Budapest to Vienna

We had a few hours to spend before heading to the train station. We walked to the nearby Jewish Synagogue, the second largest in all of the world (the largest is in New York City). This synagogue can seat 3000 and was built in 1859.


The Holocaust Memorial stands over mass graves of those who were murdered by the Nazis in 1944 through 1945. A "Tree of Life" survives on this hallowed ground with the names of about 400,000 victims on the metal leaves of the tree.


Even the walls had beautiful brick work at eye level.

The rows of tomb stones can be seen behind me and the fence.

We then headed over to Gerbeaud to get a few chocolates before we left. Gerbeaud is where the first chocolate covered cognac cherry was created and we had yet to get any. Since it was so early in the day, the cafe was empty and I could get a few pictures of the beautiful rooms.






From here we went back to the hotel and onto the bus to ride to the train station where we were guided onto our chartered car.



The train station...


The tables were beautifully set for lunch and we had great company for the ride.


Thanks for sharing the wine with us! I think the guys had more wine on this day than any other. Notice, I didn't say liquor as that was the night before. They couldn't bring enough wine to our table. We had a great trip on the train.


Soon after we left the city limits, we saw lots of sections of yellow. They were quite visible from the plane as we began our decent into Hungary a few days ago. I mentioned to someone that the fields of yellow looked like mustard seed plants. Later I learned that it was canola, a great alternative to wheat in aiding the reduction of erosion and improving the success of crop rotation, and it is in the mustard family.


Once in Vienna, we walked to St. Stephen's Cathedral, a church that stands on the ruins of its two predecessors. The first church on this site was consecrated in 1147 AD. Below you can see some of the 230,000 tiles that cover the roof of the current church.

Like many of the old buildings we have seen, limestone was the material of choice in building St. Stephens and it, like others has needed consistent repair and upkeep as the weather continues to erode this porous stone. Nine full time stone masons are on staff to continue the repair of the church (and you thought treating a wood deck once a year was "high maintenance"). The cathedral's image can be seen on Austria's 10 cent euro coin.


While there are 18 altars in the cathedral, the high altar is the most magnificent, built from 1641-1647.


One of the sets of organ pipes at St. Stephens.



We left St. Stephens and moved onto another set of Roman ruins, this time surrounded by the sounds and sites of modern Austria.



This is the moment I felt that none of this seemed real. We were in Epcot, not Europe. The large building below is the Hofburg Winter Palace and just before it, below ground is the uncovering of Roman ruins in its shadow. This entire area was surrounded by a circle of traffic and tourists. The juxtaposition of the ancient, old and new (check out the large screen TV on the left) was too odd. It gave the whole place a Disney-esque feel to it.



Below, Joe stands in front of the Hofburg Palace, home to Austria's current President. From 1438 to 1583 and from 1612 to 1806, it was the seat of the kings and emperors of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, thereafter the seat of the Emperor of Austria until 1918. It was also the site of Hitler's famous speech in March of 1938 when he announced Austria had succumbed to German rule and was now one, obviously that didn't last.




One of the many entrances to the palace.




We had a bite to eat and headed to Cafe Mozart for dessert, the Sacher Torte.

We had one of the tables below.

Our day was quite full and we retired early, I still was not on the right time clock. We took in a few sites on our walk back to the hotel.