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A short Break in Budapest

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 …

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