Prague & Budapest- Day 6- In Which We Walk the City (humming "Bicycle, Bicycle")

First full day in Budapest was definitely a full one. We walked from Castle Hill to Vajdahunyad Castle / the Szechenyi Baths stop.   

Here are some of the hits along the way:

·         Walk down the hill from the Castle District to the Chain Bridge and crossed to the Pest side.

·         Four Seasons Gresham Palace-- we love a nice hotel; and the history behind this one was that it was the foreign headquarters for London's Gresham Life Assurance company in the 1900s, then barracks during WWII, then passed to the city of Budapest. Was retooled in 2001, but they incorporated some of the original details like the large staircase, stained glass, mosaics, etc. 

·         St. Stephen’s Basilica

 

·         Liberty Square Square (also called Freedom Square), Soviet Army Memorial, US Embassy– once base of operations for Carl Lutz (credited with saving over 60,000 Jews during WWII), Statue of Imre Nagy (Hungarian politician, he was a communist whose 2nd term ended when the Soviets invaded (the failed Hungarian Revolution of 1956).

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·       ·        Walked around Parliament from the outside as the line for tickets was really long

·         Change in plans with Parliament gave us an opportunity to check out the Ethnographical Museum. Absolutely beautiful building inside with a cool bicycle exhibit. Kind of a through the ages, how the sport and equipment evolved-- best part was definitely the old song that got stuck in our heads and is now Mitch's ringtone. You can listen to it here!

·         Lunch at Inner City Market Hall

·         Opera

·         Jewish District

·         Orthodox Kazinczy Synagogue, Holocaust Memorial, Dohany Synagogue

·         Boscolo Budapest (formerly the New York Palace Hotel)-- ahh wedding memories....

·         Andrassy Boulevard-- the main boulevard from the 1870s, has shops & food, but a lot of rowhouses etc that are pretty. (It's actually a World Heritage Site to boot!)

·         Oktogon-- major intersection of two main streets, Andrassy & Grand Boulevard

·         Kodaly korond--beautifully painted old buildings and status of 4 Hungarian heroes in each corner

·         Vajdahunyad Castle-- pretty cool site that actually showcases different architectural treatments throughout the ages (Romanesque, Gothic Renaissance, Baroque, etc). It was actually made of cardboard and wood in 1896 for the city's millenial exhibition, but became really popular so it was rebuilt from stone & brick in the early 1900s.  

·         Metro back from Szechenyi Baths stop-- located underneath one of the famous baths; this was actually openedin 1896 and was one of the original termini of the system. Word to the wise-- the doors to the subway are really not open for very long, so hop in and hop out!

·         Funicular to the top of Castle Hill to catch some views and give ourselves a break--

·         Dinner on top of the hill at 21 Restaurant-- only downside of Castle Hill is that there isn't much going on in the evening. This actually ended up being night 1 of 3 we ate a restaurant owned by one restaurant group at the top of the hill-- convenient and all were really good!