We had been re-routed which meant we were to take Austrian (instead of Polish) airlines and so through Vienna instead of Austria and have this snack (since I don't think the Poles would have served an apple though I know they would have served the chocolate wafer and this brought us to Vienna where our flight to Budapest was announced and so we made our way to the plane but the flight was so short that all they could serve was a small bottle of water before we were above Budapest and going down and then in the airport finding our ride and recording the first new license plate. Before we knew it, we were at our room admiring the views across the Danube and down and then heading out for an ATM which took us past this license plate and then back to a restaurant where Suzanne marveled at the size of the menu as I ordered this firewater (essentially kirsch that lit up my mouth in a good way) and Suzanne had a beer and then I had cucumber soup as Suzanne had cucumber salad and a chicken salad and I had risotto and we shared bread that washed down with the beer I ordered before we came back to this amazing view from our room.

I began our first full day here with this breakfast and Suzanne began with fruit which pleased me even though I didn't want special eggs though Suzanne inspired me to go back for fruit and other things and many drinks as she got her next course and I admired the photos of smoke rings on the wall. While waiting for the elevator, I observed the red roof and impressive church across the way and zoomed in on the roof before we began our walk tot he Chain Bridge and saw this tunnel and the massive eagle statue not to mention the gardens before we reached the bridge paid homage to the lions and started the walk across acknowledging the Hungarian inscription and looking north towards the parliament before recording the bridge itself (quite a structure) and then to observe the castle that gives its name to Castle Hill, the building we were approaching on the Pest side and the Parliament as Suzanne took her final steps off the bridge and I noted where we were going and we saluted the bridge designer before seeing the first of many Hungarian heroes and Eotvos Joszef who probably had something to do with the university of the same name. On our way to our walk, we passed gardens that seemed impressive until we saw others later and this sign that advised us how to find people in a new complex as we then passed the famous (and according to tour books, over priced and over rated) pastry shop. We stopped at the statue of the famous Hungarian poet (Byron, Keats and Shelley all in one) noted the modernistic building going up across the way and walked past Shakespeare on our way to the rail by the river from which we could see the Royal Castle the statue atop the hill and a fairly complete view of Buda and as we walked along we met the girl with her dog and the jester who oversaw a braille map of the castle even while posing with me. and then we walked down to the river and saw records of water levels for previous floods. Going further into town, we saw the pipe and the famous McDonald's which was the first to open in the Soviet bloc and then the status of Hermes before recording this street scene of a so called busy street and the competing architectures of possibly overdone and more minimalist across the street from each other with the monster coming down at us as we noted parallel buildings, the one of the left still sooty from the Communist years and the one on the right having been cleaned and refurb'ed we noted church spires in the distance and this building as we continued our walk and entered a largely abandoned arcade where we took the obligatory phone booth pictures and this picture of the floor and these of the ceiling in the hope that at some future date, the arcade will be repurposed. And walking down the street we decided (guided by the guide book) to stop at this coffee shop where elderberry lemonade and iced coffee made Suzanne and me happy as we admired the bar and the ceiling before walking by a renovated arcade holding an elegant restaurant on our way to a park with regulations and beautiful flowers

and then through the university district where the building was impressive along with the statue and the controversial barriers and light posts that may not mesh with the design. On the way to the Serbian church, we met these recycling bins with a fourth bin I hadn't seen before and then proceeded to the church which remarkably was opened allowing me to take many icon photos

and this picture of the ceiling and this of the cross. On the way out, I captured 2 more license plates (from not surprising locations) for my growing collection and then after we passed the cow we reached the market with the powerful tiles that can withstand anything and went inside to watch the crowds and then to take photos of fruits and vegetables and paprika and then back to the usual fruits and vegetables a little bacon back to fruits and vegetables paprika fruits and vegetables

peppers garlic and peppers goose liver livers waiting to be put into cans and then a view from above and some views of langos which seem to be a local favorite and after a few final shots we were back on the street looking at a communist era building with lots of vacancies and a first glimpse of the great synagogue on the spot where Herzl was born but before we could tour the synagogue, we need to have lunch and so I had raspberry syrup with water and Suzanne had lemonade and then we had these uniquely Hungarian sandwiches before we went back and watching a conductor reconnect his trolley as we headed to the synagogue with this history and this in the gift shop (which in the end was less aimed at Jewish tourism than we had seen in Krakow). The synagogue itself was massive seating as many as 1400 people with amazing lighting to replace the original chandeliers and a quite impressive bimah not to mention side pulpits as one might see in a church. The ceiling and floor were impressive as Suzanne posed and I noted the pulpit and the ark as our tour guide presented a unique view of things. Indeed this was an interesting place since the Jews who belonged in the prime of the synagogue were sort of reformed, sort of not -- they separated men and women but otherwise prayed in a structure that looked more like a mosque or church than a synagogue. After a final bimah shot and a view of the side pulpits we proceeded to the yard which gave history of the Nazi period beginning with this sculpture meant to symbolize the holocaust and this metallic weeping willow on which are written the names of victims and this poster that explains the situation including the monument to Raoul Wallenberg and others who saved Jews many of them named of 4 pillars such as this and this stained glass window. Next we walked past this Yizkor marker to the Jewish museum where we saw this torah from 19th century Vienna and these dioramas of holidays -- Rosh hashanah and Yom Kippur Sukkot some stained windows of biblical scenes Purim Pesach passover seder plates another view of the windows Succoth and Hannukah. In the next room were these stained glass windows as part of a display of Jewish rituals. And then we moved to a retelling of the war years with this picture of the liberators after the war finding dead bodies in the Budapest ghetto this evil graffiti a wood cut of a nazi and one of Raoul Wallenberg. We walked back through the garden and saw the stones with no bodies since this is a mass grave and after replacing my camera memory I took this sign outside the exhibit room and then coincidentally we rode am elevator from Schundler to the display. We stopped by the Rumbach synagogue but unfortunately it was closed and then we made our way back to Buda where Suzanne had an ice cup and this beer was for me. On the way to dinner I added another license plate to my now growing collection and we landed at a vegan serve yourself restaurant where this was our food and it was very tasty.

Because the room was so hot, we slept with the window open which concerned Suzanne about what would get in and indeed a bird got it. We then complained a second time about our air conditioning (or lack of) and were transferred to another room which is delightfully cool. Having moved our possessions, we prepared for the walk uphill by recording a Swiss license plate and then going up one hill after another and another and more steps (I figure we went up about 500 steps today) until we got a good view of the city below and saw the story of this statue and the man on horseback who though French helped defeat the Ottomans and this allowed me to capture a large wall mural and hear about its painter as we saw the eagle who founded the country by leading the Magyar people out of central Asia and having them settle here which quite impressed Unesco but the view below impressed everyone as did the castle grounds not to mention the fountain and the flowers as we caught the equestrian statue and a view below that was enhanced by Suzanne's presence. There was another statue and then this statue of the king hunting with his scribe at the left and his lover at the right. When she discovered who he was, she realized she could never have him and killed herself -- a common theme in Hungarian tales. Knowing this, we went into the art museum where there were many such tales, but we focused on church icons being unsure if it was allowed to photograph in the museum at all and then we emerged through courtyards and past a lion and about the national museum and then found a way down by taking a pay elevator (a new concept for me) which was unfortunate because it took us down 5 stories and then we had to walk back up the 5 stories (and more) to get to where we wanted to be but fortunately once there we were able to take the obligatory phone booth picture and then we saw Matthias Church and its remarkable roof in the distance and so we had our direction as we walked towards the church and the statue before it and the amazing structures and St. Istvan who as king brought the country to Catholicism. After another picture of the roof we went inside and recorded the details of the church and its floor and the altar sometimes in blur sometimes not and then the pillars and statues which seemed to amuse Suzanne as I made my way around the various parts of the church

before we made our way outside and noted the steps we would have to descend and the views we'd have while doing so. To fortify ourselves, we went to a cafe down the street and along with Suzanne's lemonade we had the pastry that was the specialty of the house and the one that is the traditional Hungarian pastry and admired the napkin before we saw the status that has the shiny underbelly (or so the guidebooks gently say) because students rub there (or one particular part) for good luck on their exams. After a last picture of the church roof we could delay no more except to take this self portrait and then work our way down and down catching another license plate on the way until we made it to the Metro station and with some effort (the machine wouldn't take bills and I hadn't enough change) got our tickets and emerged at the Parliament where we crossed the trolley tracks and made our way to the status of Kossuth, a Hungarian pseudo hero (they'd have more heroes if they didn't keep losing wars) and his troups (to the left) and the family of a soldier (to the right) who hope he will take care of their son. and then this memorial to 1956. After a complicated negotiation, we got tickets for the tour (in English) in 1.5 hours and so headed off to take this picture of the runner up design for the Parliament which became the supreme court building for a while and looked back at parliament before recording the sad tale in this grave to the heroes who were killed in 1956 as Russian troups shot to kill from the roof of parliament and the tale of their bravery with a heroic figure in the background and the flag not cooperating -- had it unfurled you could see the hole where the Russian symbol had been added to the Hungarian flag (but stay tuned). Suzanne rested and I walked on the this poetry by Jozsef Attila who wrote poetry about sitting by the Danube and then killed himself at age 32 and so is immortalized by this statue of himself sitting by the Danube. Further down, I saw the Holocaust exhibit of the shoes of some of those killed in the ghetto and then returned via this statue before I made my way to this statue of Imre Nagy who tried to broker a deal in 1956 to keep everyone happy and so stood in the middle of the bridge; unfortunately it didn't work. Next I found this obelisk that records the Russian victory over the Nazis but the Russians are so hater here that it has to be protected by a fence and then wonder of wonders who should appear but Ronald Reagan and so I posed with him as did these folks who were kind enough to take my picture with the gipper. This inspired me to go back and find Suzanne on her shady park bench and try again to capture the flame which didn't work and then we sat and waited and so I took pictures of buildings and flowers and tickets until my battery died and then got lucky enough to catch the flag with the hole in it and the flame before we had to queue up for our tour and were grateful that we had our tickets. We went into the building and climbed the amazing staircase (because 1896 was a key year for the country, there are 96 steps to the chambers and the height of the dome is 96 meters). Once there I recorded walls and ceilings and the model of the complex and stairs ceilings and structures until I learned that this model had been made by a husband and wife using toothpicks and had taken 2 years to construct. This was inspiring. We saw the architect as we made our way up to a large room with impressive features

and then made our way to the key jewels which had been stored at Fort Know for 30+ years during WW2 and communist times and admired the stillness of the guards as I photographed away at jewels and guards and the ceiling itself and the many statues of common people designed to let legislators remember why they are there even as the tour guide explained how good the rug was by giving its knot count but the common people were still there reminding us

until we entered the chamber and saw where the upper house met (it no longer exists and the space is now used for conferences) and the relevant artwork and the coats of arms of the various pieces that make up Hungary and the amusing cigar holders. I learned a new phrase ``that talk was worth a Havana'' for a talk so good that you don't regret that you cigar burnt down while you were listening. We were led out and saw various structures in the parking lot before resuming our walk and heading to St. Istvan church and its square and then a block further, I met this nice man who represented a policeman from Austria-Hungary times and we headed to Dio for dinner where I started with schnapps and Suzanne had beer and then bread was served along with our salads -- mine with goat cheese and Suzanne's with bass and then more bread more schnapps and some wine as my risotto and Suzanne's paprikash arrived. After dinner, Suzanne posed with my friend we recorded the distance to the Danube (lots of walking today and much of it vertical up or down) and walked past this building where the facade showed some signs of cleaning and some signs of soot, a difference we've come to understand and headed back to the Central pastry shop where things looked good and the cake tasted good until it start to rain and lightning and we had to find our way home. Fortunately the wait staff was very helpful and found us a cab.

It was our last day in Budapest and it was raining pretty hard, so we dawdled and came up with a rainy day plan which began with taking the metro to the house of terror to see the people who had been terrorized by the Nazis and then the Russians (not a lot of sympathy for the communist days here). But miraculously, it wasn't raining at this point, so we decided to walk on along Andrassy Ut. and paused for the obligatory phone booth picture and then marched on past this statue which would have significance later in our walk. For now, it just looked nice as did the road going ahead and we saw a sign for the baths that we intended to get to. We were a little confused and so when Heores Square appeared in the distance, we didn't realize we were there and thought that this was the location of the lesser heroes but Suzanne consulted the map as we saw Cafe Kara and we assumed we had some blocks to walk past this locale to get to the real Heroes Square so we took a photo of the ice cream cone and then took some photos of the monument and the heroes left with this memorial and the heroes right with the caption for the memorial which recognizes our heroes. For a country that has lost so many wars, we were impressed by the number of heroes Hungary claims. We walked on to what we though was Embassy Row but was in reality City Park and observed an art installation (though because of our orientation we wondered if this was a magical way of storing row boats for rent) and then a museum (which we incorrectly identified) and another piece of the art installation as we observed the very wet sidewalk and wondered if more rains would fall but when we passed this memorial of unknown purpose we suddenly found ourselves in front of Szechenyi Baths and after a moments hesitation, we walked around the building and past the circus (which seems to be an amusement park) to the back entrance as recommended by Rick Steves. We purchased what Rick told us to do and as he suggested, we did a lap of the baths taking photos before settling in. We began with an overview of the outdoor pools and the snack bar and back to the edge of the soaking pool (at a very comfortable temperature) checked out the map of the grounds and followed the sauna sign to the room where the hot pools were with the chemical composition given and we observed one of the many pools at high temperatures and the sauna at ridiculously high temperatures as we passed by the hot pool and headed back to the soaking pool recording its depth and its chess players and seeing the shower rule before moving to the lap pool which was kept at a lower temperature (26-28 (high 70's Fahrenheit)) but had a nice sculpture as we made our way to the fun pool which was warmer and had a current which sent people around in circles in the middle of the pool and a fountain. We then identified the showers admired the fountain recorded the temperature of the fun pool (30-34 summer-winter (86-92 F) and put the camera in our cabin (of which more later). After several hours of soaking in various arrangements, I decided that I needed more photos (and couldn't remember which I had taken) so I came back to the chess game and a mellow Suzanne and the soaking pool before doing the chess games in earnest (as though you, gentle viewer, can make the next move) and back to Suzanne and the statues at the main building, the fountains which give the feeling of a massage the shower and Suzanne taking it all in before taking these pictures of me. After a few more panoramic pictures and a photo of this man's bodily decorations we went back to our cabin to record its size and change. I figure it was 1 meter square which made it a challenge for both of us to dress at the same time but we liked its number and really enjoyed the baths -- perfect way to spend the last day of a vacation.

Once outside, we ran into the zoo entrance which had a lot of elephants; I wonder if there were any inside and went past these lovely gardens

before going to the Antique cafe for some beer a cabbage roll that was like a knish and a sandwich. I decided it was necessary to take a cross section of the cabbage knish and so here it is.

At this point, we knew where we were and that we had already seen Heroes Square and so we decided to walk until the rains came (if ever) and hit the square of 4 statues (one was displayed above) which was described as the heroes who didn't quite make it to Heroes Square. Indeed, two of the originals who were going to be here were elevated to positions at Heroes Square. Since we hadn't done full justice to those at Heroes Square (thinking that they were the second team, we decided to pay attention to the scrubs and here they are along with this elegant building which seemed to be abandoned (perhaps fitting company for faux heroes). Walking further along, we came into this model of the Iron Curtain describing its horribleness and then walked on to a sidewalk marking of something Schubert and statues of Franz Liszt and Franz Erkel at the Opera House before we hit this statue which couldn't be explained before we were ready to walk across the bridge back to Buda where we were living. Along the way, we captured wonderful views of the Danube in both directions and once across the bridge, we celebrated monuments in the hills (Buda being hilly, Pest being flat, an odd confluence) focusing in on the hero and his waterfall. On the way to the restaurant, we saw this marker that must have war significance by the date and then we were at the restaurant which had multiple seating areas and so when we reached the patio, I had a shot of Unicum and we ordered our cold soups -- apple for me and cucumber for Suzanne from this menu and then I had a second shot of Unicum (an odd thought pattern to say the least) and recorded the name of the restaurant and the statue of the girl next to it as Suzanne and I got ready for veal paprikash and eggplant risotto to go with our bread. By dessert, it was colder and so we went inside, where Suzanne took photos of me sans flash and then with flash which convinced me to use the flash to capture her with the Tokaji dessert wine as our chocolate cake arrived and then the bill which let us know our vacation in Budapest was over.

Sadly, our trip was ending and so we got up early in the morning to go to the Budapest airport for the flight to Munich where the airline food paled in comparison to the food we had been given by the hotel for our breakfast. But on the flight from Munich, the pretzels and diet coke were fine but my meal was only workable because of the tomato from the hotel and Suzanne's meal was no better. So we were sadly convinced that our vacation truly was over and the last airplane food made this a certainty.