My wife and I recently completed a major trip that included nine countries. We flew from Dulles Airport (near Washington, D. C.) to Istanbul, Turkey (via Munich, Germany) and spent several days enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the town. From there we flew to Bucharest, Romania and traveled to Rousse, Bulgaria to pick up our Uniworld River Cruise on the Danube River. We cruised through the Iron Gates and arrived in Belgrade, Serbia. From there we traveled to Vukovar, Croatia. This town was virtually destroyed by the Serbs when they invaded Croatia back in the 1990’s. It is being rebuilt, but shot-out/shot-up buildings remain as a reminder of sadder times. We spent part of a day touring a small town (Osijek) where we visited a school and enjoyed a home-hosted lunch. After that we traveled to Mohacs, Hungary to pass through their version of passport control. They require a “face-check” to make sure you are who is on the passport. No other country required this. From there we cruised to Budapest. The next stop on our trip was in Bratislava, Slovakia. Our last port of call from the ship was Vienna, Austria. From Vienna we boarded a bus and traveled to Prague, Czech Republic for several days. We then flew home from Prague, via Frankfort, Germany, to Dulles Airport. We flew out on my birthday, October 2 and returned home on October 20. It was so good to sleep in my own bed when we finally arrived home.
I plan several posts about our trip as I sort out the pictures and places. Most posts will be about, what else, FOOD!! We experienced some different and very good food while on this trip. I will be trying to see which meals I can re-create/adapt to my grills at home.
The first post will be the Istanbul Spice Bazaar.
Art