budapest, 2007
A visit to Budapest is mandatory if you are in the Greater Prague Area, though that only applies to tourists, and only when they're feeling the need to be thorough. It's a few hours southeast by train and worth a stop, though we ran into two problems. First, we stayed a bit too far north in the city. Second, we spent most of our time there on a Sunday and a Monday, and guess which two days are the worst ones on which to visit?
But the city redeemed itself by the time we left. If you go, don't expect a lot of English speakers. And be prepared to relax if it's Sunday or Monday. But there's a lot to see and experience, and Hungarian wine is amongst the best in the world.
We rode on one of these from Prague to Budapest. It's one of those trains on which the gangway runs along one side and the
seats are behind doors in private compartments. I realize there are a lot of these around Europe, but this was my first time. I was kinda neat.
It was fairly recently outfitted in shiny plastic, and so I put my camera on the overhead baggage compartment in the hallway.
People came around and checked out passports when we entered Slovakia and again when we entered Hungary. Though we didn't get off there, I figured I should
give Slovakia its due. So here it is: Slovakia!
And this is northern Hungary. They have a beautiful lake along the river Danube.
I even spotted a hilltop castle. The area along the Danube is rather interesting in that the river traces a fault line. The terrain on the west side
is notably hilly, and the east side is a flat plain.
We stayed on Margitsziget (Margaret's Island), which sits in the middle of the Danube on the north side of Budapest. To the east on the plain is Pest, the people's
city. To the west is Buda, the hilltop city of the kings of the Magyar. They became united only in the nineteenth century. The city's name is a compound word, like
pocketwatch or knucklehead.
Margaret Bridge.
The bridge has a fine view of the city. On the left of the Danube is the Hungarian Parliament, a beautiful neo-gothic building. That's in Pest. On the right is Buda, with
the castle district rising over the city. Linking the two is the famous Széchenyi Chain Bridge.
A better view of the Hungarian Parliament.
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And here's the Széchenyi Chain Bridge! Actually I'm pulling your leg - this is Marlow Bridge on the River Thames in England. It was designed by the engineer Tierney Clark and built
in 1829 to connect the English counties of Buckinghamshire and Berkshire.
This is the Széchenyi Chain Bridge, built at the request of Count István Széchenyi ten years later. It's also by Tierney Clark and notably
similar to the one in Marlow, but a whole lot bigger.
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Magyar means Hungarian Posta, so this manhole cover has something to do with the post office.
Electric.
OK, roller blades I understand. But no ice cream? This is a sign on the central metro station. Interestingly, Budapest has the oldest underground rail system
on the continent.
Along the orange line the stations are quite old, and are served by three-carriage trains. This is an old-school cut-and-cover subway line, where the
street was excavated to built the tunnel, then simply covered over. The rest of the metro system is deeper underground, and has a cold communist-era feel.
There are streetcars on the surface as well. Some are commuter trains leading into the suburbs, and some, like this, are city trams.
Andrea and I used the city trams a couple times.
We went out seeking some examples of the rather eclectic architecture of Ödön Lechner, who is often compared to Barcelona's Gaudí.
A few of his buildings survive in the city. (He's Lechner Ödön on this statue because in Magyar surnames are written first.)
One is the Museum of Applied Arts. We had suspected that the amazing roof was a Lechner touch, but in fact a lot of traditional buildings in Budapest
have colorful tile roofs like this.
You can see why he's compared to Gaudí, though, as the building was replete with little flourishes.
There was something decidedly nineteenth century and eastern about the interior design.
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Across town is his post office.
The round decorations on the roof are beehives.
He's not the only famous architect with work in the city. Nyugati station in the north of the city center was designed by Eiffel.
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The glass windows were a wise move.
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This is actually a street sign, in relief sculpture format.
A street in Pest.
On the way to the Basilica we saw this rather nice art deci building. The ground floor had a wonderful tiled entrance
And this is the Basilica of St Stephen.
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The inside is very atmospheric. It was named after István, the first king of Hungary. Appropriately enough they have his mummified hand in a shrine, though
sadly we weren't able to get into the shrine to see it. (That's OK, there are plenty of mummified hands where that came from.)
The building was started in the 1850s but collapsed in 1868. It was demolished and rebuilt by 1905.
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I took to the stairs to see the view from the dome. Believe it or not, there is an elevator as well.
Most domes have an outer, taller dome and an inner dome like a half-sphere. This is the gap between them.
The view is wonderful. That in the distance is Castle Hill in Buda, with Matthias Church (about which more below).
The green tiled roof is Lechner's post office from above.
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Look, it's the American Embassy! Look, but don't touch - it was pretty well barricaded.
After hanging around the urban Pest we decided to cross the Széchenyi Chain Bridge to Berkshire. Er, I mean Buda.
This is the splendid dusk view north along the Danube from the bridge. Andrea and I agreed that the parliament building was a master stroke. It really made any view of the river.
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Here's Andrea on the bridge to prove we were there.
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Tell me this isn't a splendid piece of engineering. Believe it or not, it was smashed to bits in World War II, and we saw the pictures to prove it. But the restoration was very
faithful.
We took this funicular railway up Buda's Castle Hill. And I'll just go on mixing photos from day and night, because we visited more than once.
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There is no actual castle on Castle Hill. Buda's castle is long gone, replaced by the Royal Palace, which contains a couple museums. It was built in the nineteenth century, but was
nearly destroyed in World War II
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Under the palace are remnants of older structures, including churches and the castle. In fact the whole hill is reputedly filled with old tunnels.
Along the top of the hill are market stalls where you can buy funny hats.
When the Nazis occupied Hungary in World War II, they retreated to Buda as the war drew to a close. This shrapnel-damaged building on the hill speaks to that.
We found castle hill to be the only part of Budapest with a significant number of medieval buildings. Many had undergone the trend of having baroque fronts built on them
only to lose the baroque look to war damage.
Some of the sculptures on these older buildings are really interesting, like this one that goes through the corner of a building.
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One of the oldest buildings on the hill is Matthias Church, named after the greatest king of the Magyars, Matthias Corvinus. The original church was built in the mid-thirteenth century, though
it has changed a lot. Matthias was married in the church twice, and the lest two Hapsburg kings were crowned here as well. It has a splendid spire, judging from other photos on the Web, but
we found it in scaffolding. Still, the color tiled roof is great, and it has the best interior to just about any church I've seen.
The interior was originally medieval in appearance, but little of that period remains. When the Turks invaded Hungary, they whitewashed the interior. Rather a shame. But in the ninetenth century
it was decorated by Hungarian painters, and despite some damage in World War II the church was restored to its nineteenth century style. It's very detailed, often faux-medieval, and occasionally art nouveau.
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We even got a free tour. This church is highly recommended.
Outside the church and looking over the Danube from the top of the hill is the Fisherman's Bastion, a very ornate white stone wall that looks a bit like an Indian palace.
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This is the view from Fisherman's Bastion.
Believe it or not, Attila is a popular name in Hungary. This sign for Attila útca (Attila Street) is just west of Castle Hill. Attila the Hun was the leader of the Hun tribe
when they migrated into present Hungary, as anyone who watched The Attila the Hun Show probably remembers.
And here's the man himself.
