Budapest, Day 1

Man, are my feet tired!!!  It seems like we've walked about a million miles every day we've been in Europe, but today we might have walked even more than usual.  The temperature isn't bad - a little cold - but as long as we bundle up we're fine.  Today I did finally break out the thermal underwear. And wore 2 long sleeved tshirts instead of one. And lost one of my gloves, but my pockets are warmer than my gloves anyway. Actually it's amazing I hung on to both gloves this long!! And bought a new scarf because the one I brought wasn't warm enough.  Okay, so it's a bit colder here than it's been. Tomorrow it may snow and be windy but we'll deal with that then.

Some of you have commented on why in the world do we travel in January.  Well, mainly because we shut down our business in January so we have vacation time then. But the advantages are also that there aren't big crowds of tourists, and since we're in the off-season we get great hotels for dirt cheap prices!  And we don't have to worry whether the hotel has a/c or not.

We started the day on Castle Hill.  First we walked across the Chain Bridge, guarded by really cool lions.

Then we rode a funicular, built in 1870, to the top and then walked around to see the sights. 

Here's the chain bridge and St. Istvan from the top.

Last night when we checked into the hotel, we asked if there was internet. The answer was yes, but it costs 5 euros per day. But the desk clerk told us that Starbucks is across the street and we can probably pick up their signal for free. Which is how I'm writing this blog!

This is the Turul Bird. This mythical bird of Magyar folktales supposedly led the Hungarian migrations from the steppes of Central Asia in the 9th century.  He dropped his sword in the Carpathian Basin, indicating that this was to be the permanent home of the Magyar people.  The Magyars, by the way, are who the majority of Hungarians are. This country is called Hungary because the Huns stopped by briefly. Don't know why their name stuck to the country.

Here is the parliament building from the top of Castle Hill. It looks somewhat like England's parliament. We'll go tour it another day.  That's the Danube River, by the way.

The Royal Palace up close - it now houses a couple of museums. King Matthias (who was the last Hungarian King) converted a humble medieval palace here into one of the most extravagant residences. A few decades later the Ottomans took over and turned it into a military garrison. When the Hapsburgs laid siege in 1686, gunpowder stored there blew up and destroyed it. It was rebuilt, damaged again during the 1848 revolution, and destroyed at the end of WWII. What we see today is a post WWII reconstruction.

It has some really cool lions guarding it.

This is the street that leads to the Matthias Church. The raven was Matthias' symbol. Legend has it that his older brother was in line to be King, but he was killed, and his mother sent for him with a raven with a ring in its beak, and this became part of the family crest.

This was the Ministry of War building. The bullet holes are mostly from WWII, but some left by the Soviets who occupied this hill in response to the 1956 uprising. Walking around in Pest later in the day, we saw other buildings with bullet holes as well.

This is Matthias Church. Guidebook says Budapest's best church has been destroyed and rebuilt several times in the 800 years since it was founded by King Bela IV. Today's version was renovated in the late 19th century and restored after WWII.

This is known as the Fishermen's Bastion. In the Middle Ages the fish market was just below here so this part of the rampart was guarded by fishermen.  The current structure, however, is from 1896.

Another church where every surface is painted. Many of the surfaces are stenciled and in the gallery we could see one of the stencils.  In a chapel in the rear there was a statue of Mary and Jesus. When the Ottomans took over, the Hungarians wanted to protect the statue so they walled up the chapel. The Turks used it as a mosque and didn't know the statue was there. Legend has it that when the Habsburgs laid siege to the hill, and the Palace blew up, the wall of the chapel collapsed and there was Mary suddenly looking out from the wall, which scared the Turks into leaving the building.  One side of the church has an upper gallery with details that are definitely Turkish, probably added when it was a mosque so the ladies could worship.

A street walking toward the gate at the north side of the hill.

This is a modern apartment building that we thought was really cool.

And just down the street was this communist era eye-sore. I can see why that guide in Prague described the communists as ignorant, uneducated and stupid. A story I read in one of the guidebooks - when the Soviets took over Hungary they took all the private farms and cut down all the trees and hedgerows that separated the farms. Take away the trees and hedges, there's no place for the birds, no birds to eat the bugs, so the crops were eaten. But of course it wasn't the Soviets fault - they blamed the Americans for somehow putting bugs in their fields.

The Parliament again. Just before we got to the river, we stopped in a teensy tiny coffee shop - they served coffee and liquor, and had about 5 teeny bar stools in this teeny place.
The coffee was good and hot.

Walking along the Buda side of the river, we saw two neat churches.

Back on the Pest side, this is the Gresham Palace, built around 1900.  It was damaged during WWII and was an eyesore for decades. Legend has it that an aging local actress refused to move out, so developers had to wait until she died before they could reclaim the building. In 1999 it was restored and is now a swanky hotel. We walked into the lobby for a look and it is magnificent.

Another view of St. Istvan Basilica

And from up on Castle Hill, here's a statue of St. Istvan himself.

After a rest, we walked along the Danube promenade to the Central Market, where they sell produce, meat, cheese, souvenirs, food to eat, and anything else you can think of.  We bought some cheese and pastries, and ate our lunch/dinner at a food stall.  Since we've been here we've been eating a great hotel breakfast, then maybe a coffee and a little bite around 12 or 1, then lunch/dinner around 4, and maybe a piece of cheese around 8 p.m.  If we could keep up this diet and walking about 8000 miles a day we would soon be in the best shape of our lives. But I know when we return to Memphis, we'll turn back into slugs behind the wheel of our cars.

Did I mention that Armando's suitcase wheel got damaged on the way from the airport to the hotel in Vienna? We ended up buying a great new one in Prague. But also, the handle of mine ripped off at the same time and it's starting to fall apart, so it looks like I'll get new luggage too before we leave here. Not exactly what we had planned to buy as souvenirs.