Out of Paris

October 28, 2018 Day 6

I was surprised by the time change, a weekend earlier than in the US. Fall back, so we gained an hour and rather than being late we were early for the brunch at the house where the daughter and grandchildren were staying. Friends of the daughter had done a home exchange for this house in Paris and that is where the daughter and granddaughters were staying. It is in an neighborhood of Paris which has very few single family homes and the estimated value is about 4 million euros. Nicely done, but a very small kitchen and three medium sized bedrooms. But it has a circular dining room, two balconies and a finished basement which I was told is the grandparents suite. The owners are a French American couple with two kids. As seems to be common in my anecdotal experiences, in most of these relationships the woman is the immigrant.

It was a lengthy brunch attended mainly by acquaintances of the friend of the daughter. One couple was a French diplomat serving a domestic posting on the West African desk. Her trailing American husband said it was difficult finding a position as his experience was that even when he was well qualified for a job, the firms definitely preferred to hire French. They have a nice little kid.

I took a nap in the mid afternoon and then we walked back to the hotel to pick up our luggage. Took a cab to the train station, Gard Austerlitz. The cabbie did a very good job weaving through crowded Paris traffic to get us to the train station on time. We had to walk the entire length of a 16 car train to get to our assigned coach where we again met the daughter and granddaughters.  It was the "slow" (not the TGV) train for our trip to Amboise. We changed trains in Orleans and arrived in Amboise in the rain and dark.  Drove our to the country house for a welcome dinner and then sleep in the bungalow.

Museum of Immigration

Saturday October 27, 2018 Day 5

We ate breakfast at the hotel. It was a very nice and extensive buffet. Good hot chocolate, but no bagels. Expensive, but good enough to keep us going into the afternoon. We arrived when there was only one other diner, but when we left it was full.

We took off for western Paris on the Metro.  One transfer and a 25 minute ride. I had read an article in the International NY Times by a writer who walked around the exterior of Paris. One of his recommendations was the Museum of Immigration. Off the beaten path and not crowded. Walking from the Metro exit to the museum we saw a much different Paris that in the downtown area. Less affluent, fewer tourists and not as many restaurants. Plus there was a street level light rail line that is not mentioned in the guidebooks.

The building that houses the museum was build in 1931 as part of an exposition celebrating the French empire. Overshadowed perhaps by the British empire, the French empire was also extensive with large holdings in West and North Africa and Southeast Asia, as well as lesser outposts in the Middle East and the West Indies. The exposition, seemingly similar to a world's fair, had exhibits from most of the parts of the empire, (I did not see anything from Syria or Lebanon) as well as several countries, including the US.  However, along with a large sculpture across the street, the art deco exhibition hall was the only permanent structure. The exposition seemed to celebrate France's role as a protector and civilizer of the colonies while at the same time taking for granted the colonies' contribution to French wealth and culture. It was almost as if the latter was treated as an entitlement, provided in exchange for former. I got a hint of that in some of the historical museums I visited in the Netherlands last year and I imagine similar  feelings about colonialism existed in Great Britain, Portugal, Spain etc.

The entry fee for the museum is 6 euro. (nowhere in France have I found discounts for seniors.) There is an aquarium in the building's basement but we chose not to go there or pay the separate entrance fee.

The building has gone through several changes in use since the exposition and has been dedicated to its present use since 2007. Virtually all of the art from the now former colonies has been transferred to the Musee Du Quai Branly (we visited that a few years ago). This museum is more of a historical record of the building, the exposition, immigration to France and the impact of immigration on France. Although I had a very general awareness that France, particularly since its Revolution had been a haven for political refugees and dissidents, I had no knowledge that for centuries it had taken in large numbers of immigrants, in recent decades sometimes exceeding over 3 million a year. That at times has exceeded the number of immigrants absorbed by the US and represents by far a greater percentage of the population. The mix of immigrants has changed from eastern European, to southeast Asia, (Ho Chi Minh was educated and lived in Paris in the 1920s.) to north African and now increasingly sub Saharan Africa. That is evident from the faces that one sees in Paris, particularly in the many service and hospitality jobs. We witnessed a performance art performance on the main floor from an upper floor.

After several hours we departed. We took the Metro, again one transfer, to meet the granddaughters  (minus one who opted for a friend) and daughter, as well as a step grandson on the Champs Elysees. The former were coming from a hop-on hop-off bus tour and the latter from work. All were late as we waited outside the designated restaurant, really a pricey pastry shop. When we finally connected we went up the street to Le Drugstore for coffee and hot chocolate. It seems so frivolous paying very high prices for these drinks just so you can sit in a fancy place on a fancy street, but I imagine it is what many tourists do.

With the granddaughters we went to a movie on the Champs Elysees and saw A Star is Born in English. Apparently many movies are shown in France in English without subtitles. Better than I expected and two very good performances. Then we walked for a bit and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. We then dropped the girls off at the house and walked back to our hotel.

Outside the Museum

     

Musee d Orsay

October 26, 2018 Day 4

The grandkids were off to the Comi Con convention so we went to the Musee d Orsay. This is a top site in Paris that I have never been to. We took the Metro. There was one transfer that required a very long walk underground.

Exiting the Metro we ate at a small sandwich shop near the Seine. Good sandwich and moderate prices.

We did not purchase tickets online as recommended, so we waited for tickets in a long line  that moved very quickly. 12 euro entrance fee. Then we waited to pass through security. Understandably, security is very extensive at all these attractions in France.

The museum is housed in a former railway station, Gare d Orsay, that was built in 1900 for a World's Fair and also housed a luxury hotel and grand reception room. It was taken out of service in 1977 and reopened as a museum in 1986. It is a beautiful building.

The museum houses France's national collection paintings from the impressionist, postimpressionist and art-nouveau movements from the 2d republic, 1848, to the start of WWI, 1914.

There is a lot of art in this museum. We focused on an exhibit that was curated by Julius Schnabel, an American artist/filmmaker, who was matching up his works with works from the museum's collection "to create a conversation across space and time." It worked better than I anticipated. The self portrait of Van Gogh stood alone. We also toured several furniture exhibits, but did not see anything that inspired us for our ongoing renovation in SLC.   There was also lots of sculpture. I got tired and we missed a lot.

After a few hours we exhibited the museum.  In the small square outside the museum there was a street band playing. It was pretty good and soon after it began playing an older woman began to slowly dance in front. I could not tell if she was just a bystander who was inspired by the music or connected to the band. I had a vision that she was the mother of one of the musicians.

We then went to into the Legion of Honor Museum on the opposite side of the square. Lots of metals, weapons and uniforms there, but not much of interest. We left after a brief visit and returned to the hotel by Metro. My spouse stopped off at a patisserie while I went back to the room for an afternoon nap. She felt that she was mistreated there by staff and customers, so she ate my pastry.

We then walked over to the house through a big rainstorm (Practice for Tanzania.) where the kids are staying. The daughter is going out with friends so we are babysitting the grand kids. We made personal pizzas for dinner and watched a superheroes movie. Batman and Superman got together and with the help of some other superheroes defeated a10 ft. tall villain who was seeking to destroy earth, or at least the city, by joining together three cubes. I was not paying close attention, but I did notice that the villain had lots of flying assistants who looked a lot like the characters in the Wizard of Oz. We stayed late after the host returned drinking wine into the a.m. hours. More messed up sleep after we walked back to the hotel through the empty, wet streets of Paris. I imagined that I was in a Woody Allen movie, but a car did not pull up to take us on a time travel adventure.

Van Gogh self portrait

 Metro sign entrance

 Museum d Orsay

Dancing lady
   

Arc De Triomphe and Louis Vuitton Museum

October 25, 2018 Day 3 of Trip

I am having trouble adjusting to the time zone difference and got up too early after too few hours sleep. Age or jet lag? I spent early morning hours reading on the computer and working on the blog, but then really sag in the mid afternoon..

We had to leave by 8:00 to meet step daughter and grandchildren at the US Embassy. They were coming up from the Loire Valley to have a brief Paris vacation and to renew the youngster's US passport. It was about a 35 minute walk from our hotel to the embassy.

I enjoy walking around and within new or foreign cities. Paris is particularly pleasant with all the street level shops and food smells.  The vehicle traffic was not gridlocked. However it is sometimes hard for me to follow Google directions with the foreign pronunciations and the very precise directions that single out even the most minute changes in direction. However we made it with only one rerouting phase. (I never did find FDR Boulevard.)

After greetings we took the two older grandchildren off to breakfast at a non-decrepit cafe. Lots of croissants and drinks for 25 euro. Paris is not cheap. By then the passport work had been completed and we agreed to meet at our hotel.

After dropping off their luggage at our hotel we walked to the Arc de Trimphe. It took about 15 minutes. It is located at the end of the Champs Elysees (that is a nice stroll under trees amidst luxury shops and named after heaven in Greek mythology.) in the Charles de Gaulle Etoile roundabout. You take your life in your hand as a pedestrian if you try to cross the round about on foot. We took the underground passageway.

Contrary to mine and popular belief, neither Napoleon's armies, and except once, nor any armies,  have marched under the arch. The arch was conceived by Napoleon who declared to his troops after the 1805 Battle of Austerlitz where he defeated the combined armies of the Russian and Austrian empires, "I will bring you back to France and there you will be the object of my tenderest attentions...". When he returned to France after the battle he commissioned the construction of the arch in the style of a Roman triumphal arch. The Austerlitz victory was a watershed moment that seemed to forecast a lengthy period of French dominance. However a mere decade later Napoleon had fallen from power, the Empire was crushed, Russian troops occupied Paris (another instance in the Russian view that it alone has saved western/Christian civilization.) and the Arch had barely risen above its foundations. It was not finished until 1836 and at various times has been viewed as dedicated to the monarchy, the Revolution, the Empire and the various French republics.

It has been the site of major French national events such as the return of Napoleon's ashes, the funeral vigil for Victor Hugo and most recently, the final stage for the Tour de France. In 1919 the Allied armies marched under the Arch. That is the only time that such a military procession occurred. I was surprised that German troops did not march through the arch in 1940 after the fall of France. However the pictures showed that the German army march down the Champs Elysees and through the square, but around the arch. No explanation offered.

We paid 12 euro for the opportunity to enter the arch and climb to the top. 202 steps to the mezzanine floor.  That was an effort, but I did not have to stop to rest. There was a small museum on that floor. After touring that we climbed the remaining 82 steps  to the top. The terrace offered sublime panoramas of Paris, particularly the 12 avenues radiating out from the square.

In the attic room off the mezzanine there were exhibits of many of the uniforms worn by the various armies in WWI. Lots of colonials for the British and French.

There are lots of engravings, inscriptions and sculptures on the base and walls of the arch commemorating important events and people in French history.  At the base is the French Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. As in the US it was dedicated on November 11, 1921.
 We then walked to lunch at an American style burger joint. We ate outside. Very good milkshake.

After lunch we walked to the Fondation Louis Vuitton in western Paris. Opened in 2014, this Frank Gehry designed building is an eye catching architecture design. Like the Disney Hall in LA it features a curving stainless steel exterior topped by 12 glass "sails" overlooking a waterfall and basin that is reminiscent of a boat.  We spent several hours there exploring the many layer building and the exhibits of the works of Egon Schiele, an early 20th century German artist, and Jean-Michel Basquiat. The latter was an American painter of Haitian and Puerto Rician heritage who essentially started out as a graffiti artist in NYC and one of his Heads paintings sold for $110,5 million in 2017. He died young in 1988 from a drug overdose.

We then walked back to the hotel. e played some chess games and the kids picked up their luggage after which we ate dinner at a non-decrepit Chinese restaurant near our hotel.

The kids then took off to the house they were staying in and we returned to the hotel. 

 Arc de Triomphe

 View of Champs Elysees from the Arc

 Roof of Gehry's Louis Vuitton museum

Basquiat's Heads that sold for $110.5million

Paris, France October 2018 From the Walking Dead to the Actual Dead

October 23-24, 2018
 Back on the road at the beginning of a 6 week, three country, two continent trip.
 It was a long day of travel and the airline seats seem to be getting smaller, or maybe I have been expanding. Perhaps I may need to invest in business class for future such trips.
 We left for the airport in SLC over three hours before scheduled departure. That was a mistake. Not only is it a shorter trip to the airport than in LA, but it is much easier to get through the airport check-in and security processes in SLC than LA. When added to the flight departure delay, we found our selves with plenty of waiting time, and no airport lounge. However the airport had good Internet connections.
 It was a 2.5 hour flight to Chicago and then an 8 hour flight to Paris. On the former I experienced a rarity, the flight was only 2/3s full. On the latter, the flight was full and we were seated amongst a group of enthusiastic French teenagers returning from a trip to the US.
 I watched two movies, read a substantial portion of Angela's Ashes and slept a little on the latter flight. We arrived in Paris on time about 10:00 am. It took us almost one and a half hours to get to get out of the airport. Walk to immigration (first entry stamp in my new passport, aside from the Sudan visa entry stamp which had necessitated the new passport), wait for luggage pick-up, there was no customs and then negotiate the Uber ride. We took a group Uber which just squeezed in all the luggage and then took the 30 minute ride to the hotel.

 We are staying at the XO Hotel. Nice up scale hotel. Still small rooms like most Parisian hotels, but at least the elevator is large enough to carry both of us and our luggage. It is located just north of the Champs Elysees area in arrondissement 17. After we checked in (our room was available) and unpacked we had been traveling, and mostly awake, for 22 hours. However with a burst of adrenaline, and a desire to get on to Paris time we decided to forgo a nap and set out for the Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise.

 A short walk took us to Marechal Juan plaza where we got on the #3 metro at the Pereire station. We purchased the 10 trip Metro package for 14.9 euro. The individual fare is 1.9 euro.

 It was about a 25 minute ride on the Metro. Outside of the US as I ride metros I always wonder why we cannot have metros that are as efficient, frequent and clean as those in the rest of the world.

 We exited at the Pere-Lachaise station from which it was a very short walk to the cemetery.

 Cimetiere du Pere-Lachaise is a 44 acre cemetery which houses over 70,000 tombs, over 800,000 bodies and scores of memorials. It claims to be the most visited cemetery in the world. It was established in 1804 in response to neighborhood graveyards becoming full, perhaps as the Revolution's guillotines or Napoleon's wars increased the death rate. At the time it was in the outskirts of Paris and conflicted with the Parisian tradition of being buried in the quarter in which one lived. That tradition was successfully overcome when the city fathers exhumed the bodies of some local celebrities and reburied them here.

 Walking through the cemetery's grounds was like a stroll through a verdant sculpture garden. The leaves were turning and the tombs were many and frequently ornate. Paris residency is the only requirement to be buried here, so it has a cosmopolitan and in some cases, an international flavor to its inhabitants. We stopped by, among others, the grave sites of Chopin, (we directed a group of Japanese tourists to his site) Moliere, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Bizet, Gertrude Stein, (who was accompanied in death as in life by  her partner, Alice Toklas) and Imre Nagy. The last was an elaborate memorial since he is no longer actually buried there. His body had been there for over thirty years after he had been murdered by the Russians for leading a 1956 liberation movement that was finally shutdown by a Russian led Warsaw Pact invasion and the resulting fleeing of 250,000 Hungarian refugees. (Ironic that 60 years later the Hungarian government is among the leaders in the anti immigrant efforts in Europe.)  His body was repatriated to Budapest in the early 90s after the fall of the communist government. We saw that grave site last year. There were many other grave sites containing the remains of other famous people which we did not have time to visit.

However the rock stars of the cemetery are clearly Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde. Both of their sites are now protected from the favors of their fans. At Morrison's site there were lots of flowers and visitors who were bone many years after his death. At Wilde's site there are many lip stick kisses on the Plexiglass which surrounds his tomb.

One grave site has a supine sculpture of a Victor Noir, a nineteenth century journalist who at age 22 was killed in a duel. During his short life he established a reputation as a ladies man and consequently in death he has become a sex star as woman rub his crotch area , which now is very shiny, in an effort to improve fertility.

Around the outskirts of the cemetery are about a score of memorials to man made disasters and tragedies, from memorials to sea and airplane crashes and the Holocaust. Two of the most moving were a sturdy granite arch commemorating the victims of Dachau and small wire replicas of the children killed.  There were many visitors in the cemetery.

By the late afternoon we were running out of energy and it was getting close to closing time. I thought that if we exited the cemetery closest to the Metro station it would be a more pleasant walk. Instead we found one exit after another closed and so we had to walk twice the length of the cemetery to exit. On the metro ride back to the hotel I was almost falling asleep so we decided to eat dinner close to the hotel. Unfortunately it was about 6:45 and most restaurants  seem not to open for dinner until 7:00 at the earliest, many later than that.

We waited outside Bacino, an Italian restaurant, until it opened at 7. We were the first, and for a while the only customers. We both ordered a plate of the day and got a fish dish and salmon lasagna, Good food and inexpensive wine. The flour less chocolate cake for dessert was just average.
By 9:00 we were exhausted and early to bed.

 Jim Morrison grave site

Children's Holocaust memorial

   Strolling in the cemetey 

Trip to Canyonlands and Arches National Parks

May 6, 2018 Drive Day

We packed in the morning and left about 1:15 to pick up our friend at the airport.

The drive took us south, on I-15, past Utah Lake, but we quickly turned east onto Utah 6 and passed through a mountain range into a National Forest, passing a few very small villages and crossing a summit of 7,477 ft. We ate the lunches we brought at a nice Visitor Center/Rest area just short of Tucker. After that the drive was uneventful, largely empty land, scrub grass and mountains in the distance, periodically interspersed with a small town. Drove east a short stretch on I-70 passing the town of Green River. There did not seem to be much there. We then turned south on 191 passing an entrance to Canyonlands NP, which was 25 miles away and Arches NP.   As we neared Moab we began to see the striking rock formations that make up the heart of these parks.

Moab began as we crossed over the Colorado River. Main Street was a string of hotels, restaurants and shops catering to outdoor activities, biking, climbing, hiking and river trips.  Our hotel, the Red Rock Inn is at the southern end of town. We arrived about 6:00 pm. The Inn was fine. Our room had a kitchenette with a small refrigerator, a microwave and dishes and utensils. No stove, but sufficient for breakfast and lunch supplies. Had a hot tub, but the advertised pool was across a busy street.

I discovered to my delight that the Chevrolet dealership which was listed as having a charging station was next door to the hotel.  It had a Level 2 station that was accessible to the public at all hours and would be sufficient to recharge the Volt in 4 hours. If I had known it would be available we could have brought the Bolt and avoided gasoline charges, but that would have entailed a stop during the trip to recharge.

 I made the dash across Main Street to the pool at another hotel. It was relatively small, but I had a nice 30-minute swim. Nice change of pace after sitting most of the day. Spoke with a woman while I was drying off who was sun bathing. She was moving from Moro Bay CA. to Charlotte NC to be nearer to her children and with her husband was taking a 20-day drive to do it. She too commented on the expensive nature of the Moah hotels.

We walked to dinner at the Moab Brewery. It was crowded when we arrived without a reservation, but we were seated immediately at a table in the bar area. Nice place. The food was good, we had some draft beers and wine all of which was moderately priced. The hamburgers looked delicious.

After retrieving the fully charged car we made a late-night trip to the City Market which was only a few doors away from the Inn to purchase breakfast and lunch items. It is owned by the Kroger’s chain, so I received some gasoline points which lowered my gasoline purchase price.

May 7 Canyonlands National Park – Islands in the Sky

After breakfast in the room we left the Inn about 9:00 am and abetted by our free admission Senior Pass drove to the Island in the Sky Canyonlands Visitors Center.  On the way we passed a long line of cars waiting to get into Arches NP. This National Park is a riot of colorful canyons, mesas, buttes, fins arches and spires set in a high desert. Water and gravity have sculpted the rock into the various formations. It is divided into 3 sections: Island in the Sky; Needles and The Maze. Unless you travel along either the Green or Colorado Rivers which divide the districts, you cannot travel from one district to another. This area was not visited by Europeans until 1869 when one armed Civil War Major John Wesley Powell traveled down the Colorado River. The area was not designated as a National Park until 1964. From my NP experiences it seemed to be among the least developed National Parks, rugged and untrammeled and except for the few paved roads probably very similar in appearance to when Powell came through. There is no food or lodging available in the Park and not much drinking water. Much of the Park is accessible only through backcountry hiking or by water routes on the rivers.

Islands is closest to Moab and offers the greatest accessibility and has 20 miles of paved roads. It is a 6,080 ft elevation mesa that overlooks the Green and Colorado Rivers. We took a short hike across from the Visitors Center to an overlook that looked east to the Shafer Trail and the Colorado River. We watched a short movie, Wilderness of Rock, and listened to a short Ranger talk about the geology of the Park. Basically, the earth’s uplifting created the Colorado Plateau and then the rivers carved two large canyons while summer thunderstorms brought heavy rains that scoured the landscape creating the buttes, fins, spires and arches. We took a short drive to the trailhead parking lot and began the hike of the Neck Spring trail.  This is a 5.8-mile loop hike that is the only moderate hike in this section and was advertised as a 3 to 4-hour effort. It took us a bit longer. The trail was largely under and on the side of the mesa. There were a couple of springs along the trail, but we did not see any large animals. Nor did we see many other people. Other than 3 groups that passed us early on the trail, we did not see any other hikers. We passed some very weathered gear and structures from the period when there was cattle ranching in the area Lots of views of canyons and sandstone bowls.

We stopped for lunch along the trail. After lunch there was one very steep part of the trail that required climbing over rock. The last part of the trail was across flat rock with some juniper trees that ultimately lead to a trail that paralleled the road. We were tired when we finished about 3:30. It did not seem to be excessively hot, but I felt depleted at the end.

We drove to the end of the mesa, and the road, to Grand View Point. A short walk afforded spectacular panoramic views as we walked along the canyon’s edge. A good place for a sunset view, but we were too early. Lots of tourists here. Just below us was the White Rim trail, a 100-mile trial that parallels the rivers and is used by cyclists for up to two-day trips. Beyond the Trail we could see the Colorado River and beyond that the spires of the Needles section.

We got back into the car and retraced our trip to the Mesa Arch parking area. It was a short hike to the arch. This is a big solid arch that affords great sunrise views. We were too late for that.

We left the Park about 5:00 and returned to the Inn about 6:00. We ate dinner at the Spoke on Center. OK food, but the milk shake was terrific. Spent some time in the hot tub and charged up the car in the evening.

May 8 Canyonlands NP – Needles

The Needles forms the southeast corner of Canyonlands. It is deservedly named for the colorful spires of Cedar Mesa sandstone that dominate the area. To me, from some viewpoints that looked like the skyline of a major city. After breakfast in the room we drove south out of Moab on Route 191 for 40 miles and then west on route 211 for 35 miles to the Needles Visitor Center.  Same movie in the Center so after a short pit stop we drove off to the Cave Spring trailhead. This is a short, 0.7-mile loop trail that was advertised as easy, but had some rough terrain, two ladders and hard slickrock on the trail. We passed several alcoves in the rock. One housed the remains of a historic cowboy camp and in two others there were Indian pictographs. It was getting hot and it was striking how much cooler it was in the alcoves. There was a lot of vegetation in the area from a spring that we did not see.  The ladders required some scrambling, but when we got up to the slickrock there were terrific views of the Needles.

We drove about 10 minutes to the Wooden Shoe Arch Overlook. I really did look like a shoe.

We then drove further into the Park and stoped at rest area for lunch. It was getting hot and very sunny and all the tables with umbrellas were occupied. However, a couple invited us to sit with them. They were from Michigan and were out west to assist a son moving to Denver. They had driven out here in a small camper. They had parked their camper at the Visitor’s Center and had ridden around the Park on bicycles. There was not much auto traffic on the park roads, but there were no bicycle lanes and a very small shoulder.

After lunch we drove to the Slickrock trail head. It was almost at the end of the road. This is an out and back .5-mile trail that leads to a 2.0-mile loop. The trail offered several expansive, 360 degree views of the Park including a view of Islands in the Sky and the confluence of the Green and Colorado Rivers. Pretty impressive. Not many other hikers on this trail. It took us about 3.0 hours.

At the end of the hike we drove to the Park Center and after a pit stop, we drove back to Moab. We had dinner at The Blue Pig, a barbeque restaurant with live music. The food was good as was the music, but the latter was too loud. Another hot tub visit and charged up the car.

May 9^th Arches

We got up and out of the Inn early and escaped the line at the Park’s entrance. The main road entering the Park past the Visitor’s center provides a pulse pounding entrance as the road makes numerous switchbacks as it climbs the cliffs, initially of white sandstone and then red hued slickrock. Around every turn I caught breathtaking views of rock formations, arches and sweeping panoramas. However, notwithstanding our early start, the parking lot at the trailhead for the Delicate Arch was almost full.  

The 1.5-mile trail to the Arch started out gradually, but soon began an ascent, first on a dirt trail and then broadening out to a traverse of broad slickrock. For the first time during our trip we saw numerous people on the trail. In one couple the guy was urging his female companion, who was obviously scared of the ascent, up the rockface. She was able to go forward a little more, but ultimately turned around.  Toward the end the trail narrowed and wound its way around a steep drop off. As we approached the Arch we could view it through another arch. I met a French-Canadian couple there from Quebec and we had a nice chat and took pictures of each other.

As you come around the final bend and finally view the Arch you get a magnificent view of the structure. My National Geographic Secrets of the National Parks Guidebook said that going to Arches without seeing the Delicate Arch is like going to the Louvre without seeing the Mona Lisa. For once, it was not hyperbole.  After taking in the view for a bit I continued and walked under the Arch. It is perched on the precipitous edge of a monumental cliff. Theer was a short line to get a solo picture under the Arch. Lots of different languages spoken here.  

The walk back down was easier, but hotter and we passed even more people hiking up. On the way down, we took a detour to the Wolfe Ranch and Ute Petroglyphs, but not before sharp encounter with a man who was tramping off the trail in front of a sign that specifically said not to do that and a sharp rebuke from his wife for us to mind our own business. The Utes, who knew better than to live here, but semi-annually passed through, left a petroglyph panel of horses and dogs that date back to the mid-1700s. The Wolfe Ranch is a rough shod, one room cabin in which the Wolfe family lived in at the turn of the 20^th century. It is the Park’s only evidence of permanent habitation, and in the case of the Wolfe family, they gave up after a decade. A very unaccommodating land for humans.   

We drove almost to the end of the Arches Scenic Drive and parked to hike to the Sand Dune and Broken Arches. The former is a short walk from the road and is observed by squeezing through a narrow passageway. The ground is all fine sand here.

We then took a 1-mile hike across a grassy meadow which was populated with lots of colorful wildflowers to Broken Arch.  If we had followed the trail through the Arch it would have taken us to Devil’s Garden, but it was getting very hot so as planned we turned around and retreated to the Inn to wait out the afternoon heat.

I took an afternoon swim in the pool and a 7:00 we drove back to Arches. We had crossed the Colorado River bridge at the north end of town several times by then, but this time we turned right and drove along the river. Very scenic drive with cliffs on one side and the lazy river on the other.

We drove out to Balanced Rock and hiked in a short distance to climb up into an arch to watch the sunset. Nice views and colors, but I have seen prettier on the CA. coast.

Returned to the Moab brewery for dinner. The beer was again good, but the hamburger looked better than it tasted.

May 10^th Drive Back

Nothing special. We got out about 9:15 and retraced our inbound trip. Stopped at the same rest stop for a break and ate lunch in Draper. Dropped our friend off at the airport and returned home.   

Budapest 2 Departure to Paris October 30, 2017, 29th day of trip

October 30, 2017 Day 29 Leaving Budapest

The day dawned early for us, windy, cold, but no rain. I had previously made reservations for a tour of the Parliament building at 8:00 am. Needed the English tour, but because the tickets had to be printed and we did not have a printer I thought that we needed to get there early to get our tickets printed at the Visitor’s center.  So, we got up at 6, packed the luggage and got out at 6:50. Walked to the subway station, the M2 line and purchased an all-day pass for 3300 fl. The subway is easy to figure out, three lines, denominated by color. This line was built during the Soviet era and it served a secondary purpose as a bomb shelter, it is 115 ft deep, so a long escalator ride down. There are no turnstiles, guards at each entrance to the escalators monitor tickets. The subway has clearly been modernized, at least in appearance, so it is strange that it still has that labor-intensive process.  Took it three stops and when we got out the Parliament building was looming large in front of us.

We got there by 7:15, but the Visitor’s center did not open until 8. Even worse, while it was sunny, the wind was ferocious coming off the River. Almost painful to face the wind.

We entered a large square, Kossuth Ter Spin that is sprinkled with monuments, which along with the Parliament building, present an ever-changing and reshaping of history depending upon who is in power.  It turns out that many of the monuments and many of the items in the Parliament have been altered or removed depending upon the history the then current ruler is pushing. Two big buildings complete one side of the square, the Dept. of Agriculture and the Ethnography Museum.

The tour began with a climb of 133 steps. The tour lady asked us if anyone in the group needed to take the elevator. That took us up to the building’s monumental and gilded entryway topped off by a 96-step stairway. 96 is a big number in Hungary since it was believed that the Magyars (the only major group of non-Slavs in Eastern Europe) entered Europe in 896. Turned out they entered in 895, but that has been overlooked.

Trump would love this 1904 building. There is gold everywhere in it, 22.2 kilograms of gold were used in its decoration, but it has been used much more tastefully that in the Trump properties I have seen. There is gold foil throughout the building and the many frescos are surrounded by gold trim. There is a golden dome under which is housed the original Hungarian crown and surrounded by statutes of 16 Hungarian monarchs. There are scores of stain glass windows, intricate decorations, dozens of steel brushed, mustachioed statutes of everyday Hungarians and even golden, horizontal cigar holders in the hallway outside the parliament chambers. Smoking was prohibited in the chamber, so the legislators used the holders to hold their cigars when they ran in for a vote. If a legislator made a good speech, it was known as a “Havana” since it caused the other legislators to leave their cigars. 

There are two parliamentary chambers in the building which are connected by a lounge that has a very large and cushy carpet. However only one is in use now, since Hungary switched to a unicameral legislature, perhaps reflecting Hungary’s shrunken size following the post WWI Treaty of Trianon (how many Americans have heard of that?) when Hungary, having been on the loser’s side lost 2/3s of its territory and ½ of its former population.

After going through the building’s history museum, we exited back to Kossuth Square. The Square itself has recently been cleaned-up, scrubbed down and streamlined by the current right wing, nationalist, Eurosceptic and some might say autocratic government.  We then loosely followed a self-guided walking tour. There was a big (they are all very big) statute of a lion being bitten and strangled by a snake. Then there is the Kossuth statute in honor of the unsuccessful 1848 revolution against the Habsburgs. Facing Kossuth across the square is the Rakoczi statue. He lead the 1703 unsuccessful war of independence against the Habsburgs. (In 1867 the Habsburgs gave in and included the Hungarians in a duel monarchy.) The costumed soldiers in from of the building do an hourly changing of the guard ceremony, but we did not wait. There was a low profile black wall marked with “1956” that will lead to as a yet unfinished museum to that failed uprising against the Russians.   Down by the river there was a statute of Attila Jozsef, an early 20^th century Hungarian poet appearing deep in thought gazing out at the Danube:

                “As I sat on the bank of the Danube, I watched a watermelon float by.

  As if flowing out of my heart, murky, wise and great was the Danube.”

He committed suicide at age 32.

Right on the river bank there were 50 pairs of bronze shoes that looked real. This commemorated the 1944 shootings of Jews by the Nazi’s puppet Hungarian government, the Arrow Cross, at this spot and letting the victim’s bodies fall into the river. 

We then turned away from the river, and its strong winds and walked into the Leopold Town neighborhood up to a small park which had a statute of Imre Nagy in the middle of a bridge (the middle way between the Russians and the west) looking as if he was a grandfather out for a stroll. He was a lifelong communist who was reluctantly drafted into leading the initial nonviolent movement in 1956 to soften the severity of the communist regime. When the Russians did not go for that, the movement turned violent and the Russians sent their tanks in, crushed the revolt, grabbed Nagy, shipped him to Moscow and convicted him in a sham trial. He was buried him face down in an unmarked grave. After 1989 the Hungarians exhumed his body and buried it at Hero’s Square.

We then walked up to Liberty Square, Szabadsag Ter. A wealthy looking neighborhood, it houses a couple of interesting monuments. The first was a statute of Ronald Reagan. That was normal size. It was recently erected, perhaps to blunt US criticism of the regime’s anti-democratic actions. In a tone-deaf move, the government then invited Secretary of State Clinton to the unveiling. Then there was a gigantic monument to the Soviet soldiers who liberated Hungary in 1945. It was guarded by two policemen (who posed nicely for me). That was the only monument so guarded, perhaps because it might induce vandalism? Passed the US Embassy, a heavily walled building and saw the statute of an American general, Harry Hill Bandholtz. I never heard of him. Google revealed that he was a member of the Inter-Allied Task force after WWI to oversee the removal of Romanian and Serbian troops from Hungary.  His claim to fame was that he single handedly and without a weapon held off Romanian troops who wanted to loot the National Museum. The statue went up in 1936, but was removed by the Russians in 1945 for “repairs”. After 1945 it was restored. The last big monument on the square was dedicated to the Hungarian victims of the Nazis. It was recently put in place and consists of a black, screaming eagle attacking an angel holding a Hungarian double cross. It conveniently overlooks the active role some Hungarians played in assisting the Nazis to kill and deport Jews and the fact that for 4 years Hungary, in an effort to regain lands it lost after WWI, was voluntarily allied with Germany in WWII.

We walked up to but not into St. Istvan’s Basilica. It is Hungary’s biggest church and celebrates St. Istvan, Hungary’s first Christian king. The strode down Zrinyi Utca, a pedestrian mall. We passed the Central European University which is largely funded by George Soros. It has been the target of the current government and has protest signs on it. We walked past and into Gresham Palace, a grand building that was Budapest’s first major building following the establishment of the dual monarchy. It now is a luxury hotel that has been restored with gorgeous detail. It has very nice bathrooms.

We had to walk around a small park in the middle of the roadway to get to the Chain Bridge, Szechenyi Lanchid. It is a historic bridge that was the first permanent connection over the Danube between the then cities of Buda and Pest. Its original structure was completed in 1849, but was destroyed by the Nazis. It was quickly rebuilt. We walked over the bridge which gave us wonderful views of the Danube and got us to the Buda side for the first time.

It was now getting close to noon and we needed to go back to the apartment, pick up our luggage and go to the airport. We walked up to the Deck ter square, past a giant Ferris wheel and went to the airport bus stop. I had only 1600 HUF. I knew the bus cost 1800 HUFs for two and I wanted to see if the driver would take that or euros for the difference to purchase two tickets. He would not. I then solicited the passengers on the bus to see if any would change some excess Hungarian money for euros and I found an English woman who welcoming the opportunity to dispose of her Hungarian currency, took me up on my offer.

We then got back on the subway, picked up our luggage, locked the apartment and deposited the keys and hustled back to the subway to board the 1:00 pm airport bus. We arrived in time, but the line was too long, and the bus filled up before we could get on. Fortunately, I had left some spare time, so the 1:30 bus got us to the airport on time. Few were flying Easy Jet for the first time and the check in, which had to be done on-line, bag drop, high baggage fees, and security screening went smoothly. We had to walk a long way to a large hanger where the gate was located. The joys of discount airlines.

The flight was fine, and we arrived in Paris on time. There was an extended wait for baggage during which we spoke with a Danish citizen, who had married a Hungarian woman. They were there for their first visit to Paris and were asking us for directions to the train. We could actually help them.

The process of getting to Cagney and my step daughter’s residence was complicated. We got in too late to Charles De Gaulle airport to get a train from there, so we had to ride into Paris to get a train. We thought that we had plenty of time, but the Paris bound train was delayed on route. Then we had to change to a subway to get to the train station. There were lots of steps and we had heavy luggage. Fortunately, several people helped us, and we got to our Amboise bound train with only a few minutes to spare. But that train was on time and we were joyfully picked up at the station. Long day.      

Sadly, we did not get to partake in, or even visit, the Budapest baths. Next trip.

ungarian Parliament Building

Interior of Hungarian Parliment

Chain Bridge

Danube River

Budapest, Day 1, October 29,2017 28th day of the trip

October 29, 2017 Day 28 Budapest

It was uncharacteristic that we got up early, 6:00 am, until we realized that this weekend the Europeans switched off daylight savings time. Unfortunately, it was a gray and rainy day which remined unchanged throughout the day.

We read the papers on our computers for a while and then leaving our apartment about 9, with our umbrellas, we turned right headed for the #4 or 6 trams on Erzsebet Korut intending to go to the House of Terror, Terror Haza, with an initial stop at a café. We were unsuccessful in the latter, but it was easy to find the tram stop. We got off at Oktogon, a vast intersection whose corners are snipped off, hence the name. No café here either, but lots of American fast food outlets.

I got turned around, so we took a circuitous route to the House, but still arrived there before the 10:00 am opening. We recognized the building from its shape and very distinguishing overhang. I was surprised however to find a lengthy line, all in the rain, snaking around the corner. Maybe because it was Sunday, or maybe because of the rain, but a lot of Hungarians were coming to the museum. It took about 30 minutes to gain admission, mostly due to the slow ticket selling process. 2000 HUPs for admission and then we were required to check our coats and backpacks and wet umbrellas. That was a welcome benefit, but it entailed another line.

The building which houses the museum is located on Andrassy Ut, a major thoroughfare. It connects downtown Pest to City Park where the Hero’s Square is located. It is treelined and has nice shops, theaters and cafes and well-appointed apartment buildings. A nice place to stroll if it were not raining. It reminded me a bit of the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, before that area deteriorated.

The building itself has an interesting history. It was built in the late 19^th century when Budapest was enjoying a “Golden Age” as one of the dual capitals in the Austrian Hungarian empire and initially was a residence. At the beginning of WWII Hungary allied itself with Nazi Germany, in an effort to regain the lands and population that it had lost after WWI through the Treaty of Trianon. In early 1944, as it became clear that Germany was losing the war, the Hungarian government made a halfhearted attempt to seek a peace treaty with Russia. Germany learned of those efforts, invaded and occupied Hungary and installed the fascist Arrow Cross party as the new Hungarian government. These Nazi surrogates occupied the building and made it their headquarters for terror, torture and killings. (That party also facilitated in a few months the deportation of 440,000 Jews to Auschwitz where they were the second largest group to be killed.) After the Nazis were defeated and Hungary was occupied by the Russians, they installed the Hungarian secret police, the AVH in the building to continue the terror, torture and killings against the “enemies of the state”.

When we walked into the atrium we immediately saw a large Russian T-54 tank and walls covered with over 3,000 portraits of victims killed in the building. We were directed up to the second floor through a stairwell decorated with Soviet Realist statues. The first exhibit gave an overview of what the Hungarians call the Double Occupation. The Gulag exhibit featured stories of some of the Hungarians who survived the Soviet Gulag. Apparently over 700,000 Hungarians were sent there, and half did not return. The last Hungarian prisoner was released from the Gulag in 1981. The Changing Clothes exhibit satirized the willingness of many Hungarians to initially serve the Arrow Cross and then the Communists, easily changing uniforms depending upon those in power. The Fifties and the Resistance exhibits showed how the Communists came to dominate all aspects of Hungarian life and some people’s resistance to that, with very little success. There was an interesting portion of the exhibit in which several women attributed the severe shortages in the country on the actions of Tito, the Communist Yugoslavian leader who had taken Yugoslavia out of Soviet orbit. The Resettlement and Deportation exhibit described the ethnic cleansing that occurred in eastern and central Europe after WWII when ethnic Germans were forced out of Hungary and ethnic Hungarians were forcibly moved to Hungary from surrounding countries. The Communist government termed this “mutual population exchange”. There were exhibits on the secret police, which imprisoned, abused or murdered one person from every Hungarian family, the show trials which aped what was going on in Russia, the incredible Communist propaganda that painted a picture of a rosy life, slavishly honored Stalin and the Soviet leadership and state, and the sabotage of Hungarian agriculture by the beetle sent by the Americans. In fact, to impose collectivization on the farmers, the Communists cut the trees and hedge groves that separated the family farms That removed the birds which had kept the insects in check.  The Justice exhibit showed the show trials and in the 10 years after WWII 71,000 Hungarians were accused of political crimes.

The elevator that took us to the first floor played a 3-minute video of the execution process. It caused a delay getting to the first floor where we emerged into the Prison Cellar. Here were the holding and torture cells. They also had one of the gallows where people were hanged. The room commemorating the 1956 uprising showed the flag of the insurgents which had the Soviet emblem cut out, and the slogan, “Russians go Home”. The Emigration Room showed postcards and other items from the over 200,000 Hungarians who emigrated after the uprising failed. (Ironic that those emigrants were welcomed in other countries, but Hungary’s current government has closed its doors to any immigration.)

Finally, there was the disturbing Wall of the Victimizers, many of whom are still living and most of whom received no punishment. No explanation for that. Fascinating place, we were there for 4 hours.

We had a light lunch at the museum café and then headed out. There was a break in the rain and, so we decided to walk up Andrassy Ut to Hero’s Square. We should have taken the subway as it began to rain. We walked past a few embassies and the former Yugoslav embassy that is now Serbia’s. Hero’s Square was built in 1896 to commemorate the 1000-year anniversary of the Magyar’s arrival in Hungary. (They were off by one year.) There are lots of large monuments to Hungarian leaders, history and the 1956 uprising. We did not see the latter or City Park or the Szechenyi Baths due to the rain and time constraints.

We got on the M1 subway. This was the first subway built on the European Continent and it is very shallow, so you must go to the entrance corresponding to the direction you are going since there are no underpasses. I managed to do that correctly.

We took the subway to Deak ter. That is the main square in Budapest. We checked out the bus stop for the airport bus, times and fares and then walked over to the Great Synagogue. Cost to enter was 4,000 HUPs and included a tour. Neither on the outside, which is topped by two tall towers, nor the inside (which includes a pipe organ and two side pulpits) does this beautiful building look like a traditional synagogue. Completed in 1859 in what was then just outside the city limits, the very prosperous Jewish community really wanted to fit in and demonstrate how well they had integrated. So, the building and the interior look very much like a church. It also has many Moorish influences reflecting the fact that many members of the community descended from the group who fled Spain in 1492.

This synagogue is still active and continues to follow the Neolog branch of Judaism, which is somewhere in the middle of Orthodox and Conservative. That branch is found only in Hungary. After WWI the Jewish population of the truncated Hungary held disproportionately large shares of the professional classes and ownership of industry. That, plus the fact that the Jews were the only significant minority left in Hungary, lead to widespread discrimination against the Jews in the inter-war period and immediately prior to WWII, and killings of Jews by the Hungarian authorities. The building nevertheless survived WWII but fell into disrepair during the Communist era. It was rebuilt in 1990.

Our tour guide then lead us to the Memorial Garden and Tree of Life. The former is a memorial for over 2000 Jews from the Budapest Ghetto who died after the Soviet liberation and were buried in a mass grave. The latter is a metal weeping willow tree with the names of Holocaust victims etched on the leaves. We then went to the Hungarian Jewish museum which had an exhibit on Jewish life, holidays and rituals in Hungary.

We then walked into and around the Jewish Quarter while waiting for a table at the Blue Rose restaurant. We got in there about 7:00 and had a nice, reasonably priced meal, even though the waitress mixed up our orders. We walked back into the Jewish Quarter and returned to the Szimpla Kert ruin bar. No line tonight so we went in.  Off the halls and courtyard were small rooms, each one set up as a different bar. There was a wine bar, a whiskey bar, several beer bars and others. It was eclectically decorated, but cold. The young patrons had the ability to sit in the outdoors and drink comfortably, albeit with their coats on.  After a drink we walked back to the apartment.       

House of Terror

Hero's Square

Exterior of Great Synagogue

Interior of Great Synagogue

Tree of Life

Travel to Budapest October 28, 2017Day 27 of the trip

October 28, 2017 Day 27 Travel and Travails to Budapest

This was an anxious day that was filled with mistakes, but ultimately, albeit belatedly, got us where we were going, Budapest.

I made several mistakes in booking and traveling on a train from Cesky Rrumlov to Budapest.

I booked the trip from the US over the internet and at the end of the booking, I received a Pick-Up Code and a notice that I should print out the tickets at the train station. I thought that was great, one less document to carry around and possibly lose. Unfortunately, I did not notice until yesterday that the ticket had been purchased from the Austrian Railroad system and that it had to be printed at an Austrian station. I should have done more research on it over the computer, but I was lazy, hoped I could get help at the train station and then lost my head.

After we got up we bought some pastries at a bakery near our lodging in the morning and we ate them along with some coffee at the Airbnb. Our taxi came right on time at 8:30 and we arrived at the train station by 8:45. (the fare was more expensive than the way in because we were now going uphill, at least that is what I was told.) The trouble I feared came to pass. The ticket agent at the small station did not speak any English, was uninterested in the Pick-up code on my phone and knew nothing about the 9:20 departure I had expected that was in my itinerary. There was no train board listing departing trains and no place to use my Pick-up code to print a ticket. Another passenger, seeing my problem and speaking a little English told me that I had to get on the 9:00 train to Cesky Budejovice, where we had changed yesterday and is apparently a regional transit hub. I was dubious, because that was going north when we wanted to go south, but he insisted that was the correct train. I had no evidence that there would be a 9:20 train and feared we would be stranded there, so I got on the 9:00 train. A big mistake.

So, we got on the 9:00 train. I figured maybe there had been a time change in the 6 weeks since I had purchased the ticket. The receipt I had received showed a small fare for the first leg of the train trip and I assumed that covered this portion of the journey. The problem was that I did not have a ticket. I knew that, but when the conductor came through asking for tickets I tried to explain to her what had happened and showed her my phone with the purchase receipt. She was not convinced, but it was a short ride, this was just a local train and she less us skate by.

I went into the train station at Cesky Budjovice to get some help. The information desk passed me along to a train clerk who spoke a little English. She printed out for me the schedule for getting to Budapest, but refused to issue tickets. At least I now knew where I was going. Next stop was Linz, in Austria. I subsequently realized that this city is in western Austria and I think we were originally supposed to go through there on the 9:20 train. Perhaps this is the reason we will get into Budapest 2.5 hours later than in my original schedule. 

The train to Linz was a national train, faster, better ride and a more professional, but still a conductor with limited English. When she came by to check tickets we went back and forth, me trying to explain that I had purchased tickets, showing her my receipt on the phone and she is asking for a ticket or bar code on the phone. No resolution, however when we reached the Czech Austrian border, the train stopped, she got off and conferred with a new, and presumably Austrian conductor while pointing to us. That conductor spoke more English and by the end of our conversation he agreed with me that the tickets had to be printed out in Austria. I thought he told me to get off and print them in this station and, so I left the train and started to do that, but then the train doors began to close, and I had to run back on without the tickets. A little panic there by my spouse

The Austrian countryside seemed to be different than the Czech. In the former everything seemed to be in order, nothing out of place, no garbage, or even untended piles of dirt or construction materials. No abandoned vehicles. Very orderly. The Czech, and to even a greater extent, the Polish countryside from the view from the train seemed much more disorganized. Differences in wealth, or perhaps national character.

The conductor left us alone and we arrived in Linz about 12:30. Linz is on the Danube, but we did not see it. What I did see was a very long freight train that had hundreds of cars, seemingly virtually all the same white sedans. It was a pretty big train station, but not enclosed. We had about two hours before our connecting train to Budapest. We found the information desk who directed us to the ticket office. There I encountered a very friendly and helpful clerk who printed out our tickets to Budapest and the tickets from where we had been, but a place that I did not recognize. We were not traveling on our purchased itinerary. Digging into our euro stash we purchased some sandwiches and desert in a station sandwich shop. Pretty good food, but expensive.

The train ride to Budapest was about 4 hours and arrived at about 6:30. A good train that moved at a good clip. It was crowded and seemed to have many Hungarians on it. We arrived at the Keleti, Eastern Train station. It was a pretty big train barn, well-lit and with ornate features on the walls. There was a long line at the station’s ATM machine. We were tired, so I went to a money changer. Only changed $50, but got a lower rate than I probably could have gotten at the ATM. I also was able to change the remaining Polish money I had. Too many currencies on this trip!

Our lodging turned out to be only a short distance from the train station, but we decided to take a taxi given the hour and our luggage. We got ripped off on that. The cab driver demanded 20 euro claiming that we were going out of a zone and that the rate was mandated by law. He got lost going there and was not helpful with the luggage, so no tip. I felt like a fool.

Our host was waiting for us at the door. As in Krakow, it was an apartment building in which she was Airbnbing an apartment at 15a Vas Street. One flight up (there was an elevator), the apartment was a spacious room, with a loft bedroom. There was a makeshift kitchen in the hallway with a hot plate and a refrigerator. The bathroom was OK and there was a washer (no dryer). The host was very helpful in offering advice, maps and directions, plus instructions on how to use the airport bus. Then we walked out to find one of her restaurant suggestions. It was Bajor Sarok, located in the Jewish Quarter.  It was very busy with lots of people, primarily young, on the street and crowded bars and restaurants. We found the restaurant without mishap.  The downstairs was full, and although we were seated upstairs, we were told that it would take 30 minutes to get our meal. It did not take that long. I had some Hungarian soup and a traditional Hungarian meat dish. Good dinner at a reasonable cost.

We then walked around the Jewish Quarter. We came to a small wall. It was a portion of the wall that had surrounded the Jewish ghetto from December 1944 until late January 1945, when the Soviets liberated Budapest. 70,000 Jews were squeezed into an area .3 sq. km and over 10,000 died during the 6 weeks the Ghetto existed.  Most of those who survived the ghetto were shipped to Auschwitz and murdered. The Hungarian government allied itself with Germany in the beginning of WWII in an effort to regain the territory it had lost because of its defeat in WWI. Notwithstanding the desires of its ally, the Hungarians largely left the Jews alone. However, by 1944, seeing the Red Army approaching and sensing the inevitable defat of the Nazis, the Hungarians attempted to switch sides in the war. The Nazis did not take kindly to that, so they invaded Hungary and installed a fascist puppet government. That government eagerly participated in the roundup and murder of over 700,000 Hungarian Jews.

We then found the original ruin bar, Szimpla Kurt (garden). The Jewish Quarter was heavily damaged during WWII and this neighborhood sat dilapidated and forgotten for several decades. In the early 2000s it was discovered by the young crowd. Many of buildings are still run down, (some looked as if they were candidates to be condemned) but many house “ruin bars” which typically have entryways that look abandoned, but upon entry they have a maze of walkways that open into large halls and open-air courtyards. On this Saturday night the line to get in was around the corner. We passed on it and went back to our apartment at about 11:30.     

Linz, Austria train station

Budapest Train Station

Ghetto Wall Memorial

Ruin Bar