The Road Goes Ever On

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Europe's Oldest Underground Railroad

Another part of the interest of Andrassy Ut is that below it runs Europe's oldest underground railway--subway--still Budapest's line #1

It's only 15 feet beneath the boulevard

Heroes' Square station

Interior--everything down-scaled

Tiny little cars (by contemporary standards)

Leather straps to hang on to, just like in the olden days

Two tiny little cars; but a treat to see and ride!

PS: In our eight days in Budapest, we have ridden a variety of buses, trams, and subways, all over town, sometimes 6 or 8 in a day. It's a very good transportation system. The most remarkable thing, however, is that here, unlike every other city we have visited, the locals unfailingly offer you their seat, no matter whether it's a long haul or short. Vicki never had to stand on any of our (sometimes long) rides. I have no idea whether it's a senior thing or a visitor thing or a gender thing, but Budapest residents have it perfected.

Andrassy Utca

We spent Wednesday mostly on skype and email, frantically trying to track down tires for the Grey Wanderer. It's a size (previous post) that is apparently unusual in Europe. At length, we think we have found some, here in Budapest, through Automax.hu. We'll see; Friday morning. Thursday we lazed around, eventually tramming into town for a Hungarian lunch at Stex's (again; we like this place), and a promenade of Andrassy Ut, Pest's great northeastern boulevard. It's an old-style tree-lined boulevard, many great buildings to look at (but rather little in the way of shops and restaurants), ending at Heroes' Square and the park and spa beyond.

On the way is the House of Terror, now a museum, but

earlier the headquarters of the Hungarian secret police

It's exterior walls are lined with names and

photographs of the scores murdered within,

particularly after the uprising in 1957

Along the way, too, are many beautiful but now delapitated

buildings, awaiting renovation; this appears common in

eastern bloc countries; the problem is not so much funding

as ownership and clear title; after fifty years of turmoil in

these countries, the Germans, then the Russians, war,

genocide, and then communism, matters of ownership can

be quite obscure

Andrassy Ut, looking northeast to Heroes'

Square

Heroes' Square (1896); which celebrates--I am sure you are

aware--the millennial anniversary of the Magyar conquest

of the Carpathian Basin (did I skip that chapter in my

western civ course?!); lots of things here, including the

central market, were built in 1896, sort of a high-water

mark in the Austro-Hungarian Empire

Main part of Vajdahunyad Castle, in the park just up from

Heroes' Square

Wider view of Vadjahunyad Castle (lots of renovation

here), which includes Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic, and

Tudor styles (what? no Moorish Revival?!)

Back downtown, another beautiful building

And we ended our long stroll with another stop at the

central market for some tokay, paprika, etc.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Gellert Baths; and Stex

Pretty much all of Hungary is a thermal area, and Budapest is famous for, among other things, its thermal baths. August 31st being the second anniversary of our retirement travels, we celebrated by going to the Gellert Baths (close to our campground; indoors--the weather has turned cool and wet) and then to the Stex restaurant on Jozsef Utca for a great Hungarian dinner.

The grand old Gellert Hotel, the Gellert Baths within

The main pool area

The men's thermal area (sorry, Vicki did not have the camera for the women's)

Interior decor

Ceiling

Dome

Another beautiful but, sadly, unidentified building, in Pest (near Joszef) [later
identified as the Museum of Applied Arts...thanks, Zsuzsa!]

The Stex retaurant; if you come to Budapest, don't miss it; large, evidently very
popular with the locals, great Hungarian food; not outrageously expensive; not
even expensive, really: we had appetizers, drinks, and the Stex dinner for two
(steak (grilled), chicken (kiev), pork (schnitzel), with frites and riz, $30

Alas, we were so taken by the place, we forgot to take pix of anything but the
appetizer/soups, Vicki's cold peach/almond, and my hot goulash; um, yum

Many more distinguished (or pretentious) restaurants will
have a word about themselves on the menu; this is Stex's;
it is a hoot, all about the founder and what a rascal he was
(a gambler, in Las Vegas among other places...); does not
even mention the restaurant!

Budapest by Night

A few night shots taken after the Rajko performance from our tram stop, waiting for the ride back Haller Utca, and #24 to our campground

Matthias Church, Fisherman's Bastion, etc., across the river

(from our tram stop)

The Castle and Chain Bridge

Castle closer-up

(Not the) Budapest Opera, in Pest (so I was later informed)

Liberty, again

Rajko Folk Ensemble

That evening, after a good Hungarian pizza dinner, we stayed in downtown Pest for a program of Hungarian/Gypsy folk music and dancing, by the Rajko Folk Ensemble. Granted, it's a touristy sort of thing, and occurred in a beautiful little Rococco (!) theatre (shells and cherubim everywhere), but the music--partly classics (Lizst, Brahms), partly traditional and Gypsy--was electrifying, as was the dancing. The orchestra consisted of nine violins, a clarinet, a bass, and a cimbalom. I have never heard anyone get more out of a violin than these folks--nor clarinet, nor bass--and, until that evening, I had never seen anyone play the cimbalom. Interestingly, particularly in the Gypsy pieces (they spell it Gipsy, FWIW), I thought I heard some elements of Bartok, who was a student of Hungarian folk music. Anyhow, it was a great experience.

Applause after one of the dances

This guy was the leader of the band and did incredible things with the fiddle

More dancin', more fiddlin'

Ditto

And dancin'

Curtain call

Castle Hill, 2, and Other Things

More from Castle Hill, Buda.

While near the Castle, we were passed by this Procession

Which ended in the ritual Shoot-out at the OK Corral
for tourists

But among those processing, there were these two
Hungarian bag-pipers; not wearing kilts, however

And these two cute kids, headed for a little folk
dance presentation, who obliged maybe a dozen
tourists with their patient and good-natured poses

What better to do, when avoiding the actual Castle,
than to visit the Royal Wine House and Wine
Cellar Museum (in the Castle cellars)? Tasting notes:
the Egri Bikaver ("Bull's Blood") I had requested was
replaced by some other unremarkable cab/merlot
blend; just OK; the sauvignon blanc was an
experience, fruity, and with 15% alcohol (yes, 15%,
highest I have seen on a white), and an interesting
"grassy" after-taste (where do we come up with these
wine adjectives? did I go out and eat some grass
before the tasting? well, I am sure that as a kid I must
have eaten, or tasted, some grass; anyway, some very
old neurons were firing in the after-taste; the Tokay was
wonderful, a sweet white dessert wine more like Sauterne
(ah, Bordeaux!) than the trockenbeereauslese, although
it is picked, by hand, with the "noble rot"; usually, Vicki
is a wonderful partner for tastings--I get to drink her
share as well as my own--but on this day she drank
most of the Tokay, giving me the cherry schnapps-like
concoction she appraised as "ick!" Anyhow, this
was all fun; I had never before tasted Hungarian wines

In the ex-Royal Cellars

And, a bus and tram-ride later, we are back in Pest,
admiring its St. Stephen's Basilica

And other buildings; Budapest too is a
City of Spires

The Castle from Pest

Castle Hill, 1

The next day we trammed and bussed over to Buda and its Castle Hill, which includes, duh, the Castle, as well as other monuments, and especially, fine views of the river and Pest.