Sue's Travels: Danube Trip - 2 September 2011

Owing to the accident last night, we arrived in Mohacs late. We weren’t able to leave for our tour of Pecs (e=long a and cs=ch) for an hour. The tour of Pecs was for the most part easy going. We were driven to the high point of Pecs where we disembarked from the bus. Our first stop was in a winery where we were treated to a glass of dry, white wine. There was no verbiage to go with it, which I probably would have appreciated. The room was barrel shaped and they had these long tables set up. Our next stop was the local cathedral, which is painted in a way that it looks like wall paper. It was beautifully done without being gaudy. The guide gave a short lecture on the cathedral and then we were treated to an organ concert. We were then taken to see the treasure room. Apparently the most valuable item was an alabaster carving. I believe that I got a picture of it. We were also taken downstairs to see the crypt which is the largest in Hungary. Our last stop on the organized tour was the cathedral museum which had some ruins dating back to Roman times. The guide turned us loose to spend an hour exploring on our own.

Our tour director, Dushan, took a few of us to see the local synagogue. The Jewish population before the holocaust was about four thousand. 3,022 were killed during the holocaust mostly at Aushwitz. About 400 returned. Before the holocaust there were several Jewish families who manufactured organs used in most of the churches and synagogues in the country. The synagogue was started in 1865 and completed in 1869. It was designed by an architect who apparently was from Croatia.

After seeing the synagogue, I went off to buy Marzipan to give Bridie as a gift. Marzipan is made with almonds, which they import from California! I had a hard time finding the store that sells Marzipan, but a young man in the street heard me asking people if they spoke English. He asked in Hungarian and managed to get me to the correct store.

The other product from Pecs is gloves. The lady in the store that sells Marzipan told me where the glove shop was. I bought a pair for Marla and a pair for Micah. There were quite expensive, but they are soft and supple. They are lined so they may be used in cold weather. I hope Marla and Micah like them.

As I was leaving the glove store, I looked at my watch and started moving, because I was due at the pickup location then. Fortunately I was close and came up behind Bette as she was telling someone that she and I had gone different ways. It was a moderate walk to the bus. Once we got on the bus we were stuck waiting about half an hour for one of the people who managed to get lost.

Lunch was served immediately upon return to the ship, about 2:30pm. The ship pulled out about 4:15pm. They have to head north to pick up the customs agents, because we are leaving the European Union as we enter Croatia and/or Serbia.

After lunch, I returned to the cabin where I rested for a while. I was disappointed that we had no time to go into Mohasc. I worked on my blog and then headed up to the sun deck to sit a while and watch the world go by. There was a lecture on Eastern European politics given by our tour guide, who although he is a U.S. citizen was born in Belgrade. He has strong feelings about the disastrous situation in the Balkan Peninsula. We had dinner at 8:00 pm because lunch was so late. We hung around a while and talked. Then I came back to the cabin to take care of my pictures.