Budapest - Day 1

Day 14 - Budapest Day 1 (September 12)

Our ship is tied up to the quay just below the famous “Chain Bridge” linking Buda and Pest (http://www.aviewoncities.com/budapest/chainbridge.htm). Both halves of the city combine to form the capital city of Hungary, Budapest, pronounced Budapesht. We have been really fortunate with the weather and today continues in that van, with the temperature expected to reach the high 80’s.

We’re all up and ready to get breakfast by 7:30 AM so we can catch our 8:30 AM bus and walking tour of the city. Every one of our tours where we board abus, the bus has been a large, very new, 50 seater. This is amazing given how narrow and winding the streets are, but the drivers are truly amazing, whipping the bus around like a pro race car driver.

Turning in our room keys for boarding passes we hook up our ear bugs to the receivers and hop on the bus for a brief tour of the city. Our fist stop is at “Hero Square” or Millenial Square which was built in 1896 to commemorate the 1000th anniversary of the arrival of Hungarians in the Carpathian Basin. We are able to get out and take pictures while our guide talks about the monument which consists of two semi-circles on the top of which the symbols of War and Peace, Work and Wellfare, Knowledge and Glory can be seen. The niches below are decorated by the statues of kings, governors and famous characters of the Hungarian history. At the foot of each statue a small relief depicts the most important moment of the life of the personality.

In the middle of Heroes' square stands a 36 meter high corinthian column with the statue of Archangel Gabriel on the top, the symbol of the Roman Catholic religion. At the pedestal the equestrian statues commemorate Árpád and the seven chieftains of the Hungarian tribes, who settled their people in the present territory of Hungary. His descendants formed the Hungarian royal dynasty. In front of the column is the tomb of the unknown soldier commemorating all the unknown heroes who fought for Hungary. The monuments in the square are really impressive. Flanking the square are the Museum of Modern Art and Museum of Fine Arts which have excellent exhibitions, such as Van Gogh, Rembrandt and collections of Spanish and French paintings.

From Heroes Square we reboard the bus for a drive through the city past the two major parks and principal bath house, Széchenyi Baths, set amidst the tranquil surroundings of the Városliget (City Park). The Széchenyi Baths is a grand old building to which Budapest families flock during the summer. The unisex outdoor pool has a extremely convivial atmosphere - old timers play chess on floating boards while everyone else just lazes around. The Széchenyi's Turkish baths are housed away from the main pool, while outside there's a statue of Zsigmond Vilmos who discovered the thermal springs (http://www.szechenyibath.com/).

Leaving the Pest side of the city we cross the river on Liberty Bridge and make our way to the top of “Capital” Hill where we get out for splendid photos of both sides of the city and Danube. This is a quick stop as there are probably 300 to 400 tourists all trying to reach the same overlook at the same time.

From Capital hill we continue to wind around the Buda side of the river to reach the Castle District, site of the famous Mathias Church, built in the 13th century and Budapest’s first parish church. The church takes its more common name from King Matthias, who ruled from 1458-90, well-known as a patron of the arts and enlightenment and revered for reconstructing the Hungarian state after years upon years of feudal anarchy. In 1541, when the Turks captured Buda, The Church became a mosque. The ruling regime shipped precious ecclesiastical treasures off to Bratislava and, appallingly, whitewashed over the ornate frescoes that graced the walls of the church. Beautiful interior furnishings were stripped out and discarded. In 1686, the Turks were overthrown and local architects and builders made attempts to restore the church with little success. It wasn’t until the late 19th century, that the church was largely restored to its original splendor.

The church sits in a residential and shopping district with Fisherman’s Bastion sitting on the top edge of the hill guarding the Castle District. We spent several hours walking and shopping before re-boarding our bus for the trip back to the ship and lunch. After lunch we once more got on a bus for a trip to a small hill town and diamond factory. Both stops were interesting but very commercial in nature, but it was the last day of our trip so we went anyway. Dinner was very nice as we spent time with several couple we met on the trip. We stayed up for several hours packing and preparing for our morning departure.

To see all of today's photos, click on:

http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski