London Calling

Already a week in England and Wales, we are now on the ferry to Ireland from Holyhead Wales.  Janice, Dean, Dan and myself crammed our luggage into what we thought was a big enough car.  So we start our excursion with bags on our laps or under our feet, locked and strapped into position as if we are headed to space.  After a few days, it feels natural and welcomed like a dog going to it’s crate each night to sleep.  

London was a fun-filled two days of shows (Tina and Moulin Rouge), great Italian restaurants and LOTS of walking.  As expected, my hip and leg were screaming at me, but the show must go on.  As we walked this amazing city I noticed so many people with Green Bay Packers clothing or hats, only to find out there was a game in London on Sunday. Naturally I tried to engage with every fan I saw who unfortunately came to watch the Packers loose to the NY Giants.  Boooooo.

As is typical there are hiccups along the way that add to my travel stories. Right off the bat as we get into Heathrow, I leave my backpack on the terminal train.  45 minutes later after much coordination, I am running alongside the same train that returned to our platform with one of the train attendants.  We literally had seconds to scan each car looking for my bag and by chance I saw my water bottle in my pack which was under another guys bag on the seat.  We frantically knock on the window motioning for the man to bring me my bag.  He brought my bag to the car entrance and I grab it and jumped off just two seconds before the train takes off.  What an adrenaline shot.

Moulin Rouge

Bamboo smoked old fashioned at the hotel

Watch this video on my Youtube Channel to see how they smoked this old fashioned.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8lnLUhVeJO4

Goodbye Budapest

This is my final post for Budapest as I head out to Bavaria tomorrow for a week to visit Gabbi and Roland. I am so glad I took this week to savor this great city. I'll have very limited wifi next week so probably wont' post again until my next trip in October.

Here are just some random, final shots.

Paprika spread, cold sour cherry soup and Langos. All excellent.

Budapest is a popular city to film movies and tv shows. Not sure which show this is, but believe it is American. Supposedly Johnny Depp is in town filming a movie.

Me when I'm 80

Budapest Dohany Synagogue

I visited the Dohany Street Synagogue today, which is the largest synagogue in Europe and second largest in the world built in the 1800’s.  The largest is in Israel. When hearing the history of the Jews I can’t help but marvel at their resiliency.  Budapest is yet another European city in which the Jews were put in ghettoes left to die from illness, air bombs, or violence from the Government.  I am staying in the Jewish Section of the city now vibrant with café’s, restaurants and bars but many of the buildings are still not inhabitable or close to ruins.  Imagine being forced to live in a ghetto with 7 to 8 people per room.  Up to 70,000 were forced to live here.  It makes me reflect on so many cities in Europe with similar horrific stories, starting with Anne Frank’s hideout in Amsterdam.  She lived two years in a small apartment with other family members, windows blacked out and with no fresh air.  The only light or nature she saw was when she would sneak into the attic and look up through the rooftop windows and see trees and sky, but she could only imagine what it would be like to be outside again feeling a fresh breeze on her face or hear the leaves rustle on the trees. I can’t tell you how many gold plaques (Stolpersteine) we saw implanted in sidewalks and streets identifying Jews that were taken from there homes and sent to die in concentration camps.  Lives lost to the Holocaust.  We should never forget that this happened and not that long ago.

It also struck me when reading the literature in the museums of how something this horrific starts small with hateful rhetoric.  At first people ignored or played down the signs of a slow progression of ultra conservatism, Fascism, or racists laws. Even today, I see signs that are troublesome in the world.  Like the boiling frog apologue.  If a frog is put in boiling water, it will jump out.  But put in warm water that is slowly brought to a boil, the frog will not recognize the danger and be cooked alive.  Hungarian President Orban is far-right and makes outrageous racist comments, yet our Jewish guide yesterday said that he is not worried about him because he is all talk, and at the ground level, the Jews are still being supported by the current administration.

Memorial at Parliament on the Danube. Symbolic of the Jews that were killed and thrown into the Danube.