Chuck’s mastery of public transit systems got us to the hotel easily. We came up from the subway on the square in front of our hotel. There were about 10 police officers standing around so Jan took the opportunity to ask if any of them would trade police patches for her son, Jon. The first two looked at her like she was crazy, even though she was holding out a University of Kentucky patch to exchange. At the same time, another officer ripped his Velcro patch off with a flourish. And another officer looked disappointed because he was trying to unpin his patch. Luckily Jan had two to trade and received two different Budapest police patches. Again, it was a fun encounter with side conversations about where we were. The city has buses, trams and subways that connect all over the place. The picture is of the oldest line in Europe (originally horse drawn!!) This is the Opera stop.
For Jan’s birthday, we went to Bor La Bor (Wine Lab) a romantic, cellar with a very friendly waiter who recommended delicious food and really good wine. We began with hot camembert over a fried biscuit on a bed of yogurt tossed shredded veggies. Then we had Crispy goose leg with mashed potatoes and red cabbage (very Hungarian). Our waiter suggested a dry white wine which we shared. Jan was a bit tipsy but in food heaven. For dessert, we shared an apple dessert that was equal to the meal. It was one of the best birthday nights for Jan.
Our sightseeing included walks around the old Grand Market. We had lunch there of traditional foods and ate with the locals. We toured the Great Synagogue, the second largest synagogue next to one in New York. The synagogue was fascinating. It was built in 1859 deliberately to look like a church to prove how assimilated the Jews were. As you can see in the picture, the outside has two towers and a rose window, very similar to a Catholic church, not a synagogue. The sanctuary has “pulpits” half way in the middle on the sides. We have seen this in a lot of Catholic churches but never in a synagogue. The synagogue was recently renovated using funds that the old actor, Tony Curtis raised. (His family is from Budapest.) The last picture is of a metal tree sculpture. It has small leaves of people who died in the Holocaust.
On day 3 in Budapest, Chuck’s daughters arrived for a 2 week visit. Highlights of our time in Budapest with Emily and Rachel include—besides the luck of not being rained on—eating at the Grand Market, swimming at the Széchenyi Baths in no less than eight baths and pools filled with natural hot springs ranging from 86 to 104 degrees, eating goulash at a great little Hungarian pub, climbing the hills of Buda (Budapest is the combined cities of the flat city of Pest and the hilly city of Buda) to see the citadel and freedom monument, a class I relic of Saint Istvan’s hand (fourth picture), and the hospital in the rock (a crude but clean for the time, hospital used during WWII and during the Russian invasions). The last picture is of Rachel and Chuck in the Agricultural Museum.
A bit of explanation about why we see relics: Relics in the Catholic religion are in three classes: the first is an actual body part of a saint, the second is something belonging to a saint (unless it’s Jesus i.e. the shroud of Turin which is first class) and third class is something used by the saint. Chuck gets a kick out of relics. Jan doesn’t believe they are real. Part of what makes the person a saint is the fact that part of their body didn’t decompose as it should have. We saw the head of Saint Catherine when we were in Italy. It still had hair and skin. This hand still had nails and skin on the fingers.
The Hungarian State Opera House is an architectural treasure. We attended Puccini’s Tosca and Strauss’s Elektra. Both operas were excellent. Here are two pictures of the beautiful opera house.
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