Dear me, this has been a day filled with event, and not in a good way.
After dinner last night in a restaurant near our hotel, I became aware that my right eye was painful and weeping, so I was glad to get back to the Hotel and take my contact lens out. Unfortunately, removal of the lens did not seem to help at all, and my eye continued to be painful and weepy. It was still painful this morning, so I wore my glasses, and considered going to the chemists for some eye ointment. However, it seemed to improve after breakfast, so I decided to delay any visit to the chemist.
As we had no money, Paul having changed only a small amount which had been used at dinner the previous night, we went out looking for an ATM and Paul used his card to get some more money out. We had a lot of discussion about how much to get, as we didn't know what expenses we might have during the day, and Paul was anxious not to get too much as he didn't want to be left with currency we will never use again. It came out in one big note, so Paul put it in his wallet, leaving me penniless.
Anyway, we walked down towards the Danube and caught a tram along as far as the Parliament building so as take photos.
This is a photo from the back, my previous photo having been taken from the front - just like our Parliament building, it stands on the river bank.
I had hoped to photograph 'The Little Shoes', a memorial created it on the bank of the Danube to honor the Jews who were killed by fascist militiamen in Budapest during World War II. I though this might be near the next Tram stop, so we caught another tram, but there was no stop nearby and we ended up going as far as the chain bridge so that we could cross the Danube.
We discovered that there was to be some sort of car racing, as streets were closed off and crowds were starting to gather, so there was no traffic across the Chain Bridge.
We walked across the bridge, stopping on the way to take photos.
This is a view of the Royal Palace, though of course it isn't a palace any longer.
Further down the river, we had a view of the statue on Castle Hill.
It represents Liberty, but had to be called Peace under the Soviets, as that was felt to be more politically correct. The bridge in the foreground is the Elizabeth Bridge; I imagine this was probably named after the wife of Emperor Franz Josef, as she was particularly popular, in which case it must also have been politically incorrect under the Soviets!
We intended to go to the Hungarian National Gallery. As I mentioned yesterday, the Museum of Fine Arts was closed but 57 of the best works had been transferred to the National Gallery, and we thought we would like to see them. The National Gallery is at the very top of the hill, not very far from Holy Trinity Square and the Matthias Church, and we intended to use the Funicular to get up there. However, the queue was truly enormous and we didn't fancy the wait in the hot sun, so we decided to take the bus instead. When the bus arrived, it was extremely crowded and Paul and I were separated in the crowd.
Once off the bus, we had some difficulty in finding the National Galley as the signpost pointed in completely the wrong direction, and then we were directed round to the side entrance because there was a special event taking place at the main entrance. Museum entrance is free for the over 65s, but you have to pay if you want to take photos, so Paul went to get his wallet, only to find it was gone! He had fallen victim to the pick-pockets again.
This meant we had no Hungarian money, as all I had was Euros or pounds. The value of the Hungarian money was not high - about £50 - but Paul also had a credit and a debit card, a Senior Railcard, a Bus Pass and his driving licence! We called to cancel the bank cards first, then called our tour leader. He pointed out that Paul might well have a £50 excess on his policy, and reporting to the police might take up to 5 hours and would require Paul to pay for an interpreter! So he decided against going to the police, and we just progressed into the Museum to see the art without taking any photos.
This was a shame, as, once we had wandered slowly through the rooms full of Hungarian paintings we came to some wonderful old masters which are not well known elsewhere. I had been excited by tales of a Raphael, but I found it very disappointing, it was an early one and I wouldn't have recognised it as a Raphael. But there was a beautiful Giotto and a totally unfamiliar Titian, a particularly lovely Canaletto, an El Greco I think I've seen in a book somewhere, a wonderful portrait by Franz Hals, and a Monet I was particularly anxious to take home with me! Paul took the opportunity of my bad behaviour - our tour leader rang me to check that we were managing without any money, and the museum guard escorted me off the premises - so he was able to sneak a photo of the Monet which I will post here if I can get it from his camera card. I would have bought a reproduction of it in the shop, if I had had any money...
I got told off a lot in this museum, there were no seats at all and I put my hand against one of the cabinets so as to take the weight off my sore knee, which necessitated the first telling off. Then my phone rang, a severe sin, and later I sat in a guard's chair when I got desperate to sit down. Our Hungarian guide had cautioned us that, if you were picked up by the police, they were likely to cut off your nose and ears, then 'the most noble part of a man's body', and then fire you into space, so I dreaded to think what I might be in for if I transgressed again!
We had the greatest difficulty in leaving the Museum, as the main entrance was blocked for the event, so we had to retrace our steps right through the museum to go out by the side entrance. Then we went back to the number 16 bus stop to rake through all the litter bins to see if the pick-pocket, who we assume had struck while we were in the bus, had thrown away the wallet when they got off. We had no joy - of course, the thief might have got off at a different stop, but with the temperature of over 30 degrees again, we weren't inclined to visit other stops on the off-chance. I used my card to get us some money, and we went to the Funicular to go down - there being no queue at all to descend. It wasn't cheap, especially for the few seconds it took to descend, but there were good views as we went down.
When we were back on the Pest side, we found that the go-kart racing had started, so we watched for a few minutes.
However it was very hot and we were right by a corner and a couple of them hit the tyres near us, so we decided it might not be the smartest place to stand, and went back to catch the tram.
I was determined to photograph the little shoes, so we got off at the Parliament building and walked back. As I said earlier, it is a memorial created it on the bank of the Danube to honor the Jews who were killed by fascist militiamen in 1945.
They were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. The Jews were some that had originally been hidden in various buildings by Swedish people, Raoul Wallenberg and others. The memorial, which is made of metal, represents their shoes left behind on the bank. It was very moving, especially when you see that some of the shoes are the same size as my grandsons'.
We returned to the tram and went back to our hotel to have a little rest before going out to dinner. Dinner was actually a dinner cruise on the Danube. The main public buildings are lit up until midnight, so it is quite a sight.
This is the Parliament building again. I'm afraid other photos didn't come out so well. After dinner, the boat docked and prepared to take on its next quota of diners, and we got back into our coach and went for a drive round the illuminations. We went up to a viewpoint where we had a wonderful view over the whole of Budapest, but I'm afraid my photos were all a disaster.
We were back at the hotel by 10, but we needed to pack and get organised for the next morning - in our case, it was the 6am alarm to shower and have our cases ready to collect by 7. How I dislike early mornings!
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