Highlights E Europe Day 8

Day 8 – Thursday, May 6, 2010 – Budapest, Hungary sightseeing and Visit to the Parliament and Old Hungary Excursion with Lunch

We woke up to a new morning in Budapest. Although the skies were gray, it was not raining – a good omen for our walking tour of the city. The temperature was 65º and the humidity was 84%.

Eniko, our city guide met us at 8:00 along with our new bus driver, Paul. Traffic going over the bridges is very heavy at this time of the morning so we began our city tour on the Buda side of the river.

Our guide gave us a historical perceptive of the country and the capital emphasizing the diversity of the colorful backgrounds of the people who make up this country.

Beginning with the Romans who first settled in this area, to the Huns, this was an important trade route. Many peoples tried to conquer, destroy, and rebuild the city.

Eniko talked briefly about the difficult period of Communism and then the Hungarian Revolt of 1956. Now the country has a Parliamentary Democracy and the quality of life is steadily improving.

Paul drove by the Chain Bridge, the oldest and most beautiful bridge guarded by four huge lions. We got off the bus at the Castle District. Eniko used the “whisperers” so we could walk around, take photos, and still hear her running commentary.

We walked to the Church of Our Lady in the Buda Castle, known to the people as King Matthias Church. The building is being completely cleaned and restored. Our walk led us to the Fisherman’s Bastion where we had a group photo taken in front of the bronze statue of St. Stephen, the first Christian King of Hungary.

She gave us 30 minutes on our own to take photos and do a little shopping. Gennie managed to find a post card and four stamps to carry it to the USA, and most importantly to pay for it all in Euros. We do not want to get too many Florins,

the Hungarian currency.

Paul crossed the river to Pest where we saw former palaces begging to be restored. As we passed we could see the process; the building is completely gutted on the inside but the exterior has to be preserved.

We passed the beautiful, haunting Jewish Synagogue where so many Jews were rounded up in the Nazi era. Eniko told us about the memorial, a silver weeping willow tree with each leaf of the tree bearing the name of a Holocaust victim.

The next stop was the Heroes Square where the enormous bronze statues represent the lords, kings, leaders, and founders of the Hungarian Empires. The last stop was to let us off at the Parliament Building for the afternoon Optional Activity.

Security was very tight here; all of us had to go through a metal detector because several years ago, a terrorist brought a bomb into the building destroying a portion of the back wing.

Climbing the ceremonial stairway and seeing the opulence of the building was an interesting contrast to the many buildings still in disrepair from the previous conflicts. Eniko guided us to the Upper Hall where the Parliament will be in session again on May 14th.

Leaving the Parliament Building at noon, Paul and the bus were right there to take us to our next destination, our trip to Szentendre where we had our lunch.

Getting off of the coach, the temperature was 72ºand 72% humidity. We walked through the little tourist village to our restaurant, Rab Raby. We had a light lunch of Hungarian Goulash, local wine, bread, and dessert.

We had another two hours to shop; most people were very ready to get back on the bus, long before the appointed time. We arrived back at the hotel at 4:40.

I ran over to the near by department store, to get a few necessities while Gennie began to type the journal. We got ready for our Highlight Dinner and met our group in the lobby at 7:00.

The bus driver took us to Pest for our dinner at the Aranybarany or Golden Fleece where we had a set meal with three choices; goose leg, goulash, or cat fish. Gennie had the goulash and I had the catfish.

We were serenaded throughout our dinner by two Hungarian Gypsies, one with a violin and the other with a Hungarian harpsichord called a cimbalon. After dinner Gennie and I walked a few blocks to the river so I could take a few night exposures of the city.

The Royal Palace was ablaze in lights as was the King Matthias Church – Budapest spares no expense in showing off its buildings and monuments at night! We returned to our hotel at 9:40 to finish up the journal and pack for our journey through Slovakia and on to Poland tomorrow.

Hotel: Novotel Budapest Congress (Buffet Breakfast / Highlight Dinner)

enjoying the blog...cute pic of Vic entertaining the little Hungarian ladies...go get 'em, Vic

8 days into Phase II of trip...and have not seen ONE instance of ice cream. Don't they sell any in that part of Europe?

Hi guys Have been keeping track of your travels since our joint venture to Russia and the Baltics in 2008!I did an eastern Europe tour with Insight years ago so it is interesting to see similarities (and not!). Also loved Budapest, myself, all those bullet holes everywhere and the fisherman's bastion. I did explore the Jewish synagogue which is always sobering. Waiot until Auswich. Anyway glad to see you two are still out there cruising the planet. cheers Julie xx

This brings back good memories - I really enjoyed Budapest.

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