Budapest to Vienna

Thursday, November 8, 2018

Budapest to Vienna

Saying goodbye to the departing friends, Frank arranged for us to get a car to go from Budapest to Vienna. We had originally planned to train-hop but decided to rent cars instead of trying to schlep all our luggage aboard over-crowded trains.

We started out by trying to rent one to drive on the rest of the trip. Turns out we had two options because they don’t let Hungarian cars leave Hungary. The first option was to rent two cars. One we would drive as far as the border (in the middle of nowhere) with a second car following us with two drivers to take both cars back to Hungary. Never did find out how we were supposed to get a rent car at a border control point.

Fortunately there was a second option...much cheaper it turns out. We rented a car and driver to take us all the way to Vienna. Lots of pictures along the way, most of which are hard to tell why I took them. If you enlarge them you’ll see they’re pictures of a giant wind farm, and multiple signs of ugly America gooping up the roadside. Yep, Mickey D and the Colonel were the only roadside signs we saw on the entire trip (except one CFC sign coupled with an ad for a golf course.) That’s right. No billboards. Lots of brown road signs pointing to areas of interest but not a single garish add for...well, pick your favorite from the millions that blight the landscape in Texas. Shades of Lady Bird Johnson! They pulled it off in Austria and Germany. Wish we had in the good ole US of A as well.

The next day we toured most of the Museum of Military History(HGM) housed in the old Garrison quadrangle. “It documents the history of Austrian military affairs through a wide range of exhibits comprising, above all, weapons, armours, tanks, aeroplanes, uniforms, flags, paintings, medals and badges of honour, photographs, battleship models, and documents.” (From the internet link to the Museum.)The lobby of the museum was astounding. (See all the pictures of the columns.) The exhibits were also quite good.

It’s a large museum chronicling pre-WWI and WWII, with one wing dedicated to the development of ships from ancient times to the end of the WWI era, which, as an ex-Navy man, I found fascinating. The quality of the models was astounding. (yes, I trying to find new superlatives but haven’t found any yet.)

Two of the exhibits particularly fascinated me. The first was a model of a sailboat on sled runners. Apparently a polar expedition got stranded and, using the boat/sled made it back to safety where the crew and leader (who apparently went on to other expeditions) were hailed as heroes.

The second was a battleship in 1:24 scale which was cross sectioned from stem to stern...including cutaways of the steam funnels and deck guns. I tried to take pictures, but they don’t do it justice. There was a large sign going from one end of the ship to the other explaining the different sections you were seeing. A little inconspicuous 4x5 card gave the model builder credit for his two years of meticulous detail work.

Pictures: Budapest to Vienna, Just what it sounds like, and pictures of the HGM.

Reflections: It seemed like Austria was eternally at war with some one. Of the entire exhibit, only one picture illustrated the carnage that goes with war. I loved the museum’s motto…”War belongs into Museums.” (Yep. “into.”) It is their way of saying, “No more war.” Unfortunately a quick look at contemporary current events shows that peace is still a long-promised and long-awaited time somewhere in the future. Till that day, I cling to Jesus’ promise of “the peace that passes all understanding.”