Budapest to Marbach on the Danube, Austria, May 13

We got up really early today and walked to get our car on Dob Utca.  (Utca = street). Then we drove back to our apartment building.  Kati arrived promptly to collect the keys and hear how we enjoyed Budapest. She was pleased we had done so much.
 
 Mark drove out of the city easily.  It was a windy day and a bit chilly.  We were able to change our forints into euros at the border.  The Hungarian countryside is pastoral and beautiful.  Unfortunately, I did not feel very well today.

We drove to a little village on the Danube, Marbach, in Austria where we are in a little guesthouse (Gasthof Haselberger) that has been in the same family for five generations.  We have a lovely, large room with a balcony, overlooking the river.  We had fresh asparagus soup here for lunch.  We had hoped to take a rosé along the riverside bike path, but it was of rainy and chilly.  So, we drove into Melk, a medieval town with a HUGE Benedictine monastery and walked around.  We drove to find a post office and bought a box so we can mail ourselves some of the things we have bought.  I also went to a pharmacy for my stomach and feel better already.  We liked lunch so much that we decided to have dinner here as well...more asparagus soup and pasta with asparagus!  Both Janet and her husband both sat and chatted with us.  Janet explained that in 2002, the river flooded the guesthouse.

We felt sad to bypass Vienna, a city we have never visited, but we just do not have the time necessary  to do it properly.  Plus, cities are a lot of work and require energy and we just expended a lot in Budapest.