Budapest, Hungary Day 7 (Sunday May 31, 2009)

Budapest, Hungary Day 7 (Sunday May 31, 2009)

Today is out last full day in Hungary. Steven and Linda left today for Munich, Germany to continue their vacation in Munich. We had breakfast at the Helia hotel and said goodbye to them. The group is smaller now without Martin, Corrine, Steven and Linda, but we still had a good group of Hirsch family members and Doris Moss. We also met Tibor and Mary’s granddaughter Silvia, who drove them over to the hotel. Peter Herczfeld, my brother-in-law, remembered her from previous trips. She is a first grade teacher in Budapest.

The cool rain continued most of the day. Our thoughtful guide, Mary, had brought extra sweaters and umbrellas for us for the next part of the trip.

We traveled using our blue bus and our student driver, Victor, with our guides Mary and Tibor Bercelli to Esztergom, Hungary. Eszrergom is located on a major bend of the Danube River, forced to change its course due to the nearby mountain range.

Eszergom was the royal residence for three centuries starting in 350BC, the capital of Hungary, Eszergom was the seat of Hungarian Catholics for 1,000 years and home to the archbishop of Hungary. The castle was the home to several Hungarian Kings and was also a fortress that protected them.

The Celts had a community here as did the Roman previous to the castle, so this bend in the river has a long history of human endeavors.

Eszrergom is also located at the Slovakian border of Hungary. A bridge connecting to Slovak was destroyed in 1944 by the Germans and was finally rebuilt in October 2001. We went to the bridge over the Danube Ricer to view the Church and Castle from a short distance.

The church is a very large Catholic church was built in the 1869 after 50 years of building this church. The current large church is at the same location as a much smaller royal church was built under the reign of Hungarian, King Stephen 1, and destroyed by the Turks.

Since people lived in this location for centuries it has many coins, pottery and tools used by man going back many thousands of years ago and on display in the castle and a nearby museum.

We went into the church and a mass was being said by a Bishop with several hundred people in attendance.

In the basement of the church is what appears as an Egyptian arch and a picture of many famous Hungarian Catholic clergy including the archbishop.

The castle was rediscovered in the 1930s and the Queen’s Room a small hidden room the Queen withdrew to, was only recently opened to the public.

The tour then proceeded to the town of Szntendre, Hungary. This town was settled in the 1690s by Turks and consists of many picturesque row houses, alleys and shops. The tourist shops on the main street are selling many items. We stopped only for a short visit and walked along the main street and the nearby Danube River.

On the way back to Budapest we stopped to have lunch in a small restaurant and made our way back through the rural countryside in our blue bus.

We needed to get back to our hotel to rest and change clothes to go to the Opera. We took the blue bus to the Opera, since we did not want to get our fancy clothes wet and it allowed for more time to change clothes. The beautiful Hungarian Opera house was completed in 1884. The Opera was written by Verdi was an Italian opera about a women and two suitors, one from Sicily and one from France. It is also a play about the battles between the Sicilian and French people. The ominous signs are there in the opening when the main character, Elena, enters in a black dress as she was mourning the death of her executed brother and sings a song about the perils of seamen.

The three hour, 5 acts, opera, “Sicilian Vespers” was sung in Italian and above the stage was an electronic sign with the translation in Hungarian. Our guide, Mary Bercelli, had brought for us a guide in English, but it was hard to follow in advance of the performance. The music and singing were very good and those among us that liked Opera liked it very much. We all had a good time and Peter Herczfeld was still humming the songs as we returned by subway to the hotel.

We had completed another busy day thanks to our guides and host, Tibor and Mary Bercelli. We had a fun and busy vacation trip to Hungary. Since most of us would be leaving tomorrow, we said goodbye to our hosts Professor Tibor Bercelli and his wife Mary and also goodbye to each other since we would be all going on different flights to different cities back to the Untied States.