Budapest: A Diamond on the Danube

We really enjoyed Budapest and it was hard to say “goodbye” this morning.  It was only that we had decided to slip into Italy for a couple of days before heading to Dubrovnik that made the departure bearable- & the fact that the unit we had booked in Budapest left a great deal to be desired!  It was clean, but old- built we feel in a tenement situation during the Communist regime & had not one ounce of atmosphere.  It was more than austere- a very cold atmosphere which was exacerbated greatly by the fact that the ground floor had once accommodated shops which were now all closed so the whole situation was just not welcoming at all.  Also, many people would sit in the downstairs area and talk for most of the night & because the building was so empty there, the noise echoed dreadfully, so she who sleeps like a cat, got no sleep at all for 3 nights!  Not a good idea!

Anyway, we overcame the unit problems by going out all day and half the night. There was so much to see and do & everyone is so friendly.  Budapest is the quintessential old European city, albeit still recovering from the ravages of communism, but it is really blossoming and coming back to its former glory. The good citizens of the city are so proud of their heritage and so eager to share their stories that we felt very welcome.  Attributes such as wide streets, lots of trees and flowers and such a sense of place in the world really give the city a special feel.  We just loved wandering through the squares and sitting at the cafes watching the world go by.

Parliament House from the Danube

One of the lovely avenues near St Stephan's Church

We sailed the Danube once again and saw many of the city sites from the water.  One part of the river reminded us of floating along on the Grand Canal in Venice.

Parliament House was amazing.  It looks like a palace and was built right on the river bank between 1885 and 1902.  At the time of construction it was the largest parliamentary building in the world.  It has a length of 268m and is 118m wide and contains more than 20kms of staircase and 691 rooms. Imagine having to clean it!!!!

We also enjoyed the Palace Precinct where there is a whole town, part of which contained a hospital bunker from WW 2 which was also used for many years afterwards, during the Cold War.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t open when we were there.  The Imperial Wine Cellars were also down there so Bill was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t see them and have a wine tasting at the same time.

We also enjoyed the Palace Precinct where there is a whole town, part of which contained a hospital bunker from WW 2 which was also used for many years afterwards, during the Cold War.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t open when we were there.  The Imperial Wine Cellars were also down there so Bill was a bit disappointed that he couldn’t see them and have a wine tasting at the same time.

The Beautiful Blue Danube featuring one of its many bridges.

Bill was like a kid in a sweets shop when he saw these!

Budapest has a huge Food Market which was just amazing.  The hall is divided into areas such as meat, vegetables etc and the amount of meat shops was mind boggling.  There were also many vegetable stalls but the vegies didn’t look very appetising.  They appeared to have been brought in days before because they looked very wilted.

Upstairs, we were able to buy any amount of Hungarian national costumes- I thought Bill would have looked particularly fetching in an embroidered waistcoat which would have looked especially charming matched with a set of green lederhosen, but he declined to try them on.  Maybe it was because I was holding the camera at the time....  He has no sense of adventure what so ever!

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Walls of St Matthias Church

For agnostics such as ourselves, we spend a great deal of time in churches, our motives stemming purely from our love of history and churches are such rich repositories of history.  So much of a country’s background can be learnt from a church.  A church we really enjoyed was that of St Matthias.  This church was the Castle church and the walls were absolutely stunning.

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Monument outside St Anne's Church.  It is Jesus protecting a soldier

Sometimes, in fact often, the very best treasures appear without being sought.  We found a wonderful little church, yesterday, which had been started by an order of Servite priests many years ago.  The church was not ornate but had some wonderful 3D installations.  On the outside front wall was a relatively recent monument of Christ on the cross, protecting a soldier on a horse. This accompanied a wall of names of those killed in WW2

If we had one criticism of Budapest it would be that not enough information is given in English.  Quite often, an English text is provided but there were times when we really wanted to know and couldn’t find out.  Thank God/Buddha/ Alla/etc for Google.  Everything we need to know, we can find on Google!  Maybe the Budapest Tourism Industry realises this!

So... Budapest is beautiful.  We would go back again- but not to the same accommodation!  And now we are in Italia- the second best place in the world and we are about to go and have dinner in Piazza dell’ Unita d’Italia.

Ci vediamo domani!

One of the good citizens of the Castle Precinct.