Tour de Romandie

We took a break from watching the royal wedding yesterday to see the cyclists from the Tour de Romandie

racing through town. At this point in the race, the peloton was between three to five minutes behind the small 

lead pack. Romandie is the French-speaking part of Switzerland.

Coral bells

More flowers in our garden.

Mustard fields

These mustard fields are a 20-minute bike ride uphill from our house.

New quilt

Zak and Freddy helped with assembling the new quilt top in our living room last weekend.

Tulips at DuPeyrou

The Hôtel DuPeyrou currently has magnificent tulip beds in its garden.

Neuchâtel turns 1000

This weekend the town of Neuchâtel is celebrating its 1000-year anniversary. We walked to the center of town
last night to see the festivities. This is the square where the farmers' market sets up three times a week.

Happy Easter

Spring has arrived in Neuchâtel. A small corner of the garden in our yard.

Mátyás church (part 2)

Because I loved it so much, another photo of Mátyás church. The roof tiles are porcelain.
This is the last of the Budapest photos.

Köleves restaurant

 

We ate our best meal on Monday at Köleves (Stone Soup) restaurant, a few blocks from the apartment. I 

ordered the daily vegetarian special, which was a creamy onion soup and mascarpone and vegetable risotto 

for 1000 Hungarian forints, a little more than $5. Zak had eggplant stuffed with jasmine rice and pear, seasoned

with star aniseed for 1680 forints ($9).

Subways

Though we mostly got around by walking, we did ride all three of Budapest's subway lines. This is a car

on the M2 line, with great 1950's styling.

Széchenyi baths

We visited the Széchenyi baths, one of the many thermal baths in Budapest, on Monday. This is the ceiling

in the entryway. I put away my camera in the locker room, but Google has plenty of good photos of the baths

themselves.

Building decoration

I felt like I spent all five days walking around looking up. Every surface was decorated in most of the buildings

we entered, and the exteriors of buildings often held sculptures or other decorative features on the third story or above.This is another building on Andrássy ut.

Hungarian State Opera House

We attended a performance of The Brothers Karamazov by the Eifman Ballet from St. Petersburg at the 

State Opera House on Saturday. Our box had seats for seven, but we had it to ourselves.

(November 2012 addition)

This post has gotten, by far, the most attention of any of the posts on this blog.  
Here are a few more photos from our evening in the Opera House.

Three chairs fit across the front of the box, two were on a platform (left side of photo), and two filled in the gaps, I suppose.

Our view of the stage and orchestra, when leaning onto the front rail.

Our view across the auditorium.
 

Museums

In addition to the Hungarian National Gallery, we also visited the Hungarian National Museum on Saturday and the
House of Terror (pictured above) on Friday, an excellent museum detailing the disturbing history of the Hungarian Arrow
Cross Party (Nazis), and their successors, two communist terror organizations, from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s.

Mátyás church

 

Every surface of Mátyás church is decorated with geometric patterns. It is stunning.

Buda at night

A view of Buda across the Danube. The Palace, on the left, houses several museums including the Hungarian National Gallery, which we visited on Sunday. The beautiful Mátyás church is on the right.

Café Vian

We ate at Café Vian in Franz Liszt square on Sunday evening. As soon as the weather permits, restaurants begin

to set up their outdoor tables and chairs with blankets. Europeans love to eat outdoors.

Franz Liszt

 

2011 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian composer and pianist, Franz Liszt. This statue sits in 

Franz Liszt square, where we ate two meals.

St. Stephen's basilica

The basilica, heavily damaged during the war, has been restored to its golden glory. Stephen was the first king

of Hungary, reigning from 1001 to 1038.

City in transition

Budapest is a city in transition. Many buildings appear not to have been repaired since the war. With the fall

of communism 20 years ago, the city is slowly modernizing and cleaning itself up. This building was a couple

blocks from the Opera house on Andrássy ut, a broad avenue of mansions and boutiques.

Parliament

Budapest straddles the Danube River, with Buda to the west and Pest to the east. We visited the Parliament 

building twice to take a tour, but were unsuccessful both times. 

Dohány synagogue

We rented a great apartment through airbnb across the street from the Dohány synagogue, at the edge of the
old Jewish quarter. The synagogue is the largest in Europe, able to hold 3,000 people.

Budapest week: Swiss Air

We flew to Budapest last Thursday to meet up with Sonja, a friend from Washington, D.C. Swiss Air is

pretty great: they served cheese sandwiches, drinks and milk chocolate on our 1.5-hour flight.

Mt. Fuji

Zak climbed Mt. Fuji in the week before he returned to the U.S. with four friends from his lab. They started

their climb at 8 p.m., arrived at the top at 2 a.m., waited a couple hours in the cold for the soup hut to open, 

and saw the sun rise around 5 a.m.

Kamakura buddha

 

Zak and I also took an overnight trip south to Kamakura to see the Daibutsu, a large bronze statute of buddha.

Tokyo lunch

I went to the eastern side of Tokyo one day with Hiroko, a friend Zak made while in Japan. She and I visited

the excellent Tokyo-Edo Museum, and got a traditional Edo-period lunch there afterwards. The meal consisted

of hard-boiled egg over rice soaked in broth, pickles, and tea.

Tokyo kendo and karate tournament

While walking around the grounds near the Imperial Palace in Tokyo, Shuku and I came across a kendo and

karate tournament taking place in the Nippon Bodukan, a large martial arts hall. I was amazed by the numbers of

kids participating in these sports.

Kawagoe statues

Prior to our trip up north, I spent a couple days with my friend, Shuku, in and around Tokyo. We visited

Kawagoe, about 60 kilometers northwest of Tokyo. At the Kita-in temple, there is a courtyard filled with 500+

statutes, each different. It is said that you should go at night and find the one that feels warm to your touch. 

That one is the most like you.