breathtakebyways

About breathtakebyways

Ann Williams’ travel articles have appeared in publications all over the country including The Washington Post, Roads to Adventure, and Jack and Jill. Between researching and writing books, she specializes in creative lectures.

Kalocsa, Hungary 6/28/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Danube River / European river cruise / Folklore Workshop / Kalocsa Hungary / traditional foods by

One day I will remember in time that the more lush and inviting the scene, the more ravenous mosquitos it’s likely to harbor.   Fortunately the blood suckers left us alone as long as Steve and I didn’t stray from this country lane I’ve been yearning for.  A lot of the houses were small, and they all seemed old.  One building had what looked like a straw roof.  Young storks peered down from huge nests on rooftops or electrical poles.  Flowers grew in most yards, along with a variety of fruit:  raspberries grapes, apples, pears, plums, peaches, and some sort of plum-shaped fruit that seemed too big to be a plum.  There […]

Dreaming Deep

 in Our Quest  tagged following dreams / Scuba diving by

I had a bug-face.  I was floating near the bottom of a swimming pool, playing Frisbee–badly–with other bug-faced beings. Though my dreams had led me here, I wasn’t dreaming.  I was testing the waters to see if we had the right stuff for scuba diving.  I’d never dreamed that scuba was so physically challenging.  Not the swimming part, we hardly swam.  The strain came from coaxing a terrestrial body, long set in its ways, to accept a new order.  My lungs whined even before I took them down, and at just a few feet of depth, my head threatened implosion. Getting the ear canals to equalize to increased pressure sounded simple–take it […]

A Way With Whales

 in Gratitude / Our Quest  tagged Cape Ann Whale Watch / Cynde McInnis / Gloucester Massachusetts / whale research / whale watch by

If all our research trips for Cruisers’ Guide to the Sea are as good as the one we took to Gloucester, this dream I’m wading into is even better than I thought.  Thanks to Cynde McInnis and Captain Jim of the Cape Ann Whale Watch, Steve and I cruised the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary for a week. As a volunteer on whale watch tours, I used our commute to the feeding grounds to talk to passengers about kinds of whales and their eating habits.  When the first spout lofted, we educators ran to the wheelhouse to help spot and record sightings, making ticks on charts to count the times we saw specific shale behaviors or body parts. […]

Man at ship's wheel statue

Last Grab at Budapest 6/27/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Budapest / Covered Market / Danube River / Four Seasons Hotel / Gellert Bath / massage / opera house / river cruise by

Before our trip, a woman just back from Budapest told me not to miss the baths there.  I wasn’t sure what to expect.  Was I going to take an actual bath with soap and maybe a vigorous scrubbing by a hefty washer woman?  Well, sort of.  The baths were beautiful swimming pools–some indoor with marble and mosaics, some outdoors surrounded by gardens, some steaming, some cooler to cold.  Any number of spa treatments were offered as well.  My masseuse wasn’t hefty, but she certainly had the attitude.  “Take it off,” she said of my swimsuit–no towel, no drape, no options.  She gave my muscles what-for, […]

Holloko Hoedown 6/26/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged dancers / Holloko Hungary / pickles / river cruise / soup / spatzle by

On our side trip to an olden town in the hill country, I climbed down into a wooded gorge lush with oaks, bird cherries, and flowering vines.  Just outside the gorge, heavy equipment clattered and roared, but the gorge was blissfully quiet–nothing but bird song and buzzing flies.  Clearly I’m seriously nature-deprived when even fly-buzz soothes my soul. The village is called Holloko, which means Raven Stone.  Other than a requisite castle ruin on the hill the building are all modest homes.   We were welcomed with cheesecake that looked more like strudel with cottage cheese on top.  Then a group of dancers in traditional costumes chanted to accompany time worn footwork. The home-hosted lunch included do-it-yourself […]

Budapest–Who Knew? 6/25/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Bratislava Slovakia / Budapest Hungary / Danube River / Fisherman's Bastion / gypsy / river cruise / Statue of Liberty by

We are venturing into unfamiliar territory. With all the changes these poor Iron Curtain countries have gone through, they are probably unfamiliar even to the locals. Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, we saw as we sailed by yesterday, so it’s still unfamiliar. We did notice that the condition of the barges we pass on the river has gone from ship-shape to rust-bucket. A “vintage” Slovakian dredge squalled for grease so desperately we heard it a mile upriver. Budapest is another story. Cruisers are so anxious to get in that our ship is triple-parked. We walk through the two other ships’ […]

Farewell Vienna 6/24/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise by

For our final morning in Venice, we visited a park.  Several guides had mentioned that a third of Venice is devoted to parks when we passed a lovely gardened parks headquarters and replica of the original Ferris Wheel–invented for the Chicago World’s Fair.  Stadpark was nearest our tour bus stop and touted as an easy trolley ride–except that Steve was leery of getting misdirected and ending up in a nether region which might cause us to miss the boat. By the time we reached the park on foot, our morning caffeine was lobbying for a pit stop.  The route to a restroom took us past a group of preschoolers playing on tot-height tree branches worn smooth by a multitude of apes-in-training.  We […]

Vienna Victory 6/23/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Austria / concert / culture / Imperial Palace / Imperial Treasury / Kursalon / palace / river cruise / Vienna by

Vienna, what can I say?  It’s so stuffed with ostentation, it’s too much to take in.  To be important back when was to have the biggest edifice closest to the royals.  So the approach to the Imperial Palace is lined for kilometers with elbow-to-elbow palaces.  Inside the Imperial Palace, the Imperial Treasury flaunts priceless crowns, relics, robes–every sort of royal paraphernalia.  I had to keep reminding myself that these were not reproductions.  Kings wore them.  Kings who ruled empires that changed the course of civilization. At the palace entrance I wondered about several sculptures of violent scenes.  They depicted the tasks of Hercules.  Really?  Those statues were […]

Bohemian Forest Treasures 6/22/15

 in Grand Eastern European River Cruise  tagged Bohemian Forest / Castle / Danube River / Passau / Rathaus / river cruise / Saltzburg by

Passau is small–50,000 people, and our ship is double parked on a little peninsula surrounded by steep wooded hillsides. I’ve been yearning to see the forest from the inside, so I took advantage of a trail, just over a bridge, to a castle on the hill. Steve took advantage of the opportunity to groan over being “forced” to climb it with me. It was of course, terrific. At least one pretty little vine of ivy graced almost every tree, and the fortress walls were covered with it. After a couple flights of steps the view grabbed even Steve–the old city […]