The Opera House

We're 2 minutes from the Opera House but we hadn't been able to have a tour until today. You can get tickets only 1/2 hour before the tour begins and tour times vary because of performances. Today there were 6, some days only 2 or 3. Tours are given in 4 different languages. The English speaker group had to be divided into three separate groups.

The opera house was built in 1869. About half the original remains and the other half that was bombed in WWII was rebuilt after the war. 

The guide told us that originally, going to the opera was mainly a social affair where people talked to their friends, ate, drank, and smoked while the opera was performed without a break. It was Mahler when he was director of the Vienna Opera who added intermissions and forbade eating and drinking in the theater. Reception rooms were added for people to socialize during intermissions.

After the tour, we walked to St. Anne's church. It's a beautiful Baroque church, built in 1518 originally.  It is best known for the frescoes painted in the 1700s.

Unfortunately, there was a mass when we were there so we didn't get to walk around the sanctuary. 

After that, we finally got to eat bratwurst at a street stand. The sandwiches are huge. The brats were delicious.

We're leaving tomorrow to go back to Budapest to fly home Tuesday so we spent the afternoon organizing and packing. Then napping.

For dinner, we went back to the Plachuttas Gasthaus Zur Oper which is across the street. It has a huge outdoor space with heaters that weren't needed tonight. The Plachutta family owns about 6 restaurants in Vienna and are famous for their traditional Austrian dishes. We went for the calf liver and onions. For dessert, we had Kaiserschmarrn. We've seen it listed on a lot of menus, described as cut up pieces of pancake served with stewed plums. Legend has it that Franz Joseph was traveling and stopped at a farmer's house for lunch. The farmer scrambled the pancakes from panic and to hide the mess, he dumped some berry jam on it. The Kaiser loved it so a new dessert, "the Kaiser's mess," was created. There are loads of variations but the ones we had weren't too sweet but sprinkled with powdered sugar. The plum topping on the side was plums that were halved and cooked a little but not stewed. It was surprisingly good. 

And that's the end of the fun part of the trip. Tomorrow we take a train to Budapest, spend the night at an airport hotel, and catch a 6 a.m. flight on Tuesday. 

Stupendous

I'm nearly out of superlatives so it's a good thing this trip is almost complete. Today we went to the Schonbrunn Palace and it exceeded my expectations. 

We took the Ubahn for this excursion. We hadn't used it before but this trip didn't require a transfer and was just 5 stops. It's a particularly busy line but it wasn't too bad. You can buy skip-line tickets online but you have to choose a time so we were afraid to do that last night given our mishaps with transportation. You have a 15 minute window to enter or they'll turn you away. We figured we could download tickets when we got there.

It turned out there are machines to buy tickets and we walked right up to one but couldn't use it because it takes Mastercard only and we had lots of Visas. The regular line was short and when we got there, the next available entry was 2 hours later. Not a problem,  the park area is free so we walked around it for a little while. One of the activities encouraged on National Day is going to a public place to exercise. There were loads of runners in the park but I'm guessing there's always a lot on weekends. It's a beautiful place to run. 

The palace grounds are 435 acres and the palace has 1441 rooms. It was the summer residence of the Habsburgs. Most of the construction of the palace and grounds occurred in the 1740s and 50s. Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born there and spent most of his life there so the artwork and decoration are about him and his family. He died there in 1916 and it became the property of Austria in 1918. It was used during WWII and became a museum again in 1955.

Since there is no way you can see too much of the grounds by walking, we took a train around the grounds. We hadn't bought tickets for any other parts you can visit like the maze, Orangerie,  or Gloriette, all of which would involve lots of hiking, so the train ride gave a great overview of the grounds. 

The picture above is the palace from the Gloriette. The train stopped briefly so people could photograph this view.

Of the 1441 rooms, you can visit 26 or 40, depending on how much time you want to spend. We chose the smaller package. The rooms you visit are the main ones used by Franz Joseph and his wife Elizabeth. Elizabeth was seldom there, though,  because she did not love the husband she was forced to marry, hated court life, and loved travel. You can't take pictures inside the palace.

We saw the Mirror room where Mozart, at the age of 6 in 1762, played for the court for the first time. His father reported at the end, Mozart jumped on the lap of Empress Maria Theresa and gave her a kiss. As an adult he participated in a celebration where he and his rival Salieri were commissioned to write operas to be performed at the same time at the opposite sides of the Orangerie. The audience sat in the middle and could listen to each one by turning. Salieri's Italian opera was the clear winner against Mozart's German one. 

We also saw the room where JFK met with Khrushchev in 1961.

 

Since only a certain number of people are allowed to tour at a time, there wasn't a huge crowd during the tour. The audio guide they give you was the most reasonable one I've ever had. It gave just the facts for each room. They probably just want to keep people moving but in my opinion,  every audio guide should be like 

For dinner, we went to the cuckoo restaurant that Johnny said we had to go to. It's called Kuckuck and I counted only 3 clocks.  It's a very small restaurant so you need a reservation. They have a varied menu and the food is good. I had a stroganov and Lola had chicken with a paprika sauce. We had creme brulee for dessert except it wasn't creme brulee.  There was no burnt crust of any kind. It was also chocolate,  like chocolate pudding with a sugar topping but flavored whipped cream on the side that was very tasty. Good dessert, the translation was inaccurate. 

We found out what we did see yesterday was the rehearsal for the parade that took place at 9 this morning. Given this day celebrates their constitutional law on permanent neutrality, we wondered why they were having a military parade. I did extensive research into Wikipedia and found out every male has 6 months mandatory military service at age 18. Women volunteer for service. The description of their duties is similar to our National Guard. 

I Take It Back

That stuff I said about the Sacher Torte before I tried it. It looks dry but it's not. You can taste the jam in each bite and the chocolate icing is fudgy. It's in my top 3 chocolate cakes now. I had it at the Sacher Cafe so I know only the original version.

We started the day by going to the Albertina Museum and state rooms. Duke Albert had started the art collection that is housed there between 1770 and 1822. The collection now has over a million drawings, prints, photographs and a collection of paintings. The photographs and many drawings are brought out only for special exhibits. There's drawings by Michaelangelo and Rubens in the state rooms, a room of Durer prints, and a large modern collection of the various art movements of the last 130 years. These include paintings by Munch, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Chagall, Kadinsky, Klee etc. along with  many Austrian artists from each school of art. 

The state rooms you can visit were the residences of the Habsburg arch dukes and duchesses for 100 years. Each room has distictive wall coverings are different colors , intricate flooring designs, and exquisite furniture. The hall of muses contains statues of Apollo and 9 muses and could seat 130 people for dinner or over 200 for a party. 

After visiting the museum, we decided to see what else was in the complex. In a large area in one of the plazas, we ran into soldiers with guns and tanks and other military gear on display. Tomorrow is National Day so most stores will be closed and there will be a military parade. There were loads of people watching the soldiers performing.  We think it might have been a rehearsal for tomorrow. Soldiers were playing music that the rifle platoon was performing to. The guy playing the violin was especially good. The performers were miked and the music played through gigantic speakers. 

 

We decided to have a small lunch and dessert at the Sacher Cafe. There was a line that probably took 20 minutes of waiting but there's probably always a line so we waited. I had spicy goulash soup and the sacher torte. Lola had the hot pot soup and apple strudel. The food was great. The servers looked exhausted. The restaurant makes about 360,000 tortes a year. Most people were there just for coffee and desserts. There are numerous concoctions of each, including lots of ice cream dishes. 

In the afternoon,  we washed some laundry and then I tried to dry it in under 3 hours. I set the drier part for about 40 minutes and then we went to see the Boys Choir. When we got back, the clothes were soaking wet so I set it for 90 minutes and we left to go to dinner. When we got back, everything was dry. So 2 hours seems to be the minimum drying time.

Today was the last Friday afternoon performance of the Vienna Boys Choir. They perform these concerts in a theater at their residence which is in a residential area of the city. I expected the boys to be around the same sizes but the ages are 10-14 so there were 4 foot tall boys next to young men over 6 foot tall. There are 4 choirs of 25 boys each. Only one of the choirs performed. Each choir has its own director and this one probably wins the prize for most flamboyant. The choir consisted of boys from several different countries. This year, 31 different nationalities are represented in the choirs. When the director did the welcome speech, one of the students translated it into English.  His accent was American. 

The choir performed a variety of music in several languages,  including "Somewhere" from West Side Story and O Sole Mio. During the second half of the program, they sang with an orchestra. The program lasted around 90 minutes. It was very entertaining. 

We had Indian food for dinner and then in an attempt to walk it off, we ran into a open ice cream and pastry shop so we bought strudel for breakfast tomorrow. Close to that was a chocolate shop that happened to be open late. According to the internet,  most stores will be closed tomorrow so it's important we have provisions.

And here's a random statue.

Two churches and a museum

St. Stephen's Cathedral is the symbol of Vienna. Construction began in the 12th century but there were renovations and additions over the centuries so its present form was completed in the middle 1500s. It's usually the first site tourists want to see and it's a short walk from this apartment. 

 We got there early enough to be ahead of the large tour groups; it costs 6 euros to be able to walk around the interior. The church is also open to people who don't want to pay and it's surprising how much of the cathedral is roped off for the walk-ins who actually can get a decent vantage point for taking pictures. Included in the entrance fee is an audio guide.  You have to leave something you want back so they know you'll return it. Lola left her driver's license. The audio guide gave much more history than anyone would want to know so that got boring quickly. More exciting was the fact an orchestra was rehearsing for tonight's performance. At one point, the conductor yelled at a German tour guide who was talking loudly to his group. Most tour groups use audio devices so the guide doesn't have to scream and they don't bother others. 

The cathedral has two towers. You can walk up one of them but it's more than 300 steps. The other one has a lift that costs 6 euros to ride.  The elevator will hold only 5 people and the operator so it can be a wait to get in but it wasn't too bad. The views of the city are great. I had no idea Lola would develop a Johnnyesque fear of heights but she did. It can happen to me too sometimes but the area was enclosed in fencing so it wasn't too bad. View from above:

From there, we were going to the opera house to see about tours but Lola took the wrong street (yes, Lola, not me) and we accidentally ended up at St. Peter's which is another site in many visitors' must do lists. This cathedral is beautiful but small and a mass was in session so we didn't walk in the sanctuary. 

For the afternoon, we decided to go to the Belvedere by way of the Hop on bus since we had time remaining on the tickets.  We figured that would also give us a view of the outskirts of city since it was a different line than the one we used yesterday and it did, eventually. 

Our experiences with transportation in this town leave something to be desired. Yesterday, our taxi driver from the train station hit an old lady. The car just tapped her and I thought maybe he did it on purpose because she was jaywalking but he had stopped abruptly several times. He just wasn't paying attention. 

The hop on bus made about two stops before an accident in an intersection stopped most lanes of traffic in both directions.  I don't know how long we sat watching the light turn to green, red, green etc. but it was frustrating. The police finally arrived and somehow got the wrecked car out of the intersection and traffic slowly resumed.

The traffic is terrible everywhere but it did lighten up a little in the sections on the outskirts. We got to the Belvedere past lunch time but we knew it had a cafe. The ticket line wasn't too long but entries are timed so the clerk said we should enter the building with the ticket but eat at the cafe before touring. She said we had 10 minutes to walk to the building so we could make the 1:00 timed entry.  I knew it was really 2:00 but I didn't say anything.  I thought the times didn't matter because it wasn't crowded.

The international incident occurred when we tried to get in with our 1:00 tickets at 2:00. The ticket collector pointed out we were late. We had to convince him we had just walked the 5 minutes from the ticket office. He finally let us in. 

The Belvedere garden between the upper and lower buildings is beautiful. This picture is from inside the upper building since it's hard to get a picture of the whole thing from the ground.

The upper building of the Belvedere contains more modern art than the lower building so it's the one most tourists go to. It has a great collection of Klimt and here's the one that everyone wants to see:

There wasn't a crowd in front of it like there always is at the Mona Lisa; in fact, it's evident all over that tourist season is winding down. 

For dinner, we had a fine Italian meal at a nearby restaurant called Trattoria Tuscana. The German/Austrian food is heavy and repetitious.  At the Italian restaurant,  we were able to get vin Santo and cantuccini for dessert instead of the nasty sacher torte.

On to Vienna

I like the trains in Europe but not running to find the car you're in or jumping over the gap with luggage.  Luckily for me, Lola is handling my luggage since lifting is one of my worst things in my current condition.

We went to the train station early and found the gate. Our train was there. We feared the train would originate in Munich and all luggage areas would be taken. Instead, it originated in Salzburg and we were the first ones in our car. This time we were going forward so the scenery looked different. 

Everything was dandy until I started getting emails that there could be delays because of rail repair. At one point, the train stopped abruptly for a few minutes. I got a total of 9 emails throughout the trip. There  were also announcements on the train but they were in German. It turned out we were about 15 minutes late for our stop and they terminated the next stop which was to the airport. They were very apologetic. 

I created only one international incident on the train ride. To understand,  you have to know that the toilets on the new trains are huge and covered by a large curved door that opens and closes using red and green hand-size  buttons. I went to the bathroom and the red lock indicator wasn't on so I pushed the gigantic green button and the huge curved door slowly opened, revealing a young man taking a whiz. He said something to me in German which I didn't understand but he didn't seem angry. I said, perhaps stupidly, "You didn't lock the door." I also said sorry a few times. Not that I was looking, but the guy finished, washed and dried his hands, fixed his hair, and then said, "Now it's free. Sorry I forgot to lock the door."

After we settled into the airbnb, we did a hop-on tour around the ringstrasse. We always seem to get to a city at rush hour so the ride was slow but gave us a good orientation of the city. We are right around the corner from the opera house where all the hop on buses originate. Johnny is right that being by the opera house is probably the best location in old town. We can walk to many of the sites. After the tour, we walked along the main shopping street. It was packed with people and upscale stores.

The airbnb in Vienna is huge. It is equipped with everything including a washer/dryer. The owner left instructions on how to use the washing part and said to hang the clothes on the drying rack. I had asked him specifically about the washer/dryer situation because former tenants had complained and he had said he had a new one installed.   I always hate to bug the owner but we really need clothes so I emailed him to ask about the dryer. He answered by saying we were welcome to use the drying rack. His English seems good so I decided the miscommunication was due to the fact Europeans can't understand why anyone would use a dryer. I was right. He said of course we could use the dryer part, just refer to the manual he left.

 The drying rack was full of towels and sheets so Lola folded those while I attempted to make sense of the washer/dryer manual. It was in English and still unclear. The manuals always explain what the symbols mean but many of the symbols aren't on the machine. But the picture of an iron always is.  On the washing part, it means the machine will make the clothes easy to iron. On the dryer part, it means the clothes will come out damp. This machine was particularly confusing. We were looking up words like trocknen and flusenspulen and of course, pflegeleicht, and nacht, hoping it would all become clear.

Because these machines take hours, we put in a load and went to dinner. There are two good places across the street. One, the Moulin Rouge, is self-serve Italian.  The food looks ok but it involved too much work. The restaurant next door to it, the Plachuttas Gasthaus, had loads of outdoor seating and they had heaters so we ate there.  Lola had calf's liver; I had veal. Both were great. The service was extremely fast and the food was perfectly cooked. 

After that, I put the clothes in the dryer. They'll be finished in a couple of hours.

That was our day. There are no pictures.

Hop on

Two of the places travelers recommend to see are the Hellbrun Palace and Mirabell Gardens. They're in another section of the city and are both stops on the Hop On bus. We had mixed feelings about the bus because it gets a lot of bad reviews but we finally decided to use it since we'd have to take a taxi or city bus with transfers to two different  places. That turned out to be one of our many wise decisions because we saw a lot of the city we wouldn't have seen from a bus or taxi. People complained that the audio guide has corny Sound of Music music and that the drivers are rude. Our driver was very nice and the music on the City line tour was Mozart. I thought the mountain tour may have stopped running for the season but we did see a Sound of Music bus. It travels in the mountains outside the city. They probably have karaoke on that bus.

The bus wasn't crowded at all. In fact, there were just two other people on the first one we took. The driver did a 3 minute picture stop at Schloss Leopoldskron. The palace sits in front of a large pond with a walking paths around  the grounds. 

The palace was built in 1736 by one of the prince-archbishops and purchased by the theater director/producer Max Reinhardt, in 1918; he used it as an international meeting place for  cultural and artistic communities. It was a shooting location for that famous movie. 

The next place we got off to tour was the Hellbrun Palace which was the residency of prince-archbishop Markus Sittigus who ruled Salzburg from 1612 until 1619. The palace and grounds are huge but there are no bedrooms because it was designed as a day residence to be used only in the summer. 

The interior of the palace is interesting,  not too ornate but it has some interesting paintings and artifacts like a globe showing the countries recognized at the time. One room has an ornate ceiling but you don't have to look up to see the paintings.  Instead, you can sit on a round moving sofa where each seat has a screen showing the pictures above or maybe reflecting them or maybe having no relation to the ceiling. The quality was poor so it was hard to tell. But it was a fun ride.

Markus was a jokester and developed what tourists think is the highlight of the place, the Magic Fountains. Everyone says you will get wet if you go there but we were trying to avoid that since it's not really warm. The first stop on the fountain tour was by a gigantic table where guests would be eating and then, all of a sudden, drenched by water spraying from the ground. No one on the tour got wet there because they seat you away from the table. In other areas, we tried to avoid standing under what were obvious sprayers, only to be hit from the ground. One spray occurred right behind me, soaking the butt of my jeans. Lola was hit in the front. There were two areas of arched sprays that you could walk under without getting wet. There were probably five separate spots where surprise waterings occurred. It would have been more fun in the summer. Luckily, it was sunny today, after being cloudy the other days we were here so it wasn't too bad. 

On the grounds was a zoo we didn't visit, grottos with statues of gods, fountains that don't spray you, and a miniature scene of townspeople who are moved by water, set to music  by an organ played by moving water. The mechanisms to run all the fountains are 400 years old. You could watch the guide flip a switch to set off the sprayers but you didn't know how much delay there would be or where the water would spring up and/or rain down. 

The last place we wanted to see was the Mirabell Palace and gardens. The palace is mainly used for some administrative offices although there are a couple of rooms you can see. We just walked the gardens which are still in bloom. There are loads of park benches where a lot of locals were sitting.

After that grueling day, we went to the closest chocolate shop which we discovered close to the hotel. It turns out there are shops all over town. The chocolates are outstanding and cheaper than in places like London and Paris. 

For dinner, we went to the Gasthoff Goldgasse. I had deep fried chicken that had been marinated for 24 hours but the menu didn't say in what. It was quite good but it was served with German potato salad that was nothing special. It's their most famous dish. The recipe comes from a cookbook that was published in 1713. Lola had wiener schnitzel with a cucumber salad and potatoes. She didn't like the sides. The dessert menu wasn't in English so our server explained it to us but much too quickly. We got pear dumplings which turned out to be fried dough with a vanilla sauce and lemon ice cream on the side. I searched but didn't find anything resembling a pear.

Tomorrow we're off to Vienna on a noon train. Salzburg was a nice break from the big, busy cities. 

Salzburg

We toured most of the Old Town sites today, beginning with the Domquartier. The Residence part of the complex contains the state rooms of the prince-archbishops who governed Salzburg for centuries. The rooms, which contain several museums, house 1300 years of artifacts and artworks. Old Town, as it is currently, was built in Baroque style by architects who studied in Rome. The town was heavily bombed in WWII but most of the old town remained intact except for the dome of St. Peter's which was later rebuilt.

There is a self-guided tour of the complex. The audio guide is boring but the rooms are magnificent. There's a terrace that overlooks Old Town and a view of Salzburg Cathedral. 

The Salzburg Cathedral is beautiful but St. Peter's is unbelievable.  Outside is that cemetery where the Trapp family hid in the movie before escaping but in real life, they got on a train and went to Switzerland. The cemetery is one of the oldest in Europe. 

After the tour of the Domquartier, we found a chocolate shop we had been looking for. It turned out to be a cafe as well so we had coffee and apple tart mit schlag (one of the few German phrases I remember). 

Then we went up the funicular which looks scary to see the views from the fortress. I think it's the highest funicular I've ever been on but it was also the smoothest. The fortress was built to scare invaders and worked well. It was never used so few of the rooms are open. What is open is a restaurant overlooking the valley. We had soup for lunch and listened to an American lecture his companions about how sad it is schools don't teach American history anymore. You can't get an angle to capture the bottom of the funicular but below is most of it.

View from the fortress:

All that walking was exhausting so rest time was extended. Then we walked somewhat aimlessly,  first to the river, then through the streets, some of which had high end stores.

Many restaurants are also closed on Mondays. We walked to a recommended one that was supposed to be open but wasn't so we went to another one that has high recommendations, Pauli Straube. It's  a walk up a cobblestone hill  that looked residential, probably students. Then you climb the two flights of stairs to the pub. We didn't have a reservation but they put us at a table that we would share if someone else came. The table was big so when a couple came in, they sat at the opposite corner. They were Americans, from Seattle. We met another couple in the restaurant who were from Columbus. 

That was our first traditional Austrian meal. Lola had a skillet dish with pork, potatoes, and dumplings. I had beef, chicken, and bacon served with a huge salad. Both dishes had a fried egg on top. It's not like me to eat so much meat at one time but their meat is great. Best bacon ever.

It's Sunday

which means most restaurants and shops are closed.  Our Apricot coffee shop was closed so we had to make instant coffee and eat granola bars. Then we took the five hour train ride...backwards and we were in first class. If you travel first or business class, you can have food delivered to your seat. We had mediocre ham sandwiches and Cokes. The train was ending at Munich. It was huge. I don't know whether everyone had to sit backwards or just business and first class.

Not sure but possibly a bootleg cab took us to the hotel after first taking us to the wrong one. He did turn off the meter when I reminded him I had given him the address so it probably turned out to be the same price as the real taxis. 

After being checked into the Altstadt Hotel Kasererbrau by a surly clerk, we walked around the main square,  checking out what sites to see and looking for restaurants that were open. There were very few. Mostly pizza places. We ended up at an Italian restaurant close to the hotel. It was a step above Chef Boyardee but they forgot to bring the salad and the service was slow. 

There seems to be very few touring English speakers of either the American or British kind. It was difficult booking a centrally-located hotel but the tourists could be German or Austrian. Also, there is English on menus but not on most of the signs and posters. I'm not saying there should be, but it's a surprise since we just left a place where many of the people seemed embarrassed if they hadn't noticed we were English speakers. 

We did see some beautiful buildings and fountains on the short walk to the square.

Tomorrow we have to tour the Domquartier because it's closed on Tuesdays. There's no explanation for why that's true.

Last day, Budapest

We wanted a slow last day so we took a metro across the river to the Cave Church. It's my third time there and I was shocked by how touristy it's become even though I had read some bad reviews on TripAdvisor. First, there is now a gift shop where you have to buy a ticket. They give you an audio guide but the information is boring since there's not a lot to say about the church. They've added lights so you don't even get the feeling of being in a cave. The small sanctuary is the same as always except they've added more chairs. A large tour group was sitting in the chairs when we were there.

From the history that's known about the cave, during the Middle Ages, it was once home to a hermit who provided healing with the thermal waters. The church part was consecrated in 1926 and expanded in 1930 to house 16 monks coming back from Poland. During WWII, it was used to house refugees and civilians. The Soviets built a concrete wall to block the entrance in 1960 and it was removed when they left in 1989. It's maintained by Pauline monks and there's still a daily mass and other events. 

Below is a statue of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary. It's outside the cave church.

After that, we had a nice walk along the river on the Buda side. The weather is great. Much warmer than we expected. Both Salzburg and Vienna are going to be warm too, in the 70s. That forecast has changed in the last few days.  We expected temperatures in the high 50s. 

From there we took a tram up a hill just to see the sites. The sites turned out not to be interesting; we thought we were going to a park but Savoya Park turned out to be the name of a shopping center. We took the tram back down. 

It was lunch time so we took a metro back to the pedestrian area around St. Stephen. We ate hamburgers outside with the rest of the Americans. They were surprisingly good. 

We packed in the afternoon and then walked to a close by pedestrian area with several restaurants.  The restaurants had blankets sitting on the chairs but they were unnecessary considering it was 68 degrees at 7:00. The restaurants look like bars but I had roasted duck breast and Lola had roasted chicken. Both had interesting sauces. There seemed to be one waiter and probably one chef but the menu is extensive and it was getting crowded by the time we left.

After dinner, walked to another pedestrian square.  And that's when I got my wings. 

The Great Market and Parliament

We walked to the Great Market this morning. It took about 15 minutes and we went through several pedestrian streets and squares with trendy restaurants and coffee houses.  We had already had coffee and pastry at our local spot, Apricot. We are known there because we go every morning. One young man who may be the owner likes to practice his excellent English. The other workers also speak English but aren't as comfortable with it.  The wait staff everywhere--our Bolt taxi drivers, shop personnel, everyone we interact with--are all young, very polite and seem to have had customer service training. People on TripAdvisor often complain about customer service in this city but what we've seen is impressive.

 Public transportation is great here but we've been using Bolt a lot because it's cheap and we don't have to walk to tram or Metro stations. We need to conserve our energy. I swear all the drivers are 15. They all listen to American music while they drive. One was playing a cd called Gangsta Rap. Most have very little English.  They don't need to speak much  because, like Uber, they know where you're going before they get in the car. 

The Great Market is one of a series of markets in the city that was planned in the 1890s and built in 1897. The population was exploding and there wasn't an efficient way to inspect food or control what goods were coming in so a few markets were built. The Great Market is the biggest and most central.

The Market has 3 floors but the basement is now an Aldi's so we didn't go there. The first floor is mostly food. Every cut of meat known to man is sold there--tripe, the livers of all animals, pig heads and feet, and hearts that are huge. Beef hearts are not that big so I'm guessing they're from another animal but I can't imagine what. Elephant or wooly mammal maybe. There are lots of meat vendors and produce stands. On the way out we noticed long lines at one particular produce stand and one meat counter. Obviously the locals know who has the best stuff. Tour books tell you not to go before 9 because the locals shop early. Saturday is particularly crowded. 

The second floor sells touristy things and you can find the same products in multiple places. We bought nothing. Instead, on the way back to the apartment, we found a chocolate store that needed our patronage. The chocolate stores in the city seem to be small family-run businesses. There's nothing like it at the market--just candy bars and other commercial treats. 

We had a 2:30 tour of the Parliament. I had booked these tickets awhile ago because slots fill up fast. We booked the English speaking tour for obvious reasons but there was a German language tour at the same time. We met some Americans who were on a Viking ship tour and had booked German language tickets because that's all that was available.  The cruise director told them to book those but just go with the English group.  That worked out for them. Each group had a guide and an audio device which allowed the guide to speak softly. They called the German group first which turned out great for our group because we were at the dome room which houses the royal  crown for the changing of the guard. Guards change every hour. The guards march with a goose step which seemed odd. The walk to the crown room takes a half hour but just a couple minutes for the change.

The building houses the parliament--we saw where Orban sits--but few of the 691 rooms are used. It was dedicated in 1896, 1000 years after the founding of the country. It and St. Stephen's are both 96 meters high and no other building in the city can be higher.  

The tour takes you to just a few rooms. They are spectacular. The most beautiful is the dome room but you can't take pictures there because they could damage the crown.

In order, the following are pictures of the Parliament chamber, the grand stairway at the entrance, and windows showing some of the detail. 

The tour is great. So thanks to everyone who recommended it. 

And here is a picture of the Budapest ferris wheel just because we've been by it a few times.

Szechenyi spa day and fancy dinner

Today was spa day. We went around 10 because we read before noon is the least crowded and that turned out to be true. We bought no line tickets last night and downloaded  bar codes that should allow someone to scan, give you the bracelet you need to access the facility and your cabin number in one easy transaction. That's not the way it works. We stood in one line that had a sign that read "for hotel vouchers and prepaid tickets." That wasn't the correct line. The girl at that window said we had to go directly across to the other side of the hall. That was window 3. People were taking their time contemplating the packages and buying tickets. We figured that couldn't be the no line line so Lola asked a woman in an official office who said we had to go to window 4. Window 4 was the same as window 3. People choosing packages and then paying for them. Credit card payments took a long time. When it was our turn, the woman took Lola's phone and I think typed her name into the system. She was talking constantly to the woman at window 3. At any rate, she did a number of things on the computer before taking her scanner and scanning one barcode, pausing for a couple minutes, scanning the other barcode, printing some kind of receipt and handing us our bracelets.  From there, everything was easy. Your bracelet opens the turnstile to get in and also locks and unlocks your closet-sized "cabin" where you leave your belongings.  

From there, everything went smoothly.  Not huge crowds until we were leaving, great weather--cool but sunny. Outside there's a swimming pool and 2 thermal pools, one with a whirlpool you can get in and be swept around in a circle.  Inside, there's around 15 pools of varying temperatures. At one end of the building, there's an area only for hospital patients with pools only the patients can use. The patients have to have prescriptions which specify  particular pools for their ailments.

There are several saunas of varying types and degrees. We sat in an aromatherapy one for a few minutes. It was lovely. 

There were several things that changed since the last time I was here. One is they now offer water wellness classes every half hour, free with admission. We walked by a water aerobics class. Also, you can pay around $3 for a half hour alone in a sauna. You hang a sign on the door that explains you're not to be disturbed.

The buildings are huge and beautiful. The spa was built between 1909 and 1913 although the spring was drilled in the late 1800s. 

Visiting  the spa was exhausting so we rested in the afternoon, did some laundry and then went to fancy dinner. Back in 2005,  I happened upon a restaurant that served fantastic grilled goose liver and I've spent a lot of time and money trying to repeat that experience.  Lola did research and found the restaurant Tigris, recommended by both Trip Advisor and Johnny. It specializes in foie gras dishes. The restaurant is beautiful and we were served by a number of people.  The host described the menu to us and tried to talk us into sharing some foie gras appetizers similar to what we've had before although they serve only goose and we've had duck. A different young person presented a basket of bread, explained each kind and let us choose one.

 A waiter came to take our order and we ordered a baby romaine salad and foie gras entrees. Then he sent the sommelier to help us match appropriate wine. We ordered sauvignon blanc as usual but this was Hungarian. He showed us the bottle and said the winery is close to Budapest. It was tasty.

Then someone brought a small dish from the chef. Beet root mousse with creme fraiche. It was very beety. 

The waiter came back to ask whether we liked the beet dish and that's when Lola accidentally convinced the entire wait staff that she was dying for a plate of cheese. She saw a young man behind me being served something but she couldn't tell what. I can't turn around because of my back problem so I didn't see what was happening.  Then the waiter put on black gloves to handle the food which caused Lola to be more curious. She asked our waiter what was happening and he explained that the customer was being shown different kinds of cheeses and the cheese manager was explaining the details of each one. He went on to say the cheese manager searches every week for new Hungarian cheeses and is great at his job. The cheese manager looked like he's 22. Our waiter said that since Lola has such an interest in cheese, he might be able to get the cheese dude to bring a couple of pieces for free at the end of the meal if she was still hungry. 

The meal was fantastic. The foie gras was served with polenta and pears. Everything was perfectly cooked and presented.

When we finished, the host came with the dessert menu and said she heard Lola was very interested in cheese. The cheese plate was part of the dessert menu and cost 10 euros. A small price to pay for an entire presentation but not our idea of dessert. We convinced the host we were interested in something sweet instead of cheesy and she sent the dessert expert to take our order.  We split a caramel panna cotta with raspberries and raspberry ice cream and chocolate. When the dessert manager brought the dish, he explained their panna cotta is smoother than most because they don't cook the sugar. Instead, they cook the milk. 

The wait staff were all very young. There were several who seemed to just walk around the restaurant so we wondered whether they're being trained, maybe interns from the Culinary Institute of Europe which is on our street. 

As you can see from the lovely pictures, the meal was extraordinary. They have other great entrees to try besides foie gras so we're going back tomorrow night.

Two Synagogues and a Basilica

Yesterday we walked 12000 steps which is way too many so we wanted to slow the pace today, especially since it was the day I had to rip off the kinesio tape which  was theoretically keeping my si joints in position. Even in a hot shower, it's a painful process.I feared that the act of taking off the tape would dislocate the joints but it hasn't so far.

We had made an efficient plan of the order we would visit the sites on our list.  First, we took a short walk to the Dohany Synagogue and Jewish Hungarian Museum, one of the most visited sites in Budapest and the largest synagogue in Europe. The building is so huge you can't take a picture of it even from across the street. The line to buy tickets had to be over 100 people, groups from tour buses. We contemplated whether to get in line because we didn't want to mess up our plan. Finally, we decided to get online and see whether you could buy skip the line tickets. It turned out to be an easy process so we walked straight to security and got in immediately. 

The synagogue is huge. It can seat 3000 people and 2000 standing. It was built between 1854 and 1859. The architectural style is Moorish Revival. It was bombed in 1939, renovated  1991-98.

We toured the museum in the adjacent building, the Jewish cemetery and memorials. The exit is within the Raoul Wallenberg Memorial Park where the sculpture of a weeping willow tree is located. The "leaves" contain the names of Hungarian Jews killed during the Holocaust. The foundation that funded the sculpture was established by Tony Curtis in honor of his father. 

The next site we walked to was St. Stephen's Basilica, named after the first king of Hungary whose mummified right hand is preserved in the church; that's what they claim. Since you're not allowed to use a flash to take its picture, there are written instructions detailing the camera settings to use. Some people were actually taking its picture. You have to pay a euro for a light to illuminate it.

The church is the largest in Budapest. It can hold 8500 people. The architectural style is Neoclassical and the ground plan is shaped like a Greek cross. The interior is ornate but tasteful. The cathedral was used for Madonna's fake wedding in "Evita." 

Outside the cathedral is a large pedestrian area with many shops and restaurants. We went to a restaurant that we didn't think was Italian but it was. We didn't want pasta or pizza so we both got the pate appetizer. It came with a delicious chutney and toast. I realize eating this every day could cause gout but it's hard to pass up.

After lunch, we went to the Holocaust Memorial Center. I don't remember ever hearing about it, I think it hasn't been listed on tourist sites until recently. It was established in 2004 in its current location, a former synagogue.  There is a synagogue next door. The entire center is dark; the movies, pictures and interactive screens provide most of the light. There is a research center that allows people to search for family members. The picture below is the synagogue. 

After a brief rest, we went to The Curry House for dinner. This time we had made reservations.  The food was delicious as well as dirt cheap. It's been my experience that the Indian restaurants in Europe are better than most in the US even though the names of the dishes are the same. 

Working electronic devices is always a challenge for me, especially when I'm not at home on my real computer. Actually,  both of us have had problems with phone maps, finding websites, buying tickets. I had booked 3 train trips before we left, all first class. I saw that you had the option of picking a seat for 3 euros but I assumed that didn't apply to first class tickets. Bill Suffa told me I had to buy seats or wander around the cars trying to find one. He was right.  I tried to do that on my phone but that didn't work so I downloaded the train app on my tablet. After a long time of trying to figure out the app, I booked seats on the Budapest to Salzburg train. I got the ticket on my tablet with the instructions that I had to present the ticket on the original device I booked it on. On my tablet, the barcode is as big as the tablet and I can't make it smaller. We now have assigned seats, one gang, one fenster, seats 103 and 105.  I'm hoping no one will ask us to prove we belong there.

Tomorrow we're going to the Szechenyi thermal spa. It took a few hours to figure out what kind of skip the line package we wanted, pay for it and download the tickets. We're trying to go in the morning and hope the tour buses won't be there.