STL DPB ON THE ROAD - BUDAPEST METRO

 

From Berlin to Buenos Aires, we pride ourselves in taking public transit wherever we travel. It is becoming more difficult with my spine issues and need of a cane, and we increasingly use taxis, However, we hired a private guide on Sunday and took several trios on the Budapest Metro. Public transit here is free for 65 and older. The stations, trains and cars are tiny by New York/London/Paris standards but they are impeccably clean, run frequently and get you where you want to go.              

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - ST. MATTHIAS AND ST. STEPHEN

 

We visited the two major cathedrals of Budapest today, St. Matthias and St. Stephen.  I didn't know anything about the former. He was chosen by the other eleven apostles to replace Judas Iscariot. There are a couple of St. Stephens around but this one became the first king of Hungary in about 1000 CE.

The first photo is an amazing window in Matthias, The second is a wide view of the transept of Stephen. But while editing it there was something I couldn't get out of my head, https://tinyurl.com/ykjpasa2 .               

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - LEAVING VIENNA

 

We left Vienna on Friday morning on one of the perpetually late trains in this part of the world, arriving in Budapest late afternoon. Beautiful day in another beautiful city. It seems as if we are going down a stream from one linguistic island to another, Czech  to German to Hungarian. I learned some beer-related and courtesy words in Czech. We know a little German from school and several visits. Hungarian is a complete mystery. The roots of the language are thought to be from western Siberia and the only related European language is Finnish.

However, the stream we are floating in is English. It's everywhere and we rarely have difficulty communicating. It is the world's second language and, happily, our first.            

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - SIGMUND FREUD'S WAITING ROOM

 

Sigmund Freud and family occupied spacious apartments a short distance from our hotel. They are now a museum dedicated to his life and work, with emphasis on the harrowing misfortunes he and his family suffered at the hands of the Nazis after the Anschluss. There were some artifacts and photographs and an awful lot of documents written in German. Every section had many text boards written in German and English. It was fascinating but got to be more than our eyes and brains could manage. 

Only one room was re-created to look as it did a century ago. This is the waiting room he shared with his sister Anna, also a psychoanalyst. The consultation room is deliberately left bare but for a few old photos. The famous couch and other furnishings were moved to London when Freud fled Austria.             

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - ROLLING WOLFIE

Very few photos on Wednesday. We went to the morning exercises at the Spanish Riding School with the Lipinzzaner Stallions. No photos allowed of the horses to keep them calm. Then to the Mozart House, where pictures were also not allowed, not that there was much photogenic. But the sign outside the Mozart House was pretty cool.

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - THE BEAUTIFUL ARCHITECTURE OF VIENNA

 

The architecture of this city is fall over gorgeous. Most of it looks very old fashioned but there are some other, um, touches. This is the new entrance to a famous old museum, the Albertina. But then the second image is just to the left.

 

STL DPB ON THE ROAD - WRETCHED EXCESS

 

I'm not up enough on my art history to define the difference between baroque and rococo but this stuff is pushing the limits of one or the other. It's a style of design that leaves me feeling queasy. This is inside of St. Vitus Cathedral on the sprawling grounds of Prague Castle. The building itself is austere gothic. Not so much the inside.