Monday 21 June 2014 Budapest

Sunny Warm 29C

Our guide Agnes picked us up at our accommodation at 9.30am this morning. She is an excellent guide with an extensive understanding of the history of Hungary. The country has had many invasions and a history of turmoil and uncertainty which has made for a very moving history.

To begin our tour we walked down to the Danube and briefly looked in on the Gresham Palace. The detailed reconstruction is absolutely exquisite and not to be missed on any visit to Budapest.

From there, we crossed over the Chain Bridge to the the funicular which took us to the castle gates at the top of the hill. The Budapest History Museum and the Hungarian National Gallery are both located in the castle, but like all European countries, museums and art galleries are closed on Mondays. Buit with so much else to see, these were barely missed.

We walked around the Castle grounds admiring the architecture of the castle buildings and statuary, all having been rebuilt since 1945..

The view from the Castle looking down the Danube and at all 7 road bridges that cross at Budapest is amazing. All the bridges were destroyed in WWII and they have since been reconstructed in their original style except the Elizabeth Bridge which had to be rebuilt in an expanded form due to the ever increasing demands of traffic on it.

Agnes tells us that the Pest (east) side of the Danube is the is the city's business centre and many people who would like to live on the Buda (west) side choose not to because of the daily traffic congestion crossing those seven bridges. She also tells us the traffic on the esatern side is pretty ordinary in rush hours also....

Next stop was St Matthias Church which surprisingly is very white on the outside but quite dark and has an eastern, almost Islamic influence on the inside. The windows were taken out and preserved before the end of the war and once rebuilt, the original windows have been beautifully added back into the church.

Next to St Matthias is the Fishermans Bastion which has 7 towers and originally housed the fish markets. Now there are fabulous views from the top of the towers looking towards the Danube, plus the obligatory cafes and restaurants..

We had lunch at a café which sold typical Hungarian cakes = not such a healthy lunch! I had a cream vanilla slice, very delicious with a coffee.

Next stop was the Hospital in the Rock and Nuclear Bunker Museum. Originally begun in the late 1930's, it is a network of caves under the castle hill. It swung into full use in the siege of Budapest in 1944-45 and was also used as a command post by the German high command. It was used again during the 1956 uprising after which, it was converted to a nuclear bunker for the ruling political party.

Inside are a number of highly detailed and faithfully restored exhibits of the 1945-56 sections and the additions made to make it a nuclear bunker. The air-conditioning machinery is still used to heat/cool the atmosphere as needed.

Finished with the hill for now, we caught the funicular back down to the Chain Bridge and walked back to Andrassy Avenue via St Stephen's. From there, Agnes drove us up the Avenue to Heroes Square

Heroes Square houses a collection of magnificent statues and the Millennium Column that represent Hungary's history since Arbad first settled next to the Danube in 896AD, through to the last great Hungarian leader, Lajos Kossuth who led the Hungarians against the Austrians in the revolution of 1848. The last King of Hungary, Charles IV - crowned 1916, also happened to be imposed by the Austrians, which the Hungarians didn't take too kindly to. He was shown the door during the 1918 revolution from which Hungary became a democratic republic.

By the time Agnes had fed us all this information, we were becoming concerned that we were going to get an exam at the end of the day....

We finally said goodbye to Agnes at the Square and went to see the Széchenyi Baths which are in City Park behind the square. The park is a lovely green area with many beautiful buildings and the Baths looked very inviting, but as our feet were starting to protest, we took the Millennium Metro (another story) back to our apartment for a quiet evening after a long day.

We have had a request to show photos of the food we are eating - we'll start that tomorrow..