The long week-end of 15 August gave me and a friend a perfect opportunity to go spend a few days in Budapest, a city she had never seen and where I had only been very briefly. We left Brussels on Friday evening and therefore arrived late at the Hotel, which was right in the middle of the Castle District in Pest.
There is a fantastic view of Buda from Castle Hill and this is also a way to orient everybody who knows the city … The parliament Building is at the far left, behind the Chain Bridge. The St Stephen’s Basilica is at the center of the picture and there are several cruise ships moored on either side of the river – this was not the case when I went there in 1995 (or at least I do not remember these at that time)
Early Saturday, I had booked a city tour. I find this a very good opportunity to go around the main attractions of a city, with plenty of opportunities to see more of them in the days to come. What I had not told Bee is that the tour would be on a Segway. There were 4 of us on the tour and we spent the first few minutes learning how to manage the Segway. Bee was very amused while ‘others’ were learning – or is that a nervous smile?
She did learn quite easily (most people do) and off we went on a 4 hour tour.
I needed to practice standing on the Segway with “no hands” so that I could later take pictures.
Photo by Bee
We had a great local guide (on the left in this picture) and we stopped several times for her to explain the history and local culture. Here we are along the Danube, across from Castle Hill.
We stopped in many places, near the Parliament Building and near the Basilica, which we intended to visit later.
We also stopped in front of the monument ‘honoring’ the Russian Army who ‘saved’ Hungary during WWII and later during the uprising in 1956. One of the buildings on this square is the US Embassy – that provides balance!
We finished the tour at Heroes Square – it is quite a long way from the center and therefore it was nice to do that on the Segway. We were also able to test the speed of the machines. I was surprised that mine was not that fast … is I tried to accelerate more, it would refuse, forcing the handle up and preventing me from leaning forward! I hate it when a machine tries to control what I do …
The monument was built in 1896 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary of the founding of the Hungarian state; however, it was not finished until 1929. At the base of the main column are represented the early military leaders.
More details at the following link: http://www.budapest-tourist-guide.com/heroes-square.html
A good opportunity, at the end of the tour, for a family shot!
At the very end of the tour, our guide let me try her Segway, which was much (much) faster than mine … I do have to get me one of those!
After a late lunch, we headed to Castle Hill to see what was happening there. As we were crossing the Chain Bridge, we had a very strange sight: a tour bus in the middle of the river, fighting against the current.
Photo by Bee
There are more and more places where you can have a “Duck Tour” with buses that go on the road and into the water, but this is the more “bus-like” vehicle I have ever seen in the water. Out of the water, you can tell that it is not a regular bus, but on this shot, it really looks like a tour bus got lost!
A good view of the Parliament Building from the Castle.
The Chain Bridge is the oldest of the bridges crossing the Danube between Bud and Pest. It is a suspension bridge, but as many early designs chose, instead of using steel cable, it uses hinged cast iron bars as its main support. That may be where the name “Chain Bridge” comes from as I certainly did not see any chains in the support.
The castle was totally emptied at the fall of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and therefore is not very interesting to visit inside, except for special exhibits. However, none tempted us and the weather was so good that we decided to keep walking around.
The main gate to the castle (on the side away from the river which is the main entrance side) is surprisingly modern…
The similarities with palaces in Vienna are obvious …
We had a concert that evening, and on the way, had this view of the Four Season’s Hotel at sunset.
Photo by Bee
After the concert, we had a dinner cruise of the Danube. Since I had not taken my camera to the concert, I was stuck with only my phone. This is a terrible photo, but I still decided to included it as is shows a very unusual bridge. This is one of the latest to be built and is as far as the boat went. From a distance, we could not tell what the tall towers were for. This is not a suspension bridge and the towers do not appear to participate at all on the structural strength of the bridge.
As we got closer, we noticed that at the top of each column is a parabola-shaped reflector. Since there are no street lights on the bridge, I suspect that the columns are actually what provides the lighting. There are spot light 1/2 way up the columns which shine straight up. The light is then reflected back to the surface of the bridge by the parabolic shapes which spread it to cover the whole distance between columns. I guess it is a way to use fewer light sources, and was a good topic of conversation for a few minutes.
As bad as the first night photo was, I am really surprised at how this one came out using my phone and no tripod or anything – I only rested my hands on a table. A rather nice night view of the Castle and the Chain Bridge.
On Sunday, we wanted to go visit the Parliament Building. There are tours on the hour, every hour starting at 10 AM. So we arrived at about 9:30 and waited in line. The line did not move very fast at all. We had barely moved by 10:00, but I was not surprised since the tour did not start until 10:00. However, at 10:00 a lot of people who were not in our line started to go in, and we still did not move. We realised that we were actually in a line to buy tickets, and that it was moving very (very very) slowly. So we gave up! Instead, we went to the Basilica. I was surprised that they let us in even though we were in the middle of the mass. The congregation was in the middle of a hymn when we walked in.
I took a video, more for the sound than anything else, the music was so beautiful. A video is also a good way to get the full magnitude of the inside of this great church. It is only as I continued to listen to the music that I realised that this was a full live orchestra with choral, and they were right behind me on a balcony – very hard to see… Turn up the volume of your computer and click on the link below! I suggest you also increase the size of the video as much as your screen lets you!
We took the elevator to the top of the dome, where we could have a really nice view of the city, especially Castle Hill and the rest of Pest. At the far right of this picture (you may have to pan a little to see it, you will see Mathias Church, the Fisherman’s Bastion and to the right, the hotel where we stayed – great location.
Here is a better view of Castle Hill, and particularly the area around Mathias Church and the hotel.
On the way to the Basilica, we had seen this Art Nouveau building. From the street, it was totally impossible to get any decent shot. However, from up here, it was a little easier. You cannot see the highly decorated facade, but the roof should already give you an idea of what it must be like.
We had actually decided to spend a lot of the day visiting Art Nouveau buildings in the city and this was the first of several.
As we were walking around, just looking, and trying to find a place to have lunch, we fell upon the Franz Liszt School of Music! Just a reminder that in the late 1800 and early 1900, Budapest was a very dynamic and cultural city.
Not Art Nouveau, but just as spectacular, the main International Train Station. This is where I arrived in 1995 coming from Vienna and my cousin who lived in Budapest at the time was kind enough to pick me up from here. We came to explore and buy tickets to go to Eger on Monday – more to come on that…
On the way back from the station towards the hotel, we did not quite know what to do, so we took the subway to a place close to the Danube and than walked from there. To our surprise, we ran into more Art Nouveau buildings than we could shake a stick at… These two are on opposite sides of the street and the only way to take a good picture of both is to stand in the middle of the road with your back to the traffic (sorry Bill!); so we took turn looking for traffic while the other was taking the photo!
Along the main street a little further, there were several interesting building side by side.
We headed back towards the hotel and actually got the best view of the Parliament Building. I was hoping to get some sunset pictures, but clouds came in right at the wrong time! So you are stuck with this one…
I had to include a view of Mathias Church, even though it is so crowded with other building that it is very difficult to get a good vie w of it, especially the colored tiles that are on the roof. We went inside and it is gorgeous – much smaller than the basilica, but more intimate and cozy!
OK – so please forgive me for the “Artsy Shot” of the reflection of the roof of Mathias Church on the windows of our hotel.
As I mentioned earlier, Monday was Eger Day. We left Budapest early and took the train to Eger (with a change somewhere I now forget) – Eger is only 2 hours by train from Budapest and at the center of one of the best Wine Growing region around. It is also a historical city with a very nice church. It also has a castle, but this was closed on Mondays so we could not visit.
Eger has the most Northern Minaret in Europe. I am not sure what that means… There are bound to be mosques and Muslims further North.
This is a quote from Wikipedia: “Minaret, 17th century. The northernmost Turkish minaret in Europe is 40 meters high and one of only three survivors in Hungary. It can be climbed for a good view of the city centre.” Brussels is North of Eger and there are 4 minarets around the mosque in Parc du Cinquantenaire – I guess the ones in Brussels are not “Turkish”?
You see it from a distance, because we did not try to get nearer, and certainly had no intention of climbing it!
We also went into cellars that are more than 200 years old and were built to actually extract building material for some palace. They are now used as wine cellars in the city center and there is an interesting tour (but only in Hungarian – there is a small write up in English).
A main attraction in Eger is the “Valley of Beautiful Women” – and it is not at all what you think! It is an area just North of Eger where several cellars have been carved out of the rocks and which serves as the local Wine Tasting Area. The main red wine is called “Bull’s Blood” and of course we had to try a few.
Unfortunately, our last stop took a little bit longer than we expected and therefore a relaxed day ended up with a fast (and I mean FAST!) walk back to the station where we caught our return train with 1 minute to spare.
The last day in Budapest was only 1/2 day and was Market and Bridge day. Just South of the Chain Bridge, there is a modern bridge, but the next one along is quite old and a good example of late 1800 steel construction – a complex and intricate lace-work of steel beams. I found out that it is not easy to get a good shot when you are standing on the structure you are trying to photograph. There are also very detailed decorative motifs that would probably not have been be added 20 or even 50 years ago – maybe now, in some cases, the design and decoration od purely functional objects is taking on more importance again.
Not far from there is the Old Market – completely renovated already in the early 1990’s. It is very much of a tourist attraction, with a lot of souvenir shops in the upper floor.
The structure is very remeniscent of many such buildings in Europe built at that time (it also reminds me of La Pa Sat in Singapore, in slightly larger…)
It is still a fully functioning market on the ground floor with all kinds of intersting shops. The vegetable shop was very colorful and had quite a variety of different items. The shops are arranged into ares, where all the Bread shops are next to each other, then you have all the sheese shops and in another area all the vegetable shops.
The spices shops (there were several) did seem to cater more to tourists. However, the Beef, and Pork, and Poultry shops certainly were not intended for tourists. That is why you do not see any pictures as most of what was on display would not be suitable for these pages.
On the taxi ride from the airport, we had spotted a building that looked really interesting. I was not quite sure where we were at the time, so I did not really have much hope that I would be able to find it again. However, while we were wondering around, I recognised some of the streets we went through and one thing led to another – “Found It!”
It is now the Museum of Applied Art but I have not been able to find its original name. Designed by one of the great Art Nouveau architects in Budapest: Odon Lechner.
There is a great hall inside and the arches are very ‘persian-like’
Here is a better view of the roof and the decoration on the facade. Quite an intricate design.
In the presentation for the National Museum in Budapest, they make a big deal about the fact that this ‘column’ supposedly stood at the forum in Rome. I stood there too, but nobody makes a big deal out of that!
Photo by Bee
We happened by the Main Synagogue.
In the back, there is a nice monument to the victims of the Holocaust. A reminder that Budapest did have a very large jewish community before WWII.
Photo by Bee
I really wanted to see this statue, just because of what it is called – “The Fishergirl Fountain”. It dates from the 19th century and is complete with a working ship’s wheel.
I am not sure what the connection is, considering that the sea is really really far from here… I guess you can fish in the river (or may be you could many years ago!) but it just seemed a funny thing in this land locked country.
Time to depart from Budapest has arrived. There will be more opportunities to go there in the future and explore further, I am sure.
(1910 Page Views)
I like what you did with the inside of the Museum of Applied Arts. And the panorama too. They captured what we saw. The Monday nights are really paying off. :o)