29 April 2025 – Budapest

Miles driven today = 0

Total Miles to date = 4,589

It’s simply not possible to do a city the size of Budapest any sort of justice in a single day.  It would take at least 3 or 4 days just to scratch the surface.  But I’m afraid at this point in the trip we just don’t have that sort of time available.  We also don’t have a guidebook for Hungary and had done next to no research, so we were spectacularly unprepared, relying on a couple of basic tourist maps provided by the campsite when we arrived yesterday.

Budapest is of course two cities for the price of one.  Buda on the west bank of the Danube and Pest on the East.  We caught the M3 Metro which deposited us neatly at Batthyany ter station on the Buda side directly across the river from the instantly recognisable Parliament Buildings.

Also right next door to the Church of St Anna.

Most of the interesting things on the Buda side of the river are up a steep hill and we weren’t particularly close to the funicular which whisks you up to the Castle.  So it was the good old fashioned stairs for us.  There were a few statues in a small park we wandered through.  Apparently this is called the “Kingdom Statue” but I’m afraid I have no idea what the story is behind it.

We entered the Castle Hill area through the Vienna Gate, which you can see to the bottom right of the picture.  This building holds the National Archives of Hungary.

The Buda Tower or St Mary Magdalene Tower is all that is left of a much larger church complex.  It’s currently closed for renovation works but when open you can climb the 170 steps to the top for what is reckoned to be one of the best views of the City.

This is a bronze reproduction of The Coronation Mantle.  The original was created in the early part of the 11^th century from Byzantine silk and embroidered with gold and silver.  It was worn at the coronation of Hungarian Kings from the 12^th Century and was last used when Charles IV was crowned in 1916.

Matthias Church or the Church of our Lady is the principle place of Worship in Buda.  It was originally built in the 11^th Century but underwent a major Gothic restoration in the 14^th Century.  The statue in the foreground represents the Holy Trinity.

This building was originally a Jesuit College, built in 1747.  Nowadays it is the home base for the Ministry of the Interior.

The Fisherman’s Bastion was built on top of the Castle Wall but embellished for decorative purposes in 1902.

It offers another great view of the Parliament Buildings across the Danube with the spires of the Szilagyi Dezso Square Reformed Church on the near bank.

Also nice views of the back of Matthias Church with it’s colorfully glazed tiled roof.

The chap on the horse is the 11^th Century King Stephen I who was the first Christian King of Hungary.

We headed on towards the Castle and were lucky to catch the 11 O’Clock Changing of the Guard.

Sandor Palace was built in 1806 and is the home of the President of Hungary.

Buda Castle has been reconstructed at least 6 times over the last 700 years and large parts of it seem to be undergoing yet another transformation in a major restoration project.

We walked down this fancy staircase.  The bronze statue to the right is a “Turul”.  A legendary hawklike bird from Magyar folklore.

This section of the Castle now houses the Hungarian National Gallery.

Prince Eugene of Savoy was a distinguished field officer of the late 17^th and early 18^th Centuries.

We headed back down the steps towards the Danube.

We discovered fountains.

And we discovered frescoes but I have no idea of the significance of either I’m afraid.  There is just so much of this sort of stuff to see in Budapest.

We crossed over to the Pest side via the impressive Szechenyi Chain Bridge.  Built in 1849 it was the first bridge to span the Danube.  It was designed by an Englishman and built by a Scotsman, both by the name of Clark.

Facing the bridge is the impressive building belonging to the Ministry of the Interior.

Looking back at the Castle from the Pest side with one of two lions which guard each end of the bridge in the foreground.

The Shoes on the Danube Bank are in remembrance of members of Budapest’s Jewish community who were massacred by the fascist militia during World War II.  They were forced to remove their shoes because they had monetary value, before being shot and their bodies dumped in the river.

A close up of the South facing frontage of the Parliament Building with the statue of Count Gyula Andrassy, a 19^th Century Statesman who served as Prime minister of Hungary.

From a slightly different angle showing the domes and spires of the vast building.  It contains some 700 rooms and 19 kilometres of corridors and staircases.

Lunchtime!  There are huge number of eateries to choose from but we settled on a Bistro called Tulipan, which I assumed from their logo means Tulip.  I was very pleased with my choice of Catfish Paprikash and Lisa was equally with hers of Hunter’s Beef.

Then we wandered through the gardens of Liberty Square and admired the impressive architecture of the buildings surrounding it.

The Soviet War Memorial commemorates Russian soldiers who fought in World War II.

Another memorial for victims of the German occupation.  The demonic looking eagle carries a bangle emblazoned with the year 1944.

And another fountain.  This one was interactive with kids dashing between the gaps which occasionally appeared and trying to avoid a soaking.

St Stephen’s Basilica is dedicated to Stephen I who we saw on his horse at the Fisherman’s Bastion.  His 1,000 year old mummified remains are still kept inside in a glass box.

A nice bit of street art to lighten the mood.

We finished our tour at the Great Synagogue which was built in the 1850s and is apparently only second in size to the Temple Emanu-El in New York.  Damage caused to the building during World War II, followed by a period of neglect was only rectified by a restoration project in the 1990s.

So our whistle stop tour of Budapest finished there.  We didn’t actually set foot inside a single building other than the bistro, so personally I would love to come back on a proper City break sometime and really have a proper look around.  But it’ll have to do for now.  Tomorrow we move on to Vienna.

30 April 2025 - Vienna Stress Part 1