On Saturday the 28th of February we broke away from our excursion group to buy tickets to visit the inside of St. Stephen’s Basilica situated centrally in the Pest side of Budapest. This is a photo heavy post!
St. Stephen’s Basilica is a Roman Catholic basilica in Budapest, Hungary. It is named in honor of Stephen, the first King of Hungary, whose right hand is housed in the reliquary.
It was awe-inspiring to see this finished work of art.
It is one of the grandest buildings we have been in.
This is kind of creepy to me. This is the right hand relic of King Stephen of Hungary. King Stephen died in August of 1038.
Not being Catholic, this Basilica was not a point of worship for me and in fact holds some areas of veneration that are against my beliefs. I did appreciate the beauty and the grandeur of the building. The way the architecture and artwork draws your eyes upward is appreciated, too. It is an amazing collection of artwork and treasures but not something to be worshipped in itself.
I’ll share the views from the panorama look-out in another post since this post is already photo heavy.
It is going to take a while to share much of our Danube River and Cambridge adventures.
We arrived in Budapest on the afternoon of Friday February 27th. There was an AmaWaterways Kiosk just outside of the baggage claim area where we checked in and met a few of our fellow river cruise passengers before it was time to board our bus to the hotel. When making our arrangements for the cruise we chose the 2 day pre-cruise option and we are so glad that we did. On our bus ride to the hotel we were able to get our first glimpse of the Danube.
When we arrived at the hotel we were pleasantly surprised at the luxury level of the hotel.
The Matilde Palace is a luxury hotel and part of the Marriott properties. This is not the type of hotel we would book for ourselves. There were automatic buttons for everything including the curtains and sheers.
Matild Palace, an iconic gem of Budapest, was envisioned in 1902 by her Imperial and Royal Highness, Maria Kotild of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha as part of the twin Kotild Palaces, a beacon of the Bell Epoque Era. Standing proudly beside the Elisabeth Bridge, these two majestic landmarks were designed to inspire and sere the social heart of the city. Over the decades, Matild Palace has borne witness to profound historical moments. From the grandeur of its early days to the trials of two world wars and the Hungarian revolution. Following a meticulous restoration, it emerged reborn in 2021 as a masterpiece within Marriott’s luxury collection.
Today, Matild Palace invites guests to immerse themselves in art nouveau inspired rooms and suites, and dine in exquisite venues led by the globally acclaimed Chef Wolfgang Puck.
Before dinner we had a meeting with our Tour Director for some general information. I thought I had made dinner reservations on Friday evening at a restaurant in town but come to find out it was for Saturday night instead of Friday night. We shifted our plans and headed up to the rooftop bar in our hotel and had some charcuterie and lovely views of the town at night.
Saturday morning we woke up early. Breakfast was included with our pre tour package. The hotel puts on an amazing buffet along with items you could choose off of a menu. We were really impressed with all of it and with the honey comb that was part of the buffet.
The breakfast view of the Elizabeth Bridge.
We had an early morning walk on streets next to the hotel. We tried to get some local currency at a bank ATM and the transactions would not go through. We hoped this was just a local issue.
So many grand buildings with impressive architecture.
The back entrance to the Matilde.
There was a excursion on Saturday morning that we were part of and into the tour we broke off to be able to buy tickets to see the inside of St. Stephens Basilica. I’ll share those photos in another post. We had time on Saturday to be on our own and also on Sunday before it was time for embarkation on the AmaMagna.
Back to the Present:
Monday afternoon was JJ time here while Addy was at dance lessons. While we were away he had to go to dance with his mom and Addy which was quite boring for him. He kept asking how many more days until we would return.
Today is St. Patrick’s Day and we will be enjoying a corned beef and cabbage meal later in the day.
We are still in recovery mode and I’m forcing myself to stay awake till at least 8pm. Hopefully sleep patterns will return to normal, soon.
Jesus, Thy church with longing eyes
For Thine expected coming waits:
When will the promised Light arise,
And glory beam from Zion’s gates?
E’en now, when tempests round us fall,
And wintry clouds o’ercast the sky,
Thy words with pleasure we recall,
And deem that our redemption’s nigh.
It has been, for the most part, a snowless winter for us here in Colville. This was our drive on our road home from church and lunch on Sunday January 18th with reflections on our sermon.
Our sermon was on Psalm 25. A Pattern of Prayer: Dependence on God and expressing and reinforcing that dependence in prayer.
God is always reliable and worthy of our trust. Our prayers should express trust.
God gives us our next breath.
We cannot live spiritually without God’s help and without waiting on God with patience.
I’m asking God to give me a teachable heart and guidance to live Godly while I put myself under God’s Truth.
God’s character is to be merciful to sinners. It is good to admit our sinfulness and receive fresh mercies every morning.
Turning into our driveway at the orange reflective triangle for a quiet Sunday afternoon.
Thanks for coming along on our drive home with some main thoughts from our Sunday sermon.
Our church hosted a Princess Pajama Party this past Friday evening. It was a fun night for girls and their moms from our church and from our community. There were all sorts of stations of fun. Addy chose the Lego station and she along with some friends each built part of this Princess Lego Castle.
Granny, Addy and Mama chose some animal facials.
Addy won a prize for her coloring.
On Saturday on the other side of our state, our Westside kids all enjoyed our son’s annual employee appreciation party. Our daughter works for her brother so she gets in on the fun, too. Josh and his partners treat their employees well.
The theme was 80’s – Prom Night. It was fun to get photos from the event.
JJ has his own special party every Monday afternoon at Baba and Gramps’.
He found that our family room ottoman was just the right size for a cozy spot to watch TV.
I tried introducing him to the Lone Ranger which was okay for a bit but then we moved on to Silly Symphonies.
Here’s my kind of party…
I started my World of Jane Austen puzzle which was a Christmas gift from Andrew and Katie. This will be a fun one to put together.
Today is massage day. What does your day hold?
I’ll come around later to see what my blogging friends have been up to.
The God of Abraham praise,
Who reigns enthroned above;
Ancient of everlasting days,
And God of Love; Jehovah, great I AM!
By earth and Heav’n confessed;
I bow and bless the sacred name
Forever blessed.
The God of Abraham praise,
Whose all sufficient grace
Shall guide me all my happy days,
In all my ways.
He calls a worm His friend,
He calls Himself my God!
And He shall save me to the end,
Thro’ Jesus’ blood.
He keeps His own secure,
He guards them by His side,
Arrays in garments, white and pure,
His spotless bride:
With streams of sacred bliss,
With groves of living joys—
With all the fruits of paradise
He still supplies.
The God who reigns on high
The great archangels sing,
And Holy, holy, holy! cry, Almighty King!
Who was, and is, the same,
And evermore shall be: Jehovah—Father—great I AM,
We worship Thee!
Before the Savior’s face
The ransomed nations bow;
O’erwhelmed at His almighty grace,
Forever new:
He shows His prints of love—
They kindle to a flame!
And sound thro’ all the worlds above
The slaughtered Lamb.
The whole triumphant host
Give thanks to God on high; Hail, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
They ever cry.
Hail, Abraham’s God, and mine!
(I join the heav’nly lays)
All might and majesty are Thine,
And endless praise.
On Friday evening our church had a Gingerbread House construction competition. 32 families which amounted to 142 people showed up for dinner and the contest. Our church provided the graham crackers and royal frosting and families chose their own edible decorations.
Our Colville kids participated. Jamie was also part of the committee that organized the event and she was in charge of the food. The committee did an amazing job of planning and pulling off the very successful event!
I was impressed with their creation!
They even included a carport!
On Saturday we finally got some sunshine which was a welcomed sight because of all the rain and flooding in our state. Our community did not have any overflowing rivers or threats of flooding like the western side of our state and places in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and British Columbia.
Our son, Josh, made a stop at Snoqualmie Falls to see the incredible amount of water flowing. These falls are on the western side of the Cascade Mountain range in our state.
Here’s a photo of the same falls in January of 2017.
March of 2014 with the runoff from snow. Our daughter, Katie, and I made a special visit to the Falls.
The same falls frozen in 2009.
Back to the present…
Our ‘Grands’ embraced the sunshine on Saturday out of doors enjoying pineapple.
On Sunday in our service we enjoyed the Children’s Sunday School choir performing a special song for Christmas.
I zeroed in on our favorite one in the choir.
Some of you might notice that our Addy now has bangs!
The older set, aka Baba and Gramps, had a relaxing weekend and I’m astonished to report that all our Christmas gifts are wrapped and under the tree! Now I can concentrate on plans for meals and treats for Christmas and beyond while we are all together.
On Tuesday night the 9th of December we enjoyed our Staff/Deacon Christmas dinner at our Pastor’s home. The food, the fellowship and the games were all fun and it was a great evening for all twenty one of us!
Greg and I each won our Marshmallow Pick-up challenge!
Oye, I forgot to take a photo of the cheesecakes I made for dessert.
Thank you to everyone who thought of me and said a prayer for my wee little surgery yesterday. Everything went well and I’ll be sporting a nice black eye for several days. I appreciated your kind thoughts and prayers.
Catching up with some events from the last week. The super moon lit up the sky and our acres. So bright, it was almost as if we had street lights.
Addy’s last basketball game of the short season was on Saturday morning, the 6th of December.
As usual she played hard and well.
After the game all the ladies and JJ took in the Lady Lion’s craft fair in Kettle Falls. When we saw all we wanted to see we met up for lunch at TJ’s in Kettle Falls. Addy and JJ sat across the table from me and I took this shot of them.
Before the rains came and while the snow was still good enough for sledding, our Colville kids searched out their Christmas tree for 2025.
On Sunday while on greeting duty, I took this photo of the entry at our church. The Joy is real.
Our son planned a very special weekend in Nashville to celebrate Laura’s birthday. When they arrived an unexpected surprise for Laura was that cousins David and Kristin joined them for the celebration. It was an epic weekend for the four of them.
This is Nashville, not Iceland. Ice at Gaylord Opryland Resort.
All four of them described this weekend as unforgettable.
Monday was cheesecake baking day here at our country bungalow. I made two for our annual Staff/Deacon Christmas dinner which will be on Tuesday the 9th. While I mixed and baked our Christmas CDs were playing. While I was finishing up we got these two photos of our grands helping their Great Grandmother decorate her little corner tree.
This was our comp dessert at our anniversary getaway last week that I wanted to remember. It is a cotton candy sundae and it was delicious and unique.
In other news, I’m happy to report that our Christmas cards were mailed on Monday. This always comes with a sigh of relief and a smile of satisfaction.
Hopefully, I’ll remember to take photos at our dinner party tonight along with the finished cheesecakes.
On Friday November 21st, I joined three ladies from our church for a trip to Spokane to hear Handel’s Messiah performed by Spokane Symphony and Chorale. The Performance by the orchestra and chorale was hosted by the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
Handel’s Messiah is an oratorio that tells the story of Jesus Christ through three parts: his birth and miracles, his passion and death, and his final glorification in heaven. Composed rapidly in 24 days by George Frideric Handel in 1741, the work uses verses from the King James Bible. Charles Jennens wrote the libretto, or text, (not Handel) comprising passages from the Bible. It premiered in Dublin in 1742 as a benefit concert and has since become a holiday staple known for its religious narrative and powerful choruses, like the famous “Hallelujah” chorus.
Messiah was originally conceived as a work for Easter, and its world premiere was given during Lent.
In July of 1741, Charles Jennens, who had written the libretti for two of Handel’s oratorios wrote the following in a letter to a friend–the earliest mention of Messiah:
“Handel says he will do nothing next Winter, but I hope that I shall persuade to set another Scripture collection I have made for him, and perform it for his own Benefit in Passion week. I hope that he will lay out his whole Genius and Skill upon it, that the Composition may excell all his former Compositions, as the Subject excells every other Subject. The Subject is Messiah…”Few masterworks of Baroque music can rival Handel’s Messiah for its eternal popularity.”
We found our general admission seats and then we wandered about the cathedral which included climbing the spiral staircase to the gallery below the Rose window and some of the pipes of the organ.
While Messiah is a large-scale oratorio that takes almost 3 hours to perform in its entirety, it is not Handel’s longest work.
Few masterworks of Baroque music can rival Handel’s Messiah for its eternal popularity.
The U.S. premiere of the complete Messiah was performed by the Handel and Haydn Society on Christmas Day in 1818 at Boylston Hall in Boston.
I’m adding a couple YouTube videos to give you a hint of what we heard.
No. 17. Chorus: Glory to God
The presentation we enjoyed did not perform all 53 movements in the original Messiah but performed 45 of the 53. The Hallelujah Chorus is movement #44.
The performance on Friday did end with the last movement, No. 53 Chorus: Worthy is the Lamb that was slain.
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen. [Revelation 5:12, 13]
It was a grand location to enjoy this God honoring, Christ proclaiming Oratorio. Hallelujah to our Risen Savior!
I was thankful that Bethany drove for the majority of miles and that I only had about 5 miles to drive home at the end of our evening. I pulled into our garage at midnight! That is late for me.
The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b. 