And It Begins

Sept 24-26, 2013 Warning--long, possibly boring post

But first....Budapest. After a fairly uneventful, long but not particularly pleasant flight via Frankfurt, we arrived in Budapest in the late afternoon. We needed to stay awake so we explored our neighborhood a bit. We are in the Jewish quarter next door to the 2nd largest synagogue in the world, (The largest is Temple Emanuel in NYC.) We made the mistake of not visiting it then because now there is some Jewish holiday and it is closed for 2 days to tourists so we won't be able to see the inside...very disappointing. Outside, there is a sculpture called The Weeping Willow with each leaf inscribed with the name of a Jewish relative lost during WWII without knowing where they are buried. If the sculpture is turned upside down it looks like a menorah.

The day after we arrived, we had a half day walking tour. Budapest is a really attractive city with beautiful architecture. Most of the city was severely damaged during the war but the buildings were reconstructed or renovated to appear the same as before the damage. The walking tour included taking a city bus across the Chain Bridge over the Danube to Buda (the side of the city where we are staying is Pest.) The Buda side is more hilly so allows for some great views of Pest.. We saw the various sights including Matthias Church and Fisherman's Bastion from which you see Pest across the Danube . Here's a pic of the view that shows the parliament building.:

Now a trip on the ancient subway.....the oldest subway in Europe.... back to Pest and to the Szechenyi baths and Hero's Square. Mineral baths are quite the popular activity in Budapest and the Szechenyi are the largest in Budapest. They're fed by hot springs (hot enough that the water has to be cooled as it enters the hottest pool.) There's a big medical complex where people can see a doctor for their various ailments and have massage and hot spring  baths prescribed and have it covered by the national health insurance.  This is a gigantic place with multiple pools of different temperatures, facilities for massage, reflexology, fish pedicures (which I never quite understood) and various medical treatments.

After the baths, we went to Hero's Square where there is tomb of the unknown soldier and a wreath laying ceremony by the ambassador from India was happening with a military honor guard was presiding. We also visited a pavilion constructed for the millennium celebration of 1899. Various building were constructed in style typical of different eras. It's now used as an educational facility. An unusual place that we visited was a bookstore/winestore that had been converted from a department store. It's a gigantic bookstore with a beautiful cafe on an upper floor and a gallery on another floor that has art of various media including porcelain from Zsolnay, an old Hungarian family that manufactured colorful roof tiles similar to the type seen in Burgundy but also makes elegant dinnerware and artistic pieces of porcelain that look like glass. A separate room in the gallery has works of a young artist that were truly unique....when the lights are turned off and a black light turned on, the artwork reveals and entirely different subject. Take a look at these:

This is ONE painting seen under different lighting!
Then back to our hotel and lunch. We did some more exploring in the afternoon including checking out a long street of restaurants.

Re food: so far, so good. Goose is a popular meat here.The first night we wanted just a light dinner so we had soup. Goulash soup for Dick and clear goose soup with vegetables and a matzo ball for me. Both were really good! And we had some nice Hungarian wines to go with it. Last night, more on the goose theme with a roasted goose leg...again really good and for Dick, a beef goulash (but not soup) with spaetzle and, of course, some more Hungarian wine.

Today, we visited St. Stephen's Church, the largest church in Budapest. Pretty typical Catholic church with the right hand of St. Stephen the relic housed in the church. (I'm sorry but that's just plain weird!)

Then walked to Liberty Square, an area surrounded by lots of architecturally interesting buildings. The square itself has a statue of Ronald Reagan erected in some sort of political shenanigan so convoluted I can't quite understand it but apparently the Hungarians take it as a big joke.

An interesting fountain just outside the park senses something approaching it and turns sections of itself off in response.

In the afternoon, we walked a pedestrian shopping street that was too touristy for words in order to get to the Central Market, a gargantuan, several floor market selling every kind of foodstuff imaginable in addition to clothing and touristy stuff. It's frequented by locals and tourists alike.