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Sadly, we leave Budapest today. William books us a sleeper for this evening to head to Poland – next stop!

Fantastic buildings, museums, architecture, historical landmarks, I can’t begin to express what a phenomenal experience it was to be in this beautiful and historically important city. The Budapest you’ll see today is the result of many years of rich history, with traces of inhabitation dating back as far as the second millennium BC. Hungarian tribes arrived at the end of the ninth century and the Hungarian Kingdom was established in 1000. The city as we know it today was formed through the joining of Buda, Pest and Old Buda, back in 1873 resulting in Budapest! https://visitbudapest.travel/guide/budapest-history/

I am sad to leave this city, and have it on the list of places to return.

The Parliament building at night – I couldn’t get the tree to move! This is the most beautiful building I think I have seen – it simply glows!

And so we leave Budapest – I am sad to leave but excited to go to and learn about Krakow, Poland.

 

So, we are on full day two in Budapest – William wants to walk (duh), and we set out to find a café for breakfast and plan our day.

Today, May 8 is the anniversary of Bill’s death. Even after 4 years it still causes me physical pain to know that he is no longer with me. I try to not make this the focus of my life, but I acknowledge that to survive I will have to set aside memorial days to allow myself this time. The anniversary of his death, or wedding anniversary, and his birthday, these I have determined are dates on which I can feel the full weight of this loss. I share this with my son who was with me when we discovered him, but I won’t allow this to color this experience. I deliberately planned this vacation to be with William on this anniversary, but I have a personal and private grief that I experience. I have brought some of Bill’s ashes with me to symbolically allow him to be in some of the places that he always wanted to go – and we will scatter some ashes today in the Danube to allow him the river cruise he always wanted.

We know that there are a couple of things we want to do: The Grand Synagogue, St. Stephan’s Basilica, and the House of Terror. We also have an evening tour with our Hop on/Hop off, the only thing I can say about that is that it is damn hard to figure out where to Hop on! I can’t remember the order of where we went our what we did, I will share the pictures and comment where I can but I want to start with the Grand Synagogue. Dohany Street Synagouge is the largest synagogue in Europe and the world’s second largest Jewish temple, following Temple Emanuel-El in New York

This is a mosaic of the day. The first photo is of the guide in the Grand Synagogue, William and I agree that would have been most fascinating to have sat with him and heard his personal story. I honestly knew very little about the Hungarian Jews during the War, but he did and spoke of the experience most eloquently. You see him standing in front of “the Tree of Life” The tree was donated to the synagogue by actor Tony Curtis. We visited the Synagogue (no photos) and went outside to see Martyrs’ Cemetery, Location: in the courtyard of the Great Synagogue. A small plaque on the Wesselényi street side of the synagogue marks the spot where once the gate of the Budapest ghetto stood in 1944-45. Not far from the plaque stands the small Garden of Remembrance where those who died in the ghetto were buried during 1944-45. Their names are engraved in the stone gravestones.

Holocaust During World War II

According to Jewish customs cemeteries are not supposed to be placed next to synagogues, but this one in the garden of the synagogue, overlooking Wesselényi Street, was created out of necessity during WW II. Until the 2nd half of 1944 Budapest was reluctant to cooperate with the Nazis to collect and sent Hungarian Jews into concentration camps, though the Hungarian government (lead by Miklós Horthy) stood on the side of the Germans. Adolf Eichmann arrived in the Hungarian capital in December 1944 to carry out the deportation and execution of Hungarian Jews and Roma people. A ghetto was established between Király utca and Dohány utca. Because of the cold and the state of war the people in the ghetto weren’t able to carry their dead to the cemetery and bury them properly so thousands of corpses were left at the walls of the synagogue for 40 days. During the liberation of the ghetto on 18. January, 1945 thousands of unburied dead victims lay on the streets. 1140 known and 1170 unknown martyrs were buried in 24 common graves in the courtyard of the central synagogue. The Dohány Street Synagogue is the only synagogue in the world that has a cemetery in its garden.

The Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park with the Tree of Life.The silver metal weeping willow tree, the Tree of Life, stands in the Raoul Wallenberg Park (named after the Swedish diplomat who helped many Jews to escape from deportation in 1944-45). It is located in the garden of the synagogue and the Jewish Museum. It’s a very moving and sad monument created by Imre Varga in 1991 with the support of the Emmanuel Foundation (founded by Tony Curtis actor). Names of the victims disappeared or died during the Nazi terror are engraved on almost each of the 30,000 leaves.

Jews do not bring flowers to cemeteries, they bring stones. The history is that the earliest graves were mounded by stones (to prevent animals from getting to the deceased), the tradition is that when visiting a grave one brings a stone to acknowledge the visit, and then a prayer is said. As you can see, there have been many visitors to these lost souls.

There were many individuals who worked against fascism – there were diplomats such as Raoul Wallenberg – Wallenberg was a Swedish architect, businessman, diplomat and humanitarian. He is widely celebrated for saving tens of thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust from German Nazis and Hungarian Fascists during the later stages of World War II. While serving as Sweden’s special envoy in Budapest between July and December 1944, Wallenberg issued protective passports and sheltered Jews in buildings designated as Swedish territory. http://www.history.com/topics/wallenberg-raoul

Sir Nicholas George Winton MBE was a British humanitarian who organized the rescue of 669 children, most of them Jewish, from Czechoslovakia on the eve of the Second World War in an operation later known as the Czech Kindertransport. Winton found homes for the children and arranged for their safe passage to Britain. The world found out about his work over 40 years later, in 1988. The British press dubbed him the “British Schindler”.  http://www.powerofgood.net/

Needless yo saw this was a moving experience. I won’t soon forget our guide, who I know had a story to tell, and I regret not going back and asking him his story.

The rest of this day is a blur, we visited St. Stephan’s,

And the Budapest Opera House, where at the end of the tour we were treated to a tenor singing two opera pieces – wonderful!

 

Simply opulent!

Lastly, and no picture for this, was the House of Terror. When I saw it on the map I was thinking, wax museum or something equally silly, but no, House of Terror is a museum located at Andrássy út 60 in Budapest, Hungary. It contains exhibits related to the fascist and communist regimes in 20th-century Hungary and is also a memorial to the victims of these regimes, including those detained, interrogated, tortured or killed in the building.

https://www.ricksteves.com/watch-read-listen/read/articles/budapest-remembers-the-cold-war

I can’t begin to express how impactful this was – it reveled to me my utter ignorance of significant history during the cold war – this museum reminds us of the actual and real cost of freedom – it isn’t just about storming beaches – these reminders also tell me that I have an opportunity to learn more.

We hopped on and off a couple of times, finally making our way to the river where we saw the shoes memorial and I took a flight of stairs down to the waterline to put Bill’s ashes in the Danube.

I am learning to blog – it is hard to figure out how to do this and do it well, I hope that I am able to connect with followers – I am working on it! Libby

HUNGARY: Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Its capital, Budapest, is bisected by the Danube River. Its cityscape is studded with architectural landmarks from Buda’s medieval Castle Hill and grand neoclassical buildings along Pest’s Andrássy Avenue to the 19th-century Chain Bridge. Turkish and Roman influence on Hungarian culture includes the popularity of mineral spas, including at thermal Lake Hévíz

Arrived in Budapest, Hungary at about 10 past really late! Great train ride with a really strange compartment mate who consumed approximately two and a half cases of beer on the trip. The more he drank the louder he played the music on his I-pod. It wasn’t a problem, but it was an interesting experience. So we arrive in Budapest, first thing we realize is that the train station is huge, and has been there for 75 years at least. We struggle to find an exit, and the first thing we see when we walkout side is KFC! American fast food – great! Next door is a Burger King – I guess American’s are not satisfied with being the most obese nation in the world, we need to import our obesity. Sad. In general, Europeans eat in little cafe’s, and linger over food and company, enjoying conversation and living a bit slower than we do. Oh well, I have just landed here in Budapest and here I am being all judgy!

We discovered an ATM near the KFC so that we can get money in the local currency – the Forint. The Forint has been around since the  first of August 1946, the name deriving from the city of Florence where gold coins were minted in the 1200s, a currency called the “florentinus” later came to Hungary in the 1300s, which later became the “forint”. Since the introduction of the current-day Forint in 1946 some note and coin designs have come and gone. For example, the 200 Ft bank note was phased out and just the coin of that value remains. The current set of notes were phased-in in 1997. The forint ranges in cash from 20,000 bill to the 500 forint bill. That was a bit disconcerting as I attempted to draw money out of the ATM, I got 25,000 forint and was mentally trying to calculate how that would impact my bank account – just because I know you are holding your breath – $93.71!  I love Hungary! And I feel rich. So we decide that since it is late, dark and we have no idea where we are going we decided to take a Taxi (Taxi is taxi in every country), the driver looked at the address, told us that it was in zone one and would cost 20 Euros. Fortunately I had Euros with me, so we said that would be great. Turns out we were just a few blocks from the booked AirB&B William had booked, but it was still better than schlepping luggage. The place was great – two bedrooms and a nice bathroom with a washer – William books where we stay and I have yet to be disappointed, he is an awesome son!

Day 1 Budapest – what a beautiful city. We are just a couple of blocks from St. Stephan’s Basilica; Szent Istvan Bazilika, The Largest Church in Hungary is dedicated to Hungary’s first king, St. Stephen. … It houses Hungary’s most sacred treasure, St. Stephen’s mummified right hand, the Szent Jobb (Holy Right Hand).

So we hear the bells early in the morning. We stopped at a café and had breakfast and decided to walk across the bridge to Castle Hill. We crossed The Chain Bridge, it is a suspension bridge that spans the River Danube between Buda and Pest, the west and east side of Budapest. (To read a good book that takes place in Budapest, I highly recommend In The Darkroom, by Susan Faludi; it is the story of her relationship with her father who at 70 announces that he has had a sex change operation – that is quite an interesting story – but it takes place in Budapest, and you get to learn a bit about it.) Now, a word of caution to anyone that reads this – my son may have a bit different timeline than I – he is younger and has a more intact memory :-0 but the essence is from my memory – not his! So we arrive at Castle Hill – and we are approached by the Hop on/Hop off guy he saw us, and said to himself, “looks like American stupid tourist, they will buy!” And buy we did! We took the 48 hour pass that allowed a ticket to the Funicular, which is like a trolley that goes sideways up the hill….the we toured the Buda Castle. Don’t get too excited now, the original castle has been destroyed and rebuilt over the ages, and there is very little left of the original, but the chapel has been excavated, and it was pretty cool – as was the castle which is now a museum. The weapons of destruction, pictured below, sit outside the chapel where the guards lived, and below that is the chapel croft with altar – the next picture is the hammered copper doors – very, very cool!

 

Needless to say, there was a great deal of walking as we explored the Buda Castle, after we left it we took a ramble along the Danube looking for the pier for our evening cruise – we were on the wrong side of the Daube, it turns out, but it took a bit of time to figure it out. Once we did, it was back across the river and more exploration of Budapest – for historical information see: http://www.budapest.com/city_guide/general_information/history.en.html

Dinner at a local restaurant , I had Hungarian goulash – with a local beer – it was excellent. Then it was more walking and adventuring before the cruise. I can, in my inarticulate way say that Budapest is a fabulous city, relatively inexpensive ( If you can get pat paying 5,000 forint for a drink – realizing that it is less than 2$, and I have to highly recommend local everything – never, never miss the opportunity to buy local, eat local and talk to locals!)

These are some photo’s from the cruise – from the top – this exquisite building is the House of Parliament, it is in the Gothic Revival style, and one of the most beautiful buildings I have seen. It sits on the Danube (we did not visit it on this trip), and almost immediately in front of it is the Memorial of the shoes. The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial in Budapest. Conceived by film director Can Togay, he created it on the east bank of the Danube with sculptor Gyula Pauer to honor the people (mainly Budapest Jews) who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest during World War II. They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. It represents their shoes left behind on the bank. More tomorrow, but needless to say a very emotional sight. The bridge is part of the Chain Bridge that William and I trekked over several times, and the building in the rocks is actually a hospital. A very fascinating part of Hungarian history is located just beneath the Buda Castle Hill called the Hospital in the Rocks. This hospital was built during WWII, when Castle District was part of the Government Quarter. It was largely used when Budapest was under siege from July 1945 and then during the 1956 Revolution to treat wounded civilians and soldiers. Between 1958 and 1962 it was expanded to withstand potential chemical and nuclear attacks during the Cold War

In 1941, a section of the 6 mile stretch of interconnected caves and tunnels, was converted into a military hospital staffed from the civilian Szent János hospital. It was then reconstructed and fortified and used as an air raid shelter after the Red Army broke through the Attila Line and encircled Budapest in December 1944.

It was upgraded and extended to a nuclear bunker in the early ’60s because of the Cold War. Nowadays it is an exhibition displaying the life in the hospital with wax figures as well as the history of military surgery and civil defense. The control room and associated machinery are still in operating conditions.

The “Hospital in the Rock – Secret Emergency Hospital and Nuclear Bunker” opened to the public in 2008. Ramped throughout for wheelchairs and trolleys, its operating caves contain 1930s X-ray and anesthetic machines. The exhibition is a superb tourist attraction, it contains original medical equipment as well as some 70 gory wax figures. It is open from 10-18 daily except Monday. One-hour guided tours, available in Hungarian and English, depart every hour. Other parts of the Castle Hill cave system can be toured at the Labyrinth. The entrance to the hospital is at Lovas út 4/b, on the rear hillside beyond the castle walls, reached by descending the steps at the end of Szentháromság utca and then walking 50m uphill. Again – we did not visit this, but saw it from the river- it is on the list for the next visit! The you have Buda Castle from the river – and for my friends who have alwas wondered (as I have) about River cruising – there were two Viking River Cruisers on the Danube – and from what I could see, they looked pretty darn interesting! We saw the big Viking Tour Buses as well, these I assume make sure that you get to see the sights in the stop – and from the evident opulence I am beginning to understand why the cost is so high on the cruises! A European River Cruise is on the list as well. I can’t afford it but would be a willing passenger!

So ended the first full day in Budapest.

 

 

May 3, 2017

Okay, so I am flying to Berlin. First I want to tell anyone that would like to fly Business Class (expensive, but highly recommended) I have a great guy! So I am headed to Berlin to visit my son William, and take a tour of a couple of cities in Eastern Europe. Before a trip such as this I have several learned recommendations: know your local beer! Sounds funny, but beer is a staple with most meals in Europe (for some including breakfast???) but know your beers and local brews – I did not do this and had to just point and pray! Second: know a few phrases in the native language, maybe this should have been first, but non the less….it is appreciated in country, and it is fun! Third: use public transportation and be fearless! The worst thing that can happen is that you go the wrong way – you will find your way back, and you will have an adventure. Last (at least for this moment) have great walking shoes – and walk! Walking anywhere in European cities is generally easy and you see so much more – but again, have great shoes! Also – have a weather app, bring the right clothes, and know what your cellular carrier allows ( and changes for), and have a good camera.  I have photos on both my camera and my cell phone – but I used the camera the most! So on with the adventure.

Flew from Louisville to Atlanta, Atlanta to Paris (if you do this understand how Charles de Gaulle is laid out – it is most confusing…and quite large!) then Paris to Berlin.

MAY 4 – Berlin is a great airport –  William met me at the entry gate, and as I had gone though passport control in Paris, it is was just a matter of picking up bags and heading out. We took a cab to the apartment based on my luggage, and got to the apartment quickly. For those of you who know William well, you know he is pretty frugal, and he had a very limited time to obtain an apartment once he arrive in Berlin. So, his apartment is on the fifth floor of a lovely old East German construction (you can feel the communism seeping through the walls). The communist were nothing if not utilitarian….we won’t talk about the exotic palace the elite lived in…so the apartment will be there forever – solid…and no elevator! So we schlepped luggage to the 5th floor. The thought that I might die of a heart explosion right there in Berlin did cross my mind and I really didn’t want William to have to deal with two dead parents, so I survived! The apartment is nice, very utilitarian – everything you need and absolutely nothing that is not needed. Thus it is tiny house without charm! But for him, it serves the purpose and he has a café across the street (an awesome café I might add) and a grocery down the street. His apartment has a washer, but no dryer so he has drying racks for his clothes, but it works. It actually reminded me of the space allotment in the 5th wheel – and I lived in that for three years!

Once we dumped the luggage in the apartment, and he showed me around – and my heart rate and breathing returned to normal, we set out! So Thursday, the day of my arrival, we headed out to the immigration office for William to interview for his work permit. We hung out there and he was interviewed and got his temporary permit – that took a couple of hours, then we headed to Museum Island in the city. I love Berlin! It is such an interesting and lovely city, and the Germans I interacted with were quite patient and lovely. Wandering in we went to the DDR Museum – the museum which details life under the soviets. The DDR Museum is a museum in the center of Berlin. The museum is located in the former governmental district of East Germany, right on the river Spree, opposite the Berlin Cathedral. I took no photo’s in the museum, but the website http://www.ddr-museum.de/en shows some of the displays. We all knew that the soviets had a rough time, but their daily life was elusive and this museum explores that. For a fun time find the film “Goodbye Lenin” it is a good film and shows a picture of East Berlin as the Wall went down.

After the museum, we headed to dinner – and authentic Bavarian Beer Garden in Berlin – had a pork chop the size of my head, and a great local beer (point and pray). Then, as I recall, back to the apartment and eventually sleep.

MAY 5 –  We decided to go to Potsdam – Potsdam is a city on the border of Berlin, Germany. Sanssouci Palace was once the summer home of Frederick the Great, former King of Prussia. On the grounds of the complex, the Renaissance Orangery Palace overlooks Italian-style gardens with fountains. Historic Mill offers city views. English gardens surround neoclassical Charlottenhof Palace. The 19th-century Roman Baths were built in several architectural styles. Potsdam is the location of the great divide – The Potsdam Conference, 1945. The Big Three—Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (replaced on July 26 by Prime Minister Clement Attlee), and U.S. President Harry Truman—met in Potsdam, Germany, from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to negotiate terms for the end of World War II. The Potsdam Conference was held at Cecilienhof, the home of Crown Prince Wilhelm, in Potsdam, occupied Germany, from 17 July to 2 August 1945. I wish I ere better at both photography and remembering what I took photos of… the first big building is the Summer Castle with the attending gardens; the windmill has a great story: http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM299B  The city gate Nauen gate (sideways) The Nauen Gate has been part of Potsdam’s fortification since 1720. The current gate was designed by Johann Gottfried Buring, after an original sketch by King Frederick the Great. It was built in 1755 and is one of the first examples of English Gothic Revival architecture in Continental Europe. Anyone who knows me know that I love architectural detail – so as you look at my photos know that some I take just for that reason!