Budapest to Athens

It was Jim's leg as we departed Budapest yesterday. I listened in on the 3rd headset as it took almost 20 minutes to load a very complicated flight plan into the Flight Managment System on board. We all enjoyed the controllers. One of them, in Macedonia, sounded like the epitome of a B-movie horror type in his voice. Kind of like Count Dracula on Sesame Street! The flight was smooth and beautiful with great visibilites. We passed over 7 countries in two hours of flying.

I upload the picture I took of downtown Budapest as we departed and a shot of the wall where so many Hungarians died in the unsuccessful uprising in 1956 against the Soviets. It is commemorated here by Brass balls that were put into the bullet holes in the wall of the building where they were shot, across from the Parliament building. The 1956 uprising was the first world event that I recall, I was 9 when it happened. Last is a shot of the Acropolis we took from the rooftop bar at our hotel last night. Everything continues to be just fabulous.

Thanks to all for the many postings and emails. We are having a lot of techical issues here, I can't get my email in a traditional fashion and Mercer can't seem to get his pictures uplinked today. I guess we can bear up under the pain :-). Have a great Saturday in the states people!