The Danube

Arrived back at Budapest, today we have a coach tour of the city. Main picture is the Hungarian Houses of Parliament, taken from the ship when we arrived. Pest, ( the side of the Danube where we are moored), followed the example of Vienna and replaced the city walls with a ring Road. We followed the ring Road passing on the way the Grand Market Hall, the Presbyterian Church, and the National Museum before turning off the ring Road to go to Heroes Square. We were told about the removal of the “Soviet” era statues and the replacement with heroes from Hungarian history. An exception to this is the “Freedom” statue ( 3rd picture on first Budapest entry), which was originally soviet with 2 Soviet guards, the guards were removed and because they liked the statue it was “ re-invented” as a sign of Hungary regaining its independence. Across the river into Buda and visited the lower part of the castle, then back across the river, passing the memorial to the Hungarian Jews thrown into the Danube in the Second World War. The significance of the shoes is that they had to remove them before being pushed in to drown. Continuing this on Monday as we had the morning free as the coach to the airport was after lunch. Started following the bus route, went into the Market Hall and searched out a Paprika stall, then up to the National Museum, although closed there was an outside climate change photo exhibition which we viewed, drought and hot weather looks to have affected woodland and agricultural capability badly in these Eastern European countries. Moving on we passed by the big wheel and came to a roadside exhibition about the 1956 revolution and a short story of the events in each of the 20+ areas of Budapest, there were some photos but apparently great effort was made to locate and destroy photos taken at the time. Completing the semi-circle and at the Danube again we towards the parliament building to find the “shoes memorial”, then back along the riverside reaching the boat just in time for lunch.Read more