The final blog!

Hello Everyone!

We have so much to tell!  We left Budapest and traveled to Bratislava, Slovakia where it was the national day of rebellion...unfortunately (or fortunately?) there were no fires in the streets....but there was great Slovakian food and beer!  We also saw our 600th castle of the trip and had some hot chocolate that was so thick our spoons stood up in the mugs....amazing!  However, the highlight of Bratislava might have been the hostel's pug, named Mike Tyson....hilarious.

Moving on, we left Slovakia and crossed into Austria....we love it here.  The first two days in Vienna were amazing with art galleries featuring works by Klimt, Monet, Van Gough, Manet, Matsch, and lots more Flemish and Renaissance artists.  We loved the Nachtmarkt, the incredible food market in downtown Vienna.

The next day we visited two cemeteries to see the resting places of Mozart, Schubert, Beethoven, Brahms, Muller and Strauss.  We then visited the Belvedere Castle and galleries and later that night we went to the Vienna Opera House to see some opera pieces and some works by Mozart and Strauss.

Today, was our favourite day of all!  We took the train to Semmering, two hours west of Vienna in the Alps.  It was sooooo beautiful.  We hiked for about 3 hours and the summit was at 1300m.  The views were breath-taking!!  We kept on saying "we're in the Alps!!".

We are now exhausted but tomorrow, our last day, we are off to Salzburg.  We promise we are not going on a 'Sound of Music' tour...maybe...

Sorry no pictures, we can't access a USB port....but we have LOTS....so get ready for a slide show when we get back.  We arrive back in Toronto on Monday night...we can't believe our trip is almost over, but we are ready for some clean clothes and showers that don't require flip-flops!!

Lots of love, and see you soon!

Jo and Kels