May 22 2024 Budapest Hungary

 Budapest Hungary 

May 22, 2024

 This morning the ship cruised into Budapest. Budapest is a city of 1.7 million compared to Hungary which is 10.2 million. Budapest is a thoroughly modern city in a setting which dates back to Roman times. Therefore there are modern buildings set beside buildings dating back to the 1700's. The city is really two cities. Buda which is on the hill side and overlooks the Danube's flood plain, and Pest which is down on the flood plain.  In 1850 the two cities merged to become Budapest.  Budapest has a highly developed subway system, as well as an above ground tram and bus network.  Even so traffic is a mess as a lot of the streets are narrow and there are thousands of cars. 

Todays tour was consisted of a bus tour of the downtown Budapest and a castle tour.  The bus tour took us through the down town and into the old Jewish quarter where the largest synagogue in Europe is located.  The highlight of the downtown bus tour was going past the Budapest Panorama Hotel where Ken and I stayed while we were on Aussie Bob's Hamburg to Budapest bicycle tour.  It isn't much to see but it was cool to spot it never the less.  

The bus took us right to the top of the hill to the Budapest Castle to see the Matthias Church.  From the top of the hill there was a great view across the river to the Hungarian Parliament building, which is the second largest parliament building next to Ceausescu's Romanian place in Bucharest.  In side the church no flash photography was allowed so the photos are not the best.  The church was started around 1000 ad and has had a lot of additions and work done to it.  When the Turks invaded Hungary it destroyed , then rebuilt, in WW2 it was destroyed and the communists would not allow it to be rebuilt. Work started in 1990 and it has not been restored to how it looked in the middle ages, complete with the ceramic roof tiles.  

On the way back the bus passed the Holocaust monument which is 3000 pairs of bronze shoes beside the river.  They are there to commemorate the 3000 Jews who where lined up along the river made to undress and then shot and their bodies dumped into the river. Budapest was also the site of a major Jewish ghetto during the war.  

Tomorrow we have a day off in Budapest so Agnes and I will get out and do a little walking around. 

Terry