Churches and Synagogues St. Stephen's Cathedral dominates the surrounding buildings and also features a lovely square with great people watching (plus wine and gelato!) St. Stephen's Cathedral from the Bastion St. Stephen's Cathedral from the square The fees were a bit high to enter the Dohany Street Synagogue so we simply admired the exterior and continued on our way. Dohany Street Synagogue - gorgeous and intricate brickwork Holocaust Memorial at the … [Read more...]
Budapest 2013: sights around town I
May 18, 2013
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Bridges Budapest is separated by the Danube River, so there are a number of bridges that bring the two sides together. The Chain Bridge is probably the most famous, and heavily trafficked, as it connects the center of both cities. The famous Chain Bridge linking Buda to Pest View of Buda from the Chain Bridge Liberty Bridge is downstream of the Chain Bridge, close to the Market, and affords a number of photographic opportunities. Liberty Bridge with Elisabeth Bridge in … [Read more...]
A New York weekend: NYC
April 22, 2013
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The weekend after Easter we flew up to New York for a quick family visit and we decided stay in the city for the first night so we could make sure to see my niece (since we usually miss her during our Christmas or summer trips). Hotel prices were rather high for our particular weekend so we decided to redeem one of our free Hyatt nights (earned through a credit card signup) at the Hyatt 48 Lex. In a first for us, our flight from RDU arrived at LaGuardia 45 minutes early, so our cab arrived … [Read more...]
Curacao 2013: sights
March 12, 2013
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Around Thanksgiving we found several interesting travel deals for 2013, and a return to Curacao for a long weekend was one of them. Since we had explored much of the island in 2007 we didn't feel like we had to explore as much on this trip; consequently, we decided to relax and spent most of our time reading on the beach or by the pool. However, we did break free from our books occasionally to snorkel, enjoy the sights, and laugh at the politics of lizards. Unlike our last trip, island maps … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: Singapore sights II
March 1, 2013
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Wednesday Our morning goal was to see the Singapore Botanical Gardens, and knowing the warmth that midday would bring, we got an early morning start. The gardens were about a 30 minute MTR ride away, and then a 20+ minute walk across the park. On the way to the National Orchid Garden we took a slight detour to enjoy the rainforest walk. Then it was on to the orchid garden, one of the largest in the world. The garden was spectacular with lots of flowers (and shade!) in every color and … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: Singapore sights I
February 28, 2013
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Monday Following our evening arrival we only had time for a short exploratory walk through Chinatown. With the Chinese New Year approaching the neighborhood was decorated with lots of red, gold and citrus. year of the snake! festive decor Off the main street were pedestrian walkways stuffed with shop and stalls. Our senses overloaded, we went back to the hotel after about an hour of wandering, but not before stopping at one of the numerous 7-11s for juice and … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: Great Ocean Road parks
February 24, 2013
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Though we spent a considerable portion of our time driving along the coast there were several inland parks that we stopped at as well. On day one we headed inland from Lorne in search of several waterfalls. Unfortunately, our luck wasn't great, with Erskine Falls closed for re-construction of stairs. So, we turned around and drove to Phantom Falls. Finding the parking lot was easier than the trail and we got turned around twice due to some especially unhelpful directions. And then after a … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: Great Ocean Road coastal sights
February 23, 2013
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From Melbourne we drove about an hour south through dry countryside before hitting the first views around Torquay. With a beautifully sunny day we had views in every direction. Along the road we followed signs to the Split Point lighthouse in Aireys Inlet. The parking lot was fairly full but we were able to grab a spot from someone who was just leaving. Unfortunately for us, this and several other spots were designated no parking, which we found out the hard way when we returned 15 … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: Melbourne sights
February 19, 2013
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While tennis was our main objective in Melbourne, we still planned to explore the city in our off-time. Unfortunately my 36 hour fever/cold coincided with most of our time in Melbourne so we didn't experience as much of the city as we had planned. After the day session of tennis I had enough energy to walk around for an hour, so we started along the river. Melbourne has created a nice bicycle and pedestrian path along the river that provides several nice vantage points of the … [Read more...]
Asia/Australia 2013: the tennis
February 18, 2013
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The Australian Open, known locally as 'the tennis,' was a motivating factor for our trip. However, tickets didn't go on sale until October, so we had to wait 7 months after reserving our flights before we would know if we'd have seats in the main stadium. We jumped online the moment tickets went on sale (at our friend Andrew's house!) and were lucky to get the times we wanted, namely the second Monday night session and the day session on Tuesday. Our apartment was very close to the stadium … [Read more...]