The Hills Are Alive

The Hills Are Alive
The next day we took a 3-hour train ride to Vienna. This beautiful capital ranks as one of the best in Europe. Strewn with castles and palaces, impressive museums, gold leafed monuments and spotless streets make it inviting to anyone who loves history and great architecture. It is a city that reminds me of a chocolate box, filled with both surprises and treasures to be savored. Shops filled with the most delightful gifts. It is clear that this was once a very wealthy and prosperous city. It still very prosperous bustling with lots of shopping at upscale stores.

The Habsburgs have ruled over the Austrian empire since the early 1300’s. And for the most part, they were loved and supported by their subjects. Their palaces rival Versailles in Paris with its damask walls, inlaid lacquered walls, gilded rococo designs and masterly painted ceilings. An endless line of rooms for every conceivable use follow one right after the other each one more opulent than the last. After a while you run out of new ideas on how to decorate these big palaces. We toured the collection of royal place settings stacks of both silver and gold plates. The royalty never ate on anything but silver and gold for centuries. Eventually they introduced fine bone porcelain and of course there is an endless collection of royal patterned porcelain. Much of it was given to the royal family by other royal monarchs as wedding gifts, good will gifts or just for the heck of it gifts. They had more gold candelabras and mirrored centerpieces than they knew what to do with. Just storing all this loot was a major task. We also checked out the furniture museum. It housed all the back up finely crafted royal pieces that was enough to supply the “Antique Road Show” into the next century. I have no idea how one family could possibly use so many inlaid desks and gilded chairs.

The Buda and the Pest

My friend Jun is visiting me for 3 weeks. He sailed with me last fall from Marseille to Barcelona. Since he will be here for 3 weeks, we decided to do a ClickAir trip to Budapest and Vienna. So with the click of a mouse as magical as any ruby slippers, we were off to check out the capital of Hungry.

It is a beautiful city split down the middle by the aggressive flow of the Danube River. On one side is the ancient city of Buda and the other side the ancient city of Pest. The two combine together to make up modern day Budapest. Many call Budapest the Paris of the east, and for good reason. There is a similarity with strong stone buildings and magnificent bridges knitting the two sides of the city together much like the bridges of Paris crossing Sienna. There are no Eiffel towers but there are plenty of colossal monuments of military victories. Budapest seems to favor wild horses and heroic men over monumental arches however.

We spent a day exploring the extensive collection of art in the museums and the afternoon soaking in the big Turkish baths. The baths are a huge structure with multiple soaking areas. At the heart of the baths is one expansive soaking area covered by a dome ceiling with colored windows mimicking colored stars filtering rainbow streaks of light into the main soaking area.

One of the most impressive structures in Budapest is the huge neogothic parliament building. The second largest parliament building in the world only surpassed by England’s is built right on the banks of the Danube River. This structure has more points and spires than a sea urchin.

The next morning we visited the huge synagogue in Budapest. With its large domed ceiling and onion-topped turrets, it is the second largest in the world. Beautifully restored after World War II devastating bombing and munitions attacks. The ceilings are designed with intricate gold leafing and bright colors. It seats 1500 men on the main floor and another 1500 women in the balconies. (Men and women are not allowed to sit together) We learned that it was part of the Jewish ghetto where Jews were rounded up and virtually starved to death. Of the 6 million Jews that were killed in the holocaust, 10% came from Hungary. Back behind the synagogue is a holocaust memorial in the form of a stainless steel willow tree donated by Tony Curtis. His family is from Budapest. The leaves list the names of all those from Hungary killed in the holocaust. There is also a holocaust museum on the church grounds. The docent made it quite clear that the Germans could not have been able to do what they did without the willing participation of the Hungarian military and government. It is a very heart-wrenching story that always brings me deep sorrow.