Posts Tagged With: Trip Report

Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria

Posted on June 18, 2026 by 2btravel

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction
Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW
Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow
Our Time in Krakow, Poland
Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest
Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel
Our Time in Budapest, Hungary
Our Time in Kalocsa, Hungary
Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia
Our Time in Belgrade, Serbia
Our Time in Golubac, Serbia
Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria
Our Time in Ruse, Bulgaria
Our Time in Bucharest, Romania
Lodging Review: JW Marriott Bucharest Grand Hotel
Flight Review: SWISS Airlines 777-300 ZRH-ORD

We awoke to another beautiful day docked in the town of Vidin, Bulgaria. Our excursions on this day would lead us to a couple of fortresses, the Belogradchik Rocks & Fortress in the morning and the Baba Vida Fortress in the afternoon. The second half of the afternoon tour was a wine tasting that my friend enjoyed but, since I don’t drink alcohol, did nothing for me. I don’t have photos of that because we basically just sat in a large room where the other trip participants sampled the wine.

Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress

As you can see, this reconstructed fortress is truly imposing. The earliest version of a fort here was during the Roman empire when it was used primarily for surveillance. The designers incorporated much of the huge rocks into the design so that fortified walls only had to be constructed in a few places. There are three separate yards, each connected by gates, inside the walls.

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Categories: Bulgaria, Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Baba Vida, Belogradchik, Bulgaria, Europe, Fortress, River Cruise, Tour, Trip Report, Vidin, Viking | Leave a comment

Our Time in Golubac, Serbia

Posted on June 17, 2026 by 2btravel

The overcast skies that put a (literal) damper on our visit to Belgrade were nowhere to be seen when we awoke the following morning in Golubac, Serbia. The pronunciation of the city name was not intuitive to me as it is pronounced GOH-loo-bats. Naturally I wanted the final syllable to sound like “ack” but the Serbians choose to pronounce it differently!

Golubac Fortress

When we exited the boat, we only had to glance to our left to see our first stop for the day. The magnificent Golubac Fortress sits right on the Danube and is just everything you want a medieval fortress to be. Tall, seemingly impregnable walls, crenelated towers, built into the side of a rocky hill, you name it, it’s there, just a few hundred yards from where our ship docked.

Built in the 14th century by the Medieval Serbian state on the site of a former Roman settlement it saw action in numerous battles as various nations sought ownership. Over the years it has belonged to the Ottoman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Turks, the Bulgarians, the Hungarians (again), the Serbs (again), and the Austrians before being turned over to the Serbian king in 1867. Continue reading →

Categories: Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, Serbia, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Captain Miša, Castle, Danube, Djerdap, Fortress, Golubac, Iron Gate, Kapetan Mišin, King Decebalus, Mraconia Monastery, Serbia, Tours, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur, Đerdap | Leave a comment

Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia

Posted on June 15, 2026 by 2btravel

While we’d been to Croatia before, it was always on the country’s west coast. Twice we’d visited Dubrovnik and the surrounding area and on our last Mediterranean cruise we’d had an unscheduled stop in Zadar. Our port on this date was Vukovar (VOO-koh-var) which is in the far eastern part of the country. We’d also visit Osijek (OH-see-yeck) which was not terribly far away on the Drava River. Our included morning tour saw our boat’s passengers divided into four groups. Two groups visited local residents first while the other two groups visited a local church and then the groups swapped activities.

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Categories: Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Historical Site, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Croatia, Europe, Homeland War, Osijek, River Cruise, Tours, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur, Vukovar, Yugoslavian War | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel

Posted on June 11, 2026 by 2btravel

Our taxi dropped us off right in front of the Corinthia Budapest Hotel. As the hotel is on one of the major thoroughfares, there’s not much in the way of parking so we were glad we didn’t have to deal with a car. The bellmen took charge of our luggage right away, which was nice because just inside the double sets of front doors is a staircase that leads up to the main level. If you have mobility issues, don’t be concerned. There is an elevator to one side mostly used for luggage transport but it’s available for people too.

(photo courtesy panoramatours.com)

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Categories: Europe, Hotel, Hungary, Lodging Review, Other Hotels, Trip Report | Tags: Budapest, Corinthia Budapest Hotel, Hotel Review, Hungary, Lodging Review, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest

Posted on June 10, 2026 by 2btravel

When looking for ways to get us from Krakow to Budapest, I thought that surely there must be a non-stop flight to Budapest, likely on some low-cost carrier. Perhaps there was but I didn’t see anything on Google Flights and the Budapest airport’s entry on Wikipedia does not list any such flights. We looked at flying LOT Polish back through Warsaw and there were other flights routing through other European hubs, all for $100 USD or more. Then we found Flixbus which was only about $25 per person and the 7-hour drive was only a little longer than it would have taken us to fly with a connection. Since we were not in any rush to reach Budapest, we decided that was our best option.

Our route from Krakow straight south to Budapest

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Categories: Europe, Ground Transportation, Hungary, Poland, Trip Report | Tags: Budapest, Flixbus, Ground Transportation, Hungary, Krakow, Poland, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Our Time in Krakow, Poland

Posted on June 9, 2026 by 2btravel

I feel like I let myself down during our time in Krakow. We did hit some bumps that I couldn’t have foreseen but I definitely could have planned our time better. But here’s an overview of the things we saw and did on our visit.

First, the bumps:
– While our original flights had us landing in Krakow at 4:20 PM, due to the air traffic control issues in Chicago we missed our original connection and didn’t land until just after 5 PM. While that’s not much of a delay, in itself, the sheer fatigue we were feeling after not departing from Chicago until nearly 11 PM really knocked us out.
– My traveling companion had a bit of a sinus bug which left her feeling worn out for about the first week of our trip. Thus we didn’t stay out and experience the city as we otherwise might have. That lead to us dining at the hotel more and experiencing local restaurants less.
– I asked ChatGPT for things to do during our stay. I had it exclude Auschwitz since we’d already visited Dachau a few years ago. Since I don’t drink alcohol I also had it exclude wineries and breweries. While it gave us a good plan, I left it at that and didn’t follow up to see if we needed to buy tickets online ahead of time. That caused us to miss one attraction we’d have like to have seen, Oskar Schindler’s Factory.

We didn’t have great weather in Krakow. It rained off and on our whole first day, a Friday, and eased off on the weekend. But it was overcast almost the whole time and quite humid. In early-to-mid-October the temperature was in the upper-50sF which meant a jacket felt nice.

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Getting There and Back

While this had been on our agenda for a later day, since it was raining we thought this would be a good place to stay dry. While it’s possible to reach the salt mine from the hotel using public transit, it would take quite a long time, so we opted for an Uber. It was only about $11.25 going to the Salt Mine at 9:30 AM on a Friday but it was about $22 on the way back around 1:30 PM. I guess because the salt mine is a tourist attraction? It just seemed odd. I was fortunate that the salt mine has a couple of areas with strong WiFi: the cafe and the gift shop. I was having issues with my data-only eSIM card but was able to use the WiFi to pick up an Uber for the return trip. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Europe, Historical Site, Poland, Trip Report | Tags: Europe, Historical Site, Krakow, Poland, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow

Posted on June 8, 2026 by 2btravel

After a long day of travel, it was already early evening by the time we arrived at the Krakow airport. While planning our trip we had considered public transportation from the airport to the hotel but had decided to just use an Uber (or Bolt) and that turned out to be a good decision. Though it wasn’t raining at the time we were waiting for our ride, it had been raining a good part of the day. Be aware that the ride share pickup area is not covered.

Location

The hotel is located on the eastern side of the city so it’s about a 40-60 minute drive from the airport during evening rush hour. It’s not particularly close to the Old Town (Rynek Główny) but it’s about a 10-minute walk to the tram that runs along Mogilska street. The sidewalk along this route is inconsistent and sometimes quite bumpy so I would not want to be dragging my suitcase this way. In addition, it’s not well lighted in the evenings so I would be wary of walking this way even though it’s not a particularly busy road but it still might be difficult for cars to see people walking.

Hampton by Hilton, Krakow

The hotel is just around the corner from the Dąbski KS Kraków, a local sporting club, and there are associated athletic fields across the road from the hotel. Even though our room faced these fields, we never experienced much in the way of noise (they seemed to be mostly practice fields) and even the lights did not bother us in the evening.

The Hampton is connected to the DoubleTree just next door and the hotels share some facilities as I’ll explain. In general that’s a good thing for those staying at the Hampton.

On the Sunday of our visit (the second Sunday in October), there was a running race that I believe began at the Decathlon (Sporting Goods) Plaza not far from the rear of our hotel. There were quite a few runners staying at both the Hampton and the DoubleTree. When we walked down to Mogilska on Sunday, we found we were trapped on our side of the street until enough runners passed that the police would allow us to cross the street. I’m going to guess, based on bib numbers, that there were about 16,000 runners. It was a good 30 minutes before we were able to cross and even then the tram was not running in our area so we had to walk a good portion of the way to the Old Town. Continue reading →

Categories: Europe, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton, Hotel, Lodging Review, Poland, Trip Report | Tags: Hampton Inn, Hilton, Krakow, Lodging Review, Poland, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW

Posted on June 5, 2026 by 2btravel

Our flight to Warsaw didn’t have the most auspicious beginning but it wasn’t the airline’s fault. Due to the government shutdown, many air traffic control folks had called in “sick” so that caused delays which stacked up over the course of the day. Our flight on LOT was due to depart at 9:40 PM but the inbound flight didn’t even arrive until about 8:50 PM. Looking back on it now, the ground and flight crews did what they could to get us on board as quickly as possible, but it still took just over two hours before we could depart.

We checked in at the LOT counter in O’Hare’s Terminal 5 about 7 PM. There was not much in the way of lines, even for my friend who was flying in economy. I found it interesting that the desk agent initially spoke to me in Polish. I suspect many Americans aren’t even aware of LOT but I had no issues on my prior trip with them and was glad to fly them again. link

Of course arriving 2.5 hours ahead of time gave us lots of time in the concourse. I was glad to see that the construction was (mostly) completed since my last visit a couple of years ago. There were certainly a lot more restaurant choices. While I was eligible for the lounge that LOT shares with other airlines, my friend was not and a pass would have been about $60 so that was a hard pass. We’ve both given up our credit cards that offered Priority Pass access so we just found a quiet area to hang out in while we waited. We migrated over to our gate shortly before the aircraft arrived and, all things considered, we were able to board reasonably quickly at about 10:10 PM.

LOT Polish 787-9

LO 4 ORD-WAW
Boeing 787-9
Departs: 2140 (actual 2246)
Arrives: 1350+1 (actual 1430)
Seat: 3C (Business Class) Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Flight Review, LOT Polish, Star Alliance, Trip Report | Tags: Award Travel, Flight Review, LOT Polish, Star Alliance, Trip Report | Leave a comment

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction

Posted on June 1, 2026 by 2btravel

I’m kicking off year 12 of this blog with my next trip report and this one includes some eastern European countries I’d never visited.

This year’s trip centered around a river cruise on the eastern part of the Danube. We’d previously cruised the western part of the river back in 2016. That trip left from Erlangen, Germany (just outside of Nuremburg) and ended in Budapest, Hungary. This trip departed from Budapest and ended in Bucharest, Romania.

As the cruise/tour was only 10 days, we decided to go to Krakow, Poland for a few days ahead of the cruise to visit yet another country we’d not been to.

Transportation

I flew from Memphis to Chicago to meet up with my friend who lives in the area. I used cash for a round-trip positioning flight on American Airlines. From there we flew LOT Polish Airlines to Warsaw and connected to Krakow. The government shutdown in October meant our flight out of Chicago was delayed causing us to miss our connection. Fortunately we were accommodated on the next flight to Krakow and even ended up in exit row seats. I used 70K Air Canada Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for my business class seat which would have sold for about $3064, giving me a fantastic value of about 4.38 cents per point. My friend used 40K Aeroplan miles + $78.03 for her seat in economy. While her ticket “only” worked out to about 1.4 cents per point, it still saved her over $500 out of pocket. Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cruises, Europe, Hampton by Hilton, Hilton, Hungary, JW Marriott, LOT Polish, Marriott, Other Hotels, Poland, River Cruise, Romania, Serbia, Star Alliance, SWISS, Trip Report, Viking | Tags: Award Travel, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hampton Inn, Hilton, Hungary, JW Marriott, LOT Polish, Marriott, Poland, River Cruise, Romania, Serbia, SWISS, Trip Report, Viking, Viking Ullur | Leave a comment

2024: The Year in Travel

Posted on December 31, 2024 by 2btravel

As each year draws to a close I like to take a look back at my trips over the past twelve months. I did not have any work travel this year (and am not sure I ever will again thanks to Zoom & WebEx!) so my travel patterns were very normal for me.

Here’s how my travel looked on the map:

My 2024 Flights – made with gcmap.com

Continue reading →

Categories: Award Travel, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Denmark, Europe, Norway, Park City, Sweden, Trip Report, Year in Review | Tags: Award Travel, Breckenridge, Crested Butte, Denmark, Europe, Flight Review, Lodging Review, Norway, Park City, Sweden, Trip Report, Year In Review | Leave a comment

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Posts Tagged With: Trip Report

Our Time in Vidin, Bulgaria

Belogradchik Rocks and Fortress

Our Time in Golubac, Serbia

Golubac Fortress

Our Time in Osijek and Vukovar, Croatia

Continue reading →

Lodging Review: Corinthia Budapest Hotel

Flixbus from Krakow to Budapest

Our Time in Krakow, Poland

Wieliczka Salt Mine

Getting There and Back

Lodging Review: Hampton by Hilton Krakow

Location

Flight Review: LOT Polish Airlines 797-9 Business Class, ORD-WAW

Passage to Eastern Europe: Trip Introduction

Transportation

2024: The Year in Travel

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