Saturday, November 15, 2014

Budapest Hungary Trip

We normally drive or fly and rent a car on all of our trips.  This time the we decided to take one of the post outdoor recreation bus trips.  It was an excellent price for a trip to Budapest Hungary. It was a 24 hour trip, we left at midnight for our 8 hour ride, the bus was so packed that we were not able to sit together on the bus. Since we rode the bus we had to walk or take the hop on-hop off tour bus around town. So Budapest is actually 2 cities divided by the Danube river, Buda on one side and Pest on the other.
Heroes Square, this site is to honor the seven chieftains of the Magyars as well as their Tomb of the unknown Soldier.
Construction on the site began in 1896 and finished in 1900
I love the antlers on the horses bridle.  We also found a Geocache on the back side of the wall that gives us 12 countries that we have found a Geocache in!
 Across the street from Heroes Square is the Museum of fine arts and Palace of Art, we didnt go into them we didnt think we would have enough time.
We went to see Vajdahunyad Castle, built 1896-1908.


There are different styles of construction within the castle area.
The castle grounds church was 


St Stephens Basilica completed in 1905
 Beautiful stained glass work
Awesome red marble and the domes and ceiling reliefs are beautiful
 The main altar is amazing
 I have said before I love pipe organs, every churches is different. 
 Nice little park that we walked through.
 We love to find local street vendor food to try.
 Raoul Wallenberg memorial bench, Raoul was instrumental in saving the lives of around 100,000 Jews in Budapest during WWII
 The hop on hop off bus stopped running at 5pm so we had to do the rest of our sightseeing on foot.  Across the river is the Buda Castle, we didnt have time to go see it.
 Matthias Church view from the river
 The Hungarian Parliament looks good at night. 
 Chain bridge built 1840-1849, The bridge was luckily spared during WWII.  We had a good time but we have decided we enjoy having our own car to be able to get where we want to go.