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Here is a bicycle rack that warms my heart.  We should have one of these made a UMPI (I would ride my bike on campus more often if there was a place to put it!)

There are not so many statues in Bratislava, and some of those that are there have a humorous take.  This is a bronze statue of a workman, in his manhole.  Behind this is an amber shop.

 

Budapest and Vienna are huge cities, with much of the architecture from the golden age of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, late 19^th century.  In between these is Bratislava, the capital city of Slovakia, which became independent of Czechoslovakia in 1993.  Bratislava is much small, and more Medieval, although many of the old buildings have since been refurbished in newer styles.  The old portion of the city is quite compact – you can walk across the area in maybe ten minutes – but is well worth a day spent in looking at the shops.  The Christmas markets are also in full swing.

If you want travel advice in Budapest, I would recommend the hop-on hop-off bus service that makes a circle of 24 stops about the city, with an earphone that gives historical and cultural information (in any of 24 languages).  Cost is about $25, which is well worth it.  We understand that there is a similar service in Vienna and will make use of that as well.

This is “Heroes Square” in Budapest, built in 1896 to commemorate the 1000^thanniversary of the arrival of the Hungarians to the region.  In the middle are large equestrian statues to celebrate the original seven tribes that came from the Steppes.  On the flanks are statues of various important people in Hungarian history.  In front is the tomb of Imre Nagy, the prime minister who was a leader of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. This was brutally suppressed with considerable bloodshed, on both sides, and Nagy sought sanctuary in the Yugoslavian embassy, only to be turned over to the Russians and executed.  His body was moved here in 1989, and the date of original protests that led to the Revolution – October 23 – is a national holiday in Hungary.

While at a Christmas Market I found a Rotary Fundraising display and shook hands with the Rotary President there.

Hungary (and Germany) are famous for Christmas Markets.  These last from Nov. 11 to January 1.  Think craft-show-food-fair on a fairly immense scale, at night, with lots of lights.  What most impressed me was that there was not loud music, just the buzz of many people having a good time.  Again, no way to do justice to these with a small camera, at night, but hope you get the idea.

I took this as a picture of something we might try doing for #NorthernMaineFair.

Another little farmers market had these as doors to the bathrooms.

We went into the old jewish quarter in search of antique shops, and found a nice market.  One shop owner had a nice display of Lenin statues and military paraphernalia, and a Roman helmet which he let me try on.  Not very comfortable.