Day 6 - Esztergom, Bratislava

Today was mostly a travel day for us.  I got up early enough to attend 8 a.m. Mass at Szent Roch church down the street from our hotel.  Of course I didn't understand a word, but the Mass is the Mass and it was nice to go.  Then mailed a couple of postcards and zipped back to the hotel in time for our 9 a.m. departure.

We left Budapest (which takes a while... Budapest is really a huge city) and drove into the hilly area north to Esztergom.  We were on fairly narrow roads which was interesting at times, and some of it was a bit torturous with switchbacks etc.  We got into Esztergom and went to the Basilica there, at about 10:30.  We were there for about an hour.  It  is SO BEAUTIFUL!  It's huuuuge.  And just amazing.  We all took a bazillion pictures.  We got permission to sing, so we sang:

• Agnus Dei  (Lotti)
• Glory of the Father
• Parce  Domine

The acoustics were astonishing... quite bright but a lonnng reverb time, like 6+ seconds (we were in the middle of the nave).  Nice.  Afterward we took a group picture on the steps.

From there we drove on to Komárno where we stopped for lunch.  Then it was on to Bratislava where we checked in to our hotel.  For some reason they insisted on getting our passport #s and looking at our passports when we checked in -- something that didn't happen in either Bucharest or Budapest.  Odd.

We are free for the rest of the evening; tomorrow is a city tour in the morning and then some opportunities for side tours.  We have a concert at St. Martin's Cathedral at 6:30 p.m.