Happy New Year! We're back with more from the Eastern Europe Road Trip...didn't mean to wait so long between updates though, ah well.
Our next stop after Romania was Eger, Hungary...mostly because it was too far to drive all the way to Budapest from Cluj in one day for us. But Eger turned out to be a beautiful town!
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| View from the castle above the town. Eger dates from the 10th Century. |
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| The main Catholic Cathedral in Eger (Hungary is mostly Roman Catholic) |
Inside the Cathedral, and then on the right is a minaret which marks the northern-most remnant of the Ottoman Empire. The Turks ruled in Eger for about 90 years...so it totally counts for Olmsted travel. .
After one night in a comfortable hotel with strangely creepy staff, we headed off to Budapest. There, we crossed the Danube a few more times (made a wrong turn looking for our hotel so there was some back and forth). We stayed on the Pest(east) side, near the Opera house in a fantastic airbnb apartment. For our first full day in town we explored the castle/palace section over on the Buda side.
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| View over the Danube from Castle Hill on the Buda side. That big gothic building above my shoulder is Parliament. And I thought I looked pregnant then, ha! (This was about 5 months in.) |
Paul hanging out in front of Matthias Church with it's cool tile roof. On the right, crown jewels. I'm pretty sure these are the fake ones they put for photographs. The real ones were kept in Parliament I recall. Note how the cross on top of the crown has a lean to it....apparently that happened sometime many centuries ago and they just left it that way. It's now become a distinguishing characteristic, but I think it's silly.
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| Inside the Matthias Church. |
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| The famous Chain Bridge over the Danube. Built originally in 1849, destroyed during WWII, then rebuilt in 1949. |
St. Stephen's Basillica, outside & in. We got to celebrate Mass here on Sunday before we left town.
Our second full day there we visited Parliament in the morning and got really lucky with an early tour time that wasn't posted on the schedule. It was just the three of us and another woman. The guide told us that tours can run up to almost 50 people!
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| Parliament's entry hall. It's nicer than your entry hall I bet. |
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| They have a bi-cameral Parliament, and thus the two halves of the building are symmetrical. I think this was the right-hand side, but I couldn't tell you whose house it was. The room with the fancy crown Jewels was in the center under the dome, but you couldn't take photos there. |
We left Budapest after 3 nights and headed south & west for a quick stop in Slovenia. Why not add another country to the list if you can? Plus, border crossing was a breeze as Hungary and Slovenia are both in the Schengen Zone...meaning there's really not a border crossing at all. Slovenia was the only country, however, on our whole trip that actually used the Euro.
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| It was very green there. |
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| Based on recommendations by more than one Olmsted Family, we stayed at a Tourist Farm in Slovenia. There are apparently bunches of these things...real live working farms that have a really nice bed & breakfast. Food was amazing! |
Next stop...a whole week in Croatia!
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