This is the 2nd largest office building in the world.
After our tour, our bus trip continued to the city of Constanta on the Black Sea.
Russia was to the north of us and Turkey was to the south.
Constanta was the site of an early Roman port. They have a small museum with some remarkable items that are 2000 or more years old.
Woman’s gold necklace
This sculpture, if it was in the US, would be behind thick glass and iron bars with an armed guard nearby. It is such a rare a piece of art that it is considered priceless. Here, it was just behind a rope.
The floor of a Roman bath
Throughout this post I have photos of buildings or parts of buildings that I cannot identify, but I was amazed by the design and detail.
We boarded our ship in Constanta, sailed a short time on the Black Sea, and headed up the Danube. Our first tours were in the cities of Arbanassi and Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria.
A typical 17th century merchant’s house
St Michael & Gabriel Church. The interior is completely covered with frescoes, painted between 1632 and 1649. It has never been restored. Depicted are over 3500 figures in some 200 scenes. Churches at the time could not be built higher than a man on a horse.
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After our tour of the church, in walked these four men. They began to sing, a cappella, old church songs. In this small of space the sound was remarkable and gave us goose bumps.
Ruins of an old Roman wall around a town, complete with an old roman picnic shelter in the background (perhaps not).
Town scenes
I always want to buy a souvenir of our trip , but for some reason, Pat never likes my choices. I don’t understand why.
Viden, Bulgaria
Vidin Synagogue, Abandoned following the end of WW II
Baba Vida Fortress Home for a few years of Vlad the Impaler. If you have a strong stomach, look him up.
Sailing through what is known as the Iron Gates of the Danube. To get an idea of the size of this carving, look for the cars in the bottom of the photo
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Novi Sad, Serbia
Petrovaradin Fortress
Under a bridge, before and after photos of bridges in the city that were bombed during the Croatian War of Independence 1991-95.
Budapest, Hungary
We toured the second largest Synagogue in the world.
Sculpture in the courtyard. Each leaf has a name of someone who died in the Holocaust.
I don’t know what they pay their bus drivers here but it is not enough. They drive full size buses through places like this and even worse.
Home sweet home
Each large town has a large ornate cathedral. I was drawn to their tile roofs. Many of the cathedrals were designed and started construction in the 10th and 11th centuries. Some took 300 years to build.
Larger than life-size sculptures
Nice mustache. I might try to grow one like this.
Interesting halter
You never know who you might meet.
Budapest at night
From Budapest, we took a bus to Vienna, Austria.
The cathedrals are still among the tallest buildings in the towns. How impressive they must have looked in the 13th century.
We were very lucky to get tickets to the Vienna Opera, one of the great opera houses in the world. The seats we got were not very good but the sound was tremendous.
We toured Maria Theresa’s Schoenbrun Palace, owned by the Habsburg family. We were not allowed to take photos inside but during the tour we walked through the room in which Mozart played a concert for Maria Theresa when he was just a child.
The back yard. Does it look about like yours?
We were in Vienna for three days. We could visit there for two weeks and not see it all.
