Cesky Krumlov.....but first

Sept 26-28; Cesky Krumlov but first…

Our next to the last night in Budapest we decided Italian food was the right thing to do for dinner and we went to a recommended restaurant called "Il Terzo Cerchio" (the third circle) which apparently refers to Dante's Inferno. The third circle is gluttony ….sort of an unappetizing word to associate with a restaurant. We had some delicious pastas and were quite restrained as opposed to gluttonous and were totally unguilty for having had Italian food in Budapest.

Our last day in Budapest was public transportation day. Though the original metro line is the oldest in Europe, the more modern lines were built by the Russians and the escalators have the same dizzying height and frightening speed as the ones in Moscow.

We had numerous metro and tram rides all over the city beginning with a walk along the Pest side of the Danube. We could admire the view of Buda and the bridges across the river (all of which were destroyed during WWII and were reconstructed to their original design.) In addition, we visited the Shoe Memorial. During the war, the fascist Hungarian Arrow Cross party (allied with the Nazi's) lined Jews up along the riverbank, forced them to remove their shoes, then shot them so that they fell into the river. A memorial of 60 pairs shoes typical of the period were cast in bronze and placed along the bank, an incredibly poignant memorial. Some had flowers in them that had been left and many had stones in them left by visitors.

Next stop was the fancy bookstore/winestore in the old department store. We bought a bottle of wine and browsed the books then stopped in at the elegant café for a cup of coffee and a rest.

The bookstore is on the fancy shopping avenue of Budapest so we windowshopped all the expensive stores. Dick was dying to buy some designer duds but I restrained him. Also viewed a very weird statue of Liszt, one of Budapest's own.

The afternoon brought the tour of the opera house. When it was constructed it was said to have the 2^nd best acoustics in the world, 2^nd only to La Scala and now still ranks in the top 5. 

The opera house tour was followed by a bad dinner at a fancy Hungarian restaurant….should've stuck with Italian.

We actually WENT OUT in the evening! There was a concert at St. Stephen's basilica, an organ performance of Bach's Toccata and Fugue and then a performance of Mozart's Requiem.

 I loved it! Dick was tolerant if not completely enamored of it. The acoustics were wonderful. It was a great ending to Budapest.