We headed into Sopron early as the weather forecast had rain arriving in the afternoon. When we arrived downtown the streets were very empty.
It is a nice town with a well preserved medieval core. Sopron is known as the most loyal city in Hungary. It is located about 80 kilometers from Vienna, and if you drive 10 kilometers North, East, or West you are in Austria. When the Austro-Hungarian empire was being divided after WWI the people of Sopron were offered the choice of joining Austria or Hungary. Despite the economic incentive to join Austria, the people here decided to stay with their Hungarian heritage and opted to stay in Hungary.
Ton had read that they had a Holocaust memorial that was moving so we headed there. The memorial was in the modern town, but located in what became the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. The memorial was small but very well done. It was similar to the one in Budapest highlighting the shoes and winter coats the Jewish residents had to leave behind before they were executed. It also had a Hebrew inscription that faded away into the sky. I really liked the symbolism.
The Hungarians have the most moving Holocaust memorials we have seen in Europe. Other countries have them, but they are often small and hidden away. In Hungary they are more in the forefront. They also seem to be making more of an effort to maintain the synagogues though the one in Sopron needs to be restored.
On the way back to the old town we stopped in a nice coffee shop on the main street. They had a quote from Frank Capra on the wall, he was a famous combat photographer of the Spanish Civil War, WWII and Vietnam where he was killed while photographing the French. In WWII he traveled with the US Army landing on Omaha Beach, but had to have special dispensation as he was still a Hungarian citizen and thus technically an “enemy alien”.
The main street is not part of the old town and was much more active than the old town. It seems the locals prefer to do their shopping and dining in modern buildings rather than medieval ones.
The big attraction of Sopron is its fire tower. It is a tall tower located on what was the main gate to the walled city. It served three purposes, the first is a place to watch for fires in the city, the second was for broadcasting information, and lastly to watch for wine merchants from other regions trying to bring their inferior wine to Sopron.
Since Sopron is famous for its wine we decided we should give it a taste and headed to a cool place for lunch. The restaurant was in a cave under the main square and featured Hungarian food and wine. When we entered we were handed the Hungarian/German menu and then our waiter disappeared. We began taking a stab at what things might be by trying to decipher two languages that we have almost no knowledge of . A lady at the next table heard our discussion and offered to help us. She was Hungarian but taught German in school. Her English was pretty good which she said she learned from Duolingo. We had fun working with her and her translations were good because the waiter returned and fetched us the English menu and we could confirm them. We thanked her and she recommended a particular local wine which also turned out to be delicious.
We settled on two different forms of goulash and enjoyed them both. It took until our last day to find some goulash but it was worth the wait.
It was getting towards the time the rain was supposed to begin so we headed back to François to settle in for the day. Later we found out our Austrian neighbors dental work had gone well so we were happy for her though she looked like she needed to rest.