Wandering The World

One Dives Weird for Dinner, the Other Herds It: Brown and White Pelicans… The Focus Series

/ Curt Mekemson / 19 Comments
If you have been following this blog for a while, you know that Peggy and I love pelicans. They can appear and act a bit strange. It’s what makes them so attractive to us. We like weird. It wasn’t clear what this one was up to. Scratching an itch? Waving to us? Practicing a crash landing? Whatever, we were lucky to catch it in mid-acton. At the time we were visiting Cabo San Lucas on the the tip of the Baja Peninsula.
This one was swimming around in the water nearby. The sharp tip on the end of its bill is called a nail, as in nailed it, to help in catching fish and assuring that they don’t escape from the pouch.
A handsome fellow— in pelican terms— was watching the action. Note the big feet. Brown Pelicans use them to incubate their eggs, placing them on top of the egg instead of using their warm feathers and body heat like every other bird we can think of. Mom and Pop actually make good parents. The male brings in nesting material; the female builds the nest. Both participate in incubating the eggs, and both help in feeding the nestlings, i.e. they spew regurgitated fish into the nest. It’s a potluck.
Graceful, huh. Brown pelicans dive into the water to catch dinner. Style is not required. They start their dive from as high as 60 feet up in the air and plummet straight down, turning their neck just before hitting the water to avoid injury. Peggy and I were watching a feeding frenzy of around 50 pelicans on the Bahía de Banderas, the bay off of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico when we took this photo and the next one.
It was insane. The large pouch of a pelican can hold up to two gallons of water. As soon as the water drains, it swallows whatever it has caught. A two part stomach system then processes the fish to make them palatable. We couldn’t help but think that this pelican was celebrating— not only because it had caught a fish, but also because it was out of the melee. Woohoo!
We watched a youngster on the Rio Cuale in Puerto Vallarta. Its body had a ways to go to catch up with the size of its bill. I think it was trying to scare up a meal. Or take a bath.
The west coast of California, Oregon and Washington also provides numerous opportunities for watching brown pelicans. At one time these magnificent birds were almost extinct because of the poison DDT used widely by farmers to protect their crops from insects. With the banning of the poison, the birds are now off of the endangered species list and number over 600,000 worldwide. This, and the next three photos were taken on the Carpinteria Beach south of Santa Barbara, California.
Looking dignified. A committee perhaps? Or maybe a board of directors. Note how three in front have placed their bills to the right.
Takeoff on runway 1.
You have probably seen brown pelicans in a neat line as they gracefully fly over waves. That wasn’t the case here. We were thinking, ‘Where’s the air traffic controller?’
This is another one of those, “What the…” photos. Napping perhaps while resting its heavy head on its back? Catching a few rays on his pouch? We took this photo on a San Diego beach 17 years ago.
Peggy and I were driving by a small pond in the Florida Everglades National Park last year when we spotted close to two hundred white pelicans stretched out in a long line, several pelicans deep. While brown pelicans dive for their fish dinners, white pelicans work together in a coordinated effort to herd fish into groups that makes them easier to catch. Most of these are peering into the water, watching and waiting. When a fish swims within reach, they strike using their broad pouches as a trap. It’s kind of like catching a butterfly with a butterfly net. The pelican on the top right has succeeded. Its pouch is still full of water.
Success. Several pelicans are in various phases of swallowing their catch here. The roundup was apparently a success. The white pelican is one of the largest birds in North America with a wing span of up to 9 feet. While brown pelicans primarily catch their fish out of coastal waters, white pelicans can be found on lakes far inland. Shallow water where they can herd fish more easily is preferred.
Our favorite pelican of all times was Petros, the well-loved white pelican of the Greek Island of Mykonos. We were wandering around the Mediterranean Sea several years ago with Peggy’s brother John, his wife Frances and friends when we met him. The original Petros passed on in 1986 but he has been replaced by at least a couple since. One was donated by Jackie Kennedy-Onassis.
Petros and his successors have been living on Mykonos for 70 years, capturing the hearts of locals and visitors alike.
I’ll conclude today’s post with my favorite photo of Petros. With the end of 2025 rapidly approaching, we will use our next three posts to focus on our three major trips of 2025: Hawaii, the Southwest, and New England.

An Iguana, an Elephant Seal, and a Pelican Walked into a Bar… Run, the Bartender Screamed!

/ Curt Mekemson / 24 Comments

Today marks the beginning of a new/old series for us. It’s old in the sense that we have done a similar series in the past, but not for a long time. We are going to select a specific subject for each post. Today, for example, is on iguanas. Our next post will be on elephant seals, and the time after on pelicans. We chose these three to kick off the series because we find them wonderfully weird. They also represent reptiles, mammals and birds.

Given that we have 100,000 (plus or minus) photos in our photo library that we’ve gathered over 25 years of wandering the world, there will be no lack of subjects for future posts. We will, of course, continue to do posts on our ongoing adventures as they take place. As always, photos appearing on our blogs have been taken by either Peggy or me unless otherwise noted.

I am also going to do a new series titled Ut-Oh, which is how I pronounced uh-oh as a child. But more on that in the next few weeks.

Let’s imagine for a second that you look through a peephole in your door and see this eye staring back at you. I don’t know about you, but my reaction would be to follow the bartender’s advice and “Run!” Or at least bar the door with anything available! “Oh, Peggy, could you lend a shoulder here…” I’ve named the photo The Eye of the Iguana in honor of the classic 1964 movie, The Night of the Iguana, starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, and Deborah Kerr. Like Burton’s iguana, ours was hanging out in Puerto Vallarta. As the peep hole scenario suggests, it wanted in. He wasn’t pounding on our door, however…
It was scratching loudly on our frosted window. Other than big and possibly scary, we didn’t have a clue what it was. I opened our door just far enough so I could see out— and close it immediately necessary. Just in case, you know.
Here’s what I saw: a huge male iguana. But what did it want? Had it come by demanding arugula? I took a photo from another angle and found the answer.
it was staring at its image. I don’t think he was thinking, “My, what an handsome guy you are.” It was more like “Who are you and what are you doing in my territory. Get out now!” He was obviously trying to get at his competition. Peggy came out and sat on our doorstep to watch him. “Hey, Curt,” she asked, “what if we leave our door open? Do you think he will come in?” That’s Peggy, for you. Okay…
“Hola, amigo. ¿Estás abrigando a un invasor?” (Hello friend. Are you harboring an invader?) I’d say it took him about three minutes to poke his head through the door and look around…..
And a few seconds to invite himself in. Check out those claws! No wonder his scratching was so loud. That’s his tail coming along behind. Like his smaller cousins (normal size lizards), he can detach it if something grabs it thinking about dinner, like a very large snake or puma.
He did a thorough search, pausing to look around. We kept our feet up off the floor.
And then sat down, as if he wanted to chat with us about where the other iguana went. Like was there a reason we had closed our bedroom door? Grin. Actually, the answer was yes. Can you imagine this fellow sleeping under your bed? Talk about childhood nightmares!
He truly was a handsome fellow. He wandered around for about 20 minutes and then, satisfied that he was still the biggest iguana in the neighborhood, went back outside.

These large representatives of the reptile class are herbivores and relatively peaceful. People even keep them as pets. It’s said that they enjoy being petted and eating arugula.

Two of their prominent characteristics are dewlaps and spines. Dewlaps are the large flap of skin hanging down from their chins. They are used for thermoregulation, communication, and courtship, i.e. gaining or losing heat, scaring off competition or predators, and attracting females— the larger the dewlap, the greater the attraction. Size matters. Females also have dewlaps, but they are smaller.

A couple of other interesting facts: One, they are great swimmers. They often jump from trees into water when a predator is after them. Two, they can jump from great heights without harm, up to 50 feet. It isn’t always a jump, however. When the temperature drops to 50° F or below, their bodies ‘freeze’ up and they come cashing down. Every once in a while when Florida suffers from a cold spell, headlines warn, “Watch out for falling iguanas.” They aren’t kidding.

A huge one fell out of a tree and landed about a foot away from our two-year-old daughter Tasha when she was sleeping outside in Panama. Needless to say, she was quickly moved.

We also found this much smaller green iguana running around in our yard gobbling down plants. There are some 35 different species of iguanas. Check out the tongue.
A closer look. The now missing plant is being swallowed. Is the iguana licking its chops? Yum.

There is a small, narrow island, La Isla del Rio Cuale, on the Cuale River that runs through the heart of Puerto Vallarta where iguanas like to hang out.  Open air restaurants along the river provide a front row seat for watching them and the birds. Peggy and I always try to grab a seat right next to the river.

My grandson, Ethan, grabbed our camera and took this photo when he was 9. The iguana was on the ground checking us out.
Our grandsons Ethan and Cody having fun with the art in Puerto Vallarta, 2013.
Another iguana climbing down a tree. Their long claws are what enable them to climb. The also use them to slow their falls when jumping down, which can lead to injured toes like this guy displays on his right foot.
I’ll close with this youngster who was looking down at us from the roof.
Next up: Elephant seals. We found this big guy at Point Reyes National Seashore, California.

Novi Sad— A Visit to Serbia… The Great River Series: Danube #12

/ Curt Mekemson / 36 Comments
A view of Croatian countryside from the Danube River.

Our journey down the Danube River from Kalocsa, Hungary on October 1st took us to Vukovar, Croatia and on to Novi Sad, Serbia. Since I felt like I was coming down with a cold, I skipped the trip into Vukovar and will be focusing on Novi Sad today. Peggy did make the trip, however, and told me the guide devoted much of his attention to the bloody conflict that had taken place during the 1990s Yugoslav Wars. The peaceful countryside above is my counterpoint to that conflict. The tragic war that tore up the region was yet one more example of what happens when people focus on what divides rather than what unites, and clever, unprincipled politicians exploit differences to gain power rather than focus on common interests to solve problems. Unfortunately, our ancient tribal instincts make fomenting disunity much easier than creating unity. But a guy can dream, can’t he…

Maybe if we all just ate more chocolate. Grin. It doesn’t care what your political, ethnic, religious, economic , or other tribe is. I almost lost Peggy at this store in Novi Sad.
Or maybe if we spent more time listening to music and going for quiet walks in the countryside. We stopped in Novi Sad to enjoy an old musician play Serbian folk songs on his gusle, a traditional Balkan instrument.
A mural in Novi Sad showed musicians (with one enormous rooster crowing along) performing in a rural village. The painting made me think of Grandma Moses.
The musician also entertained us with his frula, a traditional Serbian flute.
Just down the street, a young Japanese woman entertained us with popular Western songs utilizing the latest in technology. The old Serb man and the young Japanese woman represented two incredibly different worlds connected by music.
The huge Petrovaradin Fortress was our first view on coming into Novi Sad, a bit ironic given my comments on peace. I’m sure others would use the word ‘realistic.’ The Fort dates all the way back to the 1600s and has miles of tunnels running under it.
A pair of eyes were staring down at us at a restaurant near the fort.
This clock tower at the end of the fort had an interesting twist: The minute hand was short and the hour hand was long. Our guide explained that the switch was made because sailors and fisherman using the Danube were much more concerned about the hour and needed to see it from a distance. The clock is nicknamed the “drunk clock” by some because it’s slow when the weather is cold and fast when the temperature is hot. 
One of our first views on docking in Novi Sad was this old apartment building. Its hodgepodge of colors caught our attention but not nearly as much as the mural on the end of the building…
Nice kitty.
Our walking tour of Novi Sad took us through its attractive old town featuring modern shops. Most shops were advertised in English as well as Serbian.
My weakness, old style lamps.
Mercury, the Roman God of commerce, travel and trickery, can be see running on top of a commercial building from this back road that included a number of restaurants.
Also along the street (which I think I read was the oldest road in the city) was a kissy fishy mural where the fish were swimming around in a girl’s hair that she was blow drying.
I thought this lamp situated on the side of a building in obvious need of attention made an interesting photo.
Back on the Main Street, balloons were being sold. Choices ranged from cats and dogs, to a pink pig, to ponies, to chipmunks, a baby Yoda and more— topped off by marauding sharks.
As always on our tours, there were major city buildings to explore. This was the Bishop’s Palace of the Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Backa. An eparchy is the equivalent of a Catholic diocese and the bishop is an eparch, in case you were curious.
The Cathedral Church of the Holy Great-Martyr George looms behind the Bishop’s Palace. The American Orthodox Church knows him as the Greatmartyr, Victory- Bearer, and Wonderworker George. Either way, George lost his head and gained sainthood.
We went inside the church. A whole wall was dedicated to 33 paintings of various saints and other religious icons important to the Serbian people. Such a wall, known as an iconostasis, is common in orthodox churches.
The Name of Mary Catholic Church is a couple of blocks away, dominating Liberty Square.
Looking up at the church.
A side view of the church with its red and green roof. We liked it.
Inside the church, looking toward the altar.
Novi Sad’s attractive City Hall stood just opposite the Name of Mary Catholic Church across Liberty Square. A surprisingly few people occupied the Square. That was about to change.

One month to the day after we visited Novi Sad, the new canopy of the city’s railway station collapsed killing 15 people and seriously injuring 3 others. Sloppy workmanship seemed to be the cause. A student led coalition demanded details and wanted the people who did it held responsible. Combined with a growing concern over the repressive tactics of the country’s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, a series of nationwide protests involving 10s of thousands of people with support ranging from judges to farmers to medical workers to civil engineers to arts groups and more has been going on since. Several cars have been driven into the protesters, while masked men carrying baseball bats have attacked others.

Liberty Square has been one of the centers of protest. I doubt that we would have been touring the city had we arrived on November 1 or any day since.
High school students hold a protest filling Liberty Square. In opposing student participation in the protests, a high ranking member of Aleksandar Vucic’s political party stated that students were a property of the state until they reached their age of majority (18). You can imagine how that went over.
(Balkan news photo)

And now on to our next post: It’s back to Hawaii and volcanoes.
KC of Seaview, Hawaii (shown here with her Chihuahua Pomeranian (Reni Roo) and me), watched as lava shot 300 feet into the air in 2018 from nearby Fissure 8 and wondered if the house she was building would soon be buried under lava. Our next post will focus on the 2018 volcanic eruption on the Big Island of Hawaii plus other worries that Hawaiians occasionally face: Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, fires and floods. Hey, let’s party. Life’s short. I’ll drink to that (especially a week from today when I turn 82).

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden… Happy Valentine’s Day!

/ Curt Mekemson / 29 Comments

Peggy and I have been to a number of botanical gardens over the years. They have all been special, each offering something unique. The Hawaii Botanical Tropical Garden we visited two weeks ago is one of the best. Every few feet we screeched to a halt to admire yet another plant. Beautiful flowers, out of this world leaves, unique trees, vines galore, waterfalls and even an ancient Hawaiian God— the garden has it all. Today we are bringing the best of what we saw to you with minimal commentary. Happy Valentine’s Day. (Say it with flowers. Grin.)

In the middle of large leaves, a single flower.
It didn’t matter where we looked. There was beauty. And green.
Pretty enough to eat. Grin.
A bit strange.
Striking.
Looking up.
Varieties of orchids from throughout the world were in the dozens.
Elephant like?
Did you know that there are between 25 and 30,000 varieties in the world?
They come in many colors…
And shapes.
This is only a portion of the ones we photographed.
As I noted, everywhere we turned, there was something interesting to photograph.
Half of the time, what we saw was new to us.
This flower made Peggy hungry for corn on the cob.
There was a small multi-tiered waterfall.
Quiet pools.
Green, moss-covered rocks.
And KU, a major Hawaiian God. (There will be more on KU when we do a post on the ancient Hawaiians.)
Bamboo shaded KU.
Leaves and vines were hanging everywhere, in profusion.
Palm trees and fronds are a natural for the tropical garden.
Leaves were almost as varied as the flowers.
Green, yes. But not necessarily in a form we are used to. We thought the contrast created by the shadows was dramatic.
Similar. And yet…
Pin stripes?
Not green.
Likewise.
A gecko caught Peggy’s attention. The Hawaiians call it Mo’o.
Spider webs caught mine.
We will close with a few more flowers. Some of them were even familiar to us. Note the ‘some’ word.
Like this one.
Orange and white.
Red.
Great buds, assuming they belong together.
Pretty in pink.
Look at me!
Another old friend.
And another.
And this red beauty for Valentine’s Day to close our post.

I just counted the photos that Peggy and I included in today’s blog. It struck me that we could have probably turned this into a month’s worth of posts doing one everyday. Or a small book. I hope it downloads. But we have so darned many things to blog about. Tough, I know. Our next post will find us floating down the Danube River again…

There Be Dragons About: Kalocsa, Hungary… The Great River Series: Danube #11

/ Curt Mekemson / 13 Comments
Meet Draco Aethiopicus. Ulisse Aldrovandi chose to include him in his 1640 book Serpentum et Draconium Historiae, a natural history of snakes and dragons. I think Draco looks pretty good, considering the age of the book. It’s one of 130,000 volumes found in the Cathedral Library of Kalocsa. Started in medieval times, most of the books were lost during the 150 year Turkish occupation of Hungary. Efforts to rebuild the library collection were initiated in the 1700s. The content of the books, in addition to religious materials, include medical, judicial, scientific and historical works.

One of the sources for Aldrovandi’s book was Claudius Aelianus (175 – 235 CE), a Roman author who wrote 17 books on the nature of animals. He, in turn, relied upon earlier accounts. Here’s the translation of what he said about Draco: “The land of Aithiopia (Ethiopia)–the place where the gods bathe, celebrated by Homer under the name of Okeanos (Oceanus), is an excellent and desirable neighbour–this land, I say, is the mother of the very largest Drakones (Dragon-Serpents). For, you must know, they attain to a length of one hundred and eighty feet, and they are not called by the name of any species, but people say that they kill elephants, and these Drakones rival the longest-lived animals.” Works for me. Except I like elephants.

Peggy and I wandered around enjoying the collection and the illustrations on display.

An early edition of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematic.
A scenic anatomy lesson.
My first thought was Biblical where the really old dudes got really young wives. Several of them— not counting concubines. My second thought was hairy. His and hers. It could be that the older man is the father of the young woman.
Some of the oldest books in the library.
Members of our group check out the illustrations provided in the library.
The rather attractive Assumption Cathedral dominates the skyline of Kolocsa and the surrounding country.
The Virgin Mary, St. Paul, and St. Peter are perched on top of the church, which led to an irreverent thought (not my first): Peter, Paul and Mary. And what were they singing? Puff the Magic Dragon, naturally, in line with this post.
Outside the church, all of the buildings in the Holy Trinity Square were painted yellow. We found it attractive but wondered why one color. Turns out it was Queen Maria Theresa’s favorite. Best to keep the Queen happy.
The altar inside the Church of the Assumption displays a large painting of the Virgin Mary being Assumed. (The Catholic Church’s words, not mine.) For my part, I’ll assume she made it, but I know that’s an assumption.
The golden, pink and white colors inside the church made for an interesting look.
The church’s organ.
We found the stuccos on the ceiling of the church to be particularly impressive.
Outside I found two rather impressive beasties. This lion…
And an eagle. Check out the talons! There may be some kind of record here. That’s a wrap on Kalocsa, or, in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, “That’s all folks.” In our next post Peggy and I are returning to the Big Island of Hawaii, where we will take you to the beautiful Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, which is almost out of this world.

Folk Dancing, Beautiful Embroidery, and Paprika at the Bakod Horse Farm, Hungary… Danube River 10

/ Curt Mekemson / 30 Comments
What’s more Hungarian than paprika? This delightful, elderly woman with her wonderful smile was stringing paprika peppers to hang at the Bakod Horse Farm near Kolocsa , Hungary.
Peggy likes to sprinkle paprika on deviled eggs that disappear almost as quickly as she can make them. The spice comes in small tins and bottles and is sold almost anywhere one can buy spices. I didn’t know that the spice came in red peppers that originated in Central and South America and arrived in Hungary via Turkey. They range from mild to hot depending on the type of pepper used. The Kalocsa region is one of the world’s primary paprika growing areas.
Another smile.
The woman’s face in black and white.
Strings of paprika peppers hung to dry.
Folk dancing is an important part of Hungarian culture, right up there with eating paprika it seems. This young couple in their 20s came to the Bakod Farm to demonstrate the Csárdás, Hungary’s most popular folk dance. They were quite good. Anita is carrying a handkerchief with her name on it. Soon, she would be waving it about as she danced.
I was equally impressed with their traditional Hungarian costumes. Note the bead covered head piece on Anita and the detailed embroidery on her dress.
Details of the bead work.
And the detailed, beautiful embroidery.
Anita displayed her pleated dress, embroidered apron and some of the 8 petticoats that held her dress out. There was also a small pillow.
Another Hungarian woman sat off to the side working on the embroidery for another costume.
At first the couple danced together.
And then they moved off on their own, almost seeming to fly. That’s it. We leave the Bakod Farm with its wonderful horses and Csikos and paprika and folk dancing today. My next post, I am going to take a detour to Hawaii and Volcano-land. After that we will visit Kalocsa before continuing our journey down the Danube and many more adventures.
You may not remember the dramatic media coverage of lava spouting out of Hawaii’s East Rift Zone and slowly making its way to the sea, destroying homes and blocking roads as it went 7 years ago in 2018. We do. It was around 10 miles away from where we are staying on the Big Island. Peggy and I drove out to the ‘end go the road’ that passes by our rental on Monday. As Kilauea continues to erupt this week, 20 miles away, it’s hard not to remember 2018.

Budapest by Boat and Bus… The Great River Series— Danube #8

/ Curt Mekemson / 33 Comments
Today, Peggy and I are going to feature a variety of photos we took as we wandered through Budapest by both boat and bus. Here we are looking toward the Liberty Bridge and Budapest’s classic Gellert Hotel from the Amadeus. The bridge connects the Buda side of the Danube River with the Pest side. The hotel is presently being remodeled by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel chain with plans to reopen it in 2027 as the Mandarin Oriental Gellert Hotel. That seems a like a strange name for a historic hotel in Budapest, but no stranger than one being named the Hilton. Or something like Trump Tower.
Looking at the Gellert Hotel from the front.
The hotel is named after St. Gellert. He was passing through Budapest as an abbot from Venice in the 11th Century on his way to the Holy Land when King Stephens asked him to stay for awhile to educate his son and help convert the pagan Magyars to Christianity, which he did. At least until after Stephens died and a rebel group of Magyars decided they preferred their paganism. Gellert was shoved into a barrel, nails were driven into it, and he was rolled off the mountain and into the Danube, thus gaining instant sainthood.
The Liberty statue, which represent freedom from Communist rule, stands on top of Gellert Hill.
The monument is presently under renovation. I thought that the scaffolding created a unique, almost artistic look. Hungary’s flag is on the right.
Another view of our boat. The cold, cloudy, fall day explains the lack of people on the sundeck.
It didn’t deter Peggy’s brother John and his wife Frances from having their photo taken on the deck, however. Sunshine was teasing us by lighting up buildings in the background.
We took a photo encourage it.
We’ve already included several pictures from Fisherman’s Bastion in our previous two posts, but here are a couple more we liked. An early morning view of the Pest side of the river complete with a ferris wheel.
Later, the sun allowed us the catch colorful roofs beneath the Fisherman’s Bastion on the Buda side of the river.
Our trip to and from Hero’s Square (featured in our last post) allowed us to see several other buildings that caught our attention. This happens to be Budapest’s Great Synagogue. As always, taking pictures from a moving bus is tricky! Trees, power lines, and even windows get in the way, not to mention odd angles. But what the heck, such obstacles just makes the photo more interesting and more real.
A slightly better photo. The Great Synagogue earns its name. It is the largest synagogue in Europe and has one room that can hold 3,000 people. The building suffered severe damage under Nazi and Communist rule. It was renovated in the 1990s with a $5 million contribution from the Hungarian government and a $20 million dollar gift from the Jewish Americans Tony Curtis and Estee Lauder.
A random building photo from the bus’s window.
The Comedy Theater of Budapest provided another opportunity for a bus window shot. We took a lot more photos like this (there is a reason why my photo library is now at 97,919 pictures— grin), but now it’s time for us to return to the Amadeus for an evening tour of Budapest.
Taking photos from a moving bus is a piece of cake compared to night photography without a tripod on a moving boat. I’ll just label this one art. It’s Buda Palace.
We were actually able to catch a good photo of Buda Palace so I will quit while I am ahead and use it to wrap up our three blogs on Budapest. Next up on our Danube River trip: A lesson on how to persuade a horse to sit.

Budapest: The Parliament Building, Buda Castle, and Hero’s Square… Great River Series— Danube 8

/ Curt Mekemson / 34 Comments

Good morning and Happy New Year everyone. Here’s hoping you had a great holiday with family and friends. Peggy and I enjoyed our family time and consumed far too many calories. Now it’s back to work, so to speak. There are blogs to write, trips to plan, and left over holiday goodies to eat. Peggy just tempted me with one of our daughter’s brownies. My resistance was zero. I followed it with a second.

I’m starting today with where I left off before Christmas. The photo above is of the Hungary/Budapest Parliament Building, which happens to be one of the most popular destinations for visitors to Budapest. For good reason. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. This photo was taken when we arrived in Budapest and were still on the Danube. The early morning light was responsible for its fuzzy, ethereal, greenish-blue look.

An early morning view from the Danube River of our arrival in the Budapest. Shortly after docking, we journeyed up to Matthias Church where we had great views from the Fisherman’s Bastion overlooking the Parliament Building.

By the time we finished visiting Matthias’s Church, the sun was beginning to light up the Parliament Building. Unfortunately, a church steeple was busy photo bombing us, making it impossible to get a clear shot of the whole building.

We were able to minimize the steeple but our best solution was to photograph the building by sections.

The Parliament Building was inaugurated in 1896 in recognition of of the nation’s 1,000th anniversary and the 1873 uniting of three cities: Buda, Pest, and Obuda. Forty million bricks went into its construction, or so they say. Whatever, it was a lot of bricks. Approximately half of the building is used for today’s Hungarian unicameral legislature, while the other half is used for a variety of purposes including offices, conferences, ceremonies— and tours. If you feel the building bears a strong resemblance to Britain’s Westminster Place, you’d be right. Hungary wanted to emphasize its close relationship to Western Europe and England at the time.

Buda Palace, once the home of kings, provided another early morning view from the Danube River. Originally dating back to 1265 and later destroyed, much of what you see above was built in the mid 1700s. That, in turn was severely damaged during WW II and then rebuilt during the Communist era. The buildings in front add a nice dash of color.

A closer look.

Our favorite view of the palace. Like Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, Buda Palace is located on Castle Hill.

Our drive into Pest from Matthias Church provided a final view of the Palace. Shortly after this, we were crossing one of the bridges across the Danube and on our way to Hero’s Square, which, in addition to providing recognition for a number of Hungary’s heroes, also features an art museum and a castle.

Our first view was the Palace of Art. We didn’t have to guess which building it was. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to explore it. One of the disadvantages of most organized tours is that there is rarely time for any more that a cursory exploration of what you are seeing.

On the other hand, many of the things we see don’t require a lot of time. For example, this monument representing the seven Magyar chieftains who led the Hungarian people into the Carpathian Basin in 896 was hidden behind scaffolding.

I found the two matching colonnades behind the Magyar Chieftains to be of more interest. The figures on top represented important aspects of Hungarian life and virtues. The bottom statues were of important historical figures.

Here, the man with the scythe and the woman sowing seeds represented labor and wealth. As to why a man would choose to go out into a field of grain and whip around a large, sharp object while being totally naked is a total mystery to me.

That this represents war makes more sense. But wait! His whip is a large snake. Various coats of arm and the ever present naked cherubs are on the pedestal.

Facing war on the opposite colonnade is Peace with a palm frond and a billowing robe. We missed Wisdom and Glory. Darn.

There were too many statues of Hungarian nobility and heroes to include in this post so I chose Gabriel Bethlem to represent them. He’s up there because he concluded an important treaty with Bohemia for Hungary. I didn’t choose him for that, however. I chose him for his mustache and hat.

I couldn’t resist.

Vajdahunyad Castle is located in the City Park of Budapest just behind Heroes’ Square. It certainly looks like one of the historical castles we’ve featured from time to time in our posts. But looks can be deceiving, right? Originally it was made of cardboard and wood as part of the 1896 Millennium Celebration of the foundation of Hungary. It was so popular however, the stick and cardboard castle was torn down and replaced with real stones. It was designed to feature elements of several prominent castles from the region and illustrates Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles.

Two more views. This one…

And this, which concludes today’s post. Next we will be featuring miscellaneous photographs we took while exploring Budapest by bus and river boat.

A night shot of Buda Palace taken while on an evening cruise.

Welcome to Budapest, Hungary: Matthias Church… Great River Series— Danube # 7

/ Curt Mekemson / 22 Comments
The sun wasn’t yet up when we arrived in Budapest. The captain of our riverboat had urged the evening before that we get up early so we could see the city in the early morning light. It was a good suggestion. There will be several photos in our posts on Budapest that will reflect what we saw. Here, we are looking toward Buda Castle Hill. The twin towers of St. Anne’s Church are on the right. Looking up the hill to the left is the beautiful Matthias Church that we will visit in today’s post.
Focusing in on Matthias Church a few minutes later, the sun was lighting the sky quickly. I thought the slightly fuzzy quality our cameras produced in the low light added to the beauty.
Then my camera decided to focus on the light behind the church, leaving it with a dark outline. It wasn’t what I was trying to accomplish, but I liked the result. The striking Matthias Bell Tower and a number of other towers stand out.
Matthias Church caught under blue skies in bright sunshine. While the style is Gothic, the brightly covered roof speaks to a late 19th Century makeover, as does the inside of the church. The green guy on his green horse is the much revered first king of Hungary, King Stephen. We took the photo from what is known as Fisherman’s Bastion, another prominent landmark of Budapest.
The King with his saintly halo and double cross is blessing the church. The towers are part of Fisherman’s Bastion. There are seven in total, representing the the seven chieftains of the Hungarian tribes that crossed the Carpathian Mountains and entered the Carpathian Basin in 895 CE (Common Era).
Born a pagan but baptized as a Christian, St. Stephen was coronated on Christmas Day in 1000 CE and immediately set out to Christianize Hungary. Thus, his Sainthood.

A true mark of a Catholic Saint during the Middle Ages, BTW, was that the faithful collected bits and pieces of you as relics to be worshipped. Praying over them could cure you of whatever, they thought. King Stephen donated his “naturally mummified” right hand to the cause when his tomb was opened in 1083 CE. I assume it was chopped off. He didn’t complain. It is one of Hungary’s most cherished relics. When the Ottoman Turks captured and occupied Budapest from 1541 to 1699, the hand was sent to Ragusa (Dubrovnik) for safe keeping where it was guarded by Dominican friars. They were reluctant to return it afterward. Lots of pilgrims generated revenue. They finally relented when Queen Maria Theresa promised to protect the city from a pending Russian invasion.
Speaking of the invasion by the Ottomans, they actually took over Matthias Church and turned it into a mosque. I was wondering if the moon and star (upper center left), which are both symbols of Islam and are often found on top of mosques, commemorated their occupation? Also, of interest, is the raven seen in the upper right center…
Legend has it that Matthias’ mother sent a raven to Prague with the ring urging her son to return home. King Matthias is another of Hungary’s loved rulers. He was said to travel around in disguise to get a feel for the life of his subjects, “doing justice to the poor, and shaming the powerful and arrogant.” He incorporated the raven into his coat of arms and put one on top of the church with a symbolic ring. He was known as the Raven King.
The church really is beautiful…
And impressive.
A final view before heading inside.
The warm brown and gold colors found on the main altar of Matthias Church are found throughout the church.
I really liked the way Mary was designed to allow light from the stained glass windows to flow around her. This attention to detail was found throughout the church.
Another example. Both unity and depth are achieved here. Also, do you see the lights hanging across the arch?
Light was used throughout the church for emphasis.
I liked this painting. It showed a stag doing what stags do— eat grass— while the ‘Lamb of God’ looks on.
Several large paintings are incorporated into the church. This is Francis of Assisi encouraging the baby Jesus to walk to him.
This mural depicting St./King Laszlo was even more richly painted than that of St. Francis. The bird headed people in the left corner seem rather strange.
The King/Saint Laszlo with piercing, scary eyes was ensconced in an nook below the mural.
My favorite: The pillars of the church!
Outside the church we snapped a photo of the the Holy Trinity Statue that was built to protect the people of Buda from the Black Plagues that devastated Europe between 1691 and 1709, causing the death of up to 50% of Europe’s population. The Holy Trinity tops the column. Cherubs and angels are next, and various saints are on the bottom. Remember how we noted in Vienna that St. Sebastian was always depicted with arrows sticking out of him? Look to the left. They even sculpted the tree he was supposedly tied to.
Here’s the Holy Trinity. The Holy Ghost hovers above as a dove with light emanating from it, God with his flowing beard is next, and Jesus is carrying his cross. A fat little cherub is on the lower right because fat little cherubs apparently like to hang around the powers that be.
After our tour we were given some time to hike the walkway on Fisherman’s Bastion with its great views of Budapest.
One of the views was of St. Anne’s Church with its Italian baroque tower that we had first seen from the river in today’s top photo.
Another was of Hungary’s Parliament building which will be one of the sights featured in our next post.

That does it for now. We’ll be taking a couple of weeks off for Christmas and New Year’s but I will get a brief post up just before Christmas. Beyond that, see you in 2025. Have a great holiday!

From a Tip of the Hat to a Classy Hotel: Bratislava… The Great River Series— Danube #6

/ Curt Mekemson / 23 Comments
Meet Naci. He’s one of several statues scattered around Old Town, Bratislava designed to give the city a new image following the dark days of Communist rule that ended in the mid-1990s. Naci was actually a real person who would dress up in elegant clothes and wander the streets of the city. He liked the ladies. He was known to pick out a woman at random, tip his hat, bow, give her flowers and sing her a song. Here, our sister-in-law, Frances, poses beneath his top hat.
Here’s a statue the Communists left behind. Quite the contrast, huh. It says a lot about Communist Russia’s rule of the Eastern Bloc countries.
And, traveling much further back in time, I decided to throw in this statue. Not because of the Madonna standing on a crescent moon, but because of what else she is standing on…
That is one depressed dragon! Check out the eyes and ears. You can almost hear it whining: “Damn, skewered again. And all I wanted to do was give her an apple.”
And then there was this guy, inviting visitors into a restaurant that featured sausages.
We spent our time in Bratislava exploring the Old Town section. This is a view of the tower connected to the Old Town Hall built approximately in 1370.
Views of the tower can be seen from many different locations in Old Town.
Here, it peaks out from behind the Old Town Hall. Its top features the same striking green we saw on several buildings in Vienna.
The historic old pharmacy building also featured a green top.
St. Martin’s Cathedral, known as the site where 11 Hungarian Kings were crowned between 1563 to 1783, has a dramatic green and golden steeple.
A closer view.
The church backs up to the ancient city walls. It actually served as a part of the fortification.
As might be expected, a statue of St. Martin is included in the church. At first I thought he was threatening to kill the guy on the ground. Instead he is cutting his coat up and offering half of it to a poor man he had found outside suffering in the cold with minimal clothes, a saintly act for sure.
A number of attractive, classic buildings are found in the Old Town. This is the Primate’s Palace.
These buildings grace Bratislava’s main square. The steeple of St. Martin’s Church can be seen in the background.
A street view leading off of the square. Part of the Old Town Hall is on the left.
And finally, even the Carlton Hotel was a class act. That does it for Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia. Next up, we continue down the Danube to Budapest, the Capital of Hungary.
A view looking up a hill toward Matthias Church in Budapest.