Bob Corbett's note:
Folks, I’m in Vienna and about to write some about that, but a few last things on Budapest. It was really a great stay. Just went perfectly. The second last day when Sally and I ate at a lovely street-side restaurant very close to the Danube we had both marvelous food and a strange sight.
The food first, of course. As an appetizer I ordered pate foie gras, goose liver, and expected a nice small piece. Wheeee, was I surprised when two very large and simply delicious slabs of pate arrived with lovely accompanying greens. It was just marvelous. Then I had ordered a main dinner of fish filets with a ragout of shrimp, clams, mushrooms and veggies. This was a stunning and GIGANTIC meal. Sally picked the wine and chose a delicious bottle of dry rose from Hungary. Sally had goulash soup as an appetizer but found it a bit watery, however her dinner Sally had a delicious piece of pork with roasted veggies.
While we were sitting there, right on the street an emergency vehicle came to the corner siren blazing and shut off traffic. We figured an accident or "crime event" might have happened and were gawking like everyone else. All of a sudden, behind us came more sirens and I realized they were just shutting off the street for some VIP cars to pass. And so it was -- ALMOST. Next came a motorcade, or should I say a motorcycle cavalcade of police motorcycles, about a dozen, a couple police cars. Now everyone was expecting some fancy car full of diplomats or other VIPs, but what actually followed was mind-boggling, a parade of very fast motorcycles, mainly three abreast, sometimes four and twice even on the sidewalk. It went on and on and on. There were certainly more than 1,000 of them, perhaps as many as 2,000, after a while I was counting by threes and got up over a thousand. It just went on and on. We were about 20 yards from a corner and they turned there, doing deep turns to the left, feet scraping the ground, all the people in dark leather and funky helmets of a zillion different sorts. Some bare-chested, and tattoos were the thing. It was really wild. We could hear the sirens for a long time after as they headed somewhere else in Budapest or perhaps just THROUGH Budapest.
Our hotel where we stayed three nights was marvelous with a delicious breakfast of hot and cold foods, meats, eggs, cheeses, fruit, juices and on and on, many different sorts of salads at breakfast. A great room with excellent hot shower and all. A top rate place. A street car stopped just 20 feet from the door. We loved it.
Okay, off the Budapest topic and on to Vienna....
Bob
Bob Corbett corbetre@webster.edu