This morning was my least comfortable, being the morning of my talk. But amazingly, I saw herons out my cabin window, and again upstairs from the lounge, and that settled me. As it turns out, the talk went well, with a full lounge and many very positive comments all week. Who knew?
My talk was followed by our second lecture on the ship, and then by lunch. During lunch we docked in Mohács where we would have to wait for customs control, as we were now re-entering the E.U. The hotel manager has developed a very smooth process for passport review, and it went very quickly. But something else happened because we were not allowed off the boat for a while. This, of course, delayed our excursion, but there's nothing to be done.
We didn't really get to see Mohács, famous for the victory by Suleiman the Magnificent and the onset of Ottoman rule in 1526. It is another originally Roman settlement. We were in the region of the Carpathian Mountains, with an agriculturally-rich basin. Hot summers and cool winters are great for crops like barley, wheat, corn, sunflower, and rapeseed. But the buses took us to Pécs (sort of like page, but with a shorter a), the fifth largest city in Hungary and a university town of about 400,000 near the border with Croatia. Charming, again, was the word that came to mind most readily.
The city is renowned for its tolerance and openness, being recognized as both a City of Peace and a European Capital of Culture. While there are still some communist-era complexes (Stalin rococo I heard it called), there are also cathedrals and mosques and medieval defenses. It's really lovely.
First stop was the Cathedral. Yes, always lots of churches when one tours old European cities.
But we had an organ concert! Ava Maria and a Shostakovich waltz. This organ is one of the larger in the world, with, I believe, 6101 pipes. It was wonderful.
And a great gate! We took a group photo outside here, before we headed off on our walking tour.
Such a lovely square! Everything where we were was picturesque, and I wanted time to explore. We were trying to beat the rain though.
Our next stop was a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Roman burial ruins called Cella Septichora. It's a complex structure, with evidence of a prominent mausoleum from the 4th century that probably was not completed, the burial chamber for St. Peter - St. Paul with the first symbol of Christianity in the region, and the "jug tomb" with evidence of centuries of burials going back to Roman times.
Much of the stone is limestone. I don't think we quite saw it all but it's very well presented, with lots of good information and clear viewing areas.
We then continued on, heading to a local restaurant where we had a wine tasting. This was really nice, and a great idea to get some food and drink into folks before getting back on the bus.
I really wasn't ready to leave but I also couldn't stay. We saw paprika drying on people's porches on the way back! That was nice. But, since we'd had such a late start with customs, by the time we got back to the bus it was dark. I think it was hard for folks to then go into the bright ship and rush in to dinner. But our dinner group had no trouble keeping conversation going, which was fun. I then spent too long chatting with the tour directors, but they were so great. I think I said that sleep isn't the highlight of these tours? I was having trouble with it in general, and the ship doesn't move very much on the rivers, so while that usually helps me, I didn't have that. Ah well, Budapest was the next day and I was very much looking forward to that.
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