Biking the Blue Danube

Day 15 Budapest

Sunday June 22 2014

Everybody needs a guide like Anna Solyon (which means falcon in Hungarian) to show you around an unfamiliar city. Anna was put in touch with us by Andy and Kathy Greiner. Anna’s mother was a cousin of Andy Greiner’s father and she was more than willing to show us around Budapest. Anna works as a translator and was a history buff. She had visited the city information office and picked up maps and guide books for us. As well, she printed out an extensive history of Hungary that she had compiled. Anna suggested the best places to visit and then offered to personally guide us around Castle Hill, on the Buda side of Budapest, her personal favourite area.

Anna suggested we buy a 24 hour group pass we could use for all the Metro lines, trams, and buses and we used it to get to Castle Hill, first on a Metro line and then on a bus. We got off at Holy Trinity Square where a column was erected in 1713 after an epidemic of the plague was overcome.

The Fishermen’s Bastion, erected in 1895 on the site of old defensive walls, never served as a bastion for the city. It served and still serves as the place all tourists flock to get great views of the city below. Marg had looked forward to exploring the labyrinth that runs beneath Castle Hill but unfortunately it was closed for repairs. Instead we had to be content with St Nicholas Tower, with a bas relief of King Mátyás and the partial ruins of a 1254 Dominican Church and a later Jesuit Monastery, left abutting a Hilton Hotel built over the ruins.

Anna led us down to the Royal Palace, about 500M from the Fishermen’s Bastion. The palace was built by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who was also Queen of Hungary. Just outside the entrance to the Palace was an area where you could try your prowess with throwing a javelin or target shooting with traditional bow and arrows. Anna said she liked the bow and arrow, so encouraged her to take a turn. She did, displayed admirable form and hitting the target like a pro.

Inside the palace courtyard was the Lion gate and the 1904 Mátyás Fountain. King Mátyás died of poisoning and the rumour is that he was done in by his Italian wife Ilonka.

We decided not to visit the museums or the inside of the palace that day. It was time for us to return to our hotel. Anna kindly accompanied us back to our hotel, where we managed thanked her for a super guided visit and said good-bye.

Dinner that night was at Paul’s Bistro on Váci Street, near our hotel. Anna had recommended the restaurant and we pass on the recommendation. We all enjoyed our meal so much we returned the next night, both times sharing apple strudel and Somlói galuska (light as clouds sponge dumplings with chocolate sauce, rum and whipped cream) between the four of us.

 Day 16-17 Budapest

Monday and Tuesday morning June 23-24 2014

Széchenyi Baths

If you are visiting Budapest, the overwhelming recommendation of Marg, Jack and me is the Széchenyi Baths, a short walk from the famous Heroes’ Square in the City Park. Ray declined our entreaties to join us. Ray spent his time walking around the park while we three took to the waters. Discovered by a geologist drilling a well in 1879, the baths were constructed between 1909-1913 and three outdoor pools added in 1926. The spa waters are heated by a thermal water source that reaches the surface at 74-75˚C (180˚F) and is known for its healing mineral content. I counted 15 different pools in the neo-Baroque complex and we tried them all. The temperature range is posted on the side of the each pool and varies from the coldest at 20˚C to a high of 40˚C. We also sampled a steam room and two even hotter saunas. It was a great, relaxing adventure. If you have more time, you can even add a massage to round out your experience.

We started our day on the well-preserved Millennium metro Line, the first underground transportation system built in Europe, which even pre-dating Paris and London. The transportation system was built in 1896 to reach the pavilions and monuments constructed to celebrate the 1000^th Anniversary of Hungary. Hundreds of houses, palaces and civic buildings were constructed, and gas lighting installed to modernize the city for the Millennium celebrations.

We all loved the Millennium monument in Heroes’ Square, with statues of great Hungarians, including King Mátyás, after whom our hotel was named, and a Prince Andros, the Hungarian name of our friend Andy Greiner. Another favourite was the Vajdahunyad Castle, not really a castle, but originally a complex of pavilions illustrating various architectural styles popular in Hungary. It was scheduled to be dismantled after the Millennium celebrations but by popular demand, it was rebuilt with bricks as a permanent structure. We all took photos of the 1903 Statue of the Anonymous, one of Budapest’s most famous monuments.

Refreshed by our spa experience, we returned to the city, stopping to see the Parliament Buildings we had seen from our boat ride to Budapest. We walked around the Parliament Buildings, admiring the many other beautiful civic buildings and museums in the area and started back to our hotel along the Danube River bank. We were looking for the Shoe Monument. The monument, installed in 2005, was conceived by a film director to commemorate Jewish people and Resistance workers who were killed by fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest in 1944-45. The victims were ordered to take off their shoes, and were shot at the edge of the water so that their bodies fell into the river and were carried away. Sixty pairs of period-era shoes were sculpted out of iron to represent the shoes left behind on the bank. The installation was not where we expected it to be. Ray and I missed it when we took a longer, more circuitous route home but Marg and Jack found the display and told us where to find it, a little south of the Parliament buildings.

After Marg and Jack left Tuesday morning to return to Calgary, we had time the next morning, before we took a shuttle bus to the airport for our flight back to Paris, to find The Shoes. We were also able to photograph a few of the most interesting buildings near our hotel, including the Klotild Palaces, two massive apartment buildings, mirror images of each other, built in 1902.