Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Budapest, Hungary, Day 2 or 1

Confusing isn’t it. This is our second day here but the first day of our Cosmos Tour. We’ll go with the tour numbering for now. The official program calls for breakfast between 07:00 and 09:00. We are to be on the bus with our headsets at 09:00. I woke Mary up as I left for breakfast at 07:00. Believe it or nor she joined me at 07:45. We enjoyed a good breakfast, as we were told there wouldn’t be any lunch provided, and the bus wouldn’t return to the hotel until nearly 15:00.

We were all good little do-bees and were on the bus ready to go at 09:00. Judit introduced us to our local guide, name already forgotten, and the bus started off. The guide was easy to understand and gave a clear narrative as we drove along. The first stop was the Heroes’ Square.

Not repeating yesterday’s narrative, the square lies at the outbound end of Andrássy Avenuenext to City Park. It hosts the Museum of Fine Arts and the Palace of Art. The square has played an important part in contemporary Hungarian history and has been a host to many political events, such the 1956 uprising and again in 1989. Construction began in 1896 to commemorate the thousandth anniversary of the Hungarian conquest of the Carpathian Basin and the foundation of the Hungarian state in 896, and was part of a much larger construction project which also included the expansion and refurbishing of Andrássy Avenue and the construction of the first metro line in Budapest.

Construction was mostly completed in 1900, which was when the square received its name. The four allegoric sculptures were added in 1906, the monument as a whole basically looked like it does today (except for the kings' statues), complete with the surrounding museums on either side, and it was inaugurated still in the same year, 1906.

When the monument was originally constructed, Hungary was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and thus the last five spaces for statues on the left of the colonnade were reserved for members of the ruling Habsburg dynasty. The monument was damaged in World War II and when it was rebuilt the Habsburgs were replaced by the current figures.

Line 1 (officially: Millennium Underground Railway) is the oldest line of the Budapest Metro, it was built from 1894 to 1896. It is known locally as "the small underground", while the other more modern lines are called "metró". Line 1 was the first underground on the European mainland, and the world's second oldest underground after the London Underground. It was finished by April 1896 and was inaugurated by the emperor of Austria-Hungary, Franz Joseph on 3 May 1891.

Back on the bus we drove through City Park. It is 9-tenths of a mile by 6-tenths of a mile rectangle. An area of about 302 acres. It has a restaurant, the zoo, a circus, thermal baths, swimming pools, in the winter an outdoor ice-skating rink, and its own Disneyland like castle.

Vajdahunyad Castle of a copy of Hunyad Castle, known as Corvin Castle, in Hunedoara, Romania. It was built in 1896. The castle was designed by Ignác Alpár to feature copies of several landmark buildings from different parts of the Kingdom of Hungary. As the castle contains parts of buildings from various time periods, it displays several different architectural styles: Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque. Originally, it was made from cardboard and wood, but it became so popular that it was rebuilt from stone and brick between 1904 and 1908. Today, it houses the Museum of Hungarian Agriculture, the biggest agricultural museum in Europe.

From here we drove around duplicating a lot of the Hop-on-Hop-off route. However we did stop castle hill. We walked up a little way to The Church of Our Lady of Buda Castle, a 13th century church where King Matthias was married. It is now an ecclesiastical museum. Very beautiful. Grace and I were here in July 2019 – and I remembered it. We had a free hour so we walked around taking in the sights, stopped at Starbucks and had a drink. Posed for a group photo, then it was time to get back on the bus.

The bus took us down the hill and across the Margaret Bridge, then along the Danube to our waiting boat ride on the Danube. Basically and hour and a half ride from the Margaret Bridge to the Elizabeth Bridge and back. It is a beautiful way to see the city.

We were back on the bus by 14:00 and back at the hotel by 14:30. Honestly it wasn’t a very trying day but we were tired. We both took naps. At about 16:00 we decided to go for a walk. We had seen a big mall not from the hotel when we were on the bus so we decided to walk there. The distance when you are riding on a bus is somehow a lot shorter. Turns out it was about three-quarters of a mile. A good stretch of the legs.

The mall could have been any American mall. It had a McDonalds, Burger King, KFC, Sushi place, and a Starbucks. Most of the store names would be ones any American would recognize. Maybe not the signs, which were mostly in Hungarian. We were hoping, again, for some Hungarian food, but alas no place to have it.

We did find an Italian restaurant called Ok Italia. Mary chose the Caesar Salad and I got a calzone with cheese, ham and mushrooms. There was a bottle of water and an ice tea. The cost of which was 12,165 HUF or about $30. On the way back we looked for some place to get a gelato but there weren’t any. We stopped at the restaurant in the lobby and got two ice cream bars.

That’s all she wrote for tonight folks. Tomorrow morning we are off to Serbia at 08:00. A long day on the bus. However, a new country for both of us. Very exciting.

Buonanotte e ciao,

Enrico e Maria