Today was a very busy day, and extremely hot, over 30 degrees. My feet had become unrecognisable by the end of the day as they were so swollen.
We had a bit of a rush this morning as we had to fight the shower; all the fittings were so tight they couldn't be moved and the shower was set to spray straight out so it sprayed the wall at the end of the bath. Washing my hair was almost imposible. By the time we had finished showering, the bathroom was deep in water and all the towels were wet and we were late and very ratty. The hotel is huge and so was the breakfast buffet - we took about 10 minutes to walk round it, pushing through the crowds of other eaters, and then we couldn't find 2 chairs together! We were in time to meet the guide at 8.40, but only just.
She took us in a coach to Heroes' Square, a monument to various important figures in Hungarian history.
It's a bit hard to photograph at present, as horse races are due to be run there this weekend, and large parts of the square are cordoned off and others strewn with bits of equipment. It's one of the major squares in Budapest and is noted for its iconic statue complex featuring the Seven Chieftains of the Magyars and other important national leaders, as well as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. You can see the statues of the seven chieftains around that enormous column in the centre. The column was built to commemorate 1000 years since Hungary was founded, so it was built in 1896, as apparently the tribes who migrated to the Carpathian plain and first formed Hungary arrived in 896AD. The figure on top of the column is the angel Gabriel. This is because the angel Gabriel appeared one night to the founder of Hungary, King Saint Stephen, and told him to join the western Christian Church, not the Orthodox Church.
At one side of the square is the Museum of Fine Arts, it's just behind the Millennium Column in my photo. It's shut for renovations at present, or else we would go. There's a matching gallery on the other side of the square, used for art exhibitions.
After that, we next went to to the largest cathedral in the city, St Stephen's Basilica.
It was built in the neo-classical style, but I'm not sure how to describe the interior - I think it's rococo.
As well as all the marble, gold leaf decorations, statues, murals and frescos, it houses the mummified holy right hand of King Saint Stephen. Unfortunately, I only found this out afterwards by reading the guide book, otherwise I would have gone looking for it.
After this, the coach collected us and took us over to Buda, which is the hilly side of the city. We went up to the top of Castle Hill, where the Royal Palace is situated. We did not go there however, but to Holy Trinity Square. The biggest feature in this square is the Romanesque style Matthias church.
The church dates from the 13th century and rebuilt for the 1896 anniversary of the founding of Hungary. It is actually the Church of Our Lady in Buda Castle, but everybody calls it the Matthias church after a king of Hungary who was very popular. I don't think I've ever seen a church roof like that before, in fact I was so concerned with photographing the roof, I managed to cut off the very top of the spire.
Just at the edge of the square is the Fishermen's Bastion. According to legend, there was a stronghold here which was protected in medieval times by the guild of fishermen.
You can pay to climb up and stroll on the walkways And the view from here down to the Danube is superb. Of course, we were fortunate in having a clear day.
The huge building you can see on the far bank on the right of the photo is the Hungarian Parliament building, modelled on Westminster. On the far left of the photo, the green area you can see is Margaret Island, an island in the middle of the Danube.
After a quick lunch, we were back in the coach and heading for an afternoon in the Buda Hills where we took a ride on the Children's Railway. This is really a sort of extracurricular educational institution, where children from 10 - 14 learn about railway professions. The idea originated in the USSR and was greatly developed in Soviet times. Apparently many children's railways are still functioning in post-Soviet states and Eastern European countries, and many use railway technology no longer current on the main lines so they can be seen as heritage railways. Budapest's one is a narrow gauge railway.
This shows the inside of one of the trains. Outside, you can see one of the boys who will collect the tickets and ensure safety procedures are followed.
Below is one of the little boys who has just signalled to our train driver that it is safe to leave the station
Apart from train driver, all the jobs are done by children under adult supervision, and our guide told us there was considerable competition for the places there, and children who are accepted have to be be successful in their studies at school.
It was a very pleasant ride through the forests, and we noticed many walking trails, so obviously this is a popular recreation area.
At the terminus, we walked a short distance to the terminus of the cog railway, a rack and pinion system that took us right down out of the hills to the level of the Danube, where our coach collected us to take us back to the hotel.
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