If you like Henry Mercer’s Fonthill in Doylestown or perhaps Isabella Stewart Gardner’s Fenway Court in Boston, then Bory Castle, on the way from Supron to Budapest, is a place for you. Bory Castle now sits in a typical residential neighborhood in the town of Szekesfehervar, Hungary. It was built by Jeno Bory, sculptor, architect, and professor, over a period of 40 years. t’s an eclectic assemblage of sculpture, masonry, found objects (coins, ammunition, religious art, etc.), tile work, and stained glass, embedded within a concrete and stone house, complete with towers, colonnades, fountains, and terraces. Just a few pictures here, hope to have more to show about this place later.
After the castle, we headed to Param’s to pick him up and then found our way to Budapest for the night. We picked up Thea in the morning and hit the highway for the meet-up in Prague. There we will join other Hobo Lollygaggers, Rask, Freq, and Derek.
It will be a full day of road travel for us today so will not have much to report on as far as adventures go. So, we will try to amuse you with some of our musings from the previous day. During our drive from Sopron south there were many sights along the way that got us musing on many subjects.
Transportation
Even in what seems like the most remote locations (that is to say, farm fields with no houses anywhere in sight), you will find a bus stop or train stop with people waiting to be whisked away to some far away city or vacation spot. Would be great if we had more public transport in our remote locations, but I wonder if our independent natures would allow us to employ such a mode of travel.
Then there are the bikes, lots and lots of them, everywhere. Masses of bikes parked in the centers of towns and an amazing amount of older people riding them. Or sometimes walking with them side-by-side with friends. Bikes going to the store, coming back from the store, their frames covered with tied to them and their numerous baskets filled fill to the brim with the contents of the days shopping. Sometime the basket would be filled with flowers. There even seems to be enough of a roadway designed to allow for a generous and fully functional bike path. These cyclers use hand signals and the drivers really pay attention to them and give way, letting them take over the traffic lanes in the town if needed. We have even seen some very old folks cycling out in the countryside a long way from the nearest village with their grocery shopping.
The oddest bit of personal transportation we saw so far was a skater. He was in no hurry to get where ever it was he was going. It was all about the style of his style rather than pace. Although he was going fast enough that if he did take a fall, it would have hurt pretty badly. He was quite graceful taking up the whole roadway going from side to side in very long swoops, sometimes doing creative loop or a circle as he carried on up the roadway to his final destination. This was a very surreal sight, but no photos or video.
Wifi and Music in Cafes
We were in need of a little break and some additional travel info, so went looking for a cafe offering free wifi. When inquiring about access, we were greeted with strange and quizzical looks, Paul says more slowly and clearly, wifi?, and after a few seconds and more confused looks looks pass between us and the baristas, one responded, “Whiffy, you want whiffy??”
We’ve stopped at a number of cafes and restaurants now that share a peculiar trait: they play music with English lyrics, ranging from The Who to Katy Perry. Most people are not conversant in English, but there it is time and again: English lyrics on their music.
Renewable Energy
There are a many wind turbine scattered throughout the Hungarian, Czech and Slovakian landscapes, adjacent to towns of all sizes. Standing tall and majestic over the farmer’s corn, sunflower, or hay fields turning slowly churning the wind into power. In other locations, such as Germany and Austria, they were also accompanied by hills and fields covered in solar collectors. I know that some folks in the US think that wind turbines are an eyesore and don’t want them breaking up their views of the landscape or ocean. But, I personally would rather see them than the steam rising from nearby nuclear power plants.
