Budapest Museums

This morning we walked to the Museum of Terror which sounds ridiculously scary and sensational; however, the museum is actually a record of the devastation and terror brought on by the Nazis prior to and during WWII and then by the Soviets until 1989.  You can still see remnants of the communist years in some of the architecture and the city of Budapest seems not to have fully recovered from all those years.  In reality, it hasn't been that long.

On the way we stopped and look at the opera house.  We couldn't go in but we checked out what we could.

Ceiling of the portico of the opera house

Statue of  Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer and pianist

Lunch spot

We all got tickled when Phil pointed out the Burger King sign advertised their hamburgers were made with pure goat meat!

A little art shop called Paletta

After lunch we went to the Museum of Fine Art, a wonderful museum with a huge collection of old masters and Spanish art.  We saw the Helmut Newton exhibit and then visited a few galleries.  

The building had huge staircases and beautiful painted ceilings.

We saw Bruegel's The Preaching of John the Baptist

We saw several of these little East German cars parked along the boulevard.  Tony said they are Trabants.

All good things have to come to an end, so here's our last picture...a group shot of us just before we disembarked the Embla for the last time.

Left to right: Paul and Marti Carmouche, Tony and me, Ted and Melanie Thomas, Phil and Shan Megison, and Lynn and Wayne Homza

Always Hungry in Hungary: Cooking Class

We drove out today to a small Hungarian town called Szentendre (St Andrew) where we planned to take a cooking class with the chef and owner of Aranysarkany Restaurant.  All we knew going in was that we would be eating what we prepared and we would be cooking native Hungarian dishes.

 We met the chef, washed our hands, donned plastic aprons and got ready to work for our meal!  Here we are with Chef Attila.  

 We all got a caffeine boost before the real work began.

We prepared three courses beginning with goulash soup followed by the main event, paprika chicken and cheese dumplings with strawberries.

Everyone had a job to do.

The tables were already set but I enjoyed looking around the restaurant kitchen at all the cooking accoutrements!

We were given tastes as each dish neared completion and then we had to wait for everything to cook.  While we waited, our guide took us around the old little city.

An orthodox church with its fancy "hair-do" top.  The churches are easy to recognize in this town because we were told the orthodox has this kind of top, the Catholic churches have a flat tower with a clock, and the protestant churches have only a flat tower with no ornamentation.

The entrance to a little Catholic church courtyard

Hungary has a very sad Jewish WWII story, as have all the countries we visited.  This is a little Jewish synagogue that was rebuilt in memory of all those lost in the war.  Especially sad is the date on the memorial, July 9, 1944, when many of the town's Jews (women, children, and the elderly...the men were in labor camps) were deported to death camps.  On July 12th the Hungarian dictator regained power from the Nazis and stopped the deportation of the country's Jews.  Small stones are left as a memorial; we saw this in the Jewish cemetery in Prague also.

 A Serb population lived here in this town and this old house is one of theirs from the 1200s.  The man in the mural is St Nicholas (aka Santa Claus).  Notice the house has no windows or doors on the outside as a protective measure; they are found only on the front side.

And then it was time to eat!  No chance anyone will quit his/her day job but it was dang good if I say so myself! 

Budapest

The view of Budapest as we sailed into the city was stunning with its bridges spanning the Danube, the hilly Buda on the right and the flat, colorful Pest on the left.  Everywhere you look there are enormous, ancient buildings...palaces, castles, old city walls, churches.

Our tour took us on a bus all over the city.  Our first stop was Heroes' Square.

We were driven through the old Jewish quarter and in front of the synagogue, the second largest in Europe (I think I am remembering correctly).

Then we crossed the river and drove up into Buda, a city with part of its ancient, Medieval wall still standing.  This is one of the oldest buildings in Buda.

Matthias Church is the landmark for the old city.  Another church with those crazy roof tiles.

As we were heading up to a lookout in St Stephens Square, we passed this beautiful restaurant set up for a wedding party.  We saw the bride and groom taking pictures in the square.

A view of Pest from Fisherman's Bastion in Buda

We walked into Pest this afternoon and had coffee at a coffee house.  Our ship is docked right beside the old chain bridge.  Below are shots of it at night.