G & J away from home

Tuesday, 5 May

After the cruise through Budapest (or, more correctly between Buda and Pest, since they are one each side of the river) we had a guided tour around the city that afternoon.  First stop was Heroes' Square, which was begun in 1896 as a commemoration of a thousand years since the founding of Hungary.

Heroes' Square

It wasn't my favourite site on the tour - possibly because it seemed to be a very large space cluttered up with hundreds and hundreds of tourists milling around - but this lovely light caught my eye:

Lamps & Lights: Bordering Hero's Square

I did go for a close-up of one of the statues in the Square - this of the horse of one of the seven chiefs of the Magyar tribes who led their people to settle Hungary.

Detail of horse sculpture

As we were heading back to the bus we walked past this building on the edge of the Square - and I adored it.  I started out at the front of the trail of our bus-load of people and ended up being last back onboard as I tried to take as many photos as I could.  If I had been paying more attention to the tour guide's talk I would have known that this is the Hall of Art, built in 1895.

Hall of Art - external decorative detail

Although I was taken with the external decoration on the couple of bits I saw as I scurried by, I've now looked the building up and it's absolutely huge.  I definitely could have spent more time looking at this one.  (Though inside looking at the building, not the contemporary art exhibitions it hosts.)

Hall of Art - external decorative detail

As we drove around on the bus I snapped a photo of this essential building in any city:

Good to see in any language

Once we were all aboard the bus we were driven over the Danube to Buda (the hilly side of the city) and up to Fishermen's Bastion, a structure of seven towers and walls built on Castle Hill around the Matthias Church.  When we arrived the tour guide showed us where we were and how extensive the walls were by using the bronze model shown in my photo:

Bronze model of the Fisherman's Bastion

It was great model and very detailed.  Obviously those bits that stick up are irresistible to all the visitors who come by:

Model - detail

We had quite a bit of free time to wander around the Bastion and back through the town to meet up back at the bus, so there was plenty of time to take photos, not only of the walls and towers, but of the views over the Danube and Pest, and of the church too.

Fishermen's Bastion

Pest being so flat there was a super view over it, and all those sights we'd seen on the Pest bank of the Danube during our sight-seeing cruise on the Vista were visible from on the walls.

Gary with the Hungarian Parliament Building in the background (again)

Matthias Church is another of those with the porcelain roof tiles that I liked so much for their colour and sheen.  All roofs should be tiled in interesting colours and patterns like this!

Matthias Church porcelain tiles

The Fishermen's Bastion was had to be rebuilt after WWII as it suffered considerable damage.  (We keep running across things that have been partially or completely rebuilt and I'm never sure if they are still old buildings or new replacements.)

Budapest is without doubt somewhere we would like to come back to and spend more time looking around - a pretty rare thought for us who are not particularly inclined to wander around on our own in Europe.
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