Rainbow Terror

You'll understand the title when you read below.

Our first stop for the day was the town of Szentendre, just to the north. It used to be an independent village and now is sort of a distant suburb of Budapest. The guide books suggested it would be a good way to easily see a slice of rural Hungary. The town had it's charm (top photo), but it was a hot day. The sun was beating down and there was little shade. That made it hard to appreciate the charm. Also, I have to say, as much as I appreciate all the progress Hungary has made in the last generation, recovering from world wars and soviet oppression, Hungary is still rough around the edges. You see it most in the little things - areas devoid of landscaping, weeds growing through cracks everywhere, quite a bit of graffiti, etc. So, appreciating the charms of a village in Hungary is a different experience from appreciating the charms of a village in France or England. You may well, call it more "authentic" and that has it's value, too. But It is impossible to ignore the differences. We are trying our best to appreciate them and see the value of the differences.

We had a very nice picnic lunch in a bit of shade there and then returned sooner than we had planned (because of the heat) and saw a couple of other Budapest sights on our list;

The first was the "House Of Terror" (middle photo). I know that sounds like a cheesy carnival attraction, but that couldn't be further from the truth. It is actually a historical account of the period between 1944 and 1960 when Hungary suffered oppression first under Hitler's minions including the greatest number of Jews killed of any country in Europe (most of them in Auschwitz), to the political persecution under Soviet rule. The museum was put together with a certain dramatic conceptual flair as well. It was stark and chilling, and unfortunately for us, almost completely in the Hungarian language, so much of the detail was lost on us. The museum was clearly put together for the benefit of, and as a reminder for the Hungarian people, and that is certainly a good thing.

Our transport to & from the House Of Terror was complicated by the fact that there was a gay-pride parade happening on the street in front. In Hungary, there is a small right-wing element that has reacted violently to things like this, so the police treated it like a terrorist situation. All access was blocked off and we had to go through a security check to be on the street. We saw literally hundreds of police all decked-out in full riot gear, monitoring every intersection. This all seemed very odd to us, particularly since the part of the "parade" we saw consisted of maybe two dozen people and one music-blasting parade float. It also struck us a particularly ironic that we should witness this level of police presence after having just toured the House Of Terror. All things considered, it didn't present much of an obstacle to our sight-seeing, but it was an interesting, though unintended, cultural learning experience.

After that spectacle, we went to see the main cathedral in Budapest, St. Istvan's (Saint Steven's), where we witnessed part of a wedding taking place and climbed up to the top of the dome (bottom photo) to get a view over Pest. I should mention that the Danube river splits what used to be two separate cities; Buda and Pest, which eventually grew together with the advent of bridges to become Budapest. In the Hungarian language the single "s" is pronounced like "sh", so it is pronounced "Boo-daw-peshed". To get an "s" sound we are used to, requires an "sz", so the Hungarian composer Frans Liszt is pronounced just like our "list".

Tomorrow, we leave town again to the college town of Eger for a day trip...

A Kid-Friendly Day

Yesterday was tough on everyone but especially for the children in the sense that they have little control over what comes next on the itinerary, and if there is a difficult couple of hours to endure, it is never their decisions that made the hours difficult. Today wasn't exactly meant to be payback for all that, but it turned out that way.

The day started with our obsessively controlling B&B hosts hand-serving us breakfast as if they were running a tiny cafe and we were the only customers. Hardly 30 seconds went by without something else being passed to us or suggested to us. To be fair, though, it was a very large and tasty breakfast out on the balcony, so otherwise quite pleasant.

Then we all walked the short distance up the castle hill behind us to check out what little is left there. Like virtually every major European city, there was once a castle on this hill, which was destroyed, built again, destroyed again, and so on. The same story for major churches. In Budapest's case, there is virtually nothing left of the original castle but the hill it stood on. There are a few streets worth of housing c.1700-1880 (with some very unfortunate 1960's buildings sprinkled in), a rather large but uninteresting palace/government office building, and several projects from Hungary's 1000-year celebration in 1896 (just think of that - 114 years ago [old in America] they celebrated their 1000-year birthday!). The most photogenic of those projects is the fisherman's Bastion - a Disney-esque rendering of fairytale turrets and decorations (bottom photo). But we also did the "labyrinth" tour, which took some of the miles of tunnels under the hill once used to hide from invaders centuries ago, and turned them into a spooky cave of mysteries sort of thing. It was incredibly cheesy, but fun, too.

After a quick light lunch back at our B&B (groceries purchased the night before) we set off for what is likely the #1 tourist attraction in Budapest - the Szechenyi Baths (middle photo). Much of Hungary sits on a thin part of the earth's crust, so in many places hot water bubbles up from springs. Budapest has more than a dozen baths, but these - a large complex located in the city park - are the centerpiece. There are several small but classy looking indoor baths of varying temperatures and mineral levels, but all the action is in the three outdoor pools. In the center there is a traditional lap pool with cool water. On one side, a very warm thermal pool. And on the other side, a middle-temperature pool which was quite comfortable. That pool also had a collection of fountains and jets that cycled on an off every few minutes. There was a donut-shaped area in the center, perhaps 40' in diameter, that had many water jets all pointing in one direction. So the effect was to create a strong current that swept you around and around. That was a hit with everyone!

We stayed there until our wrinkles developed wrinkles and then headed for home, seeing the other park attractions along the way, including a just-for-fun castle in the park and Heroes Square (top photo) where the heroes of Hungary's history are honored...

An Epic Journey

Today we endured an epic journey. Not the one from Vienna to Budapest - that was a fairly smooth and uneventful 2 1/2 hours on the train. No, our epic journey began the moment we stepped off the train;

Problem #1; before we did anything else, we had to get train tickets for our overnight (couchette - sleeping cabin) train to Krakow four days later. We could not buy these from home. Apparently they aren't yet in the 21st century when it comes to train tickets. So to ensure we had a place both to ride and to sleep, we had to buy them ASAP.

Normally, this would be a simple matter of walking up to the international sales ticket window in the train station to buy the tickets. But I had done my research and heard from multiple sources that it was easier to buy them at the central ticket office where they are less busy and more likely to speak English. So that was our aim. We Googled the address of the main ticket office and headed there on foot because it was less than a mile away. When we found it, it was not just closed, but abandoned. With no other option, we walked on toward our B&B, still 2 miles away and carrying all our backpacks & bags with us. Why not hop a tram or bus? Well, we still hoped to find the ticket office closer to the city center and also, there is a certain hassle and learning curve to a new city's transit system. It's not always the brightest option when you are in a hurry and you don't know exactly where you want to be next. So, to make a long story less long, suffice it to say that we did find the ticket office and bought the tickets (written out by hand!), and eventually finished the walk to the B&B, 90 minutes after we told them we would arrive.

Problem #2; our B&B hosts, while intending to be helpful, were rather belligerently helpful. They were clearly irritated with us for being late, but more for not following their clear (and obsessive) instructions on how to use public transport to get here. They had everything planned for how we should do things and seemed unimpressed that we should have our own plan (however poorly it worked out). We told them we had to buy train tickets first. But they clearly expected us to accomplish that with their help, not on our own. After settling us into our room, giving us expansive instructions on how best to use the windows, AC, TV, and the intricacies of keys and locks, they rather formally sat us down and gave us 30 minutes of what felt like a lecture on where best to eat, what attractions to see, and how to get from place to place. Did they think we hadn't thought about this a bit ahead of time? But they were so clearly trying to be helpful, that there was no tactful way to break off and say "thank you - good night". We just had to sit there until they ran out of things to tell us about.

Eventually, we recovered from the hard work of lugging our things across the city and our B&B seminar, and were able to go out and have a nice dinner on the Buda side of the Danube river, where we reside. Our train ride was only 2 1/2 hours, but between the hike getting to the train in Vienna (preceded, of course by the 90-minute herding-sheep-like task of getting everyone up and fed and packed) and the 2+ hour journey to our B&B in Budapest, and the lecture, it took the entire day until 6:00 PM. Good thing we didn't have specific plans for the rest of the day...

A Casual Day

Our second day in Vienna was a more casual day. We saw some big sights the first day and discounted seeing some of the other big sights (like all the palace opulence – we’ve seen a lot of that already and there is only so much a person can take). So today was for things on our “to do if we have time” list. Sometimes those things turn out to be some of the best experiences.

Our first stop was at the tram station. They are all over town. Vienna has a very efficient tram system, in addition to a few underground rail lines. We were on our was to the KustHausWien – the museum of the works of visual artist, Friedensreich Hunderwasser. He was an eccentric artist/philosopher/environmentalist who created everything from postage stamp designs to large paintings, but whose most famous work was his whimsical buildings, one of which was just down the street (top photo).

Then we walked to the Stadtpark (just one of the many extensive parks in Vienna). On the way, we stumbled upon a nice grocery store, bought some ingredients for a spur-of-the-moment picnic in the park, and had a very pleasant and filling lunch, as well as some playground time for the children.

The Belvedere Palace Museum was next. This former palace of a military hero is now empty of furniture and used as an art gallery for mostly 19^th century work. It was mediocre, I thought. With art that didn’t particularly appeal to me and grounds that were very mediocre as palace grounds go. But it was worth a quick visit. Like yesterday, our early start left us time to take a mid-afternoon rest, because we knew we would be out late.

We wanted to take advantage of the festive atmosphere of the concerts “films” on the Rathausplatz. So we waited as long as we could for dinner and then headed off for the city hall. It’s a great, imposing building that looks like a set-piece for another Batman film (middle photo and bottom video clip). The plaza is set up with food vendors hawking food (on standard rectangular china plates!) from around the world. I had some supposedly Australian chicken and rice, and Annie had some Chinese noodles & veggies. The others had food from the “American” stand, complete with tiny stars & stripes flags.

By 9:40 it was dark enough to start the show – a filmed concert of the Los Angeles (!) Philharmonic performing Mahler, on his 150^th birthday. It was a lot of fun to soak in the Viennese version of movie night in the park, but we only stayed for about 30 minutes of the 90 minute concert. It was getting late and we had a bit of a walk through a dodgy neighborhood to get back to our hostel. On the way we took a photo of the fountain in front of the Parliament building. We certainly didn’t see all there was to see of Vienna, but we got a taste. It felt like enough.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Budapest….

The City Of Music

Today we found the rarest of treats on our trips; the time for a nap. Oh, we did things - quite a few things, in fact - but our early start meant we had some time in the afternoon to return to our hostel and take a much-needed family nap.

The day started at 6:00 AM with delivery trucks outside our window - windows that were wide open because it was at least 85 degrees in our room. I finally got up at 7:30 to go find our car, return it to Hertz, and walk the two miles back to our place in time to catch breakfast. By 9:30 we were out the door ready to sight see. We walked all the way to the center of the old town to the St. Stephens cathedral. Like most we have ever seen, it was undergoing renovation on the exterior - delicately sandblasting off a century or more of city grime. The difference between what had been finished and what was not, was dramatic. It is frustrating to see so many sights draped in scaffolding, but that is to be expected, I suppose. We value the preservation of these places so we shouldn't be surprised to find them being preserved. Still, it sometimes seems as if everything is being worked on at the same time.

Next we walked a few blocks to the Haus Der Musik (House of Music) - a comprehensive museum of the science of sound and Vienna's contribution to classical music. Both aspects of the museum were done well, but there was little connection between the two. For example, in one room you are treated to what it must sound like to be a fetus in a womb, and in another you get Mozart's career in Vienna. Both interesting, but only vaguely related topics. It was a very hands-on museum, though, and the children loved that. One particularly fun exhibit had a video of the Vienna Philharmonic synced to the movements of a conducting baton (top photo) so that the orchestra on video seemed to respond to your conducting tempo. Some of the results were amusing.

Nearby was the garden with the city's Mozart statue (middle photo)

Then we visited the highly-regarded Kunsthistorisches Museum (city art museum) where we had our fill of great paintings, including some rather odd ones (bottom photo). By this time, it was 3:00 and we were all tired from our poor night's sleep, and the accumulated effects of our busy schedule the last 18 days. We walked back to our hostel for our nap and didn't get back outside until 6:00.

Today is Annie's 14th birthday. We found a decent restaurant to celebrate in and then walked to the Rathous Platz (city hall plaza) where they had a lot of food vendors in action and an elaborate set-up for after dark movies-in-the-park sort of thing. It would have been fun to stay and partake of the festivities. Unfortunately, the movie was an opera performance (which I would have still liked, but I'm not sure the children would have been enthralled) and Annie wanted to get back to the hostel. You see, ever since she saw people in Amsterdam watching the World Cup football (soccer) games, she has not only adopted soccer as her favorite sport, but also the Netherlands as her favorite team. They are playing in the semi-finals tonight, it's on the TV in the lounge, and it's her birthday, so she gets to decide...

On The Way To Vienna

I have to always remind myself how small countries are here compared to the US. In fact, many of them are the size of US states. Thinking of them that way helps understand the scale. We woke up today in Salzburg, Austria; dropped our "German" car off in the suburb of Freilassing, Germany (to avoid cross-country drop charges); picked up our one-day "Austrian" car rental for our drive to Vienna; and took advantage of the transportation to overshoot Vienna and have dinner in Bratislava, Slovakia, before ending the night in Vienna, Austria. Crazy.

There are trains that go from Salzburg to Vienna, of course - good ones. But I really wanted to see the famous abbey in Melk (midway between the two) and see a bit of the Wachau valley, where the Danube runs swiftly past quaint towns. That made using the train impractical. So we had to do the seemingly odd one-day car rental. Although the day was a long one, it worked well. We got to see everything we wanted to see including the seldom-visited capital of Slovakia; Bratislava.

The Abbey in Melk (top photo inside the church) is quite the spectacle. It is a huge complex dominating a small town in central Austria. The abbey survived many crisis over the centuries, the likes of which caused many other monasteries to close. In the last century it has gradually undergone extensive renovation. Some might say almost too much renovation. The library and church, in particular, are so extravagantly finished now, that it makes a person wonder where the money comes from and whether it might be put to better use somewhere else. It is breathtakingly stunning, but not at all peaceful or contemplative.

The next stop was the little village of Durnstein where, by this time, we were mostly concerned with finding food. The town was, indeed, very charming - built on a rocky promontory over the river (middle photo) - but we were too ravenous to enjoy strolling much. We had some ice cream and moved on down the road to Krems, where we popped into a grocery store for healthy snacks. It's amazing how much food you can buy for relatively little cost in a grocery store vs a restaurant.

Then we drove past Vienna, to Bratislava. Doing it this way saved time over taking a big chunk of the next day away from Vienna to see it, and saved the money it would have taken to buy round-trip train or boat tickets. 20 years ago Bratislava (formerly Pressburg) wasn't much to see. It suffered from both the neglect in the central city and the attention in the suburbs of it's communist-controlled past. But it is changing quickly. The central "old town" is now very attractive, vibrant, and welcoming to tourists. It's difficult to choose a photo that defines the city, since it lacks a big-name site or central major central square. But we found it charming on our short visit (bottom photo) and had a good pizza and pasta dinner outdoors.

Now we are in Vienna, at our youth hostel without air conditioning, but with free wifi (yes!). We now have two full days to see what we can of Vienna. Tomorrow morning we turn in our 2nd car and travel by train the rest of the way. It will be a relief to not have to worry about driving anymore.

Before we sign off for the night, I wanted to include a brief movie clip of our dinner last night in Salzburg. Note the bells chiming in the background and all the steeples and domes. It was a nice evening...

Maria's S.O.M. Bicycle Tour

(second of two blog entries today)

Happy 4^th of July, everyone. I hate not being home for the festivities, but late June to early July is the best summer travel time in Europe. Prices are a bit lower and crowds are a bit less.

Today was our one day in Salzburg and it was mostly cloudy and ominous-looking, but it only rained a little. Not too bad. We had to get going early to get to the bike tour starting point by 9:30. There are many “Sound Of Music” tours in Salzburg. Most are by bus and are hideously expensive. “Maria’s S.O.M Bicycle Tour” was a much cheaper and definitely more fun option. Despite the popularity of the tours, most locals know nothing about the movie. It’s a mystery to them why all these Americans (with some Canadians and Brits thrown in) are so crazy about some old movie. We aren’t that crazy about it, either. We’ve seen it many times, but didn’t base our trip on seeing where it was filmed. But as it happens, it also gives you a great overview of Salzburg.

“Maria” (whose real name I have forgotten) was a 20-something college student and one of five “Maria’s” who alternate leading the tour. In the top photo, she is the one facing the camera (in the distance, though you can’t really see it on the tip of the mountain, is Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest spookily keeping an eye on Salzburg). She is a native who until a few months ago had never seen the move, either. But she was a very good guide. Our group was just our family and four others – two Canadians and a young couple from North Carolina. The tour lasted 3 ½ hours and included over a dozen stops at various sights where scenes from the movie were shot, including the gazebo (middle photo). Naturally, only exterior shots were done in and around Salzburg. Almost all interior shots were done on a Hollywood sound stage.

It was fun seeing those real-life places where a few scenes were shot. But I think the biggest benefit of the tour is that it got us away from the main streets of the city and showed us a lot of real-life Salzburg and the nearby countryside. Doing it on a bicycle is a very different experience than doing a tour on foot (exhausting) or a bus (too separated from reality). I would highly recommend it. This is the first trip we have ever rented bicycles on and we have already done it three times. I don’t know if we will have an opportunity to do it again, but I hope so.

Once the tour was finished, we went to see Mozart’s Residence. Mozart lived in Salzburg until the age of 21 and wrote a great deal of music here. However, his family traveled (showing off the child-prodigy) much of the time, eventually covering almost all of Europe. Unfortunately, the museum was dull – mostly showing off period instruments and long-winded audio commentary. Then we walked to the cathedral and walked around the interior, built upon the foundations of an older church, c.760 (bottom photo, looking up to the dome).

All this was finished by 3:30. Then we came back to our B&B where the children got to frolic in the small pool in back. This was their first chance to swim on the trip (after 2 ½ weeks already) and we promised them we would make time. As I sit here in the shade of a tree by the pool, Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest is shrouded in ominous-looking clouds. Take that, mein Führer…