Budapest, Hungary6 Aug 2008
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Castle hill, featuring the former Royal Palace and Matthias Church
The Danube River and Budapest´s gorgeous Parliament
Looking up at the Esztergom Basilica, the largest church in Hungary, about...
| Ravi -- Budapest is one of the region´s largest cities, and one of the longest stops on our trip. We arrived Wednesday morning from Eger by bus, and headed straight for the sites on the Pest side of the Danube River, near our hostel, including Heroes´ Monument, an unexpected very Romanesque piazza-type area, before walking down fabulous Andressy St. which hosts mansion after gorgeous mansion along the way to the city center. There was the obligatory climb up to St. Istfan´s dome for great views of the city and across the Danube to the Buda side, where we spent most of the following day. Buda houses the castle hill, apparently a must for every single city in E Europe. Being quite large and flat, atop Buda´s castle hill sits the former Royal Palace, rows of mansions, and Matthias Church which is opulantly painted on the inside is themes from much further East (influence from the Ottomans?). Also on the Buda side sits Gellert Hill, much taller than the castle hill, and itself offering an interesting church carved into the rockside, and a monument to greet us at the top. Friday, Tim and I did the "Danube Bend" day trip to Esztergom and Szetendre (the "z" silent in both). The former, about an hour and a half from Budapest, hosts the largest church in Hungary, and it was quite massive. Sitting on a hill (of course) overlooking the Danube River -- with Slovakia on its other side -- the Esztergom Basilica was massive and gorgeous. It reminded me of a mini version of St. Peter´s Basilica (Vatican) in its design. Tim and I got lucky and caught a brief noon choir performance which highlighted the church´s great acoustics. Next was Szetendre, a sleepy town between Esztergom and Budapest also along the Danube. We walked around the small but quaint old town pedestrian district before making our way back to Budapest to take in their nightlife that night. And take it in we did, spending most of our final day in Budapest recovering from the night before, and doing so in style at one of the largest natural thermal baths in the city. We spent hours going from one pool to another, some as hot as 38 degrees celcius (100 F), and steam rooms as hot as 50+ C. It was a nice afternoon indeed! |
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