Category Archives: Winter

St. Stephen’s Basilica

On Saturday the 28th of February we broke away from our excursion group to buy tickets to visit the inside of St. Stephen’s Basilica situated centrally in the Pest side of Budapest. This is a photo heavy post!

St. Stephen’s Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It is named in honor of Stephen, the first King of Hungary, whose right hand is housed in the reliquary.

It was awe-inspiring to see this finished work of art.

 

It is one of the grandest buildings we have been in.

This is kind of creepy to me. This is the right hand relic of King Stephen of Hungary. King Stephen died in August of 1038.

Not being Catholic, this Basilica was not a point of worship for me and in fact holds some areas of veneration that are against my beliefs. I did appreciate the beauty and the grandeur of the building. The way the architecture and artwork draws your eyes upward is appreciated, too. It is an amazing collection of artwork and treasures but not something to be worshipped in itself.

I’ll share the views from the panorama look-out in another post since this post is already photo heavy.

It is going to take a while to share much of our Danube River and Cambridge adventures.

Eating in Budapest

On Saturday February 28th we walked from St. Stephen’s Basilica to the Jewish District looking for Mazel Tov. We had reservations for a meal at 4:30 but we wanted to see if they would slip us in at 1:30 instead since our dinner reservations at Retek Restaurant were for 7:30 on Saturday instead of Friday. (Did you follow that?)

The area had a lot of interesting murals.

We arrived tired and thirsty from our 1.6 k walk in the sunshine. They graciously changed our reservation and we joined the crowd of diners for our meal. We met someone from Costa Mesa, California who is studying abroad. That was fun.

 

Our meals were both delicious. Greg ordered the DIY Falafel Sandwich and I ordered the spicy lamb shank ragout, couscous with root vegetables, raisins and red onion chutney.

We had another long walk (1.6k) ahead of us to get back to our hotel. We were entertained by interesting buildings on the way.

Our dinner reservations at Retek would be a 1 k walk so we opted for a taxi ride to the restaurant and then we’d walk back to the hotel after dinner.

We went traditional at this very popular restaurant.

Hungarian Beef Goulash with the fresh bread.

Chicken Paprikash

Cottage Cheese Dumpling and Grandmother’s apple pie for dessert.

A delightful all around experience. This was all my kind of comfort food.

This statue was the beginning of history we would learn all through our cruise about the Habsburg empire.

The year 1795 saw Archduke Josef, son of Emperor Leopold II and brother of Emperor Franz, being appointed Palatine of Hungary, a post he held for more than half a century. As such he was the deputy of the King of Hungary – who was of course none other than the Emperor in his capacity as the head of the house of Habsburg. 

The streets we walked at night in Budapest seemed safe.

I’m saving St. Stephen’s Basilica which we visited on this two restaurant day for another post.

Budapest Pre-Cruise

We arrived in Budapest on the afternoon of Friday February 27th. There was an AmaWaterways Kiosk just outside of the baggage claim area where we checked in and met a few of our fellow river cruise passengers before it was time to board our bus to the hotel. When making our arrangements for the cruise we chose the 2 day pre-cruise option and we are so glad that we did. On our bus ride to the hotel we were able to get our first glimpse of the Danube.

When we arrived at the hotel we were pleasantly surprised at the luxury level of the hotel.

The Matilde Palace is a luxury hotel and part of the Marriott properties. This is not the type of hotel we would book for ourselves. There were automatic buttons for everything including the curtains and sheers.

Matild Palace, an iconic gem of Budapest, was envisioned in 1902 by her Imperial and Royal Highness, Maria Kotild of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as part of the twin Kotild Palaces, a beacon of the Bell Epoque Era. Standing proudly beside the Elisabeth Bridge, these two majestic landmarks were designed to inspire and sere the social heart of the city. Over the decades, Matild Palace has borne witness to profound historical moments. From the grandeur of its early days to the trials of two world wars and the Hungarian revolution. Following a meticulous restoration, it emerged reborn in 2021 as a masterpiece within Marriott’s luxury collection.

Today, Matild Palace invites guests to immerse themselves in art nouveau inspired rooms and suites, and dine in exquisite venues led by the globally acclaimed Chef Wolfgang Puck.

Before dinner we had a meeting with our Tour Director for some general information. I thought I had made dinner reservations on Friday evening at a restaurant in town but come to find out it was for Saturday night instead of Friday night. We shifted our plans and headed up to the rooftop bar in our hotel and had some charcuterie and lovely views of the town at night.

 

Saturday morning we woke up early. Breakfast was included with our pre tour package. The hotel puts on an amazing buffet along with items you could choose off of a menu. We were really impressed with all of it and with the honey comb that was part of the buffet.

The breakfast view of the Elizabeth Bridge.

We had an early morning walk on streets next to the hotel. We tried to get some local currency at a bank ATM and the transactions would not go through. We hoped this was just a local issue.

So many grand buildings with impressive architecture.

The back entrance to the Matilde.

There was a excursion on Saturday morning that we were part of and into the tour we broke off to be able to buy tickets to see the inside of St. Stephens Basilica. I’ll share those photos in another post. We had time on Saturday to be on our own and also on Sunday before it was time for embarkation on the AmaMagna.

Back to the Present:

Monday afternoon was JJ time here while Addy was at dance lessons. While we were away he had to go to dance with his mom and Addy which was quite boring for him. He kept asking how many more days until we would return.

Today is St. Patrick’s Day and we will be enjoying a corned beef and cabbage meal later in the day.

We are still in recovery mode and I’m forcing myself to stay awake till at least 8pm. Hopefully sleep patterns will return to normal, soon.

Currently

I’m enjoying the sun on the snow and how it sparkles.

The snow crown on the bird bath caught my eye. I like it even better with the sunshine on it.

Before our snowfall I got some shots of Quail. They love our Silver Spruce Bush.

When we step out on our deck at times upwards of twenty quail will fly out of that bush!

It wasn’t planned but when JJ arrived on Monday afternoon, his mom mentioned we were twins and needed to take a photo!

Today is Women’s Bible study morning and I made some Date Nut loaves to slice and share with the ladies. I’ll share the recipe and photos if they turned out good.

Before I close off this post I’m going to give you some unsolicited advice.

Do not buy furniture with a black finish if you do not like to dust! 

If you are under 60, celebrate the fact that you can still get up off the ground easily.

When I have to kneel down it is a major event for me to get up again.

Enjoy the rest of the week!

Triple Tuesday!

We’ve got the trifecta of celebrations happening here for this jam packed Tuesday.

There’s Fat Tuesday/Mardi Gras and Pancake Tueaday/Shrove Tuesday and this year it is also Chinese New Year/Lunar New Year!

Here is how I’m melding all these celebrations tonight.

Our dining room table is set for company we are having this evening. I pulled out the Chinese souvenirs I bought in San Francisco’s China Town back in 2016.

Our menu’s nod to the Chinese New Year will be Egg Drop Soup for our starter course.

My nod to Mardi Gras and the Fat Tuesday are my fleur de lis napkin rings.

Wanting to also fit in the Pancake Tuesday tradition, for dessert we are having ‘Russian Pancakes’ or better known as Blintzes.

I mentioned yesterday that there was talk of snow. We ended up getting a good 4 inches of snow on Monday!

It’s melting already.

These two sent me a selfie with the Vintage Valentine Day Cards I sent them.

The love continues!

The Irish Dancers that our Addy is part of are dancing tonight in town at a Mardi Gras celebration.

Are you giving a nod to any of these celebrations?

 

Thankful

Some things I’m thankful to God for on this Thursday…

We had some nice clear weather for our safe trip to Spokane and back again. It was also warm enough to shop without a coat to and from the car. We detoured from our usual route home and stopped in Elk for lunch. From Elk we drove on backroads to Loon Lake and then north again to Colville.

This stoplight in the town of Chewelah south Colville is the one light we encounter for over 50 miles as we traveled! Once we get to Colville we encounter one more signal before we reach our home.

One of our stops in Spokane was at Trader Joe’s. They had loads of tulips for sale. I chose the 10 stem option for $6.99. Twenty stems were $12.99. I love tulips! God created so many different flowers for us to enjoy.

We stopped at Hobby Lobby for Valentine Day goodies, HomeGoods to replace a large casserole dish, (One of mine got a crack in it) TJMaxx for a baby shower gift, and before we finished up at Costco for gasoline and some other necessities we went through the new car wash across the way from Costco. What a treat to have a clean car!

Our Winter Women’s Bible Study starts today. I’m looking forward to studying about Heaven, When Faith Becomes Sight, with other women in our church.

Posting this a little later than usual. What are you thankful for today?

 

A Cheesy Hodgepodge

The first of the short month hodgepodge is here. Thank you, Joyce!

1. The Winter Olympics kick off on Friday, February 6th…on a scale of 1-10 how excited are you? (1= eh and 10=watching every event all day every day).

I’ll say a 5 as in I’ll enjoy what I stumble upon but I’m not carving out a lot of time to watch.

What’s your favorite Winter Olympic sporting event? 

Ice Skating is probably the favorite but downhill ski events are exciting, too.

The most exciting of all time was the 1980 US Hockey teams defeat of Russia. Then two days later they defeated Finland coming from behind to win the Gold medal in Hockey.  We kept stalling leaving for church to watch that one!

2. In other sporting news, the Super bowl (American football’s championship game) will be played on Sunday, February 8th.

Since you mentioned the Super Bowl, we will be watching this year since our home team, the Seattle Seahawks are playing. We will switch off the half-time show and watch TPUSA’s half-time show instead.

So tell us…what’s your superpower?

Blogging. I started blogging in 2008 and it is still something that I enjoy and comes easy for the most part.

3. Are you a romantic? 

Nope

4. Blue cheese-yay or nay? Yay

How about feta? Yay

If you said yes to one or both, what’s a dish you like that calls for one of these? 

With Feta in mind, Gyros! (photo at the top of this post) Greek Salad. With Bleu Cheese in mind, Wedge Salad. Bleu cheese dressing. In the past we’ve enjoyed focaccia bread brushed with olive oil and topped with red onion and bleu cheese, then toasted. It is a tasty treat. There are some great sauces with Bleu cheese that are delicious with steak.

5. What’s more important-doing what you love or loving what you do? 

These two are the same in my mind. I’m sure I’ll read some better answers that clarify this thought.

A verse did pop up in my memory bank.

Colossians 3:17

17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

6. Insert your own random thought here. 

Yesterday I posted some photos on my blog of some changes we made in our family room that has improved our prospect. Do you watch British programs like ‘Escape to the Country’? I’ve enjoyed the comments made about a room’s ‘prospect’ on that show. Usually they are talking about windows like a double prospect or triple prospect.

A good prospect offers an expansive, open, or clear view, enhancing the perceived, or actual, aesthetic and comfort value of a space.

That is how we feel about the minor changes we have made in this much lived in space. Our prospect is improved.

In the daylight hours…

 

Ground Hog Day

Will winter linger, or Spring prevail? When I wake up and hear the prediction, I’ll add it here.

Update: Looks like Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow so 6 more weeks of Winter. 

I’m chuckling because my calendar already tells me that the first day of spring comes in the 6th week from now!

Happy February everyone!

Here is what things looked like on our travel to church on Sunday, the first of February.

As you can see it has been pretty dreary and our mountains are hidden.

These shots are out our slider to the back acres.

It seems all our snow moved east for now!

Soon this dreary landscape will be transformed again to all the joy that Spring has to offer.

We made some adjustments to our family room furniture arrangement and moved around some lamps and wall-art. So far we are enjoying the new minor changes. It will be fun to see what our grandkids think about the changes when they are here this afternoon. I’ll try and remember to take a photo of them in the midst to share.

Winter Sunshine Roundup

On Friday I took some photos of our country bungalow.

We finally got some sunshine and blue skies here. But…

Baby, it’s cold outside!

At the Irish dance studio it is cold inside, too. The dancers appreciate the coolness once they are dancing hard.

Friday was lovely on the other side of the state, too. We got this sunshiny photo from J & L enjoying the sun.

While being cozy inside, I finished the World of Jane Austen puzzle. It was fun to put together.

Here’s a closeup of some of the details.

I’ve been practicing with the panorama feature on my phone.

In the kitchen, I’ve been trying some easy lower calorie high protein meals for us. It’s been an adventure.

Late Breaking news on this Sunday is that our Seattle Seahawks are going to the Super Bowl LX. Brings back some memories.

Super Sunday 013

The photo above is from 2014, the last time the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. In 2015 they went to the Super Bowl again but lost to the New England Patriots. This will be a repeat match-up. Truth be told we are fair weather fans. We don’t typically watch NFL Football. That said, we will root for the home team again this year from our comfy seats in front of the TV.

The photo below is from 2014, also. Greg worked in downtown Seattle back then and this was the building he worked in at the time with the nod to the 12th man. If you know, you know. Congratulations to the Seahawks for reaching another Super Bowl.

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February 004

This is what it looked like in our family room the last time the Seahawks won the Super Bowl.

Back to the present…

Hope all of our bloggy friends and family in the path of the arctic blast are doing well and have power! Stay safe y’all.