March 17 update

I'm currently in Budapest (Hungary) where I arrived on Saturday morning after taking the overnight train from Krakov (Poland). So far I've had a wonderful time and have gotten to do and see so many things. I must confess that my feet are already feeling the pain from all the walking all day long. I left Madrid on Wednesday March 6 and arrived in Barcelona where I stayed with a friend. She showed me all of Barcelona and on the weekend we drove to the sanctuary of Lourdes (France) which is located about 6 hours from Barcelona. We crossed the Valley of Aran to get there and where able to see and even photograph the Pyrenees at a distance. On our way back we stopped at several little towns near the France/Spain border including a very famous ski town: Baqueira.

From Barcelona I took a 3 hour flight to Warsaw (Poland) where I spent 2 days. Warsaw is just a big city still undergoing a lot of construction and expansion. I did not find too much to do or see and the fact that it was very cold, windy and rainy did not help either. From Warsaw I took a 3 hour train to Krakov in the southern part of Poland. Krakov was beautiful. It has a huge town square where the cathedral stands. That day there was a fair/festival taking place and the whole square and adjacent market were crowded. The city also has a castle nested on the top of a hill called Wavel hill which was also very pretty.

That night I took a 10 hour overnight train to Budapest where I arrived at around 830 in the morning. Marelys, her boss and a coworker are here on a business meeting and they also arrived on Saturday. We met at the Hotel around noon and headed out for a walking tour of the city. We ended the day by having a delicious dinner at a very nice restaurant and then a couple of drinks at a nearby lounge/bar. We are staying at the Intercontinental Hotel and I have to say I love it. After sleeping in hostels with shared bathrooms and no luxuries staying at a Hotel like this one is like winning the Lotto.

Yesterday we did more sightseeing and we even went to take a famous thermal bath in one of the many thermal pools spread all over the city. At night we went for dinner on a boat on the Danube river. (The boat is anchored and does not travel along the river)

Today and tomorrow I will be doing some day trips to towns close to Budapest such as Szentendre and Visegrad while everyone else is working. And tomorrow night I head out to Sofia in Bulgaria.