So - we had such a good time in Budapest! The city is vibrant and a bit noisy, but lovely!
On Wednesday we went on a tour of some caves under Buda Hill. This is the third cave tour that Carsten and I have been on in the last 4 months but it was unlike any we had seen before. Generally, these caves were different because they were formed from below by hot water instead of from above by cool water. (that is my version of Geology 301). The formations we saw were unusual:
Popcorn:
Lasagna
tiny stalagtites. they grow at a pretty slow rate, about 1 millimeter per 15 years.
this is a side view of sorts with crystals in the middle.
this is the "witch" - can you see her?
honestly - this was the "funnest" thing - we popped out of this little door from the cave into a lovely little park. you can see the door here.
In the next cave, we found these little rock formations which look like teeth
finally, a 40 million year old seashell & a sand dollar.
On Thursday we had a nice walk around Margaret Island.
This is the ruins of a 13th century Dominican nunnery, built to honor the Virgin Mary. Parts of these ruins date back to 1225.
Margarita was the daughter of King Bela IV. He dedicated her to God and sent her to the nunnery as a child. Later he wanted to marry her off to a neighboring King, but she declined. She is revered for her devotion to God. She died at age 29 and is buried on the Island.
There is a lovely Japanese Garden.
This is a very large tree - it is not a maple, although the leaves are similar. I cannot remember the name - oh well. That is Svenni hugging the tree for "scale".
There is a musical fountain - something like at the Bellagio. It plays on the hour. We heard the 4 songs at 1:00 on our way out.
Friday we had tickets to tour the Parliament building - in German. Poor Carsten had to translate for me - but he does a fantastic job!
Before the tour we wanted to see the "Shoes on the Danube", an art installation to honor the victims of the fascist Arrow Cross terror in Budapest during WWII.
It represents the shoes left behind on the bank, as victims were ordered to take their shoes off prior to being shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. This took place around December 1944 - January 1945 when the Arrow Cross took as many as 20,000 Jews from the Budapest ghetto and executed them along the river bank.
The tour of the parliament started with the statues of the Lions outside the main entrance.
Built in 1896 (in celebration of the millennial anniversary of Hungary), the construction involved about 100,000 people and took 40 million bricks, 40 kilos of gold and half a million precious stones and jewels. It has 700 rooms, 19 km of stairs and corridors, 242 sculptures and 27 entrance gates.
Here is some of that gold:
These are statues representing the occupations of the people in Hungary. I think this is an actuary...
this room is where their parliament meets.
back in the day, when smoking was allowed, the members of parliament would get a break and smoke a cigar. The breaks were short so they would leave their stogies on these trays. They were all over the building - unused these days.
The last activity in Budapest was the Palinka Museum. Palinka is a Hungarian drink. It literally has to be made in Hungary, from fruit that is traditionally grown in Hungary. It is +45% alcohol - pretty rough for me but Carsten liked it. We are bringing some home with us of course. LOL
The best picture of the day - one of the "Formula One" buses took a wrong turn:
This morning, in a fitting farewell - we had a bus driver who was driving crazy like "Tokyo Drift". It was extra fun holding on to suitcases with wheels! Crazy!
We made it safely to Prague and are excited to explore this city!
Take care!
also ................ WORLD SERIES BABY!!!!! GO ASTROS!!!!!
Sheri & Carsten
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