Forget Us Nicht

Hello everybody,

It’s been a while since last I blogged and do I have things to write about.

Let us all have a moment of silence as we say goodbye to my dear and close friend, ol’blue.

Fifteen great years of mountain biking bliss… I couldn’t ask for a better bike, but it’s time to move on so…

Say hello to my new little friend, greeny. A new chapter in trail riding and hill climbing begins.

I’ve come to realize that training going up hill helps my lower back immensely. Sooo, the last month or so I have been really pushing the limits of my old mountain bike and finally it said, NO MORE and committed seppuku.

I’m am going to try to revive ol’blue by making it into a single gear…well see.

Ok now for some updates,

Two weekends ago L and I headed to Gigondas, France with a friend of ours to help him buy wine. It was a quick three day weekend of long drives, wine tasting and developing a palate for these bold wines.

Our first stop was in the small village of Sainte-Cécile-les-Vignes. I believe this village is located in the northern part of the Cote the Rhone, near Châteauneuf-du-Pape. But their popular Grenache grapes from the Cairanne appellation are quite good.

“Red wines in Cairanne are mainly made from Grenache Noir which must comprise at least 50% of the blend. This grape is supported by Syrah and Mourvèdre (which must together comprise 20% of the blend) and then all of the other nominated grapes varieties for the Côtes du Rhône appellation which include Counoise, Cinsault and Carignan among others.”

Ok that was for all the wine experts out there, which I am by no means near approaching. Below is a picture of the town market. I bought some really tasty chorizo and French sausages.

below is a picture of one of the wineries we visited, this one was the Sainte Cecile local.

The Gigondas wine valley.

If you are interested in reading about the Gigondas wine click on the link -

http://www.gigondas-vin.com/terroir/encepagement.php

Rhone Valley

Gigondas

The Maison de Gigondas is where most of the wines from the local villages are collected and sold. We stopped here before we were off to the wineries. I completely forgot to take pictures of the wineries, every time we arrived at a winery I became enchanted by the owners and I would forget to document our visit.

Stopping in a local restaurant for some lunch.

Approaching the village of Séguret, France.

L taking in the fresh air of the Rhone valley from Domaine de Mourchon a winery located in the hills of Séguret.

If you ever get a chance to visit France,one must visit Séguret, but don’t tell anyone we have to keep it a secret.

Below we headed towards the village of Pommard, another fantastic place to visit. After our wine travels we headed back home, but before we left France…

We stopped in our favorite villages of Givry and Mercurey looking for those final purchases that would round out our wine selections.

One final pictures leaving Givry and headed back towards Germany. We had a fantastic time and we got to stay in Lyon for two days, which was an added bonus.

Next in line is Belgium.

We also visited Ghent, Burgge, Ostende, and Brussels. I’m sorting through the pictures this week and will be posting soon but here’s a sneak peak.

Oostende

Ghent

rock!!!

Hugs,

M&L

Hello everybody,

well I’ve finally sorted through all the 726 Budapest pictures.

Budapest in a nutshell!!!

So here we go!!!

Arriving to the main train station in Pest.

The guy in the lower right hand side of the picture was trying to get me to exchange money with him, although I said no thanks.

In the picture below is the outside view of the train station.

Here we are exiting the underground subway and headed towards our hotel.

The Mitchell Sisters, well 2/3 of them anyway.

Pictures as we walked towards our hotel.

after arriving to the hotel, we headed back outside and braved the artic blast in search of…you guess it, beer.

===============

The following day.

Our view of Buda and the Danube River. The majority of our time was spent in the Pest part of Budapest. But don’t worry we do get over to the Buda side.

Budapest is home to 3,271,110 people.The city covers an area of 525 square 202.7 sq. miles within the city limits. Budapest became a single city occupying both banks of the river Danube with a unification on 17 November 1873 of right west-bank Buda and Óbuda with left east-bank Pest. (borrowed from Wikipedia)

This day we scheduled a stop at a local Therma and sightseeing.

The Hungarian State Opera House

We tried to buy tickets for the Nutcracker Suite, but the show was sold out. Next time.

You know these goons.

Next we headed towards the HOUSE OF TERROR.

The building located on one of Pest most historic streets, Andrassy, heading towards the Oktogan, now called new America, because of all the fast food joints located there.

But, below is a picture of the museum entrance. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the basement. I managed one picture of the interrogation room.

The “Terror House” was home to the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party in 1944. Then it fell under Russian occupation and the Department of Political Police took over, later known as AVO and AVH. It was also called, ‘House of Loyalty.’

At least from what I understood from the tour…

In an act of preservation, the Hungarian Socialist Party sided with the Nazi party in order to end Nazi occupation of Hungary, but instead the Nazis took over the building and developed the Hungarian Arrow Cross Party. The Arrow Cross rounded up Hungarians and Hungarian Jews that were not loyal to the Nazis. The Arrow Cross then either sent the prisoners to concentration camps or tortured them in the basement of the building and then dumped their bodies in the Danube River.

Because the Hungarians had supported the Nazis, the U.S.S. R. had no mercy and in turn set up the Department of Political Police, later called the AVO and AVH. The AVO developed a network of informants and a shadow army, big brother stuff. A silent terror roosted in the streets of Hungary and it lasted up until 1956.

As one walks along the sidewalk towards the building, you will notice the museum, it is the only building painted in a drab grey that has an imposing frame on top of it that reads, “TERROR.” The building is a memorial to all the people that died during the occupations.

You can read more about it here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_Terror

After we shook off the fright of the museum we headed to the spa…

But first, below is the Heroes Square, built during the Hungarian Soviet Republic reign in the 1919.

Here is what it looks like now.

Here are a couple pictures I took for Mr. Rahn

Now to the Spa.

Here’s what it looked like from the inside…I can’t remember the name of this place perhaps - The Mitchell Sisters can chime in if they remember the name.