More Pecs Adventures

On Thursday morning we had some free time. I walked to the Arkade for some shopping -- exciting things like shampoo!

On the way I saw more of the beautiful Pecs tulips. This time of year the city is covered in tulips.

Continuing on I was pleased to see a flower bed in an area that last year was a rough construction site.

On the return trip I stopped at the Zsolany Fountain for a break and took the time to really examine all the detail of the fountain.

The bull's head motif is seen often in Pecs. My understanding that this comes a very old urn found in the Pecs area from the 8th or 9th century.

The heads are not exactly the same color on all four sides. This difference is true, not a photography or light trick.

The above photo shows a medallion of 5 church steeples. This is the icon for Pecs, a name that means 5, associated with Pecs since nearly a 1000 years ago -- as a city then that  had 5 churches.

Later in the afternoon we visited the Klimo Library, the library holding the books from the 15-18th centuries.

I was surprised to learn that at the time the library was started that books were shelved by the color of the bindings, not by author or subject manner.

The above shows binding is larger detail.

And here's an illustration for an old book.

From the old library we went to the very newest library. The center of this building has an area affectionately called the bee hive. It is lined with Zsolany tiles and extends the full seven stories of the building. The top center is open to the sun which is one of the reasons taking a photo of this is challenging. It was great to see this building finished, and I had tried to soak up every detail to share later with a medical librarian friend who was in Pecs last year, but didn't get to see this finished building.

Then we all boarded a bus and wen to Villany for a wine-tasting evening.

After much wine tasting -- and tasting of other types of products too -- we got back to Pecs about 11:30 at which the local hosts invited us to "go for a drink!" We wandered out of the bar to the hotel about 2 AM.

The next day I moved slow, didn't accomplish much but having lunch at one of my favorite restaurants and then making the trek to the Budapest airport and then on to Warsaw. I was more than ready for a nice bed when I got to Warsaw.

Today I went with others to Reymontowka. And so begins now a Polish adventure.