Budapest and Zagreb

On Wednesday, May 27, after enjoying another delicious breakfast in the modern and elegant hotel restaurant, Katya and I took the convenient Metro to Szechenyi Thermal Baths, the largest in Europe.  Situated in the large City Park, the large yellow Neo-Baroque building looks inviting even from the outside.  The complex includes a variety of pools, saunas and steam rooms inside and large pools outside.  We tried out a few, including a very hot sauna.  In one of the large pools outside, Katya and I played a game of chess and attracted the attention of a couple locals, who nodded and murmured their approval for some moves and grunted their disapproval for others.

Szechenyi Baths

After a couple hours, we went back to the hotel and packed up for our next destination.  At 11:30, we left our luggage at the hotel, and, with a couple more hours to spend in Budapest before our train to Zagreb, Croatia, we wandered around Pest.  We were going to go to the Synagogue, but there was a long line that we did not feel like waiting in.  We strolled through Erzsebet Square, got ice cream on Zrinyi Street, stopped in the Four Seasons Hotel to admire the interior again (and use the restroom), walked along the Danube again to the House of Parliament and then explored streets we hadn't before.  We discovered a statue of Imre Nagy, head of the Communist Hungarian government before the Soviet take-over in 1956, admired the symmetry and elegance of Szabadsag (Liberty) Square, surrounded by Art Nouveau architecture with a monument for the Soviet liberation of Hungary in WWII from Nazi German occupation.

Katya with Imre Nagy

Szabadsag Square

We picked up our luggage at the hotel and took the efficient Metro to the Keleti Palyaudvar (Railroad Station).  It was crowded and, although we had been told that we didn't need seat reservations, we were nervous about not having them.  However, the line at the ticket and information office was long, so we took our chances (after having asked several people who didn't understand English) and boarded the train, finding an empty compartment which we were able to keep to ourselves for the entire six-hour trip to Zagreb.  Katya was happy, because she cold stretch out for another nap; she takes them a frequently as possible.

Arriving in Zagreb around 8:30 p.m., we booked our seats for our next destination and then walked past large parks and into the main part of the city to our accommodations, the Hotel Jagerhorn on popular Ilica Street.  We paused to enjoy a couple numbers of old American rock-n-roll music being played live in Ban Jelacic Square.  The streets were lively but not crowded.  After settling into our hotel, we went out again to get a snack.  Katya was tired and, at 10:30, the streets were being cleaned and most of the people had settled into cafes or gone home, so we soon returned to our hotel.

This morning (Wednesday, May 27), after breakfast at the hotel, we set off on a self-guided tour of the city, following the routes in the booklet provided to us by the tourist office the previous evening.  Katya had checked the weather forecast and told me that it would only be 66 degrees Fahrenheit (19 C) and cloudy, so I dressed appropriately; she did not.  We realized this as soon as we stepped out of the hotel and felt the cool breeze, but she refused to go back inside to change into something warmer.  As a result, she was cold and grumpy all day.

After stopping briefly near our hotel at the ornate Orthodox Church, where a service was being held, we began our tour of the Lower Town, starting with Nikola Subic Zrinski Square, a lovely, verdant park with a central promenade that was formerly a open-air cattle market.  It is named for a governor and military leader who died fighting the Ottoman Turks in the 16th century.  The park is bordered by 19th and early 20th century edifices.  The southern end is graced with a Neo-Renaissance building housing the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Orthodox Church

Arts and Sciences Building

Passing it, we arrived in King Tomislav Square, dedicated to Croatia's first king, who was crowned in 925 A.D.  The square is bracketed by elegant buildings.  The Neo-Classical railroad station is at the southern end of this square and the Art Pavilion is on the north.  To the west, behind the gardens and fountain in Ante Starcevica Square is the Hotel Esplanade, built in 1925 to provide the best accommodations for passengers on the Orient Express.

Our next stop wer the Botanical Gardens, laid out in the style of a English landscape garden, with winding paths, ponds and various greenhouses.  It is another of the parks in the horseshoe or U-shaped design by urban engineer Milan Lenuci in the 19th century.  In the arboretum, there are a surprising variety of trees, including swamp cypress and dawn redwoods from China.  Near the center of the gardens are pools with lotuses and frogs.  In another area, there is a display of carnivorous plants.  The paths also lead to rock gardens, a pond with marsh plants and beds of perennials and annuals.

lotus in the Botanical Gardens

Frog in the lotus ponds

Leaving the Botanical Gardens, we headed north, passing other large 19th century public buildings, including the State Archives and the National Theater.  We stopped, according to the instructions in the guidebook, along Masarykova Street to "admire" a building called Zagreb's first skyscraper, a nine-story, 35 meter high, rectangular, gray concrete.  According to the book, it is an "elegant example of rational modernism...one of the highest achievement of Croatian architecture" between WWI and WWII.  It is truly one of the plainest and ugliest buildings we have ever seen!

Just past this eyesore, along the otherwise pleasant facades of the same street, we found a statue to Nikola Tesla, perhaps the greatest scientist from Croatia.  (He was educated in western Europe and developed his ideas and inventions in the U.S.)  Despite being cold, Katya enjoyed an ice-cream cone; I just enjoyed the colorful display of ice cream that seems typical in Eastern Europe.

Colorful display of delicious ice cream

Walking north, we came to Petar Preradovic Square, a lovely and lively urban space filled with outdoor cafes and noted for its flower stalls which have been a feature since the 14th century.  We stopped back in the Orthodox Church to admire the interior decorations and icons while a service was not being held, walked through the Oktogon Arcade to see its beautiful glass dome, and then returned to Ilica Street.  Along this pedestrian street run sleek sleek, bright blue-painted trams.

Oktogon dome

Only a block or so from our hotel, I suggested we return to allow Katya to dress in warmer clothes, but she chose martyrdom.

I will continue this blog later today, I hope.  It is now 2 a.m.  We returned to the hotel after touring the Upper Town (which I will write about in the next post) and grabbing a bite to eat on Ilica Street.  The plan was to rest for an hour or so.  Katya snuggled into her bed almost immediately and went into a deep sleep.  I had wanted to go back out to shop and get dinner, but I couldn't keep my eyes opened any longer at about 6 p.m., so I lay down for a short nap.  I slept until almost midnight!  Katya sleeps on, and I am tired again.  We have to get up at 6 a.m., get ready, grab a quick breakfast and be on the train to Split, from where we take a bus to Dubrovnik, at 7:30 a.m.