October 6, 2014
Today we have a full day of sightseeing in Budapest.
First, we caught the tram to
Hungarian
Parliament Building where we had a guided tour of this huge neo-gothic
building that was built at the end of the 19
th and beginning of the
20
th century.
It is the
largest building in Hungary.
Today is
the anniversary of the 1848 revolt against the Hapsburgs, which the Hungarians
lost (black flags flying), and it was being commemorated with mounted soldiers
in mid-19
th century uniforms.
We had an English speaking guide who took us through the very ornate and
richly decorated building.
This included
the glorious entry hall, dome room, and House of Commons.
The Dome has a
height of 96 m
(315 ft) and there are 96 steps in the entryway -- the number 96 refers to
the nation's millennium, 1896, and the beginning of the Kingdom of Hungary in 896. In the center of the Dome Room lies the Crown of St. Stephen
and the orbit, scepter, and sword of the Kingdom of Hungary.
We then caught the Metro to take us
under the Danube to Buda where we caught a tram to the Foundry Museum. The Foundry Museum is the site of the
original foundry begun by Abraham Ganz in the 1800’s that produced railroad car
wheels until the mid-1960’s. It includes
the furnaces from which the iron was produced from scrap iron. The museum contains an extensive exhibit of
cast iron objects – stoves, irons, decorative objects, bells, etc. At noon we had an excellent lecture by Prof.
Gabor Szechy on the history of Hungary from 1918 to 2014.
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| Cast Iron Woman |
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| 19th Century Cast Iron Stoves |
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| 19th Century Stove Detail |
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| Furnace for Making Molten Cast Iron |
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| Ladels |
Afterwards we retraced our tram/metro travels
and returned to the hotel. Marc and I
walked further to the City Market, which was just past the street to the
Independence Bridge. The City Market is
a two story enclosed market area with the ground floor devoted to fresh fruits
and vegetables, meats, and sausages. The
second floor galleries contained leather goods, linens, souvenirs, and
clothing. It was a bustling area of activity.
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| Sausage and Meat Stall |
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| Fresh Fruit and Vegetables |
Once back to the hotel, we had about an
hour before the group was to assemble for our tour of Budapest.
At 16:30 we began our group walk to the
Academy of Sciences where we connected with the River-ride Tour “Bus” for a 2+
hour tour of the city. This gave us an
excellent perspective of the entire area with a lot of the history given by the
guide. The “Bus” drove directly into the
Danube to give us a “boat” ride tour of both the Buda and Pest sides of the
river.
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| Parliament Building from Danube River |
Because a portion of the tour
was at sunset, we had a beautiful view of the city as the lights to the bridges
came on and the various historical buildings were becoming lighted for the
night. Although the bus could not stop
on the castle grounds, we did get a very beautiful view of this area from the
bus. From the top of liberty hill, we
had gorgeous views of the city at night.
Very beautiful!
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| Margaret Bridge |
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| View from Chain Bridge |
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| St. Stephens |
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| Buda Castle |
Once
returning to the city, we made our way to Aurum Bistro for our dinner. My dinner consisted of garden salad, Hungarian
stuffed pepper, and a dessert of Apricot pinna cotta. All was outstanding and, as usual, plenty of
red wine.
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| Dinner at Aurum Bistro |
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| Hungarian Stuffed Pepper |
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| Apricot Pinna Cotta |
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