Archive by Author

The Sand Dollar

31 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

As I’ve mentioned before – I grew up in the land-locked state of New Mexico. Those of you unfamiliar with New Mexico – it really IS one of our 50 states. Get out your atlas and look. See? Find Texas…go west to New Mexico…then west again to Arizona. I can assure you that there is a state between Texas and Arizona. Heard of Albuquerque? Or perhaps Santa Fe? Those are two of the main cities in New Mexico. The New Mexico Magazine, in every issue, has a page dedicated to “One of our 50 is Missing.” Most of the antidotes are hilarious – but some really get my temper riled up! I’m afraid our teachers aren’t teaching U.S. geography these days!

 

All that to say that, when we moved to Florida (Tyndall AFB, Panama City), we were living within 100 yards of the Gulf of Mexico. What a change! And we loved it. Fred had lived on Tyndall AFB with his family in his youth, when his father was stationed there as Base Chaplain in the 1950’s.

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One of the things I learned about and enjoyed so much was the Sand Dollar. It is a living creature – according to Wikipedia: refers to species of extremely flattened, burrowing sea urchins…Related animals include other sea urchins, sea cucumbers, and starfish.

The legend of the Sand Dollar states: Visit a shell shop and you may find poems or sand dollars with the Legend of the Sand Dollar, which references Easter, Christmas and Jesus. Some references say that the 5-pointed “star” in the center of the top of the sand dollar’s test [skeleton] is said to represent the Star of Bethlehem that guided the wise men to the baby Jesus. The 5 openings in the test are said to represent Jesus’s wounds during his crucifixion – the 4 wounds in his hands and feet and the 5th in his side. On the underside of the sand dollar test, it is said that there is an outline of a Christmas poinsettia. The legend also says that if you break open a sand dollar, you’ll find 5 “doves of peace” inside. These doves are actually the 5 jaws of the sand dollar’s mouth (Aristotle’s lantern). (Credit About Marine Life)

In any case, I found them to be fascinating. When our oldest daughter, Karen, went to a camp one summer, she brought home a large sand dollar (some might call it a sea biscuit, because of its size). I still have it, and treasure it.

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As we were leaving Panama City, one of the ladies in our church, an artist, painted a beach scene on a sand dollar for us. I think it’s beautiful, and reminds me of her, whenever I see it.

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But I think my favorite sand dollar was one I found in a shop in Panama City. It is a pendant, dipped in gold leaf, and I thoroughly enjoy wearing it. It is so very delicate, and I always receive comments about it when I wear it.

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I’ve heard about the legend of the sand dollar, and can definitely see where it might be a reference to Christ. I’m all for anything that brings Christ to the forefront.

God’s creation is beautiful – all of it. I hope you agree.

 

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The Lady and the Cross

24 Jul

Sunday Memories

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

I know the July 4th, our country’s Independence Day, has come and gone, but it’s never out of style to be patriotic. Because of the service to our country that my Father, my Father-in-law, my husband, and his brother have done, I find myself fiercely patriotic. I weep when the National Anthem is sung or played. And I am not ashamed of my patriotism.

Many years ago, while in the church choir, we were given a song to sing that touched my heart so much, that I’ve never forgotten it. I would like to print the words below and hope you feel the same patriotism I’ve always felt.

The comparison between our Lady with the Lamp, and the Cross of Christ is absolutely breathtaking.

 

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In New York harbor, stands a Lady

with a torch raised to the sky.

And all who see her

Know she stands for

Liberty for you and me.

 

I’m so proud to be called an American,

to be named with the brave and the free!

I will honor our flag and our trust in God,

And the Statue of Liberty.

 

On lonely Golgotha stood a cross

with my Lord raised to the sky;

And all who kneel there

Live forever

As all the saved can testify.

 

I’m so glad to be called a Christian,

to be named with the ransomed and whole!

As the statue liberates the citizen,

So the Cross liberates the soul.

 

Oh, the Cross is my Statue of Liberty.

It was there that my soul was set free.

Unashamed I’ll proclaim that a rugged cross

Is my Statue of Liberty.

My Liberty!

Credit to Lillenas Publishing Company

Composer and Lyricist Neil Enloe

Arranged by Tom Keene

 

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Fight Your Battles

17 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

 

During a recent stay in the hospital, Fred and I came upon a plaque on a door that says so much to us, that we wanted to share it with you. It is so very true, and applies to any and all battles in your life. Here’s the picture of it we took:

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We happen to believe that this statement is quite true. You might find it a strange place to find this statement – in a hospital – but it defines the hospital. You see, it is Celebration Hospital/Health in Celebration, Florida. It is part of the Florida Hospital chain, and is founded by the Seventh Day Adventist denomination. I’m not sure that all the employees they hire are believers, but every single one that came in contact with me – up to and including the housekeeping personnel – left me with a “have a blessed day.”   And several of the nurses were talking together about the “spiritual” feel to the hospital, and how that makes a difference in their work atmosphere.

I had felt that before – when I had my total knee replacement last year. The nurses were saying the same thing that time, as well.

Although the hospital has pictures on their walls of Florida scenes, many of them have scripture verses along with them. One area has one picture for each of the days of creation. Impressive and beautiful.

I suspect that if more of us – not to mention our national leaders – would spend more time on their knees, asking God’s help with our problems, we would be in much more calm situations than we are in now.

God is my anchor. My battles will be on my knees.

 

 

Anchor for the Soul

 

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Family Treasures~Part 6

10 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

There are some family treasures that are treasures to me, but I don’t have them with me. But I would like to tell you about them.

I’ve mentioned before that my Dad worked in church work (Southern Baptist) all his working career. Looking at some of those in the “religious” field these days, you might get the idea that all pastors (my Dad was not a pastor) and church workers are rolling in the bucks. Let me tell you – it is NOT so!!

Consequently, being the farm boy he was in the beginning of his life, he would go deer hunting every season to bring his family meat to eat. We really ate well. Occasionally, Mom would go with him and they would bag two deer – we REALLY ate well those years.

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And then, when my brother, Bill, was old enough to hunt with Daddy, he would go along, and they usually bagged two deer, again. I’ve used these pictures in other musings, but they bear repeating for this posting.

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One thing I’ve failed to mention is that Daddy eventually began butchering his kill. Albuquerque is cold in the winter, so Daddy would hang the deer in the garage, skin it, then butcher it. He didn’t always do that. At first, he would take the deer to a local butcher and have it done there. But somewhere along the way, Daddy discovered that he was not getting “his” meat back. Don’t know who was getting it, but it wasn’t us. So one year he set a test – he put a straw under the tongue of the deer. And guess what? The straw wasn’t there when he went to pick up his meat. That was the last time he let anyone else butcher his meat.

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One little footnote here – if you have ever wanted to cook venison, the recipe usually calls for soaking it in milk or something else overnight before cooking. Well, let me tell you…New Mexico deer eat only the “good stuff” in the mountains – pine nuts, etc.   So there is no “gamey” taste to the venison. Mother would make roasts, steaks, and the best chili I’ve ever had, out of that venison!! After butchering, the meat was wrapped and stored in our freezer until she was ready to cook it. Yum..

I know that in previous musings I mentioned that one year Daddy bagged an elk. Those things are HUGE!! Lots of good meat for our freezer that year.

What I’ve not mentioned is that Daddy had a stuffed deer head on our dining room wall. I don’t know why – except it was always just “there” – part of the woodwork of growing up in that house. It may have been the first deer Daddy ever bagged – I’m not sure. What irritates me is that, after looking through ALL the pictures and slides from my growing up, I cannot find one single picture of that deer head!

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What’s kind of funny is that there is a deer head in every Cracker Barrel we’ve ever been in. And the one in the restaurant near our house had one that could have been hanging on our wall! Here’s a picture of it………see the “ripple” on it’s neck? That is exactly like our deer head had! (I took this picture are our Cracker Barrel!) None of the deer heads in the other Cracker Barrel’s we’ve been to has the “ripple.” This one reminds me of the one I grew up with.

So, even though I don’t have the picture of our actual deer head, this one will do. This one is an 8-point buck, just like the one at our house.   Who knows – perhaps Cracker Barrel acquired theirs from my family. Stranger things have happened.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Family Treasures~Part 5

3 Jul

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

Last time, I introduced some things that were in my Aunt Jessie’s house. Since she and Granny lived so close to us, I spent a great deal of time at her house. When she died, I wished I could have just taken everything in her house and put it in mine. But then Fred said, “where would we put it?” and I had to let it all go. That’s probably the hardest part of it all – letting it go.

Jessie’s house
The stair-step divider between the dining room and the living room – Christmas candles made by Jessie
Jessie and her Geisha dol
The table top was one piece of wood

As I mentioned before, Aunt Jessie never married, and so “things” became the focus of her life.

Jessie told me this was a Duncan Phyfe drop-leaf table.
An antique display cabinet – dressed for Christmas

 

Grandpa started her on the road to loving antiques, and she never quit. She would go to estate sales around Albuquerque and pick up what she wanted. Occasionally, I would go with her on these jaunts. She furnished her house with some REALLY good antique furniture. She was, at one time, the President of the Antique Club in Albuquerque. After she died, Mother was given the name of an estate auctioneer that might be of some help to us. He came to Jessie’s house, and his gaze was going from this-to-that the entire time he was talking to us. He finally blurted out: “this is some of the best Victorian I’ve ever seen!” Jessie really knew her stuff.

 

We held the auction – and the auctioneer suggested we hold it in her house, as it was the best setting to showcase what was there, and so we did. He advertised the auction in papers in New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and Colorado. From what we understand, there were about 500 people who came for the auction – and they did, indeed, sell everything “down to the carpet.”

While I don’t have any of these antiques in my house now, here are some of the beautiful things Jessie had. We know they are scattered to four winds now, but we hope and pray that everyone who found something, loves and enjoys them as much as she did.

The table top was one piece of wood
Jessie told me this was a Duncan Phyfe drop-leaf table.
An antique display cabinet – dressed for Christmas
A cherry-wood china cabine
An old pump organ and an antique wind-up record player
An old pump organ and an antique wind-up record player
The dresser in Jessie’s bedroom
The dresser in Granny’s room, with an ice-cream chair
An old “Secretary” with green leather pad

 

All these “things” remind me of my Aunt Jessie, whenever I see them. They might not have been in my parent’s house, but they are still family treasures to me.

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Family Treasures~Part 4

26 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

Previous musings have been about items in my family home, and last week I introduced some things that, while near and dear to me, were in my Aunt Jessie’s house. She and my Granny lived about 10 minutes away from us, and they were a huge part of my life – almost daily – for about 10 years. I loved their house as much as I loved ours.

As I mentioned last week, Aunt Jessie never married, and so “things” became the focus of her life. Grandpa started her on the road to loving antiques, and she never quit. She would go to estate sales around Albuquerque and pick up what she wanted. Occasionally, I would go with her on these jaunts. She furnished her house with some REALLY good antique furniture. She was, at one time, the President of the Antique Club in Albuquerque.

Whenever we go to Walt Disney World, and Magic Kingdom, and do the Haunted Mansion ride, I am always struck with the thought that Aunt Jessie would go crazy on that ride, with all the antiques they have in there!! Many of them remind me of some of what she had in her house.

Some of the antiques she had were of interest to me, but not all. I actually thought that most of her antique furniture was rather stiff and uncomfortable. But there were a couple of tables, a lamp, a mirror, and other things that I enjoyed, and have with me today.

There was just something about this pedestal table that intrigued me. And so I adopted it, and have enjoyed it all these years. There was a “ruby” glass lamp that usually sat atop that table, and it has a golden dragon chasing around the ruby globe. I believe that, at one time, it was a oil lamp, but now has been fitted with electricity. Beautiful.

There is a relatively small table that I have always enjoyed, with a marble top. It wasn’t until I had it “appraised” that I was told the top didn’t really go with the table – and realized that it really did not! It is rectangular, as is the table, but the marble hangs off over the corners! Never occurred to me! I’m definitely not the sharpest knife in the drawer!

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There is a marble column stand that always stood by the foot of the small staircase in her living room that I always liked. She had a large pot with a plant in it, but I have the stand with another of her antiques on it in my living room. It is a silver-plated dancer, holding a bowl. Just the thing for decorating – which Jessie loved to do, especially at Christmas time.

All these “things” remind me of my Aunt Jessie, whenever I see them. They might not have been in my parent’s house, but they are still family treasures to me.

 

 

 

 

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Family Treasures~Part 3

19 Jun

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

I’m really having a good time, going back through the “things” that made up my childhood and growing-up years. They bring back such fun memories.

The previous musings have been about items in my family home. Today I would like to introduce some things that, while near and dear to me, were in my Aunt Jessie’s house. She and my Granny lived about 10 minutes away from us, and they were a huge part of my life – almost daily – for about 10 years. I loved their house as much as I loved ours.

Aunt Jessie never married, and so “things” became the focus of her life. Grandpa started her on the road to loving antiques, and she never quit. She would go to estate sales around Albuquerque and pick up what she wanted. She furnished her house with some REALLY good antique furniture. She was, at one time, the President of the Antique Club in Albuquerque.

As I’ve mentioned before, Aunt Jessie, Granny, and my Mother, all worked in the Rochester Handkerchief Factory in San Antonio, Texas, at one time or another. Mother told me that, eventually, Mrs. Rochester discovered that it was actually cheaper to go to Ireland for the fabric, take it to China for the cutwork, and then bring it to the United States to sell. They actually made a bigger profit by doing that. Unbelievable to me.

In any case, while in China, Mrs. Rochester would pick up items that she wanted – and that Aunt Jessie would like to have, and have them shipped back to the U.S. I’ve mentioned before about the hand-carved camphor chests.

One other thing that she brought to Jessie, that I have always loved, were Chinese scenes, formed/carved from cork. They have always fascinated me. And so, when Jessie died, I took two of those pictures, and they now hang on our guest bedroom walls. And they still fascinate me.

They might not have been in my parent’s house, but they are still family treasures to me.

 

 

 

 

 

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Family Treasures~Part 1

5 Jun

 

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 Sometimes, the things you grow up with, just don’t seem like anything special.   They are just “there”….part of the woodwork. I’ve found that, not until I got older – and left my girlhood home – did those “things” become important to me. When my Aunt Jessie died, we had an estate auction – at her house. The auctioneer said that, with all the antiques she had, her house was the perfect setting for the auction. They sold everything “down to the carpet.”

Of course, there were some things that each of us wanted that was hers. I took some things that were special to me, as did my brother and my mother.

But when my mother died, my brother and I took things of mothers that she had taken to the apartment where she and my step-father lived. Not a whole lot was left of my girlhood home, but we did get a few things. Some things have ended up in our daughters houses, as well as with our niece and nephew.

There were a couple of mirrors that I especially wanted to keepsake, and I’m glad I did. Growing up, there was a gilt-edged mirror over the mantel of our living room fireplace. Of course, to a child, it seemed huge! Here are a couple of pictures of that particular mirror.

 

Since Fred and I didn’t really need a mirror that size, our oldest daughter said she would like to have it. That was a joy to me, that she would want something that was a part of my family history – a family treasure. I am reminded of my childhood home every time I see that mirror.

And so, Karen and her husband acquired that mirror and it now hangs above the mantel over their living room fireplace. Here is a picture of that mirror in its new home.

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Brian (son-in-law) had always enjoyed the mirror, but had no idea of its significance to our family. As we were discussing it with him one day, I mentioned that it had been in my girlhood home until mother and my step-father sold the house and moved into an apartment. His reaction was priceless! “It wasn’t just some mirror you found to give to us?” No, it was in my family from the time I could remember until you acquired it. He said that it meant a great deal more to him, now that he knew that particular mirror had family history to it. I think he enjoys it more now, because of that family treasure.

There is another mirror that is a treasure of mine. This is a mirror that was in my bedroom as I was growing up. I always enjoyed the fact that the outer “rim” was small pieces of mirror – mirror tiles. It was so pretty. Unfortunately, by the time that mirror made its way with us around the country and world, a lot of those little mirror tiles had broken off and were lost. So I had more mirrors replaced, but just a solid piece of glass instead. It’s still pretty – and it still hangs in our guest room – but I miss the uniqueness of those little mirror tiles. However, it’s still a great reminder to me of my childhood – and it’s still a part of my current life. I like that.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime~Coming Home

29 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 Because our flight from Budapest was at 6:30 a.m., we had to get up about 2:15 a.m. to get ready, pack, and get on the shuttle bus by 3:30 a.m. We had showered the night before, so all we had to do was shave (Fred), put on makeup (Judy), finish packing, and off we went. There were 14 of us from the ship that were going to make that flight.

It was a 30-minute drive from the ship to the airport. And when we got there, it was a “hurry up and wait” situation. We waited 30 minutes for the counter personnel to arrive and begin taking customers. We were first in line, thank goodness. Even though we had our bags with us, she convinced us to check the larger bags, as the plane from Budapest to Amsterdam was “small.” The flight took off pretty much on time, and it was a two hour flight to Amsterdam. They did feed us breakfast, but it was nothing like we had before – a sandwich with either deli-thin slices of chicken, or cheese, with mayonnaise on it. Well, Fred doesn’t eat mayo in ANY form! But we were able to get him some slices of cheese and chicken that wasn’t too “polluted” from the mayo.

We had a fairly long layover in Amsterdam, which was good. Schiphol Airport is really big, and we had to go quite a ways to find our gate. Fred said it looked like the lady in Budapest had checked our bags all the way to Orlando, but he wasn’t sure. So when we had the attendant in Amsterdam check, sure enough, they were checked through. However, she said we had to pick them up in Atlanta and go through Customs there.

The flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta was nearly nine hours long. The fortunate thing about it was that we were on an Airbus, and were in the two-seat side, rather than the four-seat middle. I always enjoy flying with just Fred, rather than three of us across. They fed us lunch – we both had tortellini, salad, cheese and crackers. A few hours later they had wrap sandwiches for us – Fred had a “meatball” and I had a veggie wrap. Surprisingly tasty. And of course, there was always the pretzels and peanuts.

We finally arrived in Atlanta – really nice to realize we were back on US soil! We picked up our bags and headed through Customs and Immigration. Not a bad thing, and we got through fairly easily. We were glad to have that done in Atlanta, rather than having to do it in Orlando, when we were super tired.

The flight to Orlando was just barely over one hour. As we like to say, they hardly got up when they had to start down again! They did have time to hand out pretzels and soft drinks, but they were hurrying through it.

Richard Lynch picked us up and headed toward home. When we discovered they had not had dinner yet – and our tummys were growling – we agreed to meet at Panera for a light supper. Pam and Piper were waiting for us. We were able to tell them a little bit about our trip, but were so very ready to get home.

We unloaded our suitcases quickly, as I HAD to do a load of undies, since all we had needed to be washed before the next day. So with all that done, we were able to get to bed by about 10:00 p.m. We figured that we had been in the air about 13 hours, and had been awake about 25 hours – with only cat-naps on the airplane! We were truly and fully exhausted!   We didn’t even set the clock to wake us up on Saturday – just decided to sleep our fill.

It was wonderful to be home and sleeping in our own bed.

But we are grateful and thankful that we had the wonderful experience of the Viking River Cruise Grand Tour. A cruise of a lifetime!

 

~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~

Budapest, Hungary
Bratislava, Slovakia
Vienna, Austria
Wachau Valley, Austria
Passau, Germany
Regensburg, Germany
Nuremburg, Germany
Bamberg, Germany
Rothenburg, Germany
Rhein River, Germany
Gefjon, our long ship
Kinderdijk, Holland

 

 

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The Cruise of a Lifetime~Part 13

15 May

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

Since we had to change ships today, Fred and I were up at 5:30 a.m. to shower and dress and finished packing. At 7:00 a.m. we had breakfast with Richard, Judy and Lucy. At 7:45 we completed our packing and put our bags out in the hallway as instructed.

At 8:15 a.m. we reported to our assigned bus to leave the ship and go to Bratislava, Slovakia.

According to the ship’s info on Bratislava:   The emergence of Slovak national consciousness dates to about the 1700s. The written language appeared before the 18th century, and near the end of that century a national movement began to encourage a Slovak identity and the development of Slovak Romanticism with a focus on popular folk traditions. At the end of World War 1,Slovak identity was fully formed, and in 1919 Slovakia joined with Czechia to form a union of two western Slavic nations: Czecho-Slovakia. But its independence was greatly limited by its strong economic, military and political dependence on Germany.

It was then conquered by the Soviets, who wanted to create a pro-Soviet and Communist Czechoslovakia. This lasted until the fall of Communism during the Velvet Revolution of 1989. In 1993, the Slovaks and the Czechs agreed to separate peacefully in what is called the Velvet Divorce. The Czech Republic became a democratic state. Slovakia became an independent nation.

 

We arrived at the Bratislava Castle by 10:00.

 

It was quite windy day but not too cold. While we didn’t go inside the castle, the outside was interesting. Because I knew the history of SPQR, I found this interesting.

According to Google and Ancient Rome for Kids:

The letters SPQR stood for Senatus Populus Que Romanusa – the Senate and the People of Rome. After defeating Tarquin, the last Roman king, the people started a new type of government, a republic. A republic is a type of government whereby people elect officials to represent them in government.

As a publicity campaign, and as propaganda, the new senate had the letters SPQR chiseled, branded or stamped on everything that they controlled. Public buildings, new coins, and even park benches got the letters SPQR added to them.

 The people of Rome were proud of their new government, and were reminded every time that they saw SPQR that they were a part of the Roman Republic, and no longer ruled by a king.

At 10:30 we left for Old Town with a walking tour. We saw many fascinating sights. Here are some:

This little guy is called Cumil (pronounced as Chumil).   As the story goes, Cumil was a mischievous person who while working, used to emerge from under the manhole to look beneath the ladies’ skirts! (Tripadvisor)

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Statue of Bratislava Cavalier Schoner Naci

Napolean – one of the few places to sit

We were given two hours of free time, to look around Bratislava on our own, which is really too long. We found no place to sit – no public benches. We finally went into a bakery and had a hot chocolate and a chestnut pastry. We met and shared a table with Iris and April, sisters from Calgary, Canada (Richard called them “the sisters”), who were also on our cruise. We complained to Carl West (who is from Bratislava, as is Billie, our concierge), that there were no public benches where we could sit and rest our feet. He just laughed. We think it is the city’s plan so visitors have to go into a shop to eat or drink in order to sit and rest.

At 1:00 p.m. we had lunch in the Austrian Trend hotel – it was a very good meal and the entire upper level was set up as a restaurant for our entire ship’s compliment.

At 2:30 p.m. we were back on the bus for our trip Budapest, Hungary. All the buses stopped for a restroom break at 3:45. The bus trip to Budapest normally takes only three hours, but took us four hours instead. We were finally on board the Lif at 6:15 p.m.

At 7:00 p.m. we had dinner with Richard, Judy and Lucy. Richard told us their tour guide, while going through Transylvania, told a story about “wampires… and the bus erupted with laughter.

We were in bed by 10:00 p.m. It had been a long day.

 

 

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