Back in the U.S.

Sarasota, Florida

The flights back were fairly pleasant. I watched five movies on the Atlantic leg from Amsterdam to Atlanta. Mrs. Phred hit the courts at The Meadows the morning after we arrived.

We're ready to pull out and go see the USA on Sunday morning.

Today I replaced the RV tires and the two big six volt "house" batteries on the RV...I hooked them up incorrectly and killed all the 12 volt and AC power in the coach. After calling around, I found a tech person who managed to reset several obscure breakers and get the RV out of darkness....it's discouraging to get more stupid with each passing year...

The first thing that happened on the Europe trip was that in Barcelona I stumbled on a traffic divider and skinned up my hand badly, broke my camera and bruised my ribs.

After that I left a white dress shirt (handmade in Bangkok) in the Florence hotel room...

The loss of my green English umbrella (that cost 50 pounds) in Venice has been previously reported.

The security in the Budapest airport found my favorite switchblade knife in my carry on and confiscated it...

In Atlanta Mrs. Phred made me pitch a corkscrew/knife combo before proceeding though yet another luggage inspection.

Acceptable losses in exchange for memories...

On our last days in Budapest we went to see the Hungarian National Museum and the bronze shoes on the bank of the Danube....to see the shoes, you go to the Parliament building and look left along the Danube River. About 400 yards down the river bank are 50 pair of bronze shoes.

These shoes are a subtle reminder of the Jews who were handcuffed or tied together, shot, and dumped into the Danube by the Arrow Cross Hungarians in 1945. Also, check wiki about the siege of Budapest, which might be the most horrific thing that you've never heard about...