April 24, 2005. Today we started to retrace our footsteps back across Central Europe. After two wonderful days in Budapest it is time for us to return to Vienna. Slept in again – this is becoming a habit, and left the hotel for the train station just before noon. Two and half hours later we were back in Vienna checking into the Imperial Hotel for one last night.

We celebrated our last night in Europe by having dinner in the main dining room of the Imperial. What an evening that was for us. The room is magnificent and the service impeccable. We started with goulash soup. It arrived in a tureen and the waiter ladled the soup into our soup bowls. The tureen then went on a hot plate so we could have seconds. For our entrée we had beef.

The display was a work of art. For our wine we settled on a 1988 Vosne Romanee. It was magnificent. We resisted the urge to have a torte for desert and instead settled for cappuccinos and cognacs. A fitting end to a fabulous European vacation.

Tomorrow we’re off to England to spend three days with our friends, Bob and Rosemary Stanley, in Devon, which is in the southwest of England, just outside of Exeter.

The pictures today show the old city streets of Pest and dinner at the Imperial.

Stay tuned for Day 22 in my “Around the World in 30 Days” saga.

Alan Salmon
eClub One