Budapest day 1

So we decided to take Rick Steve's advice and hire a local tour guide to see the two cities, Buda and Pest.  They were two separate cities until 1873 when they became one city.  It is the largest city of Hungary and on of the largest cities in the European Union.  So on December 30th we headed out of the apartment to meet up with her.

Since the streets were so small we decided to head to a little larger, main street.  On the way we saw this big tree!!!  The ornaments were bigger than my hand, almost bigger than Michael's head!

We found our tour guide and it was so nice to get in out of the cold.  It was a midivan with about 15 seats and heat!!!  The kids were especially excited that they weren't going to have to walk all around the two cities.  I think that the adults were happy about it too!  :-)

This is Budapest in the late 1800s when the building boom hit.  They had the world fair in 1881 so they were given lots of money to build up the town.  

This is some of the devastation after WWII.   The Hungarians sided with the Germans during the war. In 1944 on Christmas Eve the siege started.  By the time the siege was over all the bridges, including the Chain Bridge above, and 30% of the building were totally destroyed and others were damaged.  You can see the middle part of the bridge in the water.

This is the ruins of the Buda Castle Palace and the Francis Joseph and Horthy Miklos Bridges.

This is the destroyed Elizabeth Bridge.

This is the view from Gallert Hill.  It was named after an Italian Bishop who came to Hungary and brought Christianity.  He was a friend of the King and then he was killed by Pagans.  You can see the Buda side here with the castle in the middle.

The beautiful Danube River that you can see two of the bridges.  Our tour guide, Andrea, told us this was the clearest day they have had all winter.  Just yesterday it was foggy and you couldn't see a third of the town.

Here is the Pest side.  This side has more people and more houses.  About 2/3rds or more of the population lives on this side of the river.

You can see the famous Ferris wheel in front of the church on the Pest side.

Here is a closer look at the royal palace.  We did not go and see it because Andrea said it wasn't as magnificent as the one in Vienna that we saw yesterday.  It was also rebuilt after WWII and is historically inaccurate.

You can see the parliament with all the steeples in the middle of this picture.  In Budapest there are only two buildings that are 96 meters tall, parliament and St. Stevens Church.  Hungarians have meanings to all their numbers.  They built these two buildings 96 meters tall in honor of the millennium celebration in 1896.  Parliament also has 96 steps at the main entry.  96 is the key number in Hungary - even the national anthem (when sung at the proper tempo) takes 96 seconds.

The group, in the cold, up on Gellert Hill!  Aren't we a good looking group?!?  :-)

This is the Liberation monument.  It was built in 1947 after the Hungarians were taken over by the Soviet Union.  When the Soviets built this they had a red star underneath the female and Soviet troop on it where the words are written.  When they were finally free from Russia, they decided to keep the monument, but take everything that was Russian off of it.  They even changed the inscription from "To the memory of the liberating Soviet heroes (erected by) the grateful Hungarian people" to "To the memory of those all who sacrificed their lives for the independence, freedom, and prosperity of Hungary".

The female on top with the olive branch is 14 meters tall (almost 46 feet tall) that stands for liberty and freedom.  When the Soviets built this they had a red star and Soviet troop on it.

The man running with the torch symbolizes progression and the man slaying the dragon represents man slaying evil.

AJ behind the man carrying the torch.  You can see how big the statues are.

Love that smile and him sliding down part of the monument base.

Right below the hill is the Gellert spa.  An interesting fact about Budapest, Iceland is the only other country that has more hot water in Europe.  It is over 100 degrees and they don't need to heat it.  The Hungary's Carpathian Basin is essentially a thin crust covering a vast reservoir of hot water.  The Romans named their settlements near present-day Budapest Aquincum - meaning "abundant waters" - and took advantage of those waters by building many baths.

This is the inside of the spa.  It was beautiful inside.

The person who built it decided to put his phone number in the floor in case anybody else wanted some work don.  The phone number was really short at that time.  I thought it was pretty interesting.

One thing in Europe it is hard to find bathrooms, so we decided to take advantage and take a little break and use their nice bathrooms.

The front of Gellert Spa.  Truly amazing the architect they have in Europe and how beautiful and old it all is.  The little dome in front has part of the springs coming up where anybody can fill their drinking bottles and drink the minerals in the hot springs.

Next we headed right above the spa and headed into the Church in the cave.  It is built inside a natural formation of the caves.  It was built in 1930.

A statue of King/Saint Stephens I who was the first king and founder of Hungarian Catholic religion.  It was built in 2001 by Pal Ko with Saint Stephen holding a model of a Romanesque church in his hands.

This is Liberty Bridge, one of the three that cross the Danube.

This cave was originally the home of Saint Stevens, a hermit monk who cured the sick with thermal waters that sprung in front of the cave.  It was founded in 1926.

You can see inside the church they used the natural walls of the caves to build the church.  All the hot air from the water carved out the walls and holes in the church.

As you can see it is a very small church and very plain.  It is unlike any Catholic Church that I have seen.  Usually they are grand, with lots of gold, ornate images.  In 1951, the Communist secret police arrested the entire order of Pauline monks, who are the caretakers of the church.  It was then shut down while the Russians were in charge.  The entrance was sealed until 1991 when it reopened.

These were made out of Slavinian oak.  It is a small chapel that is used for special occasions.  All of these and more were hand carved.

They have some interesting architecture in Budapest, really old to really new.  They call this building the whale.

This is the famous Chain Bridge.  It was the first permanent stone-bridge connecting Pest and Buda, and only the second permanent crossing on the whole length of the river Danube.  Its official name is Szechenyi Chain Bridge, named for Count Szechenyi.  The chain-links have been made of iron plates with a length of several meters, its parts are connected by large rivets allowing for the chain to be a real chain and to make small movements.

This is a view of the Fisherman's Bastion.

They rebuilt the town after the bombing.  They decided to leave some bullet holes to remember what happened during WWII.  This was the last German headquarters here in Hungary.  This is where the Nazis had their last stand against the Soviets.

They have guards at the palace here in Budapest to protect their leader.

We headed a little farther in and came to this beautiful church, the Matthias Church.  This church has been rebuilt several times in the 800 years sinceit was founded by King Bela IV.  It is offically named "Church of Our Lady," everyone calls it Matthias Church, for the popular Renaissance king who got married here - twice.

I have never seen a roof quite like this before, it is made out of a special kind of porcelain.  The church just went through a 5 year restoration process and it looks beautiful!

The nucleus of the church is Gothic, most of what is on the outside - including the steeple - was added for the 1896 celebrations.

This is Trinity column that was built between 1710 and 1713.  The column was built to celebrate the end of the plague and citizens hoped that it would protect them from another epidemic.  The sculpture at the top represents the Holy Trinity.  It sits on a sturdy pillar decorated with statues of little angels and large statues of saints.

This is the other side of Fishermen's Bastion.  In the Middle Ages, the fish market was just below here so this part of the rampart actually was guarded by fishermen, hence the name.

There are seven pointy towers that represent the seven Magyar tribes.  The cone-headed arcades are reminiscent of tents the nomadic Magyars called home before they moved west to Europe.  All seven of them are decorated different for the seven tribes.

Hungary's first Christian king tamed the nomadic, pagan Magyars and established strict laws and the concept of private property.  The reliefs on this statue show the commissioners of the pope crowning St Istvan, bringing Hungary into the fold of Christendom.

David and I up on top of the hill with a great view of Buda and Pest behind us!!!

Here is a little better view of more of the cones.

Here is the front view of the Parliament.  They had a contest for the architecture of Parliament.  They wanted something grand.  This is the third largest Parliament in the world, coming in behind Bucharest and Buenos Aries.

This is the mythical bird of Magyar folktales, the Turul bird, that supposedly led the Hungarian migrations from the steppes of Central Asia in the ninth century.  He dropped his sword in the Carpathian Basin, indicating that this was to be the permanent home of the Magyar people.

There is nothing special about this, except that I really liked it!!!

This is the funicular that most people come up and down to the castle district..  Thankfully we had a ride up the hill and didn't have to wait in the cold.  It was built in 1870 to provide cheap transportation to Castle Hill.

Here we were in the right place at the right time.  We had just finished with one of our sights and started walking back and they were doing the changing of the guards.  It is only done once a day.

Michael was having a hard time seeing because we were a little late getting there, so he was able to get a good vantage up on his dad's shoulder.  Thankfully David is strong.  Pretty soon Michael is going to be too big for this.

It was actually fun to watch them.  They did all sorts of drills and looked so serious the whole time.

They flipped their guns around and put on quite a show!  I a glad we were able to catch it.

They actually were out there for quite a long time, then they finally headed back inside.

This was a neat road sign with so many different places to go and see!  And it also shows were free wifi is.  :-)

As we headed on our walk around the town, we were serenaded by this musician on the street.

Michael and David checking out the back side of the church.

Kellee took this photo along with many others.  I just LOVE the way the sun is coming through the church!!!

AJ in front of the church.

We headed into the Hilton Hotel and saw this great gingerbread town!

They were very detailed, as you can see by the two people outside the pub that might have had a little too much fun!

This hotel was the first plush Western hotel in town.  For them to build on this historic sight they had to build around the medieval ruins.  So they built it into their plans.  It was a 13th century Dominican cloister.  From this view we would be looking straight into the nave of the church.

The crew walking along the quite, pedestrian only street.  Such a beautiful day!!!

Next we headed into the market square.  This is where most of the locals buy their produce, etc.  It was HUGE!!!

We ate at the little restaurant there and had some great entertainment while we ate!

My boys enjoying their Hungarian food.  It was really great to taste the local food!!!

The boys are sooooo cute!!!!!

This is a specialty drink that they make here.  It is a liquor that has different flavors, and supposed to be really good.  Well, we tried it and not so good.  I think it tastes more like moonshine, but worse.

Next we headed down to Heroes' Square.  This is another monument that was built for the 1896 celebration.  Ironically it was finished until 1929 - well after Hungary had lost WWI.

The horses and men represent the seven tribes of Magyars.  The one in the center is Arpad, the main leader.  The other six chieftains are around him.  Looking at these statues, they were very romanticized.  They never used chain mail, their horses were sleek and fast, and they would use bow and arrows not heavy clubs.

The 118 foot tall pillar has the archangel Gabriel as he offers the crown to Arpad's great-great-grandson, Istavan.  The double cross mean church and state together.

This colonnade features rulers from the early glory days of Hungary.  I won't bore you with all the rulers.  There is a gap between this one and the next one that coincides with some dark times for the Hungarians.

Salvation came in the form of the Habsburgs, rulers of the Austrian Empire.  When the monument was damaged in WWII, locals seized the opportunity to replace the Habsburgs with Hungarians - who were famous for fighting against those slots' former occupants.

The crew after a really great day of sight seeing, walking, and cold, we all were still smiling!!!

This is really clever for the hop on hop off bus.

This is an "eye sore" according to our guide.  It used to be a giant monument to Josef Stalin that was 80 feet high.  This is the 1956 Monument.  It was when the uprising broke out against the communists.  On the night the uprising began, some rebels came and cut off Stalin just below the knees and toppled him from his platform.

They have had many floods on the Danube.  This shows how high the water got.  If we were in the high flood, our midivan would be underwater.

This, Shoes on the Danube Bank, is a memorial conceived by film director Can Togay to honor the Jews who were killed by Arrow Cross militiamen during WWII.  They were ordered to take their shoes off, and were shot at the edge of the water so their bodies fell into the river and were carried away.  Over 700,000 Hungarian Jews were killed.

The "Silver Weeping Willow," designed by the Hungarian artist Imre Varga,  It was funded by Tony Curtis, an American Actor.  It is symbolic of an upside down manora.  The black part is the book of Moses.

Over two thousand names are engraved on the metal leaves of the Hungarian Jews that were murdered.  Above it all, an inscription in Hebrew raises the question, "Whose agony is greater than mine?"

The Great Synagogue in Dohány Street (also known as Dohány Street Synagogue) is the largest Synagogue in Europe and the second largest in the world, capable of accommodating 3,000 people. It was built between 1854 and 1859 in Moorish Revival or Neo-Moorish style, in the wake of Romanticism.

We headed next to the St Steven's church.  Unfortunately there was a wedding going on at the time, so we couldn't see all the church.  We decided we would come back another day and check it out more thoroughly.

Right outside the church was another Christmas market.  It looked so pretty.  We didn't have time to stop, but figured we could check it out when we came back.

A beautiful view of the church as we headed away.  It was an awesome day, with so much wonderful history and part of it personal from her.  The tour took us everywhere and told us about so much!!!  We were all pretty tired and were ready for some home cooking and a bit of rest, and of course some cards!