Budapest 10

A Visit to the Castle Remains

The castle itself was reduced to rubble in various campaigns, but the Communists later rebuilt certain parts for headquarters.

Prince Eugene of Savoy. His leadership in battles in Hungary ended the Turkish threat in Europe.

In the lower areas of the excavated castle is now an historical museum.

A reconstructed chapel

A tile from a warming oven

Part of the castle walls

Budapest 9

A Walk Along the Castle Ridge

 The whole ridge is a beautifully maintained park setting crisscrossed with walking paths.

The Hungarians love their children. In Post-Communism years they had a very low birth-rate, but now they are one of the most pro-family and child-friendly countries in the world. We saw playgrounds everywhere, in use.

This is Communist era relic, visible from almost everywhere in the city.

A park path

A view from the ridge along the Danube river

Heroic victory, Communist monumental sculptures

Those are probably evil capitalists being defeated by the workers.

Further on were these random bits of what look like Roman ruins, but they weren't. They were concrete reproductions, that were replaced by new ones in a castle courtyard.

The ridge park

Pretty turn-of-the-century buildings everywhere. That was when Hungary was reviving from long years of domination, by the Ottoman Turks, then the Hapsburg Empire, just before the Communist take over.

Budapest 8

A Cave Church

Across the road from our hotel was an ancient cave church. Long ago a hermit monk lived there in a natural cave. Over time it was enlarged into several chapels, and is much revered by the faithful.

At the entrance to the cave church

A chapel in the cave church

St. Stephan

Another chapel

This is the window in the round opening above.

A detail of the gate

And another chapel

The last chapel with richly carved furnishing by a Hungarian living in California

A side  room with a collection of devotional medal and shrines

Looking out from inside to the entrance of the church. There were beautiful small woodcarvings from Romania for sale there.

A Little Tale

Of a Policeman and Tadpoles

Hello again, Everybody. As you have noted, I have been.... um... busy.....But I am going to try to get back to some art and crafts, starting tomorrow, maybe. Just when I think life is going to slow down so I can fit in my projects, everything speeds up. But the first son is engaged and we are delighted.

So, the tale of tails.

Today is a lovely warm summer day, with flowers in full bloom.

 

I was coming home with first-born son, from a materials acquisition excursion, when we see two of our boys (one born to us, one staying with us) carrying buckets to the stream along the road by our house. Note, not full FROM the stream but EMPTY from the stream. They give us the reason:

Our road is the way taken by oodles of walkers out for their exercise and fresh air. That is why it is required in Switzerland that one have pretty flowers along one's property, so people have something nice to see and talk about. Also along our road is a stream, but in the summer it gets mostly dry.

People, however, being civic minded and humane and busybodies, note all the little details of everything (including how old our dog is, what our pony eats, when we water our flowers, and stuff we would probably be appalled to know they know). So somebody on his or her walk noted that the stream is drying up. And in the remaining puddle there was some movement. PROBLEM! ACTION NEEDED! Little tadpoles were trying to grow to be froggies in that bit of water. If the water were to dry up, no froggies.

So, what does one do? Here one calls the police. Not to do violence to anybody or anything, but to attend to a matter that one doesn't know how else to address: in this case, rescue tadpoles.

So, while we were gone, the boys hear the door bell ring, and they go to the door to see a policeman there. He asks if they would please get two buckets of water (our place being the closest thing to a farm around here, and likely to have buckets) and dump them in the puddle for the tadpoles. So, likewise being civic minded and virtuous, the boys do so, the tadpoles swim merrily about, and all the world rejoices in heroic salvation of the endangered.

And we hope they live happily ever after, at least until the resident blue heron finds them.

The End, or at least the allowance for the end of tails for little frogs.

Happy Summer