S H F bike tours 🚴🏼🇫🇷 day 13

Marseille Marseille Marseille.  Never heard of this multi century old Vila until this adventure. We have now successfully walked pretty much the entire city central. Very cool.  This area was colonized by the Greeks in 600 bc. It has retained numerous traces of its ancient past. Thank goodness, not the plumbing system....  There are restored forts on each side of the old port harbor entrance. Quite the defense against invaders coming in by water for sure. It was really fun to walk through the old city central streets. We did have a map, which on occasion, resolved any discussion as to where we were and which way to go...

Here are some of our visuals of Marseille to share with you today.  

Views of Nortre Dame de la Garde from our room. 

Two of our travels mates just arrived. Yeah! Two more come in tomorrow when are all meet up in Avignon before embarking our barge. 

But first, the 4 of us have a day long tour and transfer to our next villa and hotel. So much more to come, keep reading!!!

S H F bike tours 🚴 🇫🇷. Day 12

Successful transfer from one country to another AND connected with Brenda in the massive Charles de Gaulle airport. What are the odds!! 

 Painfully, Julie and I roused up at 3 a.m. for our airport transfer. EEEK that is early. She continued on, to return to the twin cities, and I sat for a 4 hour layover waiting for our little BJ. The Budapest hotel packed us a Togo bag breakfast. Even though the sandwiches were a bit soggy, still tasted quite good. 

Well now, a new country, a new language to acclimate to.  Fortunately those 2 years of French back In high school a zillion years ago is eeking back ever so little in the brain. Not only a new country, new language, about twice the outside temps.  It was around 82 degrees when we landed. Whew, it is summer ...again....  

Marseille, never heard of this city before this trip either.  So far, quite fascinating. Managed to find yet another Hard Rock. Of course had to eat, drink and shop. So much fun!!  Successfully kept Brenda up until 8 p.m.  But not for much longer.  Ain't it a trip to acclimate to time changes. ;D

Here are some visuals of our new frontier to explore!

Tomorrow, we explore. Be sure to check in with our adventure.  The saga continues...

S H F bike tours 🇭🇺 🚴🏼 day 11

Tis with sweet sorrow, at 3 a.m tonight, well, actually in the morning, we bid adieu to Budapest, our newly made friends, and Hungary. Then it's  bon jour for bike trip part two.  

Here are some parting shots of this fascinating city. 

Budapest Tortenetic museum 

Castles in the background, tram in foreground. 

Dohany Zsinagoga - Jewish synagogue.  14,000 Jews survived the holocost here.

World renown opera house. 

The house of terror museum. What a sobering experience to go through this place. Thousands of Hungarians lost their lives during the years of nazi and soviet occupation.  In addition to the history you already know, there was an uprising resistance confrontation in October 1956. Many many lives were lost, families torn apart and heartache that could not possibly heal in one's lifetime. Absolutely in inconceivable. This building was the nazi headquarters and later a prison and more used by the soviets. 

Heroes square ... Again ....in better lighting. 

View from Gellert's point and the citadel.  

Liberty monument 

Kitty....  You can not see me, I am hidden...

The last of the Minnesotans plus a few up state New Yorkers. Hope to see them in the future!

Transfer day tomorrow.  So excited to meet up with Brenda in Paris !!  Check in tomorrow to find out if we successfully connect....

S H F bike tours 🇭🇺 🚴🏼 day 10

You would love Budapest! It has to be the most easy city to get around to date, that I have ever experienced.  Spent the whole day on the hop on hop off bus, walking around, riding the metro, trams, and buses. Easy peasy.  Even Minnesotans can figure it out with much ease. The scars of wars are still a bit evident. This city suffered significant damage. 80% of the buildings were damaged. It is recovering  well.  The architecture varies from baroque to quite modern. The city has some similarity to Prague but  much different feel. Buildings and streets are much grander scale. 

Have a look see:

Hero's square 

One of the 7 spa/baths

Parliament building. 

Bronz sculpture of 60 pairs of shoes on the very location where Hungarian nazis took people and shot them. The river took the bodies away. Hard to conceive .....

Figured out the metro, very slick.  Would it be nice to have in the twin cities.....

Of course, we HAD to find this place! 

Tomorrow our last day in Budapest and Hungary. All of our travel group is either home or on their way. Except me,  meeting 5 people over next few days then starting s bike and barge tour. So much more adventure to come, keep reading!

S H F bike tours. 🇭🇺 🚴 Day 9

In true VBT fashion, they saved the best for last. 

Last night was the farewell dinner. What a gala event! Not only fabulous food, a 4 string quartet, dancers, and a vocalist.  Mark even got into the swing of it. 

Zoltan and Susie did a most excellent job thanking us. Each rider was given an award for the most outstanding "fill in the blank".  Mine was knowing how to say egeshegedrae. Truly thanks to our Hungarian guide on our Italy trip. It means to your health / cheers. Now isn't that a stretch to know this ....:D     It was quite the interesting evening.  

Here is the whole group.

Today, another VBT first, no coach transfer to the post extend hotel, we rode our bikes from the outer edge of Budapest where we had been staying for the two nights, right into city central and our final hotel. That was really cool.  This part of the world is really quite busy with bikers and bike friendly. Budapest was established in the 1700's when combined from 3 cities into 1. Old Budda, Budda, and Pest. It was first call Pestbuda, but fairly quickly realized, that sounded stupid. Thus changed to Budapest, much better.   We rode through old Budda. This is a really cool old square. The old town hall is covered by scaffolding, no picture to share. But do have of the 3 ladies and their umbrellas. 

Then on to St Margarets island. Named after one of the royalties' daughters who would not agree to be married so lived in a convent on this island. Later was sainted. A research opportunity for you as to why. Here is a pic of the convent ruins. 

More visuals for you..

Arrived at our last hotel for this trip, very nice!  Said good by to our guides, bikes and a few of our newly made friends. Now, down to 4 of us ....

Tomorrow, we figure out, with any luck, the hop on hop off sightseeing bus to explore this amazing city. 

More adventure to come, keep reading!