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!