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!)