September 12th, Venetian Festival in Ludwigsburg

We LOVE Ludwigsburg, and so going to a fest there is easy. This one was great, the whole platz was gated and inside they had entertainers, music (mostly opera), food, people selling Venetian things, and face painting!!!!

There were literally about a hundred people dressed up in Venetian costumes just walking around and happy to have their picture taken with anyone.

These guys were awesome. They walked around the platz and their dinosaur costumes made great sound effects.

Masks, of course.

Elaborate face painting.



Ta Da



Cheers!!

September 11th, Viehscheid (Sorting the Cows), Bad Hindelang

Every year, in Bavaria, on this weekend, the cows come home from their high mountain pastures. The herders bring the cows down, sort them out, and hand them over to their owners who bring them back to their own farms. This has turned into a huge festival, further proof that anything in Germany can turn into a festival. This one was great. The town is adorable and people really go all out for this one!

Cows.

Grammie and Nolan.

The sorting of the cows.

This might be my favorite picture of all time. Nolan jumped over the fence, went right out to one of the herders and walked right along with him as if he was herding too. The guy looked at him, looked at his friend, then patted Nolan on the back and walked along with him for a while.



Souvenirs

We stopped in Ulm on the way home so my parents could see the tallest church in the world, I snapped this as we were waiting, love it.

September 4, 5, & 6th, Budapest, Hungary

My Mom and Dad arrived on the 3rd of September and the next day, Bill and I were on a plane for Budapest. It was a holiday weekend and we always go somewhere. It was hard to leave my parents after not seeing them for a year and a half, but we knew they were staying for a long time so we went. We LOVED Budapest...the city is remarkably beautiful.

Hi Handsome.

We love, love the local traditions. Local college students rub the horse's undercarriage for good luck before a test.

The Fisherman's Bastion......one of the most beautiful vistas yet!

A view of Parliament from the Buda side.

The Matthias Church built in 1896. We went in to see the church but mostly to see a statue of the virgin Mary and baby Jesus from 1515, but the part of the church where it is kept was being renovated.



The Chain Bridge

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This is the mythical Turul bird, who led the Magyar people out of central Asia to settle in what is Hungary today. Why do I get the feeling that JK Rowling has visited this city?.

We did an evening Segway tour and we were the only ones there so it was a private tour.....it was a really awesome adventure!!!!

On the Danube River.

We saw roof's like this everywhere.



After the fall of communism, all the propaganda statues were rounded up and dumped out in this field out of town. It has subsequently become a tourist attraction for those of us who never got to see behind the iron curtain.

A HUGE statue of a hard working communist, striding mightily into the future carrying a Soviet flag. Or as the Hungarians view it, a bath attendant chasing after a customer who forgot his towel.



After our bus ride out to Memento Park, we got back into the city for lunch and then stumbled on a street fair on the main drag, Andrassy Ut. There were classical pianists about every block playing for the crowds.

We stopped for some strudel.

On to the House of Terror where they do a very thorough job of showing what life was like under both Nazi and Communist Russia rule. Hard to say which was worse.

The highly photographed "little princess", she's one of the first statues erected after the fall of communism and represents a refreshing break from decades of super-sized proletarian propaganda.

I had to at least get fries at the historic first McDonald's behind the iron curtain.



Parliament

The famous Hungarian flag, communist logo cut out by protesting anti-communist students, is the symbol of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

A great view of the Buda side from the Pest side.

Imre Nagy and I.



Hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews died in the Holocaust. Over 20,000 were shot into the Danube by the Arrow Cross militia. This memorial was dedicated to them in 2005.

After miles of walking, we went on our last day to the Szechenyi Baths. This place is so wonderful. It was heaven to soak for hours in hot thermal baths inside and outside. It was sunny and cool out, so it was perfect.

The largest Jewish Synagogue in Europe, incredibly beautiful inside.

The tree of life. Each metal leaf has a name of a Jew from Budapest killed in the Holocaust.