Day 4—Budapescht!

Buda Castle

On our third morning waking up in this city, we finally got a ‘tour’ (well, after breakfast with our long term friends and some possible new ones (P&P from Wilkes-Scranton area)).  The ship had a free tour (mostly on a bus) with a guide providing assorted tidbits and narrations.  Until the 1880s, this was two cities, Buda, and Pest (pronounced “Pescht”).  Buda is on the East side of the Danube, and it typically hilly and the wealthier tend to live there (think Budda, with his rolling curves, and then Buda with their rolling hills).  Pest is on the West side, and is pretty flat (think flat pastures, or “Pest-ures”).  So, from Pest looking over to Buda, there are some great sites of buildings on hills.  From the Buda side, on many hills, you can look over the expanse of Pest.  They decided about mid 1880s to become one city, so they named the new city PestBuda.  After two years, they realized what a terrible name that was (clumsy) and swapped it around to BudaPest.

Saint/King Steven

Hungary has a troubled history.  In 896 Hungary became its own country.  About a century later, “Germany” gave them the choice of becoming Christian or being invaded and subjected to Germanic authority.  So, King Istvan converted, and he and Bishop Gellert pushed for the people to follow.  They didn’t much like that so when the King died, they stuck the Bishop in a barrel with rusty spikes, and threw him over a hill to the river below.  The Bishop died, but they named the hill after him.  Trouble continued, and the last war they won was in 1456.  They have been invaded and conquered 33 times since then.  Being central to the juncture between Asia and Europe, everyone wanting to expand their domain to a new continent had to go through Hungary.  Eventually, they merged with Austria under the Hapsburgs, and became a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (ruled from Vienna).  This gave them access to money, as the “co-capital”, and the started building a lot of great new structures.  Then they (Austro-Hungary) sided with Germany in WWI.  That split up the Hapsburg empire, leaving Hungary as a small piece of what it once was.  The Nazis took over in the 40s, and then the Soviets “liberated” them in 1945 (and then stayed). 

St. Matthias Church

Close up of the roof tiles.

The dark spots are repairs from WWII bullets.

Parliament Building (third largest in the world) from the Buda side.

Parliament building between us.

St. Matthias (again)

KM Zero, considered center point of Budapest

Liberty Bridge.

In 1896, King Franz Josef dedicated their “Liberty Bridge”, joining Buda and Pest over the Danube, by driving a silver spike into the last place.  In 1956 someone finally stole the silver spike, so, the Soviets replaced it, and three days later, it was stolen.  So, they put in an aluminum spike, and it was stolen.  So, they used a steel spike and painted it to match the other spikes.

The "Longest Bench" in the EU. 
(Almost nobody ever sits here!)

After driving around the city seeing some beautiful sights (or the amount visible through one or the other side of the bus) we drove over the Liberty Bridge (not seeing the spike), and headed up the hill to see St. Matthias church and the surroundings.  It was a nice day with medium sun and comfortable.  But as most nice days, they elicit lots of tourists (like us) who get in the way of picture takers.  Sigh…

On the way back to the bus, the tour guide wasn’t talking to the group, so Bill took the chance to talk about some of the history and our previous experiences with him.  MaryAnne talked with others from our boat …stuff people talk about.  Theresa and Mike enjoyed some nice quiet “don’t talk to me” time.  So, everyone was happy!

Our boat.

Back on the boat, it was nearly time for lunch.  There was a “light lunch” downstairs and a “grill” upstairs.  Hmmm…M&MA were going to head back out and climb to the top of St. Matthias, but we decided to take a little slow time.  We joined them for a quick lunch (and tried a few things…attempting to be restrained as we wanted the grilled options), and waved them off the boat.  There were brats, and burgers and well, grill stuff.  And beer.  And sparkling wine.  After eating we joined into a discussion with a couple at the next table, and talked about travels for a little while.  Then Theresa took a mini-nap, and we headed to the Central market again to get a little treat. 

Mike and MaryAnne heading off after lunch.
Turns out, they DID have a good time! :-)

Not really a reassuring sight.

We went up to the top deck to watch the ship depart.  It was quite a little show, and the First Captain seemed a lot more involved than we would have expected (dragging ropes, etc).  As we pulled away and headed up the river, the Cruise Director narrated what we were seeing on both sides.  It was some great views, so lots of pix…

Speaking of "not reassuring"...

Is that just hanging by a rope? 
With some wood shoved in there??
What are the installation guidelines here???

Liberty Bridge (with a frequently missing spike?)

Well, I don't see any spikes missing.

Anyone remember their Statics?  Clearly a "pin" if I ever saw one!
Guessing they NEVER have earth quakes here?

Gellert Hill and a monument to him.

Buda Castle

The "Chain Bridge", built in the 1850s,
and began the movement to join the two cities.

Parliament Building.

Parliament Building.

For dinner, we sat with our new and old friends, and enjoyed some really amazing food, good wine, and awesome dessert.  But, it was a little long and everyone was getting tired.  So, we headed back for bed right away.  Good news on the bed…it is a typical European bed dressing, which is a bottom sheet, and a sheeted comforter (as opposed to bottom sheet, top sheet, then covers).  The Euro-blanket is really awesome when it’s cold outside.  But when it isn’t, you have two choices for thermal insulation:  The whole thing, or Nothing.  So, Theresa asked for a “sheet” to be put on in between.  It was a little like asking them to put the pillows under the bottom sheet and then turn the mattress around…they kind of acted like this was incomprehensible.  But the managed to figure it out, so we can look forward to an intermediate layer between zero and max!!

Good Night!!