Christmas Lights on the 34th Street

I went with Lyny, Paul and Luddie to have dinner in the Food Market at Hamden, then walked up to the 34th street to see Christmas lights.  This part of Baltimore is quite interesting with some artsy shops.  The following pictures were from Lyny's phone:

Luping's First Visit

Luping flew from Indianapolis to BWI for a visit (Dec. 9-16).  We took a drive to visit Hope from Monday to Thursday.  When in Hope's place, we met up with Phil and Ginny for dinner in Chester Hill in a Chinese restaurant (A Fusion one).  We also took a train to Phily down town.  We walked the independence path in the cold, and visited the Elfreth Alley.

When Luping was in my place, she taught me about the keto diet she has been on for months.  We went on grocery shopping and cooked up much keto diet dishes.  I quite enjoyed the food.  It is not hard to keep this diet at all.  We also made the ice cream following Hope's recipe, except we made it a lot richer by adding more fruits and cream cheese!  It's been a fun week.

Jewels of Bohemia

On this tour we started from Prague, passed through Cesky Krumlov, Ceske Budejovice, Slovonice, Trebic, Bratislava, and ended up in Budapest. Our tour guide is a native Prague resident. and took us to many places I had not been in my previous visits to the city.  I had not heard about Cesky Krumlov prior to the trip, and was quite pleasantly surprised by the lovely little town.  One major impression (far deeply felt than my previous visits) of this trip was how terribly these people were treated by the Russia rule after WW II.   The Chesks seemed to have moved on psychologically while folks in Budapest were still feeling wounded and bitter about the Russia occupation.

Following are some pictures to remind me of this visit;
Prague:  A city of spires!

 Delicious roadside snack:

 The beer cart with customers:

 Russia, Hands Off Ukraine!

 A synagogue: (looks Muslim)

 A war memorial:

 Inside a department store:

 Charles Bridge behind:

Russia built this statue by the river front :

 This is what is left today:

 A little canal behind the Charles Bridge:

 Modern art outside the Art Museum on the Kampa Island:

 John Lennon Wall:

 Sculpture to remember the victims under Russia:

 We then visited a Russia Camp after the WWII, where uranium was extracted: A very sad piece of history and the suffering of the people under Russia.

A little town on the way to Cesky Krumlov:

Cesky Crumlov:

 On Oct. 5, we visited the Vyssi Brod Monestery, did the treetop hike at Lipno Lake, picked wild mushrooms,

 On our way to Slavonice, we visited a farm house, Trebic and Lednice

 A Jewish quarter:

 Arrived Bratislava:

 Public housing: We visited a young girl who lives in one of the arartment and wishes to go to America:

 The young lady Maria is 22:  Three other fellow travelers are Carole, Marilyn, and Carole:

 We made a brief stop at Carnuntum in Austria where we admired the once upon a time a Roman camp with Roman bath, theater, etc.

We stoped at this interesting little town Gyor for lunch:

Arrived Budapest.  Most pleased by the Rose ice cream.  The store is by St Stephen's Church where we saw the crown returned to the Hungary people by US.

 The Daniel River at night:

 The Capital: (Night)

 The Capital (Day):

 Remember the Nazi victims: