Buddah, Pesht & Castles on a Hill

View of Museum on Castle Hill, Budapest, Czech Republic

It was news to me that Budapest used to be two cities: 'Budah', and 'Pest'. Budah was a hilly city to west of the Danube River, The city of 'Pest' was flat as a pancake and it occupied the Danube's eastern shore. Below is the view leaving 'Pest'  to the on the way to 'Buda' by crossing the Danube on the Széchenyi Chain Bridge.

One morning we drove over to Budah, where we searched and searched for 'Castle Hill'. Just off the bridge we drove through the tunnel ahead, which passed just under the castle grounds. The 'Funicular' or trams takes tourists up the hill. Hum, could Castle Hill be hiding in plain site?

Headed straight for the tunnel, in search of 'Castle Hill'
Note the eagle statue on the top left

We drove around, looping a big hill and searching for parking, with "Please do not drive in Budapest!" looping in our noggins, a haunting omen. Eventually we found parking in the vicinity of an old church.

Jo then did what she does best, jovially querying the locals on the location of Castle Hill. We were in for a lovely half hour walk to the base of the hill. Yes, I was grumbling under my breathe as I hate long walks. I know. I'm ridiculous.

So we walked.














Beautiful and old streets, shops and restaurants along the way.

Beautiful old streets and interesting shops along the route

 

There was no stopping until we were at the base of Castle Hill. Right where we'd crossed over the old Chain Bridge.










There, rather than waiting a half hour to board the funicular, i.e., the uphill tram on a track - we boarded a little shuttle, paid a small fee and rode up & around the hill to the castles. Along the way we passed the Fisherman's Bastion.

The Fisherman's Bastion

Fisherman's Bastion is young building really; built between 1895 and 1902. It's purpose? To allot everyone an elevated view of the Danube River below it.

The Fisherman's Bastion, later by night

Having arrived at the top of the hill - that we saw from the bridge - an even nicer stroll of the grand grounds was called for.

In the distance in the background, note the flying eagle statue

Aha! There is the back of the flying eagle seen earlier from the bottom of the hill. It's called the 'Turul Eagle' which appears in Hungarian heraldic emblems. 

slightly spooky castle gate bearing a crow carrying a golden ring

The Crow's Tale: A crow was caught stealing the golden ring of King Matthias. Weirdly, 

to commemorate the event, the king named the crow an emblem for his heraldic emblem. 

The king was a jerk. The end. 

Jo by the King Matthias Fountain that had hounds looking real enough to bark

We found a young man, purveyor of archery so we each had a go at target practice.

Jo had a try first

Beginner's luck! Her first shot was a bulls eye

No such luck for others...

Awesome lion - stupid truck

Our castle grounds tour took an hour or three, and we didn't take any of the ground's tours. Later we took a cab ride back to our room in the Jewish Quarter.

One night we took a cab to the Pest side of the Danube. There we met up with other tourists and a jovial tour guide. At the quick step, she marched us down to the river where we boarded a boat for a night time river cruise along the Danube River. Marching down the gangway onto the boat we gawked at people seated at elegant tables surrounding an on board banquet.

down the gang plank & onto the cruise boat

The tour guide lead the youngish group - except for myself and Jo - across the deck to a second boat. We followed but were stopped. "These people are taking the party boat, you stay here on this boat for the dinner cruise."

Ooooo, dinner cruise, soups on!

Now for my greedy self, I was happy at the thought of 'second dinner' me being something of a Hobbit. Jo however was bummed, as 'party boat' sounded more like her cup of tea. We were seated where Jo, the friendliest of beings,chatted with an American mom and college aged daughter, while I dug into the various tasty treats. Between entrees I leapt up to photograph the beautifully lit buildings that we passed along the beautiful shining river.

The beautiful & grand, Budapest Parliament

Color changing buildings glitter on the Danube

Széchenyi Chain Bridge by night

The Hungarian Hinterland

Lion pointing the way to the hinterlands outside of Budapest

"I b-e-g of you, please do not drive in Budapest...", pleaded the twenty-something year old apartment management girl, in an adorably thick Czech accent.

Jo had just informed her that we had a rental car for our week's stay in Hungary.

"But please," the girl begged on, "There is no place to park in Budah-phest. You will drive forever.

No place to park."

Her plea was so heart rendering, we shortened our rental car time by several days. And for the record, Ms. "Pleaz, I am tolding you, do not drive...", was pretty much, on the money.


On the right you see how most savvy Budapestians traverse their city: by foot or trolley.

At times, except for the signage we might have been in the states

We kept the rental car a couple of days, using it to tour the hinterland surrounding Budapest.  

In the pretty town of Esztergom, we found a huge Basilica set on top of hill. Astoundingly - for me at least - it is the tallest building in Hungary.

Tallest & the longest name: The Cathedral and Primatial Basilica
of the Blessed Virgin Mary Assumed Into Heaven and St Adalbert

Jo posing in front of the flower honored statue

Could not believe there was graffiti carved on the columns

The church's door

The church was a mini-Sistine Chapel

Now, the church was, but my high point on the grounds was seeing the little bird below.

A Great Tit. [Insert silly tit joke here]

The countryside was quite pretty and didn't remind of anything I've seen before.

We had no idea what a beautiful little shrine by a weeping Willow tree was about, as we can't read Hungarian.

Not a clue what this beautiful little monument was all about

We had burst into laughter when on a gorgeous country road in farm country, we spotted - I kid you not - a Hungarian Hooker, who looked to be in her twenties, stood waving at passing cars. She was dressed like it was Tombstone Arizona, circa 1850. We ought to have gone back for a picture. That was the only oddity of the day really. 

 Visegrád Castle fortress high up on a hill, over the Danube

The Danube below the castle fortress

In the evening, after a bit of a rest in our flat, we headed out on foot to look for a good restaurant. Jo asked a passerby if she knew of any nearby.

The young woman looked busy to me, but she listened, then changed her own route to steer us several blocks to an area with lots of restaurants. We thanked her profusely and chose a busy restaurant with a cheery atmosphere.

I brought my laptop with me to quickly catch up on what odds and ends I could remember of the day, while Jo chatted with a couple at a table along side ours. I am never going to be as personable as Jo, but the world needs a few lone wolves too, right? 

Damn, but this is a big planet...

Fresh out of Seattle near twilight, flying north past Mount Rainier

A few months ago, a friend asked if I'd be interested in touring Central Europe. Having only recently vowed to start touring outside of the states, what answer could I give, but 'Hell, yeah!' So we plotted via texting, phone and the internet until we'd assembled a rudimentary game plan for our trip. As my friend Jo (Joan) lives north of San Francisco and I generally refuse to fly out of San Francisco each booked our own flights. After a day's wending about on line, I found a deal, flying from Sacramento to Seattle, to Amsterdam, and on to the trip's start: Budapest. Travel time a mere 14 hours. Done!

On my travel day, I landed in Seattle, surprised at how gigantic that airport is. It has not one, but three underground trains to transport passengers to their gates. I had to get from the Domestic gates to the International gates which took three different tram rides.

Seattle Airport's underground maze 

From a window seat on all my enroute flights, I could view Seattle

Passing over Seattle

Leaving Seattle the jumbo jet passed by a couple of Washington Volcanoes around sunset. During the nighttime hours the jet cut a path over northern Canada, even sailing over Churchill on the Hudson Bay.

My TV monitor showed the route we took over Canada & beyond

I gave a wave to Scotland as we passed over it

Scotland or maybe Amsterdam...

This lower photo is either Scotland or Amsterdam... note to self: take better notes!



Finally we landed in the Netherlands, Amsterdam being our doorway to the European Union (E.U.). I was told to pick up my luggage - all of it - and soon I was sort of panic stricken. Hey, where the EFF I was supposed to go for my flight to Hungary? Spotting a uniformed information lady, I threw myself at her mercy. She patiently talked me through placing my passport into a computer thingie (which I can not believe I didn't photograph) that issued me a boarding pass and told me my boarding gate. Then the lady directed on a  friggin' twenty mile hike to where I - and hundreds of other travelers = wended our way through the E.U.'s squads of uniformed officers. We were asked 'Why are you traveling?', 'How much cash do you have on you' and other queries. There I got the first of many visa stamps and finally I forked over my luggage to KLM airlines. I was flying KLM, but the first two legs of my journey were via KLM partners, Alaska Airlines and Delta. At long last I was on the final jet, in the air, watching a bank of clouds to break up for a glance at the Danube River.

Austria is down there somewhere under the clouds

Whew! The flight to Seattle was about 2 hours, from Seattle to Amsterdam was about ten hours, and Amsterdam to Budapest was two hours. So the journey was a cool fourteen hours in the air. I love to fly but darned! That was a lot of air time even for me.