Hopefully she has traveled with me in spirit.

When the grandchildren were born, my daddy and mother did fly to Texas to see them on a few occasions.  Mother would come by herself because nothing was going to keep her away from seeing them, which I could only imagine. 
Anyway, my point to all of this is that international travel was NEVER discussed in my home...not ever. So, that makes it even more incredible that all of these years later, I have been to nearly 20 countries, give or take.  And most of this travel has been within the last two years.  It was on a trip with Brenda Brown that I got hooked on European travel.  I had been to Canada and Mexico but never "across the pond."  I went with Brenda to England twice, and then to Paris.  My next trip was to France down the Seine River, followed by a trip from Athens, Greece, To Venice.  In the last two months, I have traveled to nine countries:  five were on a river cruise down the Danube and then four on an ocean cruise.  Altogether I have visited _____ countries, which is only a drop in the bucket of some of my friends.  This has been so incredible and just give me a little time to rest, and I will be ready to set out on another one!

In this post I am going to include pictures from the most recent trip where Ron and I went to Denmark, Norway, Sweden , Germany and Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

I do not know why all of my pictures did not make it to my laptop but they are carefully stored everywhere. Most of the above are from Amsterdam.