All Things Bright and Beautiful

My Goodness, How we Love to Travel!

Here we are in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, still 3 time zones away from home time, but looking at our itinerary, we realize that this adventure is soon coming to an end.

First and Foremost, a Note of Gratitude to the over 200 of You that have joined our Travel Blog!

We want to thank each of you for reading our posts, viewing the pictures and making comments. You have stayed with us throughout this journey and we are grateful for your Love and Support for Our Adventures.

And now, let’s Review some of the Memories!

We travel initially to lose ourselves; and we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate.

We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe where riches are differently dispersed.

And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and to fall in love once more.

After almost seven weeks of traveling, an Atlantic crossing is delightful. This itinerary has just one port of call, Funchal, Madeira.

Funchal is the capital city on the island of Madeira. The city’s name comes from the abundance of fennel found on the island. Funchal is one of Portugal’s most beautiful cities and main tourist attractions.

But the Highlight of the Day was the Amazing Seabourn Sail Away Celebration.

Greetings faithful blog followers, we are now aboard the Seabourn Pursuit heading to Miami. We sure appreciate you staying with us throughout this adventure. 😊

Here are some shots of our cabin.

As this is an “Exploration Ship”, the Zodiacs are ready to visit the penguins. 🐧

Nice lunch buffet to begin our afternoon.

Lisbon was wonderful!

Let’s begin with Breakfast.

Pastéis de nata (custard tart). Even if you know next to nothing about the cuisine of Portugal, you’re likely familiar with the country’s most famous dessert, a tiny and decadent Portuguese egg tart that some might say is the most satisfying wallop of sweet, sweet wow you’ll ever get for €1.15.

Get Ready for This!

Polvo à Lagareiro (octopus with olive oil and potatoes). One of the most ubiquitous dishes across the country and one nearly guaranteed to be locally sourced, polvo à Lagareiro is said to have originated in the central Portuguese region known as the Beiras. Its beauty is in its simplicity: A meaty piece of octopus—tentacles and all—is roasted, heavily doused in key ingredients of Mediterranean cooking (olive oil and garlic), and served alongside slow-baked potatoes.

You won’t find bacalhau (salted cod) in Portugal—bacalhau will find you. Harkening back to a prerefrigeration technique of preserving fish in salt, bacalhau carried on in Portugal despite modern advancements.

Ginjinha or simply Ginja, is a Portuguese liqueur made by infusing ginja berries (sour cherries) in alcohol and adding sugar together with other ingredients, with cloves and/or cinnamon sticks being the most common. Ginjinha is served in a shot form with a piece of the fruit in the bottom of the cup. It is a favourite liqueur of many Portuguese and a typical drink in Lisbon.

Oh, We Did See Some Very Cool

Things from the HoHo!

This stunning monument was designed to commemorate the Age of Discoveries in Portugal. It was inaugurated in 1960, on the fifth centenary of one of the country’s great discoverers, Prince Henry the Navigator, who discovered the Azores, Madeira, and Cape Verde. Also included are Vasco da Gama (discoverer of the sea route to India) and Ferdinand Magellan (first to circumnavigate the globe).

Lisbon is the capital and the largest city of Portugal. With over 30 centuries of History, this city located on seven hills has more than 500,000 inhabitants.

And that’s it for facts, details and history.

Please just enjoy some fav

photos from our Lisbon adventure.

Just a Beautiful City!

Our AirBnB in the Alfama District.

Up and Down the Hills!

And of Course, Another Market!

And following Rick Steves’ advice,

we visited the Time Out Market.

More fun coming up tomorrow!

We travel initially to lose ourselves; and we travel next to find ourselves. We travel to open our hearts and eyes and learn more about the world than our newspapers will accommodate. We travel to bring what little we can, in our ignorance and knowledge, to those parts of the globe where riches are differently dispersed. And we travel, in essence, to become young fools again – to slow time down and get taken in, and to fall in love once more.

Well, we really didn’t encounter any low bridges, but we did sail through the Danube-Black Sea Canal. The Danube-Black Sea canal, with a length of 40.0 miles, connects the Port of Cernavodă with the Port of Constanța, was built in 1976–1984.

Constanța is a city on the shores of the Black Sea, in southeastern Romania. Its long history goes back over 2,000 years.

Very exciting to toast our arrival at the Black Sea.

Today, we leave our ship from the last month, the MS River Aria and travel to the Romanian capital of BUCHAREST. We made so many wonderful new friends.

While cruising the Danube toward Bulgaria, Executive Chef Mark offered us a tour of the galley. Always amazed that they can prepare so many meals is such a little space.

Today we arrived in Vidin, Bulgaria. Bulgaria is country number 95 for us.

We visited the Baba Viva fortress that was built in the period from the 10th to the 14th century.

In the center of a pedestrian square, is a monument commemorating the victims of the Balkan War and the First World War.

Vidin is home to the second largest Orthodox church in Bulgaria after the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral in the capital Sofia. The primary religion in Bulgaria is Eastern Orthodox Christianity.

The Bulgarian Communist Party was ruling party of the People’s Republic of Bulgaria from 1946 until 1989.

If you’re confused about how the former Yugoslavia dissolved after the fall of communism, you’re not alone. The country was melded together after World War I from six major Slavic groups and its post-communism breakup has largely followed ethnic lines.

The six republics that made up the federation – Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia (including the regions of Kosovo and Vojvodina) and Slovenia.

Kosovo’s independence has been recognized by about 100 countries, including the United States, however, Serbia has refused to recognize Kosovo’s statehood and still considers it part of Serbia.

Interesting to note that the former Yugoslav constituent republics of Slovenia (2004) and Croatia (2013) have joined the European Union. The other nations are in various stages of application and negotiations.

Today we are in Belgrade, Serbia.

Celts settled in Belgrade around the 4th century BC and named it Singidunum. Then came the Romans (Of Course), developing a luxurious city over the centuries. In the 5th century AD, it was destroyed by the Huns (another Of Course!) and later conquered and reconquered by the Goths, Byzantines, Slavs, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Serbs, Turks, Austrians until if finally became Serbian again in the nineteenth century. Good Grief!

It’s been well over a decade since NATO forces bombed Belgrade in an attempt to stop the Kosovo War. On the streets, the scars are still evident.

While in Belgrade, the capital of Serbia and the former capital of Yugoslavia, we visited the Tito Memorial.

This and That!

Tonight, our Captain took us on an evening cruise down the Danube through the center of Budapest. Breath taking.

Always in search of another market, this morning we walked from the ship to the Great Market Hall in Budapest. Here are some highlights. We did manage to acquire a few treasures!

Ruin Bars!

Ruin Bars are located in formerly abandoned old buildings from the post World War era in the Jewish Quarter of Budapest. Ruin bars like Szimpla Kert, provide unpretentious spaces in which to grab a drink or a bite to eat.

Matthias Church, a 13th-century church named for King Matthias, stands above the Castle Hill with a beautiful red-tiled roof and an ornate white exterior. It’s one of the oldest buildings in Budapest as well as Hungary as a whole. (This church was NOT named for Matthias from the Bible who was chosen to replace Judas Iscariot.)

Our three days visiting Budapest, the “Heart of Europe”, the “Queen of the Danube”, the “Pearl of the Danube” have come to an end.

Today we enter Croatia for all new adventures. Of course, we are eager to explore new places!

Budapest – part one.

Years ago, a friend of ours from the 2016 World Cruise, wrote some thoughts about becoming good world travelers. Here’s what Steve wrote.

How to be a Good Traveler

It’s not too hard. Figure out what the locals eat and drink and order it. Never hesitate, swallow everything and smile. Learn please and thank you in the local language and use them every chance you get even if you don’t have it quite right. Figure out why their country is the best in the world and let them know it.

Through our visits to 93 countries, we have tried to follow Steve’s suggestions. However, country 93, Hungary, kind of put us to the test.

PESHT – not PEST

We realized that It helps to pronounce the country’s Capital City correctly. If you’re going to Hungary, it’s not “boo-da-pest.”

It’s “boo-duh-pesht.”

Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. It is spoken as a native language by 13 million people, most of whom live in Hungary. It’s a famously difficult language for English speakers to learn, with complex grammar and pronunciation.

Good morning - jó reggelt kívánok

Thank you very much - nagyon szépen köszönjük 

Buda, on the Danube’s West Bank and Pest (say it right, please!!) on the east, were combined in 1873 to create (and inspire the name of) the modern capital city of Budapest.

One might think that Hungary’s largest church is named for the first Christian martyr, but not so. Budapest’s St. Stephen’s Basilica is dedicated to Hungary’s founding king, Stephen I, who reigned from 970 until 1038.