Snake River - Site of a Famous Ansel Adams Photograph

Snake River Rafting

The Snake River, at least in this part of Wyoming, is moderate sized and moves quickly with no white water rapids that we had to contend with. In the park it is only open to rafters – nothing with a motor. This raft trip was just right for our group. There were about 10 to each raft with a guide who used a big pair of oars to make sure we got where we wanted to go.

The Snake River Rafting Team

Eagles

The weather was perfect at the end of August – no bugs, 60 to 70 degrees and lots of sunshine. This is a big eagle nesting area and we saw some every half mile or so, along with assorted hawks and other close relatives. The “grown ups” were generally sitting well above the water at the top of apine tree looking for lunch in the river. The youngsters were practicing recent flying lessons and making a little more of a fuss.

Snake River and the Tetons from our raft

Day 3 - We needed to cover some Utah and Wyoming real estate. The best part of the drive was the geology lessons that we got from Don Dunkle, Tauck’s guide. We skirted the west side of the Great Salt Lake, going through some real estate that must have tested the pioneers.

First View of the Tetons

Jackson Hole Art Scene - Outdoor Version

Kickoff Dinner

We started with one of the many steak (or buffalo) dinners on this trip at the Hilton. This is one of the things Tauck has down pat. We met the couple we were traveling with, got introduced to the rest of the 40 + fellow passengers on this trip and got a briefing from our Tour Guide, Don Dunkle. We learned later that Don is one of the most popular tour guides on the Tauck Team – they are each rated after each trip and Don has been getting top ratings for 20 years and several hundred Yellowstone trips.

Utah Highlights

Everyone has there own idea of highlights. Our cabdriver pointed out the statues of Karl Malone and John Stockton in front of the home arena of the Utah Jazz NBA team, which the basketball fans among us (John), appreciated. We also spent an interesting few hours taking a look at the historic parts of Salt Lake City and everything Mormon.

Utah Olympic Park

The highlight for most of us was a few hours spent driving and walking through Utah Olympic Park where the 2002 Winter Olympic games were held. The bobsled and luge runs are intimidating, even in August with no snow. Our local host was also one of the US representatives on the governing body for Luge competition and explained the work that goes into preparing for competition. The little sleds are heavy, about 4 inches off the ground and hit 80 miles an hour in on this course.

Athletes train here year round. The ski jumpers and snow boarders were practicing their acrobatics while we were there, finishing the jumps in a very forgiving swimming pool. 

Training at the Utah Olympic Village

Exploring Budapest

Up early to get to the airport. We had a semi tight connection in Frankfurt – which must be the biggest airport I’ve been in that doesn’t have any moving sidewalks or other people mover technology.

It was a long walk between planes but our Frankfurt to Philly flight was delayed a half hour so we could relax and get on board. Great trip. Good to be headed home.

Locals at the Budapest Farm Market

We arrive in Budapest, which is easily the most sophisticated place we have visited on this trip.

Highlight of the Budapest stop came this morning when the group toured the Hungarian State Opera –the Opera House is a product of the Hapsburg era.

A Tauck special, we had a drop in visit and 3 or 4 short numbers from what must have been two of the established stars who showed up at 10AM on Sunday.

Everything else had to be anticlimactic – but we still had a good rest of the day. We visited the indoor market – a local version of Philly’s Reading Terminal Farmers Market – but bigger. Everyone got a chance to get in line behind the locals and taste some of the famous local pastry.

Hungarian Rider

We stop at a tiny port (Solt) in Hungary for some of the local culture. This is farm country with two traditional products – peppers that become paprika and spectacular horses and equestrian skills. The equestrian show included all of the local products – white and red wine, Pálinka, a dangerous local schnapps and flatbread baked in a big outdoor oven. It made for a nice preamble for the horses and riders, who were “big top” quality. The finale was a rider standing on one of a team of five horses – no saddles, just five sets of reins. He did a couple of laps around the “ring” without a hiccup. The five white horses were striking – the rider was amazing.

Town Center

Today we stop in Vukovar, Croatia. This area was a major battlefield in the 1990’s. It is rebuilt and attractive today – but there are still some buildings that show the signs (bulletholes, artillery damage) from the 90’s.

We had a terrific local guide who provided the Croatian version of the “Homeland War” as they called it in Croatia. Not a perfect match with the Serbia version that we heard in Belgrade.

Overlooking Belgrade

Today we’re in Belgrade, Serbia.  We started at an important old fort high above the place where the Danube and the Sava Rivers meet. There was a nice display of tiny Italian tanks from WWII and other modern arms, which seesm like a major interest of the Serbs. 

Our local guide was a sophisticated historian whose father had fought alongside Tito against the Nazi’s in WWII.  He gave a very positive recounting of Yugoslavia in the Tito era, which ended in 1980, while he led us through around Belgrade and to the impressive Tito memorial. 

Belgrade, which is a very modern city, still shows some of the effects of the NATO bombing in the 90’s. NATO bombers took out the Chinese Embassy, apparently by mistake, as well as seemingly every government and military office building we drove by. Most had been rebuilt – but not every one. Our guide covered that recent history with a very pro-Serbian spin, as you might expect. Still interesting to hear.

Cruising through the "Iron Gate"

This section of the Danube is called the “Iron Gate”. A big dam built in the 70’s turned this part of the Danube from impassable rapids to a classic series of locks and spectacular gorges. It is easily the best scenery on the whole trip. We had a great day for the trip, sunny and warm. Most of us were on the top deck or at the bow watching the river with out morning coffee or afternoon glass of wine. There were a lot of good photo opps.

It turns out that the Danube was generally the Eastern border of the Roman Empire, once they conquered whoever had lived here. So there are some interesting historic names – Roman Emporer Trajan fought the Dacians in this neighborhood to tidy up the border lands somewhere in the first or second century AD. (I think I got that right).

Icon

We are cruising up the Danube between Bulgaria and Romania today.  Last night we had a concert performed by Bulgarian dancers and players.  They played an accordion, a flute like instrument, a small bagpipe and a lute.  The dancers were great to watch.  

Today we had a lecture on the history of the Balkans.  The Balkans, at least in this geography lesson, is the area from Turkey to Hungary which includes Bulgaria, Slovenia, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia, and Romania.  This area was ruled over the centuries by the Romans, The Byzantine Empire, The Turks, the Austro Hungarian Empire, and Russia before it became independent after WWI. 

We also had a guest artist on board who made icons in the orthodox tradition. We got an interesting explanation of the meaning of the various symbols and figures on the icons. I was surprised to learn that the icon designs have all been established by religious tradition; there is no “freestyle” icon art. We found one of St George and a Dragon to bring home.