Wednesday, June 11 Vienna

There is not too much excitement (?) remaining in our trip as we are now on the way home and everybody is eager to get there. Our only stops are to break up the day or catch the odd attraction. Today we drove to Budapest and toured around a bit. We went to the Statue Park (Szoborpark) where they have preserved many of the large statues that are relics of Communism. These guys are each 25-30 feet tall!

Then we went on to the Citadel with its view of the city and its souvenir merchants. Some of the ladies have been looking unsuccessfully for souvenirs, so they were glad to find this spot.

From there we drove to Vienna, passing hundreds of wind turbines as we entered Austria. Sorry, but the picture just doesn't do justice to the view of a forest of wind turbines.

Our hotel in Vienna was a bit of a challenge. It seemed to be a collection of different buildings that were all tied together into a pension hotel. It was nice and clean, but boy, did it have stairs. We all went up about 25 stairs, then some had to go up another dozen or so. Others had to go back down another 25 to the other side of the building. Not much fun while lugging suitcases.

We had a very enjoyable supper with Barbara H. who has been working with Ray B. on the Georgshausen book translation. Barbara is the author’s daughter. They have been working with Henry F. who does the first raw transaltio, then they pass it on to Barbara who reviews it to pick up and interpret the local idioms that do not translate literally. Then Ray and Henry work on the English readability. They seem to make a great team.

Anyway, meeting Barbara was a great experience. Her father shared a lot of his Banat memories with her and she had great insights. After supper she came back to the hotel and some of us talked with her until our heads began to nod.

Several of us had the Wiener Schnitzel, even though it was pork rather than the authentic veal. It was very good anyway. As usual, the portions were enough for two, but most of us managed to choke them all down. I know I will have a few pounds to drop when I get home, and I don’t think I will be alone.