Budapest May 21, 2001
Start by pronouncing the name right, that's Budapesht. Formed by the merger of the town of Buda (east side of the Danube) and Pest (west side of the river), much of the town comes from the 1800's, but it also has remains of Roman villages and items from the 1200's. (Many of these pictures are available in larger downloadable form on the Webshots site.)
| We stayed in the Hyatt Regency and except for the view outside the window (see right), the bathroom fixtures and the plugs in the wall, you could have been in an American room. Since the decline of the Communist regime (around 1991), this area has been appealing to tourists, so English is a very prominent language. |  |
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The hotel is right on the Danube and has a nice view of Buda if you just walk around the corner (see left). That's the old imperial palace, reconstructed in 1512 after the Turks let it go to ruins in the 1400s. This area has seen many rulers, for a while the Danube river was the Eastern border for Rome's territory. |
| Monday morning we took a bus tour of the combined cities. A very famous portion of Pest is the "hero's" square. The statue at the top of the column is Archangel Gabriele and the men on horses at the base are the chiefs of the 7 tribes that founded the area around 896 AD. This also is the square where the famous 1956 riots took place under the Communist regime. Under the circular balustrade at the back are supposed to be the Kings of Hungary, but at this time that's under reconstruction. |  |
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Here you can see those 7 chieftain's in all their glory. Several of the horses carry antlers strapped on the side of their faces to (a) protect them and (b) make it even less pleasant to be near them when they come charging by. Not nice people we suspect. |
| After the trip through Pest, we crossed the river and went over to Buda. Behind the Royal Palace is the Church of St. Mathias (which we all took as Methodist with the accent our tour guide had, but we knew that 1300 somewhat pre-dated Fr. Wesley and his method). This is the church that all the Kings of Hungary have been crowned in (at least since 1300). |  |
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For a fee (which sounded like free with our guide's accent, but she corrected that), you can go inside St. Mathias. It's really pretty dark in there, but with the help of a column, I managed to get this picture of the main alter. As we had passed the exit before going in, somebody said "not much" and I almost tried to talk Marnie out of going in. I'm very glad I didn't try, it was very nice (especially for the 1300's). |
| In the afternoon, a number of people persuaded the local guide to take us to St. Andrew's (spelled Szentendre) instead of just walking around the city. Szentendre has been a tourist town for centuries-the people in Budapest would come down to it either by horse or by boat-and it still is. It was a very pleasant town to walk around it, and some pretty things, but nothing we chose to buy. Well (see right), yes we did stop in one of the sidewalk cafe's and get something. |  |
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Monday evening, we went out in the country for an elegant Hungarian
dinner. We had a "gypsy" orchestra (violin, piano
(synthesizer) and bass) that were really excellent. We also had 2
singers/dancers they brought in to provide local culture and a brief
intermission before the main course.
On the way back to the hotel, I saw the view of the chain bridge (see left) and decided it needed capturing, so we walked back from the hotel to capture this picture. The chain bridge is the oldest bridge across the Danube, at least in Hungary. |
| Tuesday morning we were on our way to Vienna (or Wien if you wish to be Germanic). On the way, we stopped for a special (free gift from Princess Tours) lunch and demonstration of riding ability by Austrian "cowboys" (of course, they didn't call themselves that). It was worth what we paid for it, but like somebody said, it might have been just as good to have more time in the city. They were very good with the horses, and could crack their whips in unison (you can see them on the right). |  |
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One fellow did demonstrate an unusual riding ability. He's got 5 horses harnessed together, and he's riding on the last two. |
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