Final Days and Final Thoughts

Well, I'm home again.  After being awake for over 32 hours on my flight home, I've slept most of today for some reason.  Huh.  Go figure.  But before I write anything about the trip home, I should catch you up on our final days in Budapest.

Interior of Synagogue

Balconies in Synagogue

On Sunday, we went to visit the Dohány Utca (Street) Central Synagogue, built in the 1850s.  To say it is ornate would be an understatement.  Besides the main floor there are two balconies (used by the women of the congregation).  It's a Hungarian Neolog congregation which is a mixture of Orthodox and Reformed Judaism.  When it was built it was just on the outside of the city though now it is close to downtown.  It was built so ornate in an effort to keep up with the local Christians who were, of course, building beautiful buildings.  It even included an organ though it's hard to spot it amidst the finery of the synagogue.  We spent quite a while just sitting in a pew and taking in the beauty of the building.

Willow Tree in Memorial Garden

We moved on to the outside of the building, walking through the Garden of Remembrance.  This Garden was originally just a garden but has become a cemetery when the Nazis of World War II forced the local Jews to bury their dead within the walls of the ghetto they were forced into.  Of course, because of the holocaust, there were many, many who were buried there--over 2,000 who were buried in mass graves. 

Leaves of Willow Tree

Beyond the Garden was the Memorial Garden, an area outside the synagogue that has been set aside as a way to remember those who died in the holocaust.  The focal feature of the Memorial Garden is a metal weeping willow tree, with the names of those who died in that ugly period of history inscribed on the leaves.  When one first sees it coming from the synagogue, you see it side on and it doesn't seem so big, But moving around to one of the sides, you see how big it actually is.  Another moving part of the Garden is a ceremonial grave for Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who, using his diplomatic status and a wad of cash for bribes, saved the lives of thousands by giving them Swedish visas and getting them out of the country.  Wallenberg was arrested by the Soviets when they "liberated" Budapest from the Germans on the charges of being a U.S. spy and died in a Soviet gulag years later.  As a Christian, he is immortalized with this ceremonial grave.  Alongside are the names of other non-Jews who assisted in saving Jews who would have died under the Nazis.

Holocaust Memorial

Continuing in this vein, we found our way to the spot alongside the Danube where there is another holocaust memorial.  The Arrow Cross, which was the Hungarian version of the Nazis, took Jews to the edge of the Danube where they would shoot them and throw them into the river.  Before murdering them, they required them to give up their shoes and their overcoats.  So this memorial is a simple line of cast iron shoes along the embankment of the river.  Their emptiness and solidness speak to the loss from this time in our history when we found a way to be the worst to our fellow humans.  All in all, it was a very moving day.

Art Nouveau Clock

On Monday, we ventured out on our final day to find the Bedő-Ház or the Art Nouveau House.  This is a building in the style of art nouveau or as it's called in Hungary, the secessionist movement from the turn of the 19th to 20th century.  The three floors of the building are filled with this style of furniture, furnishings, knick-knacks, vases, lamps, and anything else that could be made in an art nouveau style.  It was really very pleasant to see. 

Rudas Baths (taken from the Internet)

After lunch, we made one more trip to the baths.  Marilyn went back to the Gellert Baths while Allen & I tried a new bath, the Rudas Baths, not far from the Gellert on the Buda side of the river.  The Rudas Baths were my favorite of the three that we went to.  It was an all-men day at Rudas.  Almost all men were not wearing bathing suits but rather had on these white aprons that the baths provided.  In the center of the thermal baths area is an octagonal pool with a domed roof overhead.  Instead of one skylight, there were several skylights, each about a foot in diameter and each a different color.  It created a multicolored streaming light effect on to the baths below.  Surrounding the main bath were four smaller baths, each a different temperature ranging from 28℃ to 42℃ (82℉ to 108℉).  You could move from pool to pool increasing or decreasing in temperature as you wanted.  (The main pool was in the middle and was a very comfortable temperature.)  There were also dry and steam saunas you could spend time in as you wanted.

Following that it was time to go home and face the task of packing before dinner.  Dinner was a nice one at a restaurant called Muzeum which was an old coffee house from the 1800s that had morphed into a nice restaurant.

The flight home was uneventful if long.  As I already wrote, it took me more than a day to get home with layovers in Munich and Chicago.  Of the three of us, I was the first to leave and the last to arrive home.  Go figure.  Except for some confusion in Munich and too short a connection in Chicago (shame on you United Airlines!), everything went well, as it did for Allen & Marilyn.  And we have returned home to some very happy cats.

If you've been reading this blog all along, I think you might have an idea about how much I've enjoyed this trip.  Budapest is a fascinating city.  It's not as glittery or glitzy as other cities but it has a beauty that sits just below the surface.  It has a truly interesting and, in many ways, sad history.  But it is alive and moving.  It is a fast-paced city to match anty other large city I've ever visited.  My memories will include some wonderful food, some very friendly and kind people, and exciting arts.  Would I go back?  Yes, indeed.

Viszlat!  (And GO GIANTS!)

Revolution and Flea Markets

A memorial to the 1956 Uprising

Today is Saturday, 23 October, a national holiday here in Hungary.  Today commemorates the uprising 54 years ago in 1956 against the Soviet domination and oppression by Budapest and the Hungarian people.  For a brief while the revolution was a victory until a few weeks later the uprising was crushed by the Soviet military.  But this day is remembered each year by the Hungarians with a special memory for those who died fighting against communism and the Soviets.  Still flags are flown with holes cut in the center in the manner of the flags of 1956 when people cut out the communist symbol that had been put in the center of their flag.  It's a day of pride and a day of sadness here.

But we get ahead of ourselves.  So let's travel back one day to Friday instead of 54 years to see what we've been up to.

Friday was a bright and clear day.  We first set out for the Parliament Building, a huge complex that outdoes the Houses of Parliament in London.  Unfortunately, because of today's national holiday, the Parliament Building was closed on Friday.  So we ventured forth across the Danube to the Buda side of the river.  When we got there, we got into a funicular--one of those funny hillside vehicles that is build for a steep incline.   Our ride up was fairly quick but we rose quite a distance.

The Chain Bridge

Ceremony at the Office of the President

At the top we were rewarded with two things: First, we chanced upon a ceremonial changing of the guard in front of the Office of the President of the Republic of Hungary; and second, we had a marvelous view of the Danube and Pest beyond.  Being a clear day, we could see forever it seemed.  And the Danube sparkled and shone as it flowed on its way to the Black Sea.

Szent Matyas

We then wandered over to Szent Matyas (Saint Mattias) Church, which is called the most beautiful church in Budapest.  Indeed it was stunning, inside and out, though there is some reconstruction going on so scaffolding covered parts of the exterior and some of the interior was blocked off.  The original construction of the church in the 1300s, if I remember the timing correctly, was undertaken by Matyas who was king of Hungary.   I'm not sure what he did to become a saint, but he surely built a nice church.

View from the Fishermen's Bastion

After checking out the view some more from the Fishermen's Bastion, we crammed ourselves into a small bus for a ride down to Moszkva Ter (Moscow Square--a few things still remain of the Soviet era, I guess) where we found ourselves some lunch and then came home for a while.  In the evening we enjoyed some time in a wine bar and had a marvelous meal in a restaurant behind the Opera House.  We strolled up Andrassy Ut following dinner to catch our train home.

Flea Market

This morning, Saturday, we ventured out to find a flea market that occurs in the city park each weekend.  It didn't look like we were going to find anything, thinking it was closed for the national holiday, when we virtually stumbled upon it.  At first it look pretty pathetic--a few booths with some medium interesting stuff but then we turned the corner and the size of the flea market hit us.  It seemed huge!  And this is the smaller of the two flea markets in town.  We spent about an hour strolling around the market in which practically everything you could imagine was for sale:  clothing, paintings, books, plates, glasses, trinkets, medals from the Soviet era, computer parts, even an old crank phonograph.  And it was crowded with people, all looking for bargains. 

We then wandered back across the park to the Széchenyi Baths for another warming dip.  Allen & I spent our time inside this time in the various "medicinal" thermal baths, meaning they had minerals rather than just plain warm water.  Either way, it's a wonderful feeling to soak in nicely warm water or sit in a steam room and just relax.  After all, we are on vacation!

Viszlat!

Figaro Gets Married

Allen, Gerry. & Marilyn at the Opera House

Last night we attended an opera at the Hungarian State Opera House.  It was The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart.  I'm not familiar with this opera even though it is a classic.

I'm not sure which was grander: the opera itself or the opera house in which it was held.  The Opera House was built in 1875-84 and is a "neo-renaissance pile" as one of our guidebooks calls it.  It is beautiful and ornate.

We sat in a box at the rear of the orchestra--the first time I've even sat in one of those boxes you see.  It did strike me that in our box in front of us was a German couple and in front of them a Chinese couple.  Together we sat watching an Italian opera set in Spain written by an Austrian with Hungarian supertitles.  Quite the international affair.

The stage at the Opera House

Chandelier

The production was lavish, with interesting scenery design and dripping costumes.  We did purchase an English synopsis of the opera which helped us to know what was going on up on the stage.  But the plot is sort of thin, as many opera plots are, that it didn't take much to figure it all out.  Everyone happy at the end; just as a good comic opera should be.

Boxes at the Opera House

Following the opera, as if we hadn't had enough sumptuousness to last us, we stopped for a late night bite at the New York Palace Café again.  This time I had hot white chocolate to drink and a traditional 9 layer Hungarian cake called, if I remember correctly domos.  (There may be some accents or umlauts in there somewhere.)

I've only alluded to public transportation before but I would like to say that the public transportation system here in Budapest is fantastic.  You never wait more than a few minutes for a tram or subway train.  They come frequently and quickly.  And they're usually crowded, meaning that people do use the public transportation.  It's really wonderful to see and be a part of.  We each have a two-week pass for the transportation system which saves us buying tickets each time we ride it.  It's really quite wonderful.

Trains and Training (the seminary kind)

Time is just flying by.  It is Thursday already.  How did that happen???

On Wednesday, we took a tram over to the Buda side of the river to Moszkva Ter, where we were supposed to take another tram or bus for two stops to get where we were going.  Well we caught the right bus, but took it beyond our stop.  A nice English-speaking man helped us by having us go backwards on a tram.  We were supposed to go three stops on the tram, but only went two because of some sign confusion on the tram.  So we got back on the next tram and rode it for the one stop.  But to go two stops, it took us one bus and two trams to get there. 

Cogs for the Cog Railway

Where were we going?  We were headed for the terminus of the cog rail train that would take us up the Buda hills.  When this cog railway was built it was the third train of its kind in the world.  It's a 3 km (about 1.8 miles) ride that rises 3,000 meters.  (Sorry, I can't do that conversion for you--just know it was a lot of climbing over a short distance.)

A salute to the departing train

Marilyn & Allen enjoy the ride on the train

The view from the train

At the top of the ride, we stopped for lunch at a cafe we found and then walked over to the Children's Railway.  And this is just as it sounds--a railroad run by children (aged 14-17), not necessarily a railroad for children.  It's a narrow gauge railway and all the jobs are done by the kids, though with adult supervision.  An adult actually drives the train but everything else is done by the teens--conducting, signaling the train to leave, greeting the train, etc.  The ride was spectacular.  It winds through the hills through forests and even one tunnel.  It was built in 1948 by the communists as a training program for young people.  It easy to see how it was used.  Today it's a training ground for kids who want to work in the Hungarian national Railway.

We then took a tram down the hills and caught another tram along the Danube to the Gellert Baths, another thermal bath like we had visited on Monday.  This one was very ornate and beautiful.  It had two soaking pools--one one degree above body temperature and one one degree below body temperature.   So you could warm up a little and then cool down a little.  They also had dry saunas and a steam room as well as a lap pool.  All in all, it was very satisfying and relaxing.

We toddled back home to rest and then went out and had pizza.  A good day.

Reading room in the seminary library

Memorial to three students who died in the 1956 uprising

Allen, Gerry, Coralyn, & László

Allen and I had an interesting experience this morning:  I had previously contacted some of our Global Ministries missionaries who are stationed here in Budapest.  László and Coralynn Medgyessy serve at the Reformed Seminary here in Budapest.  László has served for 16 years and Coralyn for the past 11.  László is originally from Budapest and escaped the communist rule as a young man.  He came back to the seminary where he had been a student once, having married Coralyn in the meantime in the U.S.  The seminary is actually a 6-year university program which trains young men and women to be pastors in the Hungarian Reformed church.  We learned how during the communist era, pastors had to submit their sermons to the authorities two weeks in advance for editing and approval and that they assuredly would show up, sermon in hand, to make sure you didn't deviate from the approved script.  Now, of course, things are freer since 1989, when communism broke apart and the Soviet bloc crumbled.  Coralyn & László were fascinating to talk to and we learned much about the university they serve as well as about life in Hungary in general.

Now we're preparing to go to the opera at Budapest's grand Opera House.  More on that later.

VIszlat!  (And still, GO GIANTS!)

Art & More Art

Szechenyi Baths

It's hard to believe that we've been here a week already.  Which means our time here is half over.  I know you don't feel sorry for us, but it comes as a bit of a shock that time has flown so quickly.

Chess Players at the baths

Schechenyi Baths

On Monday, we made our first foray into the baths for which Budapest is famous.  All around the city are public baths that are warmed by hot thermal geo-springs below the surface.  The baths are generally ornate, built as they were a century or so ago.  (Though people have been coming to the hot springs for a couple millennia.)  We went to the Széchenyi Baths, which are in the City Park.  They have saunas and steam rooms but I stayed in two of the three outside pools.  The pools are warm and comfortable.  The first pool I went into is just a warm pool, warmer than the other two.  The 2nd pool was the "fun" pool.  It has a circular current in the middle and a bubbling hot tub in the very center.  The third pool is a lap swimming pool, which is also warmed.

New York Palace Cafe

After we returned, verrrrrrrrrrry relaxed, we wandered down to the New York Palace Cafe, an old style coffee house from the 19th century.  We just went for an afternoon cup of something warm and a niblet to eat.  I had a cup of tea and chocolate soup with balsamic ice cream. Very exotic....almost exotic as the ornate setting in which we enjoyed our delights. 

Tuesday found us touring the Museum of Applied Arts.  It's a grand and glorious building (as many buildings are around here).  Inside is a very nice collection of decorative and crafts arts:  sideboards, clocks, clothing, vases, lamps, etc.  Very pretty.  If you've ever seen the movie "Sunshine" with Ralph Fiennes, they used the main courtyard of the Museum for the fencing scenes.

Our apartment building

We headed back to the city park, stopping for lunch along the way and then to the Museum of Fine Arts.  I was really impressed with the size of the museum.  It is certainly bigger than the De Young Museum in San Francisco and may even compete well with the Philadelphia Art Museum.  They had two special exhibits going on:  Klimt and the Vienna Secessionists and on of Botero's art.  Both were enjoyable but by the end we were all pretty exhausted.  So we returned home for a brief rest before venturing out for dinner.

The other day my sister asked me what the biggest surprise was about this trip and I replied that it's the food.  I was expecting a very standard meat and potatoes fare with paprika in everything.  But the food has been delicious.  I haven't had a bad meal yet.  And varied meals.  It's been a delicious trip so far.

Viszlat! (And GO GIANTS!)

When we last saw our intrepid travelers, they were enjoying a Saturday that was a little more low key.  It was an unstructured day that saw us find our way from one thing to another without any plan or schedule.

Statues of Magyar Rulers at Heroes' Square

After a fairly relaxed morning, we headed out at about 11 a.m. to purchase tickets for a trip to Szentendre on Sunday.  (More on that later.)  We then found our way to the oldest subway line on the continent of Europe.  (Evidently the subway in London is older.)  It's a very nice looking subway with wood paneling in the stations.  That took us to Heroes' Square on the edge of the Varosliget (or City Park).  Heroes' Square was built for the celebration in 1896 of the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Hungary.  The square has a semicircular platform of statues of past great leaders of the nation, including St Stephen who was the leader who Christianized Hungary.

The Time Wheel

We wandered around the Varosliget a little bit which included a walk down to two other notable points in the park.  First we came across the Time Wheel, a huge hourglass that is supposed to count down the year.  It was built to commemorate Hungary's entrance into the European Union in 2003 (I think) but the artist who designed it didn't take into account condensation on the inside of the hourglass so the sand is stuck and doesn't fall down properly.  Alas.

From there, it was a very short walk to the memorial sculpture to the 1956 uprising.  In October of 1956 (just as I was being born), Hungary rose up against the Soviets who dominated their country.  The revolt was eventually quashed by Soviet troops, but for a few weeks the Hungarians were free of the Soviet oppression.  The memorial is very moving and includes that flag from that era which people flew--the Hungarian flag with a hole in the center.  The hole is where the communist symbol had been cut out leaving just the red, white and green of the Hungarian flag.

As we departed the Varosliget, we entered into the subway system again.  The Budapest has no turnstiles where you insert your ticket or money or card for entrance.  The entrances are open and at times a guard or guards stand at the entrance to check your ticket or pass.  As we got onto the subway at the park, the guard who was there was wearing a NY Yankees baseball cap.  So after he checked my pass I said "Yankees!" to which he reply "You're welcome."

After a respite at home, we ventured out to a coffee shop and then walked to dinner at a pizza place in out neighborhood.  Then it was home for the evening.

The Danube

Szentendre Lane

Band playing in Szentendre

On Sunday, we made our way to the proper dock to board our boat to Szentendre.  Szentendre is a small town about 20 kilometers north of Budapest on the Danube River.  (Szentendre, prounounced SEN-ten-dreh, means St. Andrew.)  The boat takes an hour and a half to get upstream.  Szentendre is an artist's community and has become something of a tourist trap.  It was also a home for expatriate Serbians for many centuries, after their homeland was invaded.  There are many museums and galleries in the town and lots and lots of souvenir shops.  We went to a few museums: the Micro Museum and the Magrid Kovacs Museum.  The Micro Museum was fascinating; it contained about a dozen pieces of art all ow which had to be viewed through a microscope.  The art was minuscule.  Some examples were a chess set that sits on the head of a pin; a gold camel and some pyramids in the eye of a needle; half a poppy seed that contains a map of Australia next to a tiny kangaroo.  Some art was on a grain of rice or of sugar.  It was pretty amazing.  The 2nd museum, the Magrid Kovacs Museum, contained works by Magrid Kovacs who was a 20th century ceramicist.  We saw a short film about her work and then viewed her amazing ceramics in the museum.

Serbian Church in Szentendre

Allen & I then went up the hill to the Serbian Church.  The church was amazing; adorned by lots and lots of icons and a beautiful interior.  We also visited the museum of the church was was interesting.  We then reconnoitered with Marilyn and the three of us went to a Hungarian wine tasting at the Wine Museum.  We sampled 5 different wines and learned something of the production of wine in Hungary, including that the country has 22 distinct wine producing regions.

The boat trip home was uneventful except that the views were as spectacular on the half-hour shorter ride back as they were on the way up. 

Viszlat!

Budapest or Bust

As I indicated in my recent post, I did indeed make it to Budapest.  The flight from San Francisco was loooooong--10 1/2 hours long in fact, which seems much too much time.  But it went smoothly.  I had an empty seat next to me which was handy though I didn't care much for the selection of movies.  (I often don't on airplanes--for some reason the movies often don't appeal to me.)  But it was an uneventful flight for the most part.  The most exciting thing to happen was that the wine with dinner was free.  I landed in Frankfurt and had about an hour and a half.  So I set off to find my next gate which was in a completely different terminal.  For those of you reading this who haven't been to the Frankfurt airport, it's a large, complex airport.  I'm never sure where I am and if I'm headed in the right direction.   But I got through the European Union passport control and the security check fine and found my way down to gate B16.  There wasn't much near that gate but I did manage to have a beer and a pretzel--what else would I have in Germany?

The flight from Frankfurt to Budapest was even less eventful.  It's a short flight, only about an hour and 15 minutes or so.  They did serve a marvelous little sandwich though in that time which was nice.  I've always enjoyed my flights on Lufthansa.  We arrived right on time and then I dealt with arriving at the Budapest airport which turned out to be pretty easy.   Right next to baggage claim is a booth for the door-to-door shuttle which took the address of my destination and then out in the outer lobby I waited until they called out my address, which happened fairly quickly.  I was the 2nd person to be dropped off so it was a fairly short ride. 

I had a little trouble getting to the actual apartment in which we're staying.  I punched in the code for our apartment so Allen and Marilyn (who both arrived before me) could let me in.  There was no answer.  I tried again.  Still no answer.  Uh-oh, what do we do now?  Fortunately, a man was taking out the building's trash and assisted me.  We never did get an answer at our apartment because the phone for the buzzer system in our apartment was broken, we discovered.  But we called the apartment of our hosts who then let me in.  Phew...I didn't have to spend my first night out on the streets of Budapest.  We went out for dinner (it was about 8 p.m. by the time I arrived) and then home to bed.

The next day is when I discovered that I didn't pack the power cord to my computer....oops.  So that became a theme of the first couple of days--finding a replacement cord.  More on that later.

Our first day we spent exploring the city a little.  We got ourselves two-week passes for the metro system and then wandered around near St. Stephen's basilica.  We found our way to the Danube river (no, it's not blue, at least not now) and strolled back to the metro and home for the afternoon.  Our first evening, we took a tram over to the Buda side of the river.  Budapest was three cities that joined together in the late 1800s:  there was Buda, there was Pest and there was Obuda, which is the oldest part of town.  When they joined together, they became what we know of Budapest.  Buda is the east side of the Danube and is hilly; Pest is on the west side and is flat.  (Obuda is a small section to the north of Buda.)  In Buda we wandered a bit around Moszkva Ter (Moscow Square), looked for a laptop computer store (that proved to be too far away) and then settled in for dinner.  We then came home and settled in for some well-deserved rest.

St. Stephens Basilica

Friday found us on our way to Szentendre, an artist's colony town that's about 20 kilometers north of Budapest along the Danube.  Allegedly there are boats that run this time of year on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday up the river to Szentendre.  Alas, it turned out that the boats only run on the weekends this time of year.  Our guidebooks lied about that.  So Szentendre was out for Friday morning.  We quickly made a change to our plans and took the tram that runs along the Danube to the Great Market Hall.

The Great Market Hall was built in 1896 and is a huge complex of stalls for vegetables, fruit, cheese, meat, tourist souvenirs and of course paprika.  I don't think I've been in a bigger indoor market.  We wandered around for quite a while and hit upon the idea of buying dinner there, to make at our apartment later on.  Some souvenirs also found their way into our bags.

Inside the Great Market Hall

Following the Great Market Hall, we came home and relaxed a bit before venturing out to see, once again, if we could find a power cord for my computer.  The first place we found was a no-go and was quite unhelpful.  The 2nd place also didn't have it, but was much more helpful.  They pointed us in the direction of an Apple reseller who, when we found it, did indeed have a power cord for my computer.  Yay!  The clerk was fairly humorless, but I got what I wanted. 

We strolled down Andrassy Ut (ut. is short for utca, which means street) until we came across the State Opera House, a huge, elaborate performance space.  We were just a little late for a tour (which we'll do another day, I hope) but we did procure tickets for an opera next week (The Marriage of Figaro).  I did have a pleasant experience outside the Opera House.  I went to buy some postcards and the man at the booth asked me, "Francais?"  I said "no" and he responded with "Deutsch?"  Finally I said (in Hungarian) "Angolul" (English), "Americai" (American).  But I was most pleased that he thought I was a European...I take that as a high compliment. 

We also wanted to go to a concert last night and getting tickets for that turned into an adventure.  I tried calling the box office but language issues prevented me from actually making a true connection.  So Allen and I set out to go to the box office in person.  Outside the venue, we met a young woman who was handing out brochures and trying to talk us into another performance.  We told her that we were looking for tickets to the symphony concert that was a program of George Gershwin and Anton Dvorak.  At that point she directed us to a woman at a table inside the lobby who was selling those tickets.  We approached the woman at the table who immediately indicated that we should go further into the lobby to the box office.  We got to the box office and were arranging tickets for the evening's performance when we stopped to verify that it was the Gershwin/Dvorak concert.  She didn't know what we were talking about.  So she send us out to an information booth in the front part of the lobby.  That woman then directed us, of course, to the woman at the table across the lobby.  Yikes!  But once we got there, we had to convince her that we really wanted her tickets.  She spoke Hungarian and a little German.  Since both of us also speak a little German (Allen more than I) we transacted our business and, after dinner at home and changing, we made our way to the concert venue in a cab that took us to the wrong address first.  Oops.

The concert was very fun though.  It was Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F major and Dvorak's 9th Symphony in e minor (the New World).  Both pieces were excellent and the piano soloist was particularly excellent.  We had a good time.

Today, Saturday, so far, we're taking it a little easier and relaxing at home for a bit before we head out.  I'm not sure what today does hold, but it will undoubtedly be an adventure!  Stay tuned.

The Chain Bridge

Viszlat.  (Bye)