Skanzen - Reproduction Peasant Village

Yesterday we took advantage of the lingering warm weather and traveled to Szentendre, about 15 miles north of Budapest. Five hours were spent at a skanzen, a reproduction of eight peasant villages, reflecting the different regions of Hungary in the 18th and 19th centuries. We enjoyed touring through thatch-roofed houses, barns, black-smith and weaving shops, churches, and working mills. We sampled a ginger-bread cookie, saw children making candles, and got a demonstration of the water-wheel-powered mill. This open-air museum is designed with children in mind, and many families were there too.

The skanzen is a two-mile bus ride into the hills, so at 5:00 we took the bus back into the little town of Szentendre. This place is a real tourist draw in the summer, so we appreciated the smaller crowds as we walked down the narrow streets and "window-shopped". As it was getting dark we found a pizzeria along the Danube to put up our feet and rest after a lot of walking.

This became our biggest transportation day, with five legs needed to get there (tram, blue metro, red metro, HEV train, and bus. This was our first experience with the HEV, which is a suburban railway system.

Here are some of the many pictures we took:

one of the many bedrooms we peeked in on

lots of thatched roofs and wells

some of the nicely decorated houses

inside of the "Mandok" church

the catholic church (communal washing house on the right)

a docent telling us all about the working flour mill (in Hungarian, of course)

This is actually a stove that was added in the 1930's to an older home.

corn hung up to dry on the porch, ristras hanging across the courtyard