Day Trips

Yesterday I took a day trip to Szekszard. It is a town of about 36,000 about 70 kilometers from Pecs. I took the bus to and from the town. I wanted to go there to see the exhibits in the Mor Wosinszky Museum. I have been wondering and wondering why the Hungarian name for Poland includes Lengyel. When I was feeling ill a couple of weeks ago I spent a good bit of time looking at guidebooks and trying to decide my priorities for visits while yet in Hungary. That is when I discovered this museum had exhibits from a Lengyel excavation.

Here is a Lengyel pot. This culture lived from about 5000 - 4000 BCE. They were agricultural and lived in what is now present day Hungary, through Czech Republic, Slovakia, and up into present day Poland. There was a village/town called Lengyle near present day Szekszard and Wosinszy excavated here in the late 19th century.

I very much enjoyed every exhibit in this musuem. The woman at the ticket desk went out of her way to find me English language literature about the exhibits as well as the region.

Above is a replica of what the well dressed woman of the Bronze Age would wear, including what I think are hair pins.

Here are some 9th century pots -- 13,000 years later. Hard to imagine that much span of time actually.

The museum also has an excellent display of the remains of an abbey in the location from about the 13th century. The remainder of the museum gives a good explanation of all the people who came into this area from the time of the Ottoman invasion and then afterwards. This exhibit gives the first idea that immigration here was very difficult for the Schwabian Germans. It speaks to the fact that it took about two generations for stability to occur.

I continued towards the center of town looking for lunch. The guidebook calls this town charming, and I agree with that adjective.

The place I found for lunch looks as if it has been lifted right from Vienna. Indeed I saw a lot of dual Hungarian/German signage in this town and others through which the bus passed.

This is also a city of monuments. For a somewhat small town it has a great many. Here is one example of many possible choices. I wish I could have read the symbolism in the panels better. It looks as if the pieces of the gate would move but they do not. There are also panels on the reverse side.

Here is one panel from a closer perspective.

Got back home about 18:00 and just crashed. Don't think I'm quite over being knocked out by the upper respiratory illness and then touring on three hours of sleep.

Today I went to the American Corner with a big bag of books. Then I wandered towards my office. This blog entry says Day Trips and it is certainly possible to do one every day in Pecs.

The above area on Szechenyi Ter has been fenced off for some time. Today I found water running down and couldn't decide if this was a fountain or the creation of very clean steps. When I came back a few hours later the water was still running, so I guess this is a fountain not a stair case.

I took a walk down a street on which I've never been and found this wonderful decorative element on a building. A few steps later I heard magnificent piano music pouring out a window and discovered the Music Department for the University of Pecs.

At my office building I found the sign fairies had been busy. This insignia was not over the door when I was there on Tuesday.

From the office I wandered to the Arkade to change some money for the trip to Romania/Transylvania. I stopped for an ice cream dessert too. I was lost in reading a book and all of sudden found a little boy, perhaps two years, right beside me saying, "Szia." Soon a father came for him! So one can do a day trip at home, too!