Szentrendre ahoy here we come!

We were once again lucky to go to Budapest for Senior Conference. It is always such a treat for us to meet with the other couples and get direction from President Smith. This is a picture of all of us minus one couple who had to return for health reasons. They were missed.

President Smith shared with us what will happen if we get more involved in proselyting as couple missionaries. He is really good with power point. Steve made the mistake of showing him his residence permit card. We were not allowed to smile for this picture. My first one must have looked too good because we had to drive three hours to Budapest to have a retake. No one will ever see mine.

After dinner we played some games.

And cleaned up.

Thursday we journeyed down to the Duna (Danube) for a trip up the river.

We were so excited to have a boat trip even if the weather was a bit nippy!

All aboard!

It is such a great view of the Parliament Building that we toured at the last conference.

It was our first time to sail under one of the seven bridges. We got to see stuff we hadn't noticed before from land.

It was great to see the villages from the boat.

After 1 1/2 hours we docked and started our shopping and sightseeing adventures in Szentrendre.

We visited a Serbian Church that had a lot of cool old things to look at.

There were actually two building a church and a museum .

It is always interesting to see how and what others worship.

Most are really ornate.

It was really fun to meet this couple from California. They actually found us with our name tags. It was interesting because they were the ones passing out pass along cards.

We ate at the Elizabeth Etterem  and the food was delicious. I had hot chocolate to drink that was the best I have ever tasted.

The trip down the river only took an hour.

We only had to go one stop on the Metro (underground subway) to get to the mission home stop. I had to take this picture because the people going down look like they are leaning back but that is ok because if they look at us it looks like we are leaning forward.

A good time was had by all. 

This is really a picture that they took of the three couples that will be going home before the next Senior Conference. Endure to the end!

The Hospital and the Castle

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We arrived in Budapest on Tuesday evening and were entertained by the Heaths.

They were talking about the "Hospital in the Rock" that we should visit.  We walked from the mission home up to where we thought the hospital should be.  There were three young people sitting on a bench overlooking a part of Budapest, so we asked them if they knew where it was.  They said to go back the way we came, but there was a gentleman, pictured below and not me, who told us in Hungarian that he would take us there, at least that's is what we think he said.  He was a bit inebriated, but we put ourselves into his hands.  He led us a couple of hundred meters back the way we came and there it was.  This hospital was built under "Castle Hill" where there are a couple of different types of rock making up the composition of the hill.  One of those was a softer stone and they were able to make "caves" throughout the hill.  There was a maze there that they took us through, although we only saw a part of it. It was amazing.  Our guide told us about the way the hospital was used during the Second World War and beyond.  We were not allowed to take pictures, but it was incredible.  One could very easily get lost in that maze.  There were many, MANY rooms serving as operating rooms, recovery rooms, triage rooms etc.  Most of the furnishing were from the earlier wars.  That is my bride standing guard at the gate.

    

That is the next patient standing guard at the gate.

                               These are the stairs we had to go up to get to the hospital. 

Then we headed up to Buda Castle.  T

This is St.Michael's church you can see in the background, and the Heaths and Shauna in the foreground.  

This is a statue of ??? which in the foreground of the church.

I can now hear your "Ooohhhs and Aaahhhhhs" with this picture.  That is the church you can see reflecting in the windows. 

The same thing below.

This crow sitting on top of a spire of the church has a gold ring in it's beak. The story goes that the raven carried away the gold ring of King Matthias. The king followed the raven and killed him and retrieved his ring. He then used the raven with the ring as his signet sign.

Now on to the Buda Castle.  

To me it looks just like a real castle and is so beautiful. It looks like a fairy tale castle. 

 

There is a bar place where one can buy drinks at the top of the stairs. There were a lot of people up there.  There was also a man playing the violin among this group.

Ann and Shauna on the stairs.  Many times I find it hard to believe we are there.

This is easily the most recognizable feature of Budapest, the Parliament Building.  It is as beautiful inside as it is outside. 

WOW.  The best of both worlds. 

Everywhere you go there are statues like this.  This is a beautiful place.  Someone said Budapest is one of the six most beautiful cities in the world.  It's hard to realize that at the end of World War II, most of this city was destroyed.  All of the seven bridges were blown up by the retreating Germans to keep the Russian Soldiers from being able to follow them.  Amazing history here.

Full Moon

This is Steve's attempt of getting a picture of the full moon in Sopron. What a perfect picture.

This is Shauna's attempt of getting a picture of the beautiful full moon. I might add that the light you see is a street light, not the moon. Maybe we should clean our windshield!

We never tire of seeing the full moon here in Hungary. It seems bigger!

A second attempt from the car without the flash!

It does help to know that we are looking at the same moon. We get to see it first so let us know if you want us to tell you when we see a great moon.

Random Pictures of our week!

We began our week with lunch at Zsuzsa's on Sunday which happened to be her birthday and also mother's day in America.

Monday the College's, who are serving in Kaposvar, came to visit so we took them to see the Picnic. We can't step past the sign because we are not suppose to leave Hungary.

This is proof that we came back.

We also visited Esterhazy Palace.

Wednesday was our branch missionary meeting. We have a great mission leader now.

Thursday night Jorrien came for a short visit. He was in the student ward at Utah State when Steve was in the bisopric.

We discovered a lake or a pond as some people back home would say. It started to rain just as we got there. We were surprised to see the rain because we hadn't washed the car that day.

Saturday Elder Flammer cut Elder Seegmiller's hair. Now if he would just cut his own hair someone in our companionship would be very happy.

Saturday afternoon we had a district (three branch) Relief Society Meeting where we learned how to put 72 hour kits together. We were lucky enough to have three wonderful Sisters come from Budapest to join us. It was a great week and a busy week mixed in with the normal things.

Things that make us smile!

Skill or luck? I parked behind this van today when I went to the branch house to teach a piano lesson. There is seriously less than an inch between the fire hydrant and the van. The pole you see is like the one that jumped out and hit our car! Strangest thing.

This ad caught my eye mostly because it had English words on it. It says Ooops! Family Pack, Smart toilet paper. Who knew that toilet paper could be smart? I think Penny Market is out of England or Germany. We went to Penny Market this week but I forgot the Smart stuff! Don't worry, we remembered the After Eight Mints.