Wanderung 32

We all drove back to the ship for lunch, after which Linda, Jerry, Lois, Beth, Monika and I all went to a horse show conducted at a horse farm about an hour's bus drive out into the Hungarian countryside. On the way out of Pest we saw the most curious contraption on the street in back of Hero's Square, which I can only describe as a multi-person beer bicycle. It was a big, open-sided cart with about 6 guys along each side pedaling furiously and a big keg of beer in the nose where the driver sat and steered.

The horsewhow turned out to be a lot of fun. We first watched a horse performances that showcased the traditions and expertise of the Magyar horsemen, including shooting arrows and throwing spears while riding a horse using a curiously small saddle with stirrups but no cinch strap under the horse. That lack of cinch strap was put to good use when the horsemen demonstrated having the horses lie down and roll over on command, something I have not seen before. I could see, however, that in an old-fashioned calvary battle that maneuver would have been useful in order to dismount and then effectively use the horse's body as a shield during the melee.

Even "Sissi" put in an appearance riding a dressage routine on a snow-white Lippazanner horse, but she did it all sidesaddle in a long, flowing red dress. I just have never seen dressage performed sidesaddle before, and having seen my niece Margaret do modern dressage, I can't see exactly how you would steer and cue the horse correctly from a sidesaddle, but the young woman obviously did it quite well.

But the highlight of the show for me personally was the bull whip demonstration done by the riders, at the end of which they invited two members of the audience to come up and use their bull whips to try to knock a bottle of wine off a wooden peg. The lady they chose managed to do that in 3 tries, and much to my satisfaction I managed to do it in two tries! For that feat I was graciously awarded the bottle of a local 2012 vintage wine, and the bottle was fortunately still intact after being bull-whipped off the peg because of the soft surface of the track. Great fun! We took the bottle with us to Hamburg, and Heinke and Gustl helped us by consuming the wine while we were taking our bicycle trip up the Elbe River, so when we returned to Hamburg we picked up the empty bottle, packed it in my bag, and carried it back home to Fairfax where it is now proudly on display!

We also toured the attached barnyard with some local Hungarian breeds of sheep, dogs, and pigs. The sheep had unusually long, curly-shaped horns unlike the common USA or European sheep, and the pig was a really wooly pig with quite a nice coat of hair, which I imagine would be useful in the harsh Hungarian winters. The dog was the "Pulli" breed of dog which is used locally to herd the sheep, and they were really , really hairy, which would again suit the winter climate. But the turkeys, I have to say, looked like normal American turkeys!

But finally it was time to return to the ship for a last evening meal with all 8 of us, during which we exchanged our experiences of the day and our impressions of the cruise. Jerry's advice for a trip like this is "Don't leave shit on the bus!", because he lost a jacket by doing exactly that early in the cruise. Rob also had a really difficult time purchasing 3-day passes for the train and bus system in Budapest. It was a case of "if at first you don't succeed , try, try again" as he had to try four different train stations and ultimately had to walk over 7 miles to buy them. Since seven miles is well over 10 kilometers we usually walk for a Volksmarch, we gave him an honorary award!

After dinner we said good bye to Lois and Beth as they were scheduled to leave the ship 4:00 am the next morning. The ship put on a Hungarian music demonstration after dinner, but we opted to leave the Tor and take a walk along the riverside promenade on both the Pest and Buda sides of the Danube. We really enjoyed how the bridges and monuments on both sides of the river were nicely illuminated and almost glowing golden in the dark. If you get to Budapest make sure to see it at night because the reflections of the lights on the river and against the dark sky were really very, very pretty.