Budapest Tour Day

Hungarian Parliament - Click for larger view

Today was tour day in Budapest. The gallery I posted, for some reason in in reverse order from what we experienced. So, to start with, the breakfast aboard was fantastic with at least two kinds of bacon! The dynamic trio then set off by bus (coach) with a tour group to see the two cities of Buda and Pest. Our tour guide named Maria, was likely the best informed tour guide I have ever seen, fantastic woman, very smart. We traveled all over and Maria spoke so well of her city and her beautiful country.  She must have said twenty times or more 'Please pardon my national pride' - we could use more of that back in the good old USA. We stopped at the Hero square and saw the grave of the unknown soldier and the statue to the seven tribes that settled Hungary in the year 896. We then traveled to the top of the hill to visit a church and a spectacular view of the city.  We even saw the production of 'Die Hard 5' being filmed,  but didn't se Bruce Willis. At 13:30 we were back on the boat for lunch and then off to a show of Hungarian horsemanship in a small town about an hour from Budapest and as chance would have it, Maria was our tour guide once again. The drive through the country was spectacular and the talk along the way was very informative. The horse show was also a real treat as the horseman ship was beyond anything I have seen before - the pictures in the gallery don't do it justice. At the end of the show we were to go on a twenty minute horse and carriage ride through the countryside but as our carriage pulled away the first drops of rain began to fall. Within minutes we were riding in an open carriage in a torrent of rain… and got really soaked.  We could not have been more wet had we jumped in the Danube. Of course I was completely loaded with electronics, my nikon, iPhone, GoPro and another video camera.  Thankfully they all survived. My Nikon got some water in the battery compartment shorting out the battery but it is better now. The hour long bus ride back in wet clothing was special. . . and had a great talk about the dark days in Hungary when it was under Soviet control.  Tomorrow we are cruising all day and all night so I may not have a connection and the ability to post, next stop Vienna, Austria.

Click Here  for Complete Gallery of Images

Beautiful Church wirh tile roof - click for larger image

Horses with ear hats - Click for larger image

The rain came down in buckets - Click for larger image

Budapest - Day 1

Looking toward Parlament on the Danube from the River Empress

Today we arrived in Budapest at 3:30 local time having left home yesterday afternoon at 5ish... it has been a long bit of traveling but well worth it.  The ship, Uniworld's River Empress exceeds expectations and Budapest looks fantastic.  Tomorrow we explore the city taking a couple of tours and doing some foot travel.  The ship also has some bikes onboard so I may get in some riding as well.

Hungarian Dessert, mmmmmmmm

 As you can see by the photo here, dinner was fabulous, this was a Hungarian dish called Chicken Paprika (or something like that) and was excellent as was the Hungarian Goulash and the starter was Hungarian salami with peppers and pickles. Outstanding food and the wait staff is absolutely first rate. Below is a picture of the dessert which I cannot describe other than it was really yummy with crepes, raisins, ice cream and lots of chocolate.  These supper pix were taken with my iPhone.. I am traveling with two video cameras, my iPhone and my Nikon, and I do have my paint box with me as well and hopefully will find some time to paint some pix along the way. I am also posting two panoramas below.  This afternoon we just hung out on the boat and unpacked and then we had a briefing about all there is to do and the safety rules and about just how strange the Hungarian language is. Click images  below to see panorama views from the boat. You should also know that the connection here is really primative ant everything takes a long time.  Am having trouble testing things so if you see problems - let me know.

View from Top Deck - Click Image to view panorama 

View from the Bow - Click image to view panorama

Something Just Plain Goofy

Signed Ride

I have been riding my bike almost every morning before work and every evening after work.  I track my ride on my iPhone with an app called Cyclemeter which plots the ride and gives me good stats about the ride. I realized that since it 'draws' a blue line - I could make shapes by riding particular routes. Last night I tried out my initials. EMH  Not real creative - I need to work on this - maybe a self portrait . . .

Sunset Speeder

Hot summer nights on the bay - click image for larger view

I took this shot a while back on a sunset cruise aboard Tapestry and rediscovered it as I was going through some images, while waiting for another project to render. I thought this was a good shot to share. This was taken in the Providence River just north of Gaspee Point.

Prudence Weekend

The Best Stuffies I Have Ever Eaten - Click image for larger view

Bob! What have you done with your hair?? 

   Every once in a while you end up having a perfect weekend with friends. This past weekend we spent a couple of days on Prudence Island just hanging out and eating way too much food, so much for the diet.

Andi made the best stuffies ever, with quahogs she dug herself, chourico and even bacon..mmmmmmm - I limited myself to just four (I think) for fear of proving my gluttony once again. The day was filled with laughter and friends and swimming and skipping stones and the evening was topped off with burgers on the grill and even a bonfire. We are blessed to have such good friends and live in such a beautiful (even if politically challenged) state. As you can see by the pictures

They get younger every day

 here the weather was very cooperative the kids had a great time hanging around with all the old folks.

Prudence sunset

Beach boy

Dinghy Buddies

Tapestry, just off the beach

East Providence

Pomham Light, East Providence - Click image for larger view

I captured this photo of the Pomham Rocks Lighthouse today on my early morning ride along the East Bay Bike Path. I have been riding about 10 - 12 miles most mornings before work and today I brought my camera along. I have been missing way too much. As I was riding back along Lyons Ave I shot the picture below of the Metacomet Country Club Golf Course.

Metacomet Country Club - Click image for larger view

Rose Island Light, Newport, RI

Rose Island Light, Newport - Click image for larger view

From our Sunday cruise - I got this shot from the pilot house of Tapestry as we were leaving Newport harbor. You can see my original exposure below.  I was shooting fast as there was a lot of boat traffic around and I was at the helm at the time we came abreast of the island.  I took this shot and as you can see it was not level and I got the door frame in the shot as well. I thought it had some potential as raw material (although I was shooting jpeg not RAW).  I developed it using Photoshop - with lots of layers and blending modes and layer masks.

Original shot

I think of my original exposures as simply as raw material to craft an image from back in the studio. Being a fan of Ansel Adams' work I am always mindful of his comment that 'the negative is the score but the print is the performance". It is how we interpret and craft that raw material into an image. The Sunday cruise was built on high anticipation of getting many good images of the Tall Ships that were visiting Newport but this is the image I liked best, and I have passed this light many times, and photographed it almost as much. So here is my image of Rose Island Light. I hope you enjoy this photo and have to good fortune to visit the light some day.

I would be interested in your comments so drop me a line or leave a comment here.

America's Cup Trials Newport

A day at the races - Click any image for a larger view

Taking in sails in Newport Harbor

Korean boat heading right at us

Korean boat 

Korean boat, Jamestown in background

It seems like we must be going against the flow - spectator fleet coming at us

Approaching the turn

At the turn - Oracle boat in lead

Enticer

Busy Harbor - Carol Huff photo

Spectators in chairs - Carol Huff photo

Clingstone in the harbor

Tanker High Seat at anchor south of Gould Island

Approaching storm

Wind is suddenly at 60 knots

...and we get a whiteout squall

What a great day and by the time we got back to the dock the sun was out and the wind was calm...perfect ending.