Oct 4 - Mohács and Pécs

We woke in Mohács to another sunny day, albeit a little bit cooler than we have been experiencing. Our activity for today is a walking tour of the town of Pécs (PAY-j). The drive was close to an hour. We drove through farming country – the land here is quite fertile, so the farms look to be quite prosperous. Corn harvesting was underway on several farms.

Pécs is one of the most ancient cities of Hungary. It was established in the Iron Age, was occupied by the Romans, and eventually became an important early Christian Centre (the old cemetery is now a UNESCO site). The town features remnants from its Roman past, Turkish and Mediterranean architectural influences, and Baroque over-the-top buildings everywhere. Pécs is proud of its history of having an excellent university in the last 1300s, and today boasts a university student population of 35,000. The town used to thrive because of the nearby uranium and coal mines, but mining was curtailed during Hungary’s time behind the Iron Curtain. Pécs has successfully transitioned from being a manufacturing town to being a cultural centre, with education now being the number one industry and ceramic-making and tourism growing yearly in strength.

We had a walking tour. Unique to Pécs are three locations where lovers place a lock and then throw away the key to seal their union. Paris used to have the same tradition, until the weight of the locks started to cause one of the bridges over the Seine to collapse. All the locks (but hopefully not all the unions!) got snipped off.

The architecture of the city is wonderful with so many styles, colours, details, and intricate ceramic decorations. We had some free time in the city centre. I tried on beautiful leather gloves, but between my short fingers and my right hand that is still slightly swollen after my broken wrist episode in May, nothing fit. So, I bought fabric instead because a quilter can never have enough fabric!

Back on the bus. Back to the ship. Late lunch. We set sail for Osijek, Croatia promptly at 1:30 p.m. Croatia will be our fourth of seven countries on this tour.

We actually have an afternoon to ourselves. Watching the shoreline slip by is almost hypnotic. Might be a day for a nap!Read more