Budapest

Photo 1: Streetscape

Photo 2: View of heritage buildings along the Danube

Photo 3: Some of the 'heroes' in Hero Square

Photo 4: Hungarian Parliament building

Photo 5: Former royal palace

On Friday we boarded the Avalon Impression to begin our Danube-Rhine cruise. The ship was launched in 2014 and is fabulous. The cabin is spacious and comfortable and there are lovely dining and bar facilities and the most friendly and helpful staff you can imagine. The food is never ending and is the best quality you will find anywhere. They have promised to pamper all their guests and say they will be disappointed if we don’t all gain a few kilos. We are unlikely to disappoint them.

All was going well until we started to unpack and Phil discovered that he had left some clothes in the hotel. ‘Man loses trousers in hotel’ is usually the headline for a naughty story, but in this case it was just Phil having a senior moment. Anyway the Tour Director was very helpful and arranged for Phil to get a taxi to the hotel and pick up the items. A happy ending of some sort anyway :)

On Saturday we took a morning tour of Budapest before the boat leaves this evening. The city was badly bombed during World War Two but has been brilliantly restored. If you didn’t know better you would think the war hadn’t happened. Unfortunately the good mix of modern and historical architecture evident on the drive into the city yesterday was not evident in the central parts of town. In some places the most ghastly examples of modern architecture have been built right alongside centuries old buildings and we are told the locals hate them. The good news is that there are not enough of these modern monstrosities to spoil the overall appearance of the historic city. 

The tour took us first to Hero Square. The Square commemorates key figures in Hungary’s 1100 year history and the statues are wonderful. The column in the centre of the Square has a statue of the Angel Gabriel on top and figures of the original Magyar chieftains at the bottom. (The Magyars were the original Hungarians.) The Art Gallery and Museum on opposite sides of the Square are magnificent.

Then we visited the Castle District, a world heritage area containing the old royal palace (now a museum), Matthias Church and the Fishermen’s Bastion. We walked past a 15^th century pub located between two 17^th century buildings. Apparently the whole street was destroyed in the 17^th century during a war but the story goes that the pub survived because soldiers would never destroy a place where they can get a drink. Makes sense to us.

The Fishermen’s Bastion is a lovely structure of towers, turrets and battlements from which you get a terrific view of the city and the river, including the very impressive Parliament. The church is one of the most beautiful we have ever seen. Most of the 19^th century and older buildings in Budapest are beautifully decorated with fine sculptures, but Matthias Church takes the cake. Buildings like this one, the royal palace, the Parliament and the streetscapes dating back even to the 15^th century make you aware that this was once one of the great imperial cities of Europe. If you are going to visit Europe don’t miss Budapest!