Sopron in the Daylight

Sopron's signature building, the Fire Watch Tower

Let's take in Sopron by day.

That is the Hotel Pannonia, where I am staying these two nights in Sopron.  Pannonia means?  Yes?  That's right.  Pannonia was a Roman province that ended to the north at the Danube River.

There are only so many ways into the old city.  Today I took a different route and walked by Maria-kut.  Mary's court, maybe?

All paths in the old city lead to the Fire Watch Tower.

And, since this is the Advent season, Judaism being Christ's religion by birth, this is the old Synagogue.

Reindeer and sleigh, this time in the daylight.

I somehow missed this Gingerbread Man and his Ginger-daughter last night at the Holy Trinity statue.

Not sure how I managed that.  And speaking of being drunk, these pieces from the "Santa's railroad" under construction at the Holy Trinity Statue:

In the daylight, doesn't it look like drunk Santa crashed his sleigh into this Christmas railroad engine?

Oh that Santa.

Let's refocus religiously and step inside the Catholic Church on Fő tér:

No mass.

The Virgin Mary blessed this massage parlor:

I don't know if this is a hair salon, or a wig store, or what, but I love the metal sculpture over the door:

And here's another church:

This fooled me.  It wasn't a Catholic Church.  It's Lutheran.

Usually you don't see the Lutherans being this ornate.

They're usually more austere.  Wasn't Catholic extravagance one of the big reasons for Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the church door in Wittenberg?  Isn't that why he went on his Diet of Worms?

It's time now for the Fire Watch Tower.

Cue the music.

Well, of course that would be the music.  Abandon all hope ye who enter here.

Abandon all hope of an easy walk that avoids inducing claustrophobia with an acrophobic chaser.

I don't understand the definition of "acrophobia" as an "irrational fear of heights."  I say, all fears of heights are quite rational.

Actually, the climb was not too bad.  It was occasionally interrupted by historic scenes of Sopron's past.

And the view was nice.

The observation deck is not quite the top of the tower, but it was high enough for me.

This is not a fire pole that you can use to shimmy down to the bottom.

Soon I was out in the daylight where there was an Advent Market happening.

Carousels!  More fun to photograph than they ever would be to ride.

We end with the sausage seller at the Sopron Advent Market.

You don't usually see piles and piles of fresh sausage sitting out on tables, using nature as the refrigerator. 

Sopron After Dark

Christmas decorations in Sopron. After dark.

I am in the tourist town of Sopron, Hungary.  It straddles the border of Austria and is, by consensus opinion, the most "Austrian" town in Hungary.  It has beautiful historic architecture.  But that is not what makes Sopron a tourist town.  Sopron is known throughout Central Europe for dental tourism.  Fer realz.  Even my hotel has a dental clinic.  Speaking of my hotel ...

I am staying in the Hotel Pannonia.  The lobby is ornate.  The high-ceiling-ed room is of a different era in hotelry.

 

The place has a fin de siècle feel to it, as if the Hapsburgs just left town and they're expected back any minute now.

After an afternoon nap -- going to bed according to Hungarian time and waking up according to Las Vegas time got to me -- I went out to eat supper and see some Sopron en route.

The main drag looks like Anytown USA.  Anytown USA where dental tourism is a thing.

Except there was a Christmas Market -- which I believe is technically an "Advent Market" since this is the season of Advent, Catholically speaking, and not yet Christmas.

Dried fruits aplenty.  Yum.

That was a popular attraction.  The sidewalk fireplace.

This was the coziest looking pizzeria I've ever seen.

Off the modern car-friendly main drag, inside the old city walls, is the old city.

The white, brightly-lit building is Tűztorony, the Fire Tower, the signature building of Sopron .  No I don't know if they have a dental clinic in there.  I'll check it out tomorrow and let you know.

The old city is all Christmas-ed up.

This is Fő tér, or, in the more boring English, "Main Square."  The Hungarian name works better,

That church-looking building is, I believe, a church.  Nagyboldogasszony-templom.  Again, the Hungarian name is cooler.

They are building a railroad in Fő tér.  It is still under construction.  That doesn't prevent children hopping in the cars and pretending to be going for a ride.

For dinner I choose the highly-recommended (on Trip Advisor and Google Maps):

Gyógygödör Borozó.  I did not even try to pronounce this one.  It is a wine cellar.

It really is a wine cellar, as in a cellar, which has wine.

It also has food.

I had a beer.  This being the most "Austrian," i.e., German, town in Hungary, the local brew Soproni is generally considered to be the best beer in wine-loving Hungary.  Ordering at this restaurant was difficult.  Sopron being a tourist town, the menus were bilingual.  Two languages.  Hungarian and German.  Hungarian is indecipherable.  It's this secret code language the Magyars speak when they don't want the rest of Europe knowing what they're saying.

I looked at the German language section for words I recognized.  I did recognize "sörök" as the word for beer in Hungarian (with the name Soproni underneath being a "tell," as they would say).  But that was only my beverage.  I needed food.  I recognized the German words "cordon bleu" and ordered some sort of cordon bleu.

It was good.  But it was not Gerbeaud.

Back out into Fő tér to check out more Christmas decorations.

Catholic church again:

Children riding reindeer statuary, always a Christmas favorite.

Then back into the Advent Market where I saw this:

They were making dough.

Then grilling it.

I know I shouldn't because of the "gluten free" thing, but I just had to it.

I ordered mine with cinnamon.  In Hungarian, "fahéj."  In Austrian, it was zimt.  In any language, it was beyond delicious, as hot dough always is.  It was hot and light and gooey and cinnamon-y.  And huge.  It was like eating a whole, but hollow, loaf of bread.  Cinnamon sugar bread warm out of the oven or, in this case, hot off the grill.