Dunfermline Abbey

On our way south from St. Andrews to Berwick Upon Tweed, we stopped in Dunfermline to see the Abbey.

St. Andrews Cathedral

St. Andrews shows off the ruins of the mighty cathedral that whose construction began in 1158 and continued over a century. Wikipedia tells me that 119 m long, it is the largest church built in Scotland. In 1559 John Knox fired up the masses and the church as ransacked. By 1561 it was left to ruin and stone recycled for other uses.

Crail at Sunset

We drove to the small town of Crail on the north shore of the Firth of Forth not far south of St. Andrews. I went to the shore to have a look at the sunset over the Forth.

St. Andrews

AS you can see, we have now left Hungary and are spending a couple days in the St. Andrews area in preparation for our Christmas house sit in Berwick Upon Tweed, just south of the border in England.

You can't spend any time at all in St. Andrews without encountering the Hamish McHamish statue. This is the ginger cat that won hearts for this nomadic ways and the book Hamish McHamish of St Andrews: Cool Cat About Town.

Around Pécs

Like Budapest, Pécs is a city filled with buildings that are showing wear and tear.

Mosque of Pasha Qasim - Now a Catholic Church

The Downtown Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Pécs is in a building that spend several hundred years as a mosque. It was built between 1543 and 1546 by Pasha Qasim of the Turks after their successful invasion. It was converted back into a church in 1702. The associated minaret was destroyed in 1766 (Wikipedia).

Cella Septichora

The Cella Septichora (or as Google maps calls it - Tourist Attraction), the Roman Mausoleum, is an interesting place that actually sits under the modern ground level. the beams and glass you see above is the street level.

Pécs Cathedral

The Pécs Cathedral is closed for renovations and the outside is all I can see, but it is an impressive outside.

The Pécs Christmas Market

Our one night in Pécs was naturally focused on the local Christmas Market. Above you see some of the candied fruit and chocolates that make the seasons bright.

St. Sebastian's Church, Pécs

After a week of exchanging emails with the software company, I finally have a solution (or a bit of workaround) for getting processed images out of the program and posted to the blog. So, now we go back a bit in time to finish our visit to Pécs.

Just off the Széchenyi Ter is St. Sebastian's Church.

Parisi Udvar

These are pictures of our last sightseeing trip into Budapest. At Freneciek Ter there is a fabulous building that I photographed from the outside earlier. This time we inside for a look around. This is the Parisi Udvar, a hotel. And as you can see, it looks more like a church than any hotel I've ever been in.

A Visit to Pécs

One of our last outings while in Budapest was to make a short trip south to the City of Pécs. In the center of town is Széchenyi Ter where we find the Mosque of Pasha Qasim also know as Downtown Candlemas Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. When the Turks invaded in 1543, Pasha Qasim the Victorious built a mosque. In 1766, when they were driven out, the Jesuits destroyed the minaret and converted the mosque back to christian usage. 

Train ride from Ljubljana back to Budapest

The coming, as was the going, is an 8 hour train ride from Ljubljana to Budapest. This time, however, we came prepared with lots of water and snacks since we now know that the train has no dining car. 

Exploring Ljubljana

Prešeren square faces the Franciscan Church of the Annunciation on one side and the Triple Bridge on the other. This puts it right in the heart of the city. It is named for the most famous poet of the city, represented on this statue.

Katedrala Ljubljana

There is also a cathedral in Ljubljana and it, too, is a Baroque style building. It is quite impressive.

Cerkev Marijinega oznanjenja

There are a couple churches in Ljubljana that we visited, the being Cerkev Marijinega Oznanjenja, or the Franciscan Church of the Assumption.

Blejsko jezero

Our final stop on the all-day tour was at Lake Bled, Blejsko jezero. We arrived just before sundown. This made it a great time to grab a few images but a bad time to do what we really came to do. This small island in the lake, Blejski otok, was on our itinerary. There are small boats that are rowed out to the island and back so we could see the church that stands there. We will have to come back one day to do that since we wasted our day fighting traffic to get back through Ljubljana to get here.

Predjamski grad

Our next stop on our day-long tour was Predjamski grad, the castle built into a cave. When you have a large karst section in your country, cave is what you do.

Postojnska jama

Our first full day in Slovenia we spent on the road as we took a tour of several places outside the city. The first stop was Postojnska jama, a huge cave about half way between Ljubljana and the Slovenia coast.

Ljubljana at Night

After the 8 hour train ride from Budapest to Ljubljana, we were ready for some fresh air. So we stashed our stuff in the hotel (a very nice one, indeed) and headed out for a quick look about and some dinner.