A Postcard A day - Friday 22 May 2026 - Friday Smiles

 

Hello lovely peeps, How are you all? I hope you have had many occasions to smile and to count your blessings. I'm still on holiday and I'm enjoying myself no end, so smiles every day.

In my last blog post I was in Hungary (Budapest) From there we had a nine hour train journey into Transsylvania (in Romania) where we stopped in Alba Iulia. 

We visited the citadel the next day 

and saw a beautiful orthodox church:

We had a wine tasting session inside the citadel (perfect for maturing wine):

Next door to our hotel, called hotel Transylvania, there was an automated flower shop that sold beautiful bouquets:

When we enquired about this, we were told that boys give their girlfriends flowers and husbands their wives. Isn't that nice.

Next day back on the train for five hours to Brasov. The trains are modern and luxurious (we are traveling first class) and we had lunch in the buffet car which served excellent wine too.

The hotel in Brasov was the best we had so far (Called Kromwell). In the afternoon we got picked up by our private mini bus to go into the mountains to a bear hide. Brown bears are many in the mountains but when they are hungry they come into the town. To avoid this, the rangers feed them water melons (a sweet treat) to keep them from wandering into town. 

It was a bit like whale watching. No guarantee they will turn up. But we were lucky.

We waited an awful long time and nearly went home, but at the end they came to eat their water melons. What a unique situation. We were in a hide with glass but had to be mouse still and not talk.

Next day, (we're still staying in Brasov) we went to visit the citadel in Rupea:

 

The view from the top was well worth the climb. The snow topped mountains in the distance are beautiful.

Then we drove to Viscri and visited a fortified church (the population was Saxon, and their faith was Lutheran and I don't quite know why they had to fortify their churches)

Inside the church I loved all that embroidery and of course the old furniture:

Viscri is a UNESCO World heritage site and King Charles has a house there:

This is above the door:

Here is our group having a drink there:

I think I'll leave it at that. More on Tuesday.

There are some funnies at the end as per usual. 

Keep smiling,

Lisca

A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 19 May 2026 - T for lots of photos

Hello lovely peeps, I'm still traveling. 

On Friday I didn't really show any photos of the places I'd been (only jokey ones). 

People have asked me for photos of what I've seen. Here are some photos of Vienna and  Budapest. 

First off Vienna:

This is the ornate entrance to the Belvedere palace gardens.

Wikipedia writes: The Belvedere is a historic building complex and art museum in Vienna, Austria. The complex consists of two Baroque palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere, together with the Orangery, the Palace Stables, and a formal Baroque garden.

Built as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the complex was designed principally by Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt and completed in the early eighteenth century.

Above is the impressive parliament building.

The above building is the Palace of Justice.

Kohlmarkt, with the Palace of Justice in the background.

 The church located at Stephansplatz is St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom), seen below. It is the iconic Gothic mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna, instantly recognisable by its geometrically patterned mosaic roof and the 136-meter-tall South Tower

The Eurovision song contest was being held that weekend and some locations were cordoned off and there was a lot of screens and cables and cameras etc everywhere.

Then we went (by train) to Budapest in Hungary. We had a hotel opposite the Keleti train station. This is the view from my hotel room:

That building is the station.

We had a tour with a local guide. We visited the City Park, amongst other things, which has thermal baths:

This is from the Internet, just to show you how enormous it is.

The entrance looks like this:

It's just amazing.

And that's just the entrance.

I fancied an experience and went that afternoon:

I chose the premium experience as it came with a bathrobe, which I didn't have of course.

The underground in Budapest is very old, and still uses on the old yellow carriages. 

The stations look like this:

A lot of wood and tiles. Very beautiful.

Below is the inside of the opera building. Unfortunately there was no time to see an opera.

The Matthias Church has a beautiful roof:

Near the church is this stunning building topped with copper warriors! It also has a stunning roof. The building, once the Royal Ministry of Finance, it’s now home to the Ministry of Interior:

Would you believe there was a Jamie Oliver restaurant in Budapest!

The next day we got a train to Bucharest (Romania). 

Budapest is lovely. Even the station in was beautiful:

The station was called Keleti:

I'm joining T for Tuesday hosted by Elizabeth and Bluebeard so I need a drink:

This is my hotel room in Brasov in Romania. There is a coffee machine and there are wine bottles.

That is all for now. More photos on Friday.

Happy T-Day all!

Lisca