BUDAPEST with Catherine & Alex 18th - 23rd February 2004
Budapest has developed from
the towns of Buda on the South bank, and Pest on the North bank.
Our first day in Budapest was cold but dry.
Walking along the bank of the Danube on the Pest side, we looked
across to see the Royal Palace in Buda
A little further on and we
came to the Houses of Parliament on the Buda side.
The Chamber inside the Houses
of Parliament.
A statue of political reformer
Imre Nagy gazes towards the Houses of Parliament.
The State Opera House.
The hot thermal bath in the
Gellert Hotel.
Now on the Buda side of the
Danube on our second day with brilliant sunshine. From the top
of the funicular railway looking across to the Houses of
Parliament.
The Royal Palace which is now
a series of museums.
The old Town Hall in Old Buda,
an area just beyond Buda itself with some very fine buildings.
Still in Old Buda is The
Fishermens' Bastion built into the castle walls. The bastion was
constructed around the turn of the 20th century purely for
ornamental reasons. The monument's name is a reference to the
fishermen who defended the ramparts in the 18th century.
Heroes' Square forms an
entrance to City Park.
The Art Gallery at the side of
Heroes' Square.
Statue Park on the outskirts
of Budapest houses some 30 or so monumental statues once imposed
by the Communist regime on the streets of the city.
Catherine showing you how
enormous the statues are.
Our last day it was freezing
cold and pouring with rain. It had snowed in the night and the
roads and pavements were very slippery. We took a train some 12
miles to Szentendre which was supposed to be the most
captivating of the Danube Bend settlements. It was certainly not
at its best in the rain.
