I just thought this was pretty.

The Hungarian parliament building in Budapest.

Interior shots of buildings in Budapest. There are so many ceilings like this, I forgot which room this was from.

Janet: We don't have a picture, but Parliament has a floor heating/cooling system, with vents underneath the seats. At the time it was built, it was the second building to be built with such modern ventilation system. In winter the rooms were heated with big steam tanks in the basement. During summer the rooms were cooled by huge blocks of ice underneath the building. Huge blocks of ICE! Parliament only switched to modern air condiitoning in 1999 because the icemaker man died. Sounds like a fib, but we heard it from the tour guide.

Religion can inspire beautiful buildings, and it can inspire superstitious barbarity. This is a torture device used during the inquisition. The device is put in the victim's mouth. Turning the handle expands the three plates, which forces the mouth open and the tongue down so that the victim can't scream. Apparently not being able to scream increases the agony. 300,000 people in Europe died under torture approved by the church, according to the museum where this device was seen.

The last of the Trabants are slowly dying off. They're asking about $330 for the one for sale. That tells you just how expensive cars are in Europe.

From the Budapest art museum.

Also from the Budapest art museum. Watch out for the hand! Saint Steven! No!!!

Typical Vienna street: clean and tree-lined.

Vienna protects a huge amount of land at the borders of the city against development. These are some shots from there. I wish more cities did this.