Next morning bright and early we were on the train to Budapest. We crossed into Hungary only a stone’s throw from Slovakia. When we rolled in, the first thing you noticed was train station was a bit more run-down than anything we saw in Austria, where everything was so well-kept it was like a real-life Epcot Center. In Hungary you could see bits of graffiti and peeling plaster and scaffolding around underway restoration work, but overall it gave things a well worn, liven-in charm and was still nicer than say New York City.
Our hotel was right downtown about a block from the Danube, between the Chain Bridge and the Elizabeth Bridge, on one of those old narrow streets. One either side of the hotel was a restaurant. We had lunch at the one closer to the river while we waited for our room to be ready. At last, genuine, and great Hungarian food! We all got töltött káposzta, which was served in a bowl with szalonna and kolbász. Wow, out of this world.
After lunch we set out to explore. We walked down the waterfront and crossed the famous Chain Bridge, one of the first modern suspension bridges, predating the Brooklyn Bridge by almost fifty years, and the first permanent bridge across the Danube. I must say it’s a beautiful structure. From there were were are the foot of yet another funicular, this one leading up to Buda Castle, historic home of Hungarian kings. This was a cool complex of medieval castles dating to the 13th century and and more modern, palace and government type buildings from mainly the 18th century. We walked around the grounds alot before entering from the back. By this time Jeannie and Michelle were tired from the heat and went back to the hotel.
Lizzy and I kept on exploring. A couple blocks away, on the top of the hill was St. Matthias Church, which was perhaps the most beautiful of all the churches we saw, built in the gothic style in the 1200’s to the 1400’s but the stone is bright white rather than the more typical black-grey. Just past that was a place called the Fisherman’s Bastion, which is sort of a park and café with castle-wall style architecture, providing great views of the city and photo ops, looking down on the Chain Bridge and Parliament across the river. There was a group of street musicians playing violin there.
That night we went out dinner at restaurant on the other side of the hotel, which had both Hungarian and Italian food, also very good. They had great deserts including rates. They had a plate with three different kinds, one turns with spices, one alma with mak, and one cseresznye and dió. Yum yum. We walked around the neighborhood that evening looking at shops and the Danube. Budapest is a very beautiful city. Like Vienna it’s close to two million in population. But it has hills and bridges, plus the general density and rhythm, that remind me alot of San Francisco.
…
Next day we headed up to the famous Hosök tere, or Heroes Square. It was a about a two kilometer walk up Andrássy Avenue, a broad and pleasant historical boulevard. The square itself holds a set of statues and monuments; in the center is the original seven Magyar chieftains who came together the form the kingdom of Hungary after their conquest of the Carpathian basin in the ninth century and subsequently made Árpád their king, and around that is a row of monuments to kings of Hungary through the ages
After that we were all hot and tired so we took a cab back to Parliament, a truly massive and impressive neo-gothic building. One thing I really wanted to see was the crown of St. Stephen, which we learned was housed inside. Unfortunately, the wait to take the tour was several hours. If we had known we could have gotten tickets ahead of time. Instead we saw what we could see in the lobby of the visitor center and walked around the outside. After that is was St. Stephen’s Basilica, yet another ornate and beautiful church.
Later that afternoon we went to the Hungarian National Museum, which was absolutely fascinating (at least for me; the girls had had enough museums at this point so we split up again). It’s mainly about the history of Hungary and contains quite a few national treasures (and was the former home of the crown of St. Stephen). The building was similar the art museum in Vienna, which a great grand staircase taking up the whole middle of the building and leading you up to start at the top. There were two wings upstairs corresponding to the medieval period, from the era of King Árpád thru the Turkish invasion, and then the last few hundred years from the rise of Austria-Hungary on to the present day. On the lower level was another section that went all the way back to the stone age, thru the Avars, Celts and Romans.
That night we went on a dinner cruise on the Danube. It was super scenic and very nice, with great food and music. The food was a buffet with lots of stuff including more goulash, ragout, palacinta, kolbász, gombóc, various meats, mushrooms, potatoes, and of course more töltött káposzta, and all sorts of deserts. There was a music group consisting of the two violinists and a bass, playing everything Mozart and Strauss to gypsy dances and Csárdás. On the other side of the boat was a cimbalom player but we didn’t get to hear much of him until the cruise was almost over cuz we didn’t know he was there until we got up and walked around after dinner. Again we ended the night walking around the waterfront.