Hungary Trip

Hungary Trip

We spent 6 full days in Hungary visiting Grandma and Grandpa on their mission.  It was nice to get away from the girls and it was really good to see them.  They live in Sopron, a large town on the border of Austria and Hungary.  Their apartment is on the outskirts of town and right by the forest.  It was beautiful!  We had a fun time and here are a few of the activities of the week:

We went to explore the Dorbronte ruins not too far from their town.  They are beautiful.  I love Europe for the fact that there are all of these ancient ruins practically in your backyard no matter where you go.  It was fun to walk around and enjoy the view.

We drove down to the Balatan, a touristy lake for some lunch and it was neat to just stroll around.  Grandma managed a very successful shopping venture in one of the local shops – she pretty much bought Christmas for the entire family in one store.  Pretty impressive if you ask me.

We have no pictures of this, but we made our first venture to the Hungarian “hot baths.”  This one we went to in Heviz was the 2^nd largest mineral lake in Europe?  We decided to give it a try.  The verdict: stinky (gotta love the rotten egg smell) and not very hot (more of a luke-warm).  It definitely wasn’t what you picture when you think hot bath, but we did have a lot of fun. 

We went to the Esterhazy Palace where a bunch of rich Hungarians lived at one point.  The palace was neat to walk around.  It’s always fun to see the decorations inside and enjoy the gardens outside.

We made a 2^nd attempt at a hot bath.  This time it didn’t stink and they were warmer.  An improvement, I’d say.

While Grandma and Grandpa were giving some lessons at the church, James and I walked through downtown Sopron.  It was neat to walk through the shops and courtyards and see the buildings…I love the old feeling of the buildings.  We saw part of the city wall that was built in the 4^th Century.

We went to the Sopron piknik area, where the first real breach in the Iron curtain was made.  In one day about 600 people made it through the fence without the guards shooting them.  It was pretty cool to see the guard tower still standing and read a little more about the history.

We ended the trip with a night in Budapest. It's an awesome city!

 I had to throw that last picture in to show our resourcefulness in cutting pizza!