Day 61 Long pavements, sore feet!

Sunday 20/05/2018 (18 SZ) Central Budapest Apartment Lonyay utca 19, 09. Ferencvaros
Today was all foot work... being Sunday most places except for the touristy spots are all closed...

So off we set firstly to see the Danube, which is only a street or 2 away... the doorways here are wonderful, so many beautiful designs... nothing like the ones in Italy or Bali but still up there as some really great ones...

As we approach the Danube we start to notice the River Cruise Boats, the further along we got ohhh my glory just so many here. Budapest is the start the finish and the middle for many cruises, so interesting seeing all basic one design but they all had their own uniqueness...

Today looks like it’s the start for many cruises as the crew all appeared to be getting ready to bring suitcase etc on board. And of course the well dressed cruiser were starting to appear along the River bank....

We are staying in the east side that seems to be the main side as far as tourism, hotels and sights.... this is Pest then when you cross the Danube you are in Buda... Crossing the river is unreal by wY of so many amazing old and new bridges...

Name of the bridge Built Rebuilt Buda Pest from north to south list below
Árpád Bridge Árpád híd 1950 III. XIII.

Margaret Bridge Margit híd 1876 1948 II. V., XIII.

Széchenyi Chain Bridge Széchenyi Lánchíd
1849 1949 I.V.

Elisabeth Bridge Erzsébet híd. 1903 1964 I.V.

Liberty Bridge Szabadság híd. 1896 1946 I.V., IX.

Petőfi Bridge Petőfi híd 1937 1952 XI. IX.

Rákóczi Bridge Rákóczi híd 1995 XI. IX.

So now you have had a history lesson on the bridges which are worth seeing....

As we headed along it was a fair distance we stopped for a cuppa on a stationary cruise boat that is now a restaurant.... then across the Elisabeth Bridge kinda in the middle of all them, over to Buda Castle....

Buda Castle (Hungarian: Budavári Palota, German: Burgpalast) is the historical castle and palace complex of the Hungarian kings in Budapest. It was first completed in 1265, but the massive Baroque palace today occupying most of the site was built between 1749 and 1769. The complex in the past was referred to as either the Royal Palace (Hungarian: Királyi-palota) or the Royal Castle (Hungarian: Királyi Vár, German: Königliche Burg). Buda Castle sits on the south tip of Castle Hill, bounded on the north by what is known as the Castle District (Várnegyed), which is famous for medieval, Baroque and 19th-century houses, churches and public buildings. The hill is linked to Clark Ádám Square and the Széchenyi Chain Bridge by the Castle Hill Funicular. The castle is a part of the Budapest World Heritage Site, so declared in 1987.

This poor castle has been besieged that many times over the centuries wrecked and rebuilt time and time again, the last lot to lay it to ruin were the Germans during WWII.... now it is being rebuilt for the umtenth time.... so we arrived at the Funicular where so were 100’s waiting to use the cog train up to the Castle... so we headed up by foot... discovering later there was a lift and escalator leading right up... But we needed our cardio’s didn’t we.... once up we came across by accident the changing of guard.... that was interesting... before I headed right up, I had to go to the loo as you do... well my glory is it a total rip off here to use public loo.... €1 that is a rip off to make out of people’s very drastic in some cases need.... shouldn’t be allowed to rip people off for this... and then the line up took I am not lying 15 mins to get to the loo... both sexes using the same loos water all over or pee not sure which all over the floors... this was not the only place charging this... In Germany to get to a loo you had to go through a turnstile and put your money in fir it to work, it spits out a ticket then you show that ticket to the attendee who is always standing there.... the ticket you take to the shop and if you buy something or fuel they take the value of your loo fee off.... only you discover this after you have been brilliant hey....

Education on loos should be all part of prelearning before OS travel they all have different ways you pay and paying doesn’t mean clean.... although most if not all in Germany were clean, just like Germany is clean, very clean....

Anyway back to the castle, we discovered after reading about the restoration section of it, that there was a festival on.... heaps of people, food stalls, and market stalls... very interesting seeing what ares they had to sell and to be honest one market is like the next with people home making their goodies, sewing etc...

We are some traditional food, not that good actually.... then headed off to see what else was about... people everywhere but good atmosphere as many were locals enjoying the weekends activities as it is a long weekend here.. public holiday Monday... the Castle isn’t from the outside very interesting at all... doesn’t look like you can go inside and if you could we didn’t see an access anywhere.... the further long we got there were great views of the city... street food trucks all along the lower part selling different foods, interesting statues... of course the lift and of course the lift and escalator we found... so having seen as much as we wanted we walked back along the west side of the Danube over the amazing cast iron painted green bridge to home...

Tonight I cooked scrambled eggs 🍳 they were the best tasting eggs we have ever had.... just the fact we had something home cooked made our day....

So buggard off to bed!Lue lisää