Gumbopirate

Canouan was a sleepy island with a large airport relative to the amount of people coming and going from this place.  The main reason for this is private jets fly in here to get people to Mustique (which does not allow jets to land at their small airport as the noise would spoil the ambiance for the rich and famous).  So, the ambiance is spoiled for the poor islanders next door and the rich are ferried from Canouan to Mustique in powerboats.  For a time they had the large Raffles resort in Canouan, a five star luxury hotel, golf course and casino.  We tried to visit it while we were there, but were informed that a “day pass” would set us back $500 per person, drinks were not included and shorts and flip flops were not allowed in the casino.   Needless to say, we did not go there for the day.  Not surprisingly, the resort closed down soon after opening and the island is sleepy once again.  It is a beautiful place to visit for a day or two anchored off by boat, but not a destination to fly to and stay for awhile.

A Fish Map for those who are lost and speak "fish"

Pretty views from the south side of Canouan

Our anchorage off of the sleepy Tamarind Hotel

In all of our travels, I don’t think we have seen a more pristine place than Barbuda.   Bring everything you need with you, because you won’t find much in Barbuda besides beautiful beaches, all the lobster you can eat and thousands and thousands of frigates.

At anchor in Barbuda

Our dinghy is parked in the "busy" area...

A 15 mile stretch of of undeveloped, pristine, pink sand beach

Gotta Love New Orleans!

After our grand European adventure along the Danube, the Pirate and Cajun settled down back home in New Orleans.  If you have to be on land, there is no better place.  The food, the fun, the people, the Saints, the festivals, the music - good times all the time.  However, after three months as landlubbers, we are definitely missing our island-hopping days.  The boat is currently based in Grenada and enjoying its first season as a luxury charter catamaran.  We will be visiting her from time to time, but she is a “working-girl” now and is showing others the spectacular places that she brought us to over the last few years.

But we won’t be letting the grass grow under our feet here in New Orleans.  We have lots of fun adventures planned for the upcoming months including:

February:  We are marching in the annual Crew of Cork parade here in New Orleans with our friends from Patrick’s Bar Vin.  It is Carnival Time in New Orleans!

March:  We have two Carribbean island adventures planned… stay tuned to see where we end up.

April:  We are heading to Bequia for the annual regatta and to catch up with all our crazy Canuck friends!

May:   We are visiting California wine country and then  embarking on a road trip from New Orleans to Newport, RI

So hopefully we will continue to have some wonderful Gumbopirate adventures to share with all of our friends who follow us here.  In the meantime, Gumbopirate will be taking a look back and posting pictures from some of the fabulous places that we have visited over the last four years.  For two travelnuts at heart,  our philosophy is: If you aren’t on a trip, then you should either be planning your next trip or talking about previous trips.  So, since our next few trips are all planned and booked, we will now engage in our next favoite pastime- reminiscing.

Decadant Coffee Drinks at Hotel Sacher in Vienna

More Grand European Capital Cities…

After our fabulous stay in the Hungarian capital of Budapest, it was time to explore more of Europe’s grand capital cities.  Our next stop was Bratislava the capital of Slovakia.  Rich in history, Slovakia in the 10^th century was known as Pozony and replaced Budapest as the capital of Hungary.  For over 300 years, it was where Hungarian kings were crowned.  Later, as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the city was known as Pressburg.  It was not until 1918 when Slovakia became part of Czechoslovakia that the name of Bratislava was readopted.  The Slovak republic did not become an independent country until 1993 when it formally broke away from the Czech Republic.   Even more remarkable for such a new country, in 2004, Slovakia formally joined the European Union and NATO.

We were genuinely impressed with the beauty, cleanliness and prosperousness of Bratislava.  The neglect and decay that resulted from years spent under communist regimes can only be seen in few areas.  Much of the old city is now filled with bustling cafes and modern shops.  Its old architecture has been restored and its expansive pedestrian squares with historic fountains and whimsical statues are in superb condition.  Much of the reason for Bratislava’s thriving economy is that it has become the magnet for high-tech businesses like IBM, Dell and AT&T which have built their service and outsourcing centers there.  The auto industry thrives here as well as Volkswagon Touaregs, Porsche Cayennes and Audi Q7s are built in Bratislava.

We strolled through the streets of old town Bratislava and visited the Primatial Palace (aka the Pink Palace).  The Palace is today the office of the Mayor and also houses the famous Hall of Mirrors where many peace treaties have been signed.  We sipped coffee and pastries in wonderful café’s and had a wonderful evening of specialty cocktails at Paparazzi restaurant and bar.

After Bratislava, we continued along the Danube River to the next capital city of Vienna, Austria.  Vienna, a city of 1.6 million people, is a true cultural, political and economic center of Europe.  It is full of grand palaces where former monarchs once resided when Vienna was the capital ofthe Austro-Hungarian Empire.  Most notable of these rulers was Empress Maria Theresa (mother to Marie Antoinette who married the King of France) and Emperor Franz Josef who reigned over the empire from 1848-1916.  It was the assassination of Franz Josef’s nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand which triggered the beginning of the First World War.

Vienna is also known for its music, especially its native son Johann Strauss and other well-known composers who lived there including Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert.  Everywhere you go, you hear musicians playing the famous Blue Danube Waltz.  Also, Vienna is known for its coffee houses. There are so many wonderful coffee shops with elaborate specialties and decadent desserts lining the windows.  We had a wonderful time at both the famous Mozart Café and the Hotel Sacher (creator of the famed Sacher-torte).  We also loved exploring the Hofburg (home to the Hapsburgs) where we viewed their elaborate china and silver collections and saw their famed

Image via Wikipedia

stallions.

One of the highlights of our time in Vienna was a private dinner at the Palais Palavicini in the Josefsplatz.  We had a lovely evening of wonderful music, fantastic wines and delicious food.  It was a great way to wrap up our over-the-top stay in Vienna.  It was such an amazing place to visit, weleft feeling we had barely scratched the surface of what the city had to offer and discover.

Budapest's Majestic Parliment on the Danube River

Fascinated by Budapest

Our grand European tour began in Budapest, Hungary.  Fortunately, American Airlines now has direct flights from JFK to Budapest making traveling there very easy with a relatively short 8 hour overnight flight.  Budapest is actually two cities, Buda and Pest, separated by the majestic Danube River.  The Pest side is the bustling,
urban center that has great pedestrian avenues filled with swank shops, modern hotels and busy restaurants.  The entire city is sprinkled with gorgeous historical Romanesque, Baroque and Gothic buildings.

We began our stay on the Pest side and enjoyed wandering both the grand boulevards and narrow streets and sampling the local cuisine at
many different sidewalk cafes and al fresco restaurants.  We especially loved the Goulash and Chicken Paprika, the signature dishes of Hungary.

We had a fabulous private dinner party at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences where we sipped on local wines and munched on many
Hungarian dishes.   After dinner, we went to the fabulous Four Seasons Resort at Gresham Palace for cocktails and live jazz.  This hotel was one of the most
beautiful we have ever been to and was formerly the formal palace of wealthy aristocrats with much of the original glass detailing, moldings, and iron work
still in place.

Our tour of the Pest side included visiting the National Opera House. Constructed in the 1870’s, this opera house is said to have some of the best acoustics in the world.  We enjoyed a wonderful private tour of the building and even enjoyed hearing short performances by local opera singers. From there we visited Hero’s Square, a large square full of beautiful monuments and statues of Hungarian kings and other famous historical
figures.  While we were there, the Hungarian army was on full display doing their practice marches for the upcoming Hungarian Independence Day celebrations.

One of the highlights of our time in Pest was our visit to the House of Terror.  The Terror Haza is a museum now, but was once truly a house of terror to all those Hungarians who were interrogated and held prisoner or murdered there.  It was once the headquarters of the Nazi Party in Hungary where Nazi executioners practiced their craft.  After the Nazis fell from power, Hungary ended up under Soviet occupation and the building then became Communist Party headquarters.  It  remained a place of torture and death for many years.  The prisoner interrogation rooms, basement cells and gallows are still there for all to see and serve as a powerful reminder that sacrifices brought in the name
of freedom are never futile.  Hungarians have had a brutal past, and only recently (1956) have broken free of the shackles of oppression and terror that plagued them for so long.

As soon as we felt like locals in Pest, it was time to travel across the Danube to Buda.   Much quieter and more visually beautiful with rolling hills and ornate palaces, Buda was simply gorgeous.  We marveled at the panoramic views from Fisherman’s Bastion terrace on Castle Hill and the amazingly ornate Matthias Church.  Our
visit to Buda happened to coincide with Hungarian Independence Day and we had a great time people watching at a make-shift beer garden in the middle of an   enormous open lawn surrounded by impressive Gothic buildings.  It was a wonderful capper to our fabulous stay in Budapest

Budapest was a captivating city.  The culture and history mixed with the gorgeous setting make it a unique place worth visiting again and again.  It was not a place that we had every really thought about going to, which made it even more special.  It was like finding a hidden treasure-totally unexpected and great fun to discover.