This Woman Was HereNovember 2015 - This Woman Was Here

Budapest walking tour, Szechenyi Baths

Having found an amazing deal to go to Budapest and Prague that included our flight from New York, our hotels (3 nights in Budapest and 3 nights in Prague) and transportation from hotel to hotel for $800, my friend Ellie and I decided we couldn’t pass it up. The trip over was long (Jax to NY to Amsterdam to Budapest on Delta/KLM) close to 24 hrs, so we arrived a bit worse for wear (not having slept on the flight over), but luckily I had arranged to be met by a driver at the airport, Alajis Pulai who I found on a Tripadvisor post who met us at arrivals and delivered us to our hotel for 28 Euros (a pretty good deal since the airpot bus would have cost 10E each). We are staying at the Ibis Heroes’ Square, which is a fantastic location, a block from Heroes’ Square metro, walking distance to the Széchenyi Baths and half a block from a wonderful restaurant (Bagolyvar).

I decided to try to make the free walking tour that departs from Vörösmarty Square at 2:30 (also 10:30), but had only 20 min to make it. I took the Millennium Underground (M1) to Vörösmarty tér, which put me out exactly where the tour meets at the lion fountain at exactly the right time. The tour takes 2.5 hrs and is a wonderful introduction to Hungarian history and Budapest. The only disadvantage of the tour is that you can’t go into any of the churches, so you must go back on your own. It is a tip based tour, but was far better than the 3hr bus tour I paid for the following day. From the end point of the tour, Fisherman’s Bastion, you take bus 16 (not 116 which I mistakenly jumped on), which delivers you back to Vorosmarty Square. We grabbed a quick bowl of goulash soup and headed off to the Szechenyi Baths.

Although the indoor rooms close at 7 pm, the outdoor part of the baths stays open until 10pm. We payed 4200 forints (app $15) for admission and lockers. They rent towels and swimsuits if you didn’t pack one.

The baths were nothing short of magical. We were surrounded by gorgeous columned architecture and steam rising into the night, making us feel nothing short of imperial. The outdoor pools are not just hot mineral water, but feature lots of fun water features such as a central ring where water gushes out so fast that you are swept off your feet and around the circle (more fun than you can imagine) and geysers of water that massage your back.

Quite an amazing first 8 hrs in Budapest.

St. Stephen’s Basilica, begun in 1851 in a neo-classical style and completed in 1891 in a neo-renaissance style, is well worth the 200 forint donation.

It also hold the mummified right hand of St. Stephen, known as the Holy Right.

J.F. Penn’s One Day in Budapest does a fantastic job of weaving many of the main sights in Budapest into a tale of modern political intrigue in which a right wing political faction steals St. Stephen’s Right and blames it on the Jews in order to stir up anti-Jewish sentiment. It’s a great read before visiting Budapest.

The chain bridge is one of seven bridges in Budapest, all of which were destroyed along with close to 75% of the city during WWII. Adam Clark, a master builder from Scotland, completed the span in 1849.

Matthias Church is a focal point Castle Hill. Built in 1245 but rebuilt in the Gothic style in 1896 is a focal point on the hill, along with Fisherman’s Bastion.

The seven towers of the Bastion represent the seven Mongols tribes that came to the Carpathian Basin from the Urals, the round towers representing their nomadic tents. Castle hill affords wonderful views of the Danube and Parliament building. We were lucky with weather, with clear, sunny days (lows in the 40’s and highs in the 60’s). November is a great time to visit because the summer and fall crowds have gone and the Christmas fair tourists have not arrived. Nothing is crowded and no reservations are necessary at restaurants.

Andrassy Avenue, one of many World Heritage Sights in Budapest connects the city center and City Park. It was begun in 1972 and completed in 1885, and was considered a masterpiece of city planning.The Millennium Underground Railway, which run beneath Andrassy Avenue, was the first subway line in continental Europe, opened in 1896. The line transported people from the city center to Városliget, the main venue of the Millennium celebrations in 1896, which celebrated 1000 years of Magyars.

Other sobering sights to visit are the House of Terror Museum, which describes the terror inflicted by both the Nazis and the Communists on the population, and the Shoes on the Danube Memorial, which commemorates the Jews who were shot at the end of the war by Arrow Cross militia on the banks of the Danube.

I also wandered the old Jewish Quarter and found the Great Synagogue, the largest in Europe and the second largest in the world. It was built between 1854 and 1859 in Moorish Revival style. The Holocaust Memorial is a weeping willow tree with the names of Hungarian Jews killed during the Holocaust inscribed on each leaf.

I also visited the Great Market Hall across from the Green Bridge.

In addition to finding goodies for Christmas presents, I sampled a langos with sour cream, cheese, and arugula (550 f or under $2).It was so filling that I could only eat half.

On the way back to the metro, I ducked into a Hungarian Orthodox church and saw this amazing altar piece.

For dinner, we took ourselves out to Bagolyvar, a half block from our hotel.

We dined in elegance, serenaded by an accordion player.

Esztergom Basilica and Szentendre

Today, we took a Danube Bend tour outside of Budapest to Esztergom and the artist village of Szentendre.

Esztergom was at one point the capital and is still the religious capital. The name comes from Ester, a Celtic goddess, from which we get Easter. The Celts, who were here long before the Romans, left many place names, including the Danube. Esztergom was built between 1822 and 1856 and Fraz List wrote the dedication mass.

We crossed the Danube into Slovenia in order to get a view of the church from across the river.

Danube behind Esztergom

I also found this memorial to the Jews from the town who died between 1939 and 1945, a grim reminder of the losses.

Szentendre, which comes from the Scottish St. Andrew, had been a Serbian settlement until Yugoslavia was formed and the Serbs moved there, leaving the village empty and artists moved in. It is a lovely little town with winding cobbled streets.

Parliament building by night

That night I did a Budapest by Night tour which took us to a restaurant in the Buda forest for a huge meal, gypsy music, and folk dancing.

Here is a clip of the folk dancers.

Old Town, Prague by night and concert in Clam-Gallas Palace

We had an eight hour bus ride from Budapest to Prague, time to get in some writing for Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month). Despite my commitment to get up early to write, the days have been too long, full, and exhausting to keep up the pace of 1,600 words a day, so I will have some catching up to do when I get home. After leaving Hungary, we drove through Slovakia before entering the Czech Republic. The highways in the Czech Republic (23 years ago Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia) has wooded overpasses that allow deer to cross the highway.

The weather has been surprisingly warm and sunny. We arrived in Prague to blue skies and temps in the high 60’s or low 70’s. We took a tram into old town and crossed the Charles Bridge just as the sun was setting.

Prague is one of the few cities that wasn’t bombed during WWII, and old town is a wonderfully preserved window into the past. Many of its buildings date back to the 1400’s.

When we saw a sign for a concert by the Prague String Ensemble in the Baroque Clam-Gallas Palace, we couldn’t believe our luck. We had just enough time to grab dinner–duck with regular, potato, and bacon dumplings–and get back to the concert.

The hour long concert included Mozart, Pachelbel, Albinoni, Boccherini, Back, Dvorak, Brahms, Strauss. The music and the location were transporting.

After the concert, we wound through the cobbled streets to Old Town Square where the astronomical clock is a marvel that dates back to the 14th century and

still works today.

We had a wonderful first night introduction to Prague.

Castle Hill and Old Town, Prague

Although the day started gray and wet, by the time we reached Castle Hill, the rain had stopped and the sun was out. We visited St. Vitus Cathedral, begun in the 14th century and not completed until 1929 when the rose window made from Bohemian crystal was installed.

Rose window of Bohemian crystal

Two styles of stain glass side by side

Charles Bridge from the Vlatva River.

Old Town astronomical clock from 14th century

Old Town square

Built in the 14th century and facade added in 16th cent; Franz Kafka once lived here

Art Nouveau facade

concert hall in the Klementinum from 1722

Next, I took a guided tour of the National Library or Klementinum. In the 11th century, the Dominicans built a monastery with a chapel dedicated to St. Clement. The Jesuits later contributed to making it the second largest building complex after Prague Castle and the 3rd largest Jesuit college in the world. In 1619, Kepler is said to have used the observatory to create his Laws of Planetary Motion. Unfortunately, the baroque library hall can’t be photographed but it is one of the most beautiful in the world and remains unchanged since it was completed in 1722.

I climbed the observatory tower to get some wonderful photos of the rooftops of Prague.

Charles bridge from the river

Here’s a video of the rooftops of Prague shot from the Klementinum Observatory

Medieval Cesky Krumlov

Cesky Krumlov is a three hour bus ride from Prague but worth the time and effort to get there. It is one of the best preserved Medieval towns in Europe with structures dating back to the early 1200s. The castle complex is second only to Prague Castle and is the second largest complex in central Europe. The Vltava River begins here and wraps all the way around the castle complex. The castle belonged not to kings but the Dukes of Bohemia. Three powerful families owned the castle over the past 800 years, the Rosenbergs (to 1602), Eggenbergs (to 1719), and Schwarzenbergs (until 1950s). These powerful families had the right to mint their own money.

Cesky Krumlov is located in Sudetenland, close to the border of Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic. Hitler used the predominantly German population of this region as a pretext for seizing the region in the days leading up to WWII. During the Communist period the castle complex fell into disrepair but it was declared a Unesco World Heritage site in 1992 and has been significantly restored.