Haber Travel Report – Budapest Day 3

I am delighted to report that the weather changed for the better today.  I don’t think ithit 80 degrees; delightful sightseeing weather.  I hear it’s really hot in the NY area.  Try to keep cool.

We had a delightful day today.  Until now we’ve been only in Pest (pronounced Pesht).  Today we went to Buda on the other side of the Danube (which BTW is the second longest river in Europe).  We took a bus (for just a few minutes; we were wonderfully centrally located in our hotel) to the other side and then took a funicular up to the top of Castle Hill (which is where all of the tourist sites are).  I love funiculars; this ride was a relatively short one.  The unique thing about it though was that there were 3 separate compartments instead of one large one.

From the palace we walked to a Hungarian crafts market where I was able to find some gifts for Fawn and Tyler.  Then we went to the Golden Pharmacy Museum; a collection of pharmaceutical bric-a-brac.  I’ve been to a few of these before and this one was disappointing; not nearly as interesting as others I’ve seen.  From there we went to Matthias Church-the prettiest church in Budapest with a frilly flamboyant steeple; sorry-no photo!  In front of it is a neo-Romanesque fantasy rampart called Fisherman’s Bastion with more lovely views of the Danube and Pest.

Then came the highlight of the day–the Hospital in the Rock which was a unique experience.  This was a secret military hospital and later a nuclear bunker built into Castle Hill.  At the outbreak of World War II the Hungarian government built a secret hospital which was heavily used during the war.  Designed for 300 patients, it eventually held double that number.  During the 1956 Uprising it was used again.  Then as nuclear paranoia grew intense in the late 1950’s, it was expanded to  include a giant bomb shelter and emergency post-nuclear holocaust hospital.  It is newly opened to tourists and it was fun to walk through the hidden tunnels to see everything.  Actually, it turned out to be a rather strange experience.  As we started on our tour, the electricity went out.  We had to wait for an hour until an engineer came and “fixed” the lights, but as we were later walking through the tunnels and various rooms, occasionally a room went dark.  It definitely added to the atmosphere of the entire experience.

(Davi:  after this we checked out the Hilton which was the first plush Western hotel in Budapest and which includes some medieval ruins in its design.)

Then we had another fun experience.  We went to the Royal Wine House and Wine Cellar Museum.  We walked through wine cellars from the the 14th and 15th centuries and learned about Hungarian wine making.  There was an entire section that talked about medieval Kosher wines which were deemed to be more delicious than other wines due to the removal of all impurities!  Apparently the oldest Jewish community in Hungary dates back to 1050.   Here’s a quote from one of the posted signs:  “A rich citizen named Lenart Gallinczer asked the king for money to cover his vintage costs.”  How cool is that?  Could it possibly be a relative of mine??  Who knows?

After visiting the museum, we indulged in a wine tasting.  How could we not!  We paid to taste 3 wines–a white, a red and a Tokay (or Tokaji in Hungarian) which is a dessert wine similar to France’s Chateau d’Yquem but much much cheaper.  We each were given different wines and the amount poured was much more than one usually gets in a tasting.  So we were able to taste what each of us got and thus had tastings of 6 wines and then he poured a 7th one for us. We also had a bunch of cheeses and some dried apricots and prunes with the wines.  In addition, we were given a primer on Hungarian wines.  Marty used this knowledge when he ordered wine this evening.

At this point we left Buda but since it wasn’t so hot today, I still had lots of energy left and persuaded Marty to see “one more sight”.  We went to a Holocaust memorial that consisted of 50 pairs of bronze shoes (which looked as if they were made out of leather) which sit on the side of the Danube.  They commemorate the Jews who the Nazis shot on the edge of the Danube and just let their bodies fall into the river; no need for any graves.  It was a chilling and powerful exhibit.  Sorry; no photo!

For dinner tonight we went to Gundel which is therestaurant to go to in Budapest and, of course, we had made a reservation over 2 months ago.  We found it disappointing and have decided that Budapest is definitely not a “foodie haven”.  Which is not to say that the meal didn’t have its moments.  As an appetizer I had a sampler of 3 soups; I love samplers for the obvious reason you don’t have to choose which item to order!  I had a delicious mushroom soup, traditional goulash (which was just OK) and a veal consomme (which was boring).  Marty had one of their goose liver specialties; he enjoyed it a lot.  For the main course I had a pike perch (which had been touted; I found it ordinary), while Marty had chicken paprika which I thought was outstanding and he thought was just OK.  For dessert I had another sampler:  their special pancake with chocolate sauce (eh), a small piece of layer cake (a little better) and a small piece of chocolate cream cake (the best of the 3).  The Hungarian red wine Marty picked (based on what he had learned earlier in the day) was quite good until he spilled it on my BEIGE knitted hand bag!  Don’t ask!!

Speaking of food, I had a linzer torte earlier in the day.  While not bad, it just didn’t compare with the ones Ken makes.

So basically that’s been our trip to Budapest.  We enjoyed our time here and I would say it’s a worthwhile city to visit.  Tomorrow afternoon (I think we’ll just take it easy tomorrow morning!) we are taking a train (so we shouldn’t run into any traffic control problems, I hope!) to Vienna. The Haber Travel Report will pick up again in a few days.  I am going to assume that anyone I haven’t heard from by then doesn’t care to read what I have to say and will drop them from my subscription list!  (I may make a few exceptions if I know your circumstances!)

Until then, try to keep cool.