Up with the sun

In fact, we did not arise with the sun, which seemed to light the sky about 4:30 a.m. We did, however, rouse ourselves from our room by 6:30 a.m., and by about 7 a.m., we were at Eger's city market. As you might expect for a regional center that is known for its agricultural, the produce was very enticing. Peppers, tomatoes, cherries, squash, peppers, cabbage, peppers. Yes, and more peppers. We bought enough for a lunch and dinner, and probably more so.

The mushroom vendors were extremely enticing, selling large bolete & chanterelle mushrooms. We are, however, staying in a hotel room, with no means to fix the mushrooms, so photographed the vendors and bought none of their wares.

Sajnos - as they say in Hungarian. (Pronounced "shoynosh.") Unfortunately.

Following our trip to the market, we returned to the hotel, put the food away and went down for a hotel breakfast that we hoped would hold us to dinner. It nearly did.

Our next visit was to the baroque library that is housed in the local lyceum. This library and lyceum was founded by the archbishop of Eger, who had hoped to establish a university in the town. He could not, however, get approval for this initiative from the Hapsburg emperor, so he founded a lyceum instead in 1765 - and made it quite grand. The 20,000-volume library holds texts that cover subjects including science, philosophy, and theology. Not so many novels, the ticket-taker informed us.

She did, however, show us a letter written by Mozart to his sister, informing her of the death of their father. On the ceiling is an intricate fresco that indirectly celebrates religious censorship.

We also went to the top floor, which holds one of two camera obscura in Europe. This is a device somewhat like a periscope that projects an image onto a screen in a dark room. These devices have been used for drawing and entertainment, and they indirectly led to the development of modern photography and the camera.

On the landing outside the camera obscura room, an outside patio provided a wonderful 360 degree view of the area.

Returning to the hotel once again, we decided on a very small lunch that consisted entirely of gelato from a wonderful shop that serves home-made concoctions such as gorgonzola, spicy chocolate, camembert gelato. Everything we have tried there has been delicious!