Tour Elegant Paris

Tour Elegant Paris 19.09 – 27.09.2015

The second time we went with Algol. The tour is very intense, two night crossings, not without adventures. But first things first.

The acquaintance began with a tasting of Hungarian wines in the Valley of Beauties. I advise everyone not to miss the opportunity after a long journey to have a good rest, eat delicious Hungarian goulash, and also get to know the group better. After this dinner, we were already singing Ukrainian songs in the bus and the atmosphere became festive. Everything, we have begun! We're going to Paris!

On this tour, Budapest always falls on a Sunday. Recently, the Hungarian trade union decided that since Sunday is a day off, all workers must rest. Therefore, no shops are now open in Budapest on Sundays, including shopping centers and chain supermarkets such as Match, Tesco, etc.

The shopping center in Campon is also closed. This should be taken into account by tourists who take the optional Tropicary + Oceanarium + Campona.

The elective in Szentendre lived up to all expectations: a cute, cozy tourist town, a small but impressive marzipan museum and, unlike Budapest, all shops and shops work on the tourist trail.

And, of course, a boat trip on the Danube! Illuminated Budapest is amazing!

The next day transfer to Vienna. Our guide Christina Mikhaylyak managed to make the whole group friends. We introduced ourselves to each other, began to communicate at bus stops and in cities, take pictures together and run around shops, moreover, people of different ages. We have never had such a great group!

Vienna strikes with imperial luxury at first sight. An interesting guide in Vienna knows how to interest tourists not only with a standard story, but also with interesting facts that you can’t read about everywhere. It is very interesting to get into the treasury of the Habsburgs. Such an amount of jewelry and Christian relics can only be found in the Vatican. The "obligatory" program of visiting Vienna should include a tasting of the most famous dishes. It is best to try the Viennese schnitzel at the Lubella restaurant, the staff there speaks Russian, for 14 euros as part of the set menu, the tourist gets mashed potatoes, bread, a delicious schnitzel the size of 2 soles of 41 sizes, french fries, coleslaw and apple strudel with whipped cream. In the neighboring establishment Rosenberger, which used to be considered budget, only schnitzel with a side dish now costs 16.70 euros. But there they still give a cup as a gift for buying Kaiser Melange coffee. Also in Rosenberger there is a paid toilet - 50 cents, but if you ordered something at the institution, you can give the check from the toilet to the cashier and get a discount on this amount. In general, there is plenty of time in Vienna. Departure at 22.00. You can walk around, attend a concert, go to a museum, listen to an opera in “standing” places for 3 euros or in the square for free (on the right side of the theater there is a huge screen with live broadcast), try all the goodies, go shopping on the Graben shopping street and see the city in illumination. We did not go to Schonbrunn, but everyone who went was delighted. So you can and should return to Vienna more than once.

Night moving to Paris, of course, is not easy, but having prepared morally and financially (meaning a backpack with sandwiches and pillows for sleeping), we endured it well. We arrived in Paris at 15:00, immediately checked into a hotel, refreshed ourselves and went to Montmartre for a walking tour by public transport (RAR and metro). We were unlucky with the weather - it got colder, it started to rain, an icy wind blew, and we urgently decided to join the group and go for a boat trip on the Seine, which was not originally planned by us. I did not like this walk, because ships are large, recruiting 1000 people. On the closed deck, you can’t see anything, people are sitting everywhere, the audio guide is boring, and on the open deck, it’s raining and windy, but still everyone is crowding there. Returning to the hotel without accompanying Christina would probably be impossible. If we quickly figured out the transfers to the metro, then even Kristina could not figure out the transfer to the RAR the first time, because. from the same track, arriving trains go in two different directions. The whole group of us ran across these huge and long crossings with transfers. They warmed up, laughed, but it turned out that they were in a hurry in vain, because. our train broke down and the next one was 26 minutes later. This, by the way, should be taken into account by tourists who move around the city on their own: either the metro or the RAR constantly breaks down in Paris. Therefore, if you need to arrive at a certain hour, then take the time with a margin.

The next day, a sightseeing bus tour with photo pauses in the Luxembourg Gardens and Trocadero Square made it possible to orient ourselves in Paris and then walk around on our own all day without getting lost. Be sure to visit the Louvre. A wonderful guide will capture you from the first words and will not let you go until you leave the halls of the Louvre! The Louvre is amazing! The Louvre is amazing! And on this day, the weather, taking pity on the poor tourists, gave us a sunny and relatively warm day.

I always dreamed of visiting not only Paris, where the musketeers walked and hurried to work in the gendarmerie on the Orfevre embankment, 36 Commissioner Maigret, mumbling under his breath, how he does not like summer in Paris. When you read about it from childhood, when you get on these streets you simply recognize them. As if you once dreamed about them or you have been here before. I have never had such a feeling in any other city! I dreamed of going to Versailles. This is a different world. The tour is great! The guide and I "woke up the king" and "put him to bed." There are a lot of people! The halls are smaller than in the Louvre, but royal luxury is visible in everything.

The next in our program was a pleasant surprise from Algol managers in the form of a transit hotel in Germany. This is not even 3 declared stars, this is a solid four, located in the mountains, in the forest, the land of Bad Gerenalb. This is a real chateau with large spacious rooms, terraces, marble wash basins, a bathtub and even mineral water included in the price of the room. Air resort, as is now fashionable in Europe. Such Truskavets in German. Both living conditions and breakfast are beyond praise. In such a hotel to stay at least for a week! But we did not come to rest, but to watch, and we are moving to Munich! We were also lucky that our tour fell on the celebration of Oktoberfest. Therefore, the whole bus unanimously decided to visit Terezin Lug in Munich as well. But here an unpleasant surprise happened. 25 km from the city of Olsen and a 2-hour drive from Munich, the road surface was being repaired on the autobahn. The trucks slowed down and our bus too, but something went wrong and there was a small accident, where we were trailing. Our already beloved bus had a broken windshield and the whole “muzzle” was crumpled. Thank God no one was hurt, including our drivers. the speed was 38 km per hour, but while we were waiting for the police, while we were allowed to get to Olsen, we were delayed for 3 hours. Here we need to praise our guide accompanying Christina Mihailyak. No panic. She promptly reported to Algol, calmly dealt with the police (she speaks not only English, but also German), called us another bus (came for us from the Czech Republic), organized us and paid for the train to Munich and even a left-luggage office in Munich. You can feel the high level of professionalism! No one even got scared. Everyone continued their journey on the train with new adventures!

Munich again meets us with cloudy weather, but with joyful faces of residents and guests of Oktoberfest. Everyone is in national costumes (including our Christina), everyone rejoices, absorbs beer and sausages in some unimaginable quantities. The atmosphere is festive. After the review, everyone ran to Terezin Lug in order to better feel the atmosphere of the holiday. There was enough time for everything, even to go to the supermarket and buy German coffee for your loved ones and gifts for loved ones. Munich has great shopping. Too bad you don't have time to shop! But still I manage to buy a bag of the desired shape and price.

Taking into account the delay in the schedule, we get on the bus and until 3 am a long trip to Hungary. The town of Sopron. What a miracle! We live in the park again. The hotel is good, there are parks and forest parks around, the breakfast is super. In the morning, we still managed to run into the city on our own to look at its sights. And move to Eger. The baths in Egerszalok are Pammukale in Hungarian. The purest thermal water against the backdrop of snow-white calcium hills. How beautiful it looks in the evening illumination. It is worth seeing, it is worth swimming in them! All Hungarian baths are different. These are unlike any we have visited before. It's a pity, as always, there is not enough time! But, if a tourist says that he has little time, then the tour is going well!

After the baths, a panoramic view of Eger, but we ignored it (it was dark, it was raining, we warmed up and melted in the baths). It's embarrassing, of course. But these are our last hours in Hungary and we haven't bought any presents yet. So we all go to Tesco. It is in Eger in the city center. It is very convenient to pay by card, but if someone has unspent forints left, then it's time to buy some Hungarian goodies!

That's it, our tour is over! So many impressions that for a long time we will put them on the shelves in our heads! Night transfer to Ukraine, border at 1.00 am and at 8.30 we are in Lvov. Lviv, having adopted a bad example from his Western European counterparts, meets us with rain and a temperature of +9. But you can't get past us that easily. We are in Lviv until the evening, where the all-Ukrainian quest and coffee festival takes place that day. Lviv is a city that you always want to return to, and you always discover something new in it. Thank you Lvov! Thank you for having Algol! We all really enjoyed it! We hope for the best, and we will travel with you again!

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