During our 1994 trip to Europe, we had reserved a day cruise down the Danube River from Vienna to Budapest, but due to a misunderstanding with the hotel concierge, the trip never occurred. Ever since, I had had Budapest and a Danube River cruise on my wish list. Now that I had seen Budapest, I was looking forward to today’s river voyage, despite the grey, chilly, misty morning. And according to the weather report, no improvement was in sight.
We met our tour guide at the Intercontinental Hotel, next door to the Sofitel, and were immediately informed that the river cruise had been canceled. Evidently, the water level on the river was too low. Instead, we boarded a bus for a full-day excursion of the Danube Bend.
Our first destination was the artist city of Szentendre, home to Caprice International, a diamond exchange factory that opened about fourteen years ago. We watched a film on jewelry design and viewed an exhibition of Hungarian jewelry, giving us an insight into the history of Hungary’s one-thousand-year-long culture of jewelry making. Next, we visited the showroom where thousands of jewels were on display; diamonds as well as other precious stones, and most offered for sale at special manufacturer’s prices.
Our next stop was Esztergom, the former capital of Hungary from the tenth until the middle of the thirteenth century. Esztergom is the seat of the Hungarian Catholic Church and home to the Basilica of Esztergom, a masterpiece of classicism, and the third largest church in Europe. The cathedral sits on the right bank of the Danube, which forms the border with Slovakia.
The grey, neoclassical basilica is colossal in size and has a central dome that is over two-hundred-and-thirty-feet high. Construction began in 1822 on the site of its destroyed counterpart, another casualty of the Turks. Such destruction is also evident in the smashed faces of the statue Gabriel, and the missing heads on the angels above the altar in the Bakócz Chapel.
The red-and-white marble Bakócz Chapel is a splendid example of Italian Renaissance stone carving and sculpture. The copy of Titian’s Assumption over the church’s main altar is said to be the world’s largest painting on a single canvas. But I was more interested in seeing the crypt, a series of tombs guarded by monoliths representing mourning and eternity. From the depths of the cellar, we climbed to the cupola for the outstanding views of the city: a four-hundred-step hike.
By the time we completed our tour of the basilica and the neighboring grounds, the noon hour was near so we boarded the bus for lunch at Vadaszcsarda Restaurant. On the drive, I spotted what looked like castle ruins on a hill. Intrigued, I asked our guide about them. She seemed quite disinterested in the castle and said she would give me a brief history after lunch. As far as I was concerned, I would have traded our time at Caprice International for the opportunity to explore the ruins. Our restaurant, I discovered, sat on a rise, affording an ideal vantage point for snapping photos of the castle, but this was the extent of my exploration—through a zoom lens.
According to our guide, the castle ruins were actually the ruins of a military camp built on Sibrik Hill, which overlooks the Danube, in the town of Visegrád. The camp had a triangular ground plan and was built in the first half of the fourth century as one of the important fortifications along the limes: a border defense system of Ancient Rome. In the early fifth century, the Roman army abandoned the military camp. She also informed me that there is an upper castle, lower castle, and a royal palace, but I had to Google “Visegrád Castle” for the history, as the time had come to depart for the artist town of Szentendre, our final destination of the day.
No sooner had we entered the riverside town and parked, it began to drizzle. In minutes, the drizzle turned to rain, sheeting down steady and fast. Those of us intent on shopping ran down the cobblestoned streets and dashed from store to store. My plans to stroll this charming town with its Mediterranean atmosphere never happened, as the rain showed no signs of easing. Disappointed, we camped out in the Dorothea Bistro Café for the two-hour duration and became better acquainted with Brad and Kat, a Canadian couple who were our bus companions.
I had read that after the Turks left Szentendre, mostly Serbian refugees had settled here, followed by Hungarians, Slovaks, Germans, Greeks, and Romanians; each ethnic group establishing its own section of the town, thereby creating a versatile townscape. After scrolling through pictures of Szentendre on the Internet, and seeing the well-maintained merchant houses that encircled the main square, I had hoped to photograph a good portion of the town, in addition to some impressive riverscapes, but it was not to be.
Precisely two hours later, our guide ushered everyone toward the bus and we piled on, all of us damp to dripping wet, for the drive back to Budapest. At our hotel, we changed into dry clothes and braved the pouring rain for dinner at an Italian restaurant located near the Sofitel. We retired early, for tomorrow we had a long train trip from Budapest to Prague, in the Czech Republic.
I’ve been in my share of airports, and while some can be interesting and/or fun for one reason or another (the food or shops, for example), I was literally blown away by the modern architecture of the Split Airport. And never while waiting for a flight to depart have I felt the compunction to wander an airport to snap pictures, but that’s precisely what I did. Modern and stunning can’t even capture its originality, so I’ve posted photos of the airport in this blog. The giant bronze apple was in the upstairs restaurant. The photo of the airport entrance was taken by Ballota, a local photographer.
Before we boarded our flight from Split to Munich, I spent my remaining kunas, the currency of Croatia, on chocolates, then settled into my seat onboard the commuter jet for the fifty-five-minute flight. We had a rather lengthy layover in Munich, so we ate a late lunch at the airport, a surprisingly good meal of filet, roasted potatoes, grilled vegetables, and strudel for dessert.
Our first order of business on our first full day was to tackle the lavish buffet breakfast set out by the hotel. During our meal, we mapped out our ambitious plans for the day. Walking was high on the agenda, so we followed our familiar regimen of collecting water bottles, sunscreen, cameras, and anything else we thought we might want or need for the morning’s excursion.
As we drew near a stark blue-gray building, we were drawn to it out of curiosity. Standing in front of the structure, we noticed its black awning with cutout letters that formed the word “TERROR.” Almost ominously, the sun peeked out, and the word was projected on the walls of the building, which turned out to be Budapest’s House of Terror. During World War II, after Hungary allied itself with Germany, it was overtaken by Hungary’s Arrow Cross Nazi party. The members practically exterminated Budapest’s Jews. Countless victims were interrogated, imprisoned, and tortured in the basement cells of the building, which is why it has such significance as a site of terror and is now a museum. On the exterior of the building at street level is a long line of plaques commemorating the victims. Seeing photos of the dead was powerfully moving, disturbing, and sobering. We continued on in silence.
I snapped quite a few photos of the castle, because it will be featured in a future Darcy McClain thriller. After my short photo shoot, we paused in the courtyard to photograph the statue of Anonymous, the nameless medieval chronicler to King Béla. Which King Béla is uncertain, as there were four with this name.
A little before noon, we wandered past the entrance to the Budapest Zoo but unfortunately did not have the time to stop in, as we had lunch reservations at Robinson Restaurant. The restaurant is on a small island on Városligeti Lake, a pleasant, relaxing setting. All of these sights, Heroes Square, Vajdahunyad Castle, Robinson Restaurant, the zoo, as well as other landmarks, are located in the city park area and are within easy walking distance of each other. Service at the restaurant was slower than anticipated, so when we finished our meal we wanted to return to the hotel as quickly as possible. On our way to the Robinson, I had spotted a sign for a subway and suggested we check this out.
We woke to a warm, sunny October day and prepared for our morning trek on the walls of Dubrovnik. We’d heard that on top of the fortifications the sun can be intense and there were few shady places, so we slathered on sunscreen, donned baseball caps, and stuffed water bottles into our daypacks. Then we headed in the direction of the Stradun, the streets deserted at six-thirty on a Sunday morning. Or so we thought.
As we turned the corner, the hum of excited voices filled the air. Unbeknownst to us, we were in for a sweet treat. Today was the last day of the Croatian festival of jams and jellies. The event is held in front of the Church of St. Blaise, and over thirty small producers exhibit more than a hundred types of jams, jellies, and marmalades: orange, fig, plum, lemon, cherry, strawberry, and other fruits, and in all possible combinations. And to add to the festive mood, all exhibitors dress in the costumes of their regions.
Engrossed in what it must have been like to man the city walls during a siege, I walked slowly along the narrow stone passage to the Towers of St. Lucy and St. Barbara, and then climbed to the top of the Minčeta Fortress for a panoramic picture of the Adriatic.
We worked off lunch with a trek up the hill to Louvrjenac, the Fort of St. Lawrence, an impressive limestone fort that gave us a stunning vista back across the water to the walls of Dubrovnik. Engraved on the lintel above the fort’s gates is a message for the world: “Freedom cannot be sold for any gold.”