Final, Relaxing Day in Budapest

It is always nice to plan your trip to a foreign city, or any place for that matter, and not be too pressed for time.  At this point, we have seen most of the "must see" sights in Budapest, so we can take it a little easy and not have a crammed full day of sightseeing.  Our first destination is Hungary's National Museum, which is devoted to the history of the country.  It is a long walk to the southern part of Pest, but the the weather today is absolutely perfect.  While we have been enjoying many sunny days, there has been a little humidity, but after it rained overnight, the air is clear and fresh.  We take an indirect path down the Vaci Utna pedestrian shopping area, then turn left on an broad avenue that leads (to the right) to the Elizabeth Bridge.  This seems like more of where the local people shop, not too many tourists.  Then a right turn on another broad avenue to the Museum, which is large, impressive building.  Here is a photo:

The museum itself, which has signage in both Hungarian and English, is good.  Each room is focused on a different era in Hungarian history, starting with the Stone Age, no less.  Each room also has a nice description of what was going on in that era.  The "stars" of the museum are (1) the Hungarian royal coronation cape, which dates back to the time of St. Stephen, (2) a piano that belonged to Beethoven, which he gifted to Hungarian composer, Franz Liszt, and (3) a clavichord, which belonged to Mozart.  A clavichord was kind of a mobile piano.  Mozart would not have used this to perform, but it would have been portable enough to take with him to use while composing.

The final two rooms are devoted to World War II and the Soviet Era.  The World War II room kind of glosses over the whole issue.  The summary on the wall states that Hungary had no choice to ally with Nazi Germany, because it was either them or the communists/Soviets (heaven forbid!).  Well, I'm sure there is an element of truth to that, but it doesn't really excuse their actions.  There should be a little remorse, right?  It also states that while actions were implemented against the Jewish population, they did not include violence.  Technically speaking, the Hungarian government did not kill Jewish people, I suppose, but after 1944, a whole lot did get killed ("It wasn't us -- the Nazis did it!").  This shirking of responsibility for what happened is shameful, I think.

We leave the museum and walk in a roundabout fashion towards Andrassy Ut, which, we discover when we get there, is the avenue in Budapest that has all the high end fashion design stores like Burberry, etc.  We came here to see the Budapest State Opera House.  It is very impressive, but hemmed in on all sides by other buildings.  It is about 2pm (lunch was a takeaway sandwich from the grocery store SPAR today), and we see that English and other language tours are being offered today at 3 and 4pm.  We decide we will hang about until 3pm and take the tour.  This tour is large -- seems everyone wants to take it -- and the English speakers are divided into three groups.  This tour is much more informational than the Parliament tour.  A very nice young man with exceptional English (it is clear he has spent a lot of time in the USA) is our guide.  We see all the main rooms, and they are beautiful.  The opera underwent a complete renovation in 1984, and it shows.  It looks brand new with its very detailed neo-Renaissance style -- super colorful with so many painted scenes on the walls.  This tour was a very good idea.  For an extra 600 forints (about $2), you could stay a short while and hear a brief opera performance -- seems like a good idea, right?  Well, you get what you pay for.  The performance is not in the opera house, it is in the cocktail lounge, essentially.  A singer, who was very good, by the way, came out and sang three short opera pieces to a recorded accompaniment.  This was a little cheesy, but again, at least it didn't cost much.  Here are some photos from outside and inside the opera house:

After the tour, we only have walking planned.  We continue north in Pest along more broad avenues, which will eventually take us to the Margaret Bridge which obviously connects Pest to Buda but with a connection in the middle to Margaret Island, which is a large public park.  I wish we had had the time to depart the bridge and explore the park, but it is too late in the afternoon, and the weather seems to be threatening a sudden storm.  The wind is really blowing while we are on the bridge, but fortunately the storm blows over to the north.  We cross over to Buda and ascend the hill from the north, stopping to admire the Hungarian National Archive Building with it colorful roof, and the Buda Lutheran Church across the street.

Dinner tonight is at Alabordelo (check spelling), a Hungarian restaurant only about two blocks from our hotel up on Buda.  By the way, we are really happy to be staying up on Buda, even though it means going up and down the hill every day, usually more than once.  Buda is the most charming area with narrow streets and lovely old buildings; nearly all of them have a plaque that states, "Muemlek," which Google Translate tells us means "monument."  Plus, it is nice to have the gorgeous view of the Parliament, St. Stephen's Basilica, and the Chain Bridge.  Our dinner is very formal, but not stuffy; the service is very friendly.  For dinner we have a fixed price, four course menu.  The starter is sauted duck liver, delicious.  Our second course is a cream of asparagus soup, which is very light, not too over-creamed, also wonderful.  The main is beef in a paprika sauce, which we also enjoyed.  Dessert was a type of strawberry yogurt paired with strawberry sorbet.  Our wine was exceptional, best we had in Hungary.  It was salled Sauska, Cuvee 7, a blend of 41% Merlot and 59% cabernet, as good as anything you can get in California, I'd say.

Time for an early night, we have to get up early for our train to Bratislava tomorrow.