From Romania to Hungary and Germany

Our previous posting was on the 10^th of September, after the completion of our tour of the Carpathian Mountains in Romania. At that point, we had three days left in Romania before we could re-enter mainstream European countries following our ‘banishment’ in compliance with Schengen visa requirements. We spent those last few days at Cluj-Napoca where we had ended our tour, and then at the border town of Oradea. (The Schengen Agreement is an arrangement between the majority of European countries, that allows unrestricted movement of their residents across borders, but allows overseas visitors to remain only 90 days in any rolling 180 day period. That is why we left mainstream European countries at the end of May for Morocco, former Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Romania for a period before re-entering). 

 

We entered Hungary on the 13^th September. This re-entry to Schengen countries involved only a straight-forward half hour wait for passport and vehicle ownership checks. We immediately noticed that roads in Hungary were much better, and the whole countryside seemed more ‘organised’. Driving through a landscape of low hills, plains and autumn fields of sunflowers, corn and cereal stubble we felt like we were returning to a wealthy western civilisation. Anne calls the Hungarian landscapes ‘gentle’.

 

 

 

A typical Hungarian village

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Hungarian language is very different and quite unrelated to those of neighbouring countries. Signs like these two give an indication of its complexity

 

 



Although we saw signs for horses and wagons in Hungary, we saw only mule with a cart  in a small village. This was just one of the indicators that we had moved into a more prosperous country



We headed for a town called Eger, where our home-exchange hosts welcomed us warmly. The day of arrival and the next day saw heavy rain and colder weather which hampered our outings a little – but we were well equipped for the weather as we had previously visited several second hand shops and procured warm jackets.  Our hosts invited us for a typical Hungarian lunch with their home-made wine which also helped warm us up: thank you Judit and Michael for all of your hospitality.

Rain and autumn leaves.  We were surprised to see park employees raking up the leaves and taking them away. With the huge numbers of leaves still to fall, this will be a very big job for them

Eger's main park

During the next days based at Eger:

We drove along quiet and scenic country roads to a nearby town with the aim of visiting a museum – which was closed. We are slowly learning that they are often closed on a Monday! Nonetheless, we visited some touristy parts of the town and took a slow route home, stopping to buy garlic cheese and pickled cucumbers at a rustic roadside stall.

A fascinating roadside stall, with all of the goods for sale being made by the old couple who appeared to live in a caravan next door

Next day, we took a bus and then a tourist train into a national park. We enjoyed walking through pleasant mountain and forest scenery as well as spending time at a forestry museum

Even old boys still dream of being a train driver!

Our time at the forestry museum gave a fascinating insight into how the forest was harvested in past years. The forest we saw looked pristine, but just a few hundreds of years ago it was a busy industrial area with timber harvesting, charcoal making and iron forges. We never cease to be amazed at the technologies that developed to manage the environment

Anne turns her back for one minute and look what he does!

 

We explored the town of Eger, spending several fascinating hours at a castle fortress that has extensive underground tunnels. Unfortunately the tour commentary was all in Hungarian so we missed most of the content. On another tourist street train, again with all Hungarian commentary, we rattled and bumped along the streets to visit a winemaking precinct, where we ate fair dinkum Hungarian goulash.  



Small scale grape pressing. Hungary has a large wine industry and the tourist precinct was lined with small wineries selling their produce

At the end of the day we relaxed in one of spas for which Hungary is famous. Many of these spas are recognized by the medical authorities as having benefits for particular symptoms, so the old tradition of ‘taking the waters’ that we read about in novels still exists.  In this case, our ‘taking the waters’ also included taking in the sulphurous smell that accompanies them ….. not so pleasant.

From Egar we moved onto Budapest, the capital of Hungary, and found that the descriptions of the tourist brochures matched the city. It is a grand city with amazing buildings and monuments. The city is divided into two parts by the Danube River: ‘Buda’ is on the higher part of the city, with castles, citadels and magnificent churches. ‘Pest’ is on the lower side, with shops, bars, restaurants and bustling city life.  A hop-on-hop-off bus and boat tour enabled to see the major sights as well as doing some exploration on foot.  We would have loved to have more time to explore in more detail but were limited to two days, with scheduled dates ahead on which we had planned to arrive in Germany.

The parliament building from across the Danube

Looking over the Danube to the 'Pest' side

Churches and palaces on the 'Buda' side

 



Budapest market stall. Hungary is famous for its paprika




Riding the subway in Budapest.  The photo below is of the very steep escalator that takes you down to the subway

 

The next drive of 900 kilometres took us on good roads out of Hungary, through Slovakia and the Czech Republic and into Germany.  We did the drive over two days. Much of the first day involved driving through road works and heavy rain, and sharing the road with many truck drivers who seemed to see no benefit in driving slowly in the bad conditions, and preferred to come up close behind our car during intense rain and flash their lights to indicate that we should drive faster.



We could see the rain coming (above) and here it is (below). It was in these conditions that truck drivers felt they needed to hurry us up

 

  

It turned out to be a long stressful day and to add to it, the GPS played tricks when we needed to find the village where we had booked to stay. After finally getting to the village and having no luck in asking the locals where the guest house was, a young lad finally explained that it was not actually in this village, but in the next one.  It was two weary travellers who finally arrived nine hours after departure and were even too weary to go to the concert that was on that night in the local castle.

Morning scenes the day after the rain

 
 

A good sleep makes many things feel better and the next day was an easy drive to Erfurt where we stayed with Elisabeth, Silvio and their two young boys Karl and Theo. As with all of our home stays, we really appreciated the warmth of being in a home (in contrast to hotels), and in this case we had two boys to play with as well. Thank you to you all for making us feel part of your family.

 

This was not our first time in Erfurt, as we had spent a day there when we passed through there three years ago. Now we had more time to explore this lovely city with its beautifully restored buildings, as well as visits surrounding areas.

Beautiful Erfurt, a city of 200,000 but with a pleasant atmosphere

 

Market stalls at the town of Weimar. The town celebrates its onion festival each autumn and the displays (below) are in preparation for this

  

A new hat and a Bratwurst sausage. All a man needs to keep company with Goethe and Schiller (below) at the town of Weimar

 

 

 

Putting on our hiking boots yet once again (as well as our warm clothes as the temperature in the first few days was around 13 degrees maximum), we spent two days walking through hills and forests near Eisenach. The forests, shaded in green with tall trees, moss and an amazing range of fungi, are just the environment in which one can imagine the fairy tales come to life. Little Red Riding Hood and Hansel and Gretel would have been right at home here, as would elves, pixies and fairies.  Autumn colours are beginning to splash their way through the trees, and it was a great time in which to do a tree top walk.  

 

  

Not Little Red Riding Hood, but Anne winding her way through the "Dragon's Canyon"



 

Views of Wartburg castle, the place where Martin Luther sought safe refuge while translating. The area of one of our walks was marked as a "Luther Walk", going past places of historical importance





Fascinating fungi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A tree top walk gave us a bird's eye view of old beech forests

 Two of a kind

 

Brave Bob among the treetops 

 

 

Autumn colours are also found in the red of rose hips and berries

 

 

On our final night at Erfurt, we went to ‘Mozart and friends’ concert in the ‘Rathaus’ (the local town hall, not the rat house!). Sitting in one of its ornately decorated rooms filled with paintings and chandeliers overhead it was easy to be transported back to life in previous centuries when life was grand.

We were also reminded of just how well ordered the German countryside is.  Bare paddocks are cultivated to a fine tilth, the roads are wide and smooth with no rubbish along the edges and the villages are immaculate with well cared for houses and neat and tidy gardens.

No one does neatness like the Germans!  Typical scenes from the roadside of this picturesque country

Oops - some rows are crooked

 

Our stay in Germany ended with a visit to Leipzig, a town famous for its musical heritage. Bach lived there for a number of years, so a visit to the Bach museum was most appropriate, as well as attending the Lutheran church (St Thomas Kirche) where he worked as musical director for many years. We went to an evening service in this church and a morning service in the St Nikolai Kirche. Two church services in a day and both in German!  The hymns and liturgy however were most familiar from traditional Lutheran services in Australia.

Inside and outside of the St Thomas Church, with the statue of Bach also situated outside of the church.

 

The Nikolai church is famous for its role in the 1989 peaceful uprisings which led to the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of socialism in Germany. We spend a fascinating afternoon in a museum housed in the former Stasi headquarters, which documents how people’s lives were infiltrated and controlled during these times. We continue to learn so much from visits like these, and in this case came away with the awareness of just how blessed Australia has been to have only experienced a democratic lifestyle – with all its faults it still provides a freedom that we should not take for granted.

Nikolai church

Posters celebrating freedom. In two weeks time celebrations will
be held to mark the 25th anniversary of the famous candle-light
marches will were significant in bringing freedom from a
restrictive regime. 

A small demonstration, but we were unable to find out what it was about.

 We happened to arrive for the start of a market festival and were able to wander around the stalls selling a variety of locally made food and crafts.





Ich liebe dich

Afternoon enteraintment ......perhaps helped along with a little whiskey

This little piggy went to market.....but I'm sure he would have preferred to stay at home.

 

Music continues to be part of life in Leipzig and we spent a pleasant Sunday afternoon walking the streets and listening to a trumpet quartet here, a violin duo there, a guitar country and blues soloist up the street and a group of organ barrel performers around the corner. With the different streams of music wafting around us sitting and having a drink in the autumn sunshine was most pleasant.

 

Absolutely beautiful music from these violinists. We bought a CD and look forward to sharing it

And another CD from here as well!

 

Organ barrel performers. It looked easy as they just had to turn a handle, but I'm sure there was more to it than that

 

Cheers!

 

As we write this it is our last night in Germany. Tomorrow (30th September) we travel to Poland where we will spend some time seeing where our ancestors came from in the 1840’s, before a home-stay in the north of Poland. We will keep you updated about Poland in a few weeks' time.