Budapest, Hungary

 Another busy day!  We checked out of our Airbnb  and took our luggage a few blocks away to our hotel for the evening - provided by Viking since there is no cruise boat available  due to the low water level.....

Otherwise, first order of business was to ride a trolly, then a  bus to Margaret Island. It's a pretty green 2+ mile long island in the middle of the Danube only accessible via bus or special permit.  The trolly took us right by the Parliament Building. Impressive in the daylight as well as at night!

The park was lovely and peaceful.   Beautiful rose gardens but showing signs of drought.

You've got to love the green spaces in the middle  of big cities!

There were the ruins of a convent from the 1200's.  

I will say that their signage is lacking....would be nice to read about the ruins but nothing was offered.  Google says St. Margaret was buried there and the convent was destroyed  in the 1600's by the Ottomans. 

View of the Danube near the convent.  This is a few miles from downtown and the city view is much more modern/urban. 

Walking along the park, we came to a Japanese garden, established in 1882.  Very tranquil....but showing signs of drought as well. 

Koi pond of course....

And lilipads too...

And always an arched bridge....

The view across the Danube.  If you look closely, this ship is hard aground! 

We stopped at a Cafe for a noontime brunch.  Yummy dishes but I was intrigued by my cappuccino- fun coffee artwork. 

After brunch I wanted to visit the "ruins bar" area.  This is just a street with what we would call "dive bars".   Unfortunately,  the "famous" one, Szimpla, does not open until 6pm.  Looked like fun but probably  loud and rowdy at night with a much younger crowd.  We'll save a night-time  visit for another time although  we did stop to enjoy an adult beverage on the 90 degree day.

Trying to visit everything "on the list" we made our way to the Jewish synagogue.   Beautiful building  but the cost to tour it was almost  $50 USD!  We decided that cash could be better enjoyed elsewhere as the reviews were not outstanding....

Taking a break on a city park bench, lots of folks doing the same most everywhere we went.

Back on the Metro, many stories underground! 

Love riding public transport...so easy! The US should do a better job like this!

Final walk took us back by the Parliament Building. 

And then by the Shoes on the Danube exhibit....a memorial  for those lost in WW2 that were massacred on the banks of the river after being ordered to take off their shoes.  The shoes were a valuable commodity....

Checked in at the Dorathea hotel for the evening,  very nice hotel.  View from the room.

Viking provided a pleasant  buffet meal in the evening and we chatted with some nice folks who were just finishing their cruise from the opposite direction......we will have a long bus ride to Vienna tomorrow  so we'll see how enjoyable the day is.   Hopefully we will be on a boat tomorrow night!

Budapest, Hungary

 We're  getting more accustomed to the time change...up fairly early today do more exploring.  Just more touring to see cool buildings in the morning. 

We strolled thru the public market....a huge building with a variety of Hungarian treats and souvenirs.   We were just looking, no buying.

We walked across  the beautiful Liberty Bridge.  

This is the view of the dock space for the Viking river cruise ships.....empty as it has been for a month or more. 

And the tall statue on the hilltop is our next stop.  It's is called the Citadella - some of the structure was built in the 1800's  but much of it is more recent. 

At the peak is the Liberty statue, commemorating those who gave their lives for the freedom of Hungary over the years.

Beautiful views! 

Back down to the bottom of the hill, we caught a tram to go back to visit the Budapest History museum  that we had bypassed before. 

Always nice to ride a mile or two when your feet are tired!

Lots of history, mostly of the Buda Castle.

The Castle was almost destroyed  more than once over the years. The most recent was during WW2.

Typical museum fare, enjoyable.

Outside there was lots of prep for what looks like might be a huge celebration. 

An amazing  structure!

And a few fountains thrown in as well.

Last look from the castle over the Danube before heading back to the apartment for a bit of a break!

Budapest, Hungary

  We slept in a bit more than we were expecting,  still not quite acclimated to the new time zone....plan for today was to venture out from Budapest and vist a couple of other small towns...Szentendre and Visegrad.  Easy acces using the subterranean train out of Budapest  and a local  bus.  Walking over to the train station we encountered a race of some type.

And we passed the church that I took a photo of last night.It's actually much prettier in the daylight!

On the train, nice to see the countryside, since all we've seen over the last few days was hardcore city scenes...evidence of the drought is everywhere. 

Very basic train...not terribly comfy and no A/C.... But who's complaining, it cost about three dollars total for each of us for the almost hour train ride.

It was a quick walk from the train station to the downtown area of Szentendre.   Obviously a pretty touristy area...lots of locals pedaling their wares.

I picked a church to tour - this one had a nice museum of religious artifacts (of course!)

Inside the church itself.  

With our late start, we needed to move on to the next little town.  Boarded the local bus and about an hour later we were in Visegrad.  The most important thing I wanted to see there was the Fellegvar castle, perched very high on the hill.  Built in the 1300's is fairly well preserved. 

View from river level.  It was a pretty strenuous hike for about an hour. 

A little closer view

 

After the tough hike, it was nice to stroll around the well preserved fortress.  Unlike lots of other castles we've toured, this one had a lot of original  structure. 

  

The view of the Danube was superb!  Really shows the drought conditions. 

Time to walk back down the trail and get headed back to Budapest.   

We opted for a bit of an adventure- ferry to the other side of the Danube, then catch a train back into Budapest.  You gotta love their transit system!  The ferry cost for each of us was about  $3.....and then the 50 minute overland train was $3.22 for BOTH of us!  And this train was part of the rail system, not part of the Budapest transit and was very nice and comfy....a welcome thing!

Back to Budapest we caught one more city bus to take us back close to the apartment.   Long day and we were tired puppies!