Wednesday, October 1. When we awoke, the boat was docked at Kalocsa, our last port-of-call before
Budapest. Kalocsa was founded by Hungary's King Stephen in the 11th century as a cathedral town. It
thrived before being burned by the Turks in 1602. The town, as well as the Cathedral, was rebuilt in the
18th century. It is the center of a huge paprika-growing area.
The buses left at 9:00 and took us into the city. The first stop for the blue group was at a paprika
museum, located in an old paprika processing plant. There was some old equipment, as well as exhibits
on the paprika plant itself.
The visit lasted much longer than I needed, so I walked down the street looking for an ATM machine. At the corner, I found myself across the street from the Cathedral and the Archbishop's Palace (1735). (Our whole group visited the Cathedral later.) After I rejoined the group, the bus took us to an old farmhouse, now converted into a museum. The peasant family that lived here had been a prosperous one, as evidenced by the quality of the buildings and furnishings.
From there we were taken to a horse farm to see a demonstration of tradition Hungarian horsemanship. (This farm itself was established in 1999 in an effort to preserve the old traditions.) We were given cider and sweet rolls as refreshments before the show began (and many went back for more when the show was over). It was a fascinating show, with troikas and teams of four and five and various carriages and wagons. For comic relief, there was one donkey and rider in the show who purported to do all the stunts the horsemen did, but always managed to take some shortcut in the process. Cracking whips was an integral part of every display.
To demonstrate that the whips never touched the horses, a woman "volunteer" was selected from the audience to stand still while one of the horsemen snapped his whip all around her. He gave her a start, though, when his last snap wrapped the whip around her neck, but harmlessly and very gently. The bus then took us to the Cathedral I'd seen earlier. When we went in to see the interior, there was a surprise for us, a concert played on the huge organ. Unfortunately, the first selections (Bach) were played so loudly that they became noise rather than music. The later selections were much more enjoyable. Then it was back to the boat. We got there about 1:15 and had lunch while the boat sailed. (Jane started her mashed potato diet.) At 2:30 the blue group (or most of us) assembled on deck for a group picture. The weather was beautiful again, and we stayed on deck to enjoy it. Most of Hungary is a huge plain, and the countryside along the river was completely flat. We only passed one pretty village over a two hour period.
We had a briefing about Budapest at 5:00. We then dressed for the captain's dinner, starting with a drink at 6:30 and then the meal at 7:00. The food was great. (Even Jane's mashed potatoes were served with an excellent presentation.) The cruise ended in the morning, so we did most of our packing before retiring.
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