Visiting Budapest

The first thing we did Monday morning was look out the window to see where the ship had moored the night before. We had seen the Liberty Bridge at night, but were eager to see more of the city in the daylight.

At least we were on the side of the ship that was open to the river and the opposite bank. What we saw was Gellért Hill and some intriguing buildings at the end of the bridge. I was particularly struck by the buildings that appeared to be built into the rock of the hillside directly across from us. We found out later that we were looking at a Pauline monastery with a rock chapel that really did extend into a cave behind the visible building.

We were soon up and about, ready for our first breakfast buffet on the River Beatrice. My note says the buffet was “extensive and good,” and we enjoyed that more and more every day as we discovered that aspect of Uniworld’s “all-inclusive” river cruise. If it wasn’t out there on one of the buffet tables, we just had to ask.

Before long, umbrellas in hand, we were on the front row of a tourist bus, ready to see the sights in Budapest. In spite of the occasional drizzle, we had good views of the parts of Pest we rode through. Budapest has become a prime location for filming movies, and we saw a couple of crews hard at work. Judy and I made note of the indoor market we passed, thinking of an entertaining trip to make during our free afternoon. We also thought about coming back to St. Stephen’s Cathedral if we had time, but that would have been a longer hike from our riverside base.

We had a really good tour guide, one whose style made pretty dry subject matter into something interesting as well as informative. Our only stop on the Pest side of the river was at Heroes’ Square, an impreessive setting for some interesting sculpture. This was just the first sculpture we saw that day that depicted St. Stephen with his two-barred cross. I tried to get a couple of close-ups of the Magyars at the base of the central piece, but it’s still hard to see the funky bridle made from antlers, as well as other interesting parts of the horses’ tack.

We re-boarded the bus, rode through the park and past the zoo, then headed across the Danube to Castle Hill on the Buda side of the river. We didn’t tour Buda Castle, which now houses the national art collection, but walked from the bus parking area up the back side of the hill toward St. Mathias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion. Of course, at this point we were just following along with the group, perhaps rubber-necking a little at the shops we passed, and hadn’t really paid enough attention to what the guide had told us we were going to do. Almost as bad as undergraduates, as I recall.

We waited a while across the plaza before going into the church for our first visit to a Buda building. I particularly admired the facade of St. Mathias, thinking about other times I had seen that style of building. My, oh my. My architectural history sense went from one shock to another before we got out of the church. Take a look at this exterior shot of what appears to be a late Gothic church. We queued up to follow the guide (with our tickets) into St. Mathias. It struck me like walking into St. Mark’s in Venice! Golden mosaics on the walls, on the ceiling, in every nook and cranny. Turns out the original church had been all but detroyed, rebuilt, turned into a mosque under the rule of Islam, neglected again, and restored (reconstituted) in the nineteenth century.

After we gawked a while at the flamboyant interior of St. Mathias, we spent a little time up on the ramparts of Firsherman’s Bastion, looking out at Pest, on the other side of the river. If it weren’t for all the other tourists, this would be a great place for a picnic. Look one way and you see the Danube and the Pest side of the river, look the other way and you get a nice view of the church – and another statue of St. Stephen, this time on horseback.

After returning to the ship for lunch, Judy and I took a little bit of time to walk over to the indoor market. We started on the ground floor looking at food choices, particularly thinking about buying a little Hungarian Paprika. Then we went upstairsto check out the souvenir stands, where Judy found a small crytal bell in cobalt blue. We were so tired on our first full day in a time zone seven hours away from home that we didn’t stay long. Instead of getting to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we walked back to the ship and took a short nap before the Opening Dinner and reception that evening.

Dinner was a treat that evening, made even better by the opportunity to get to know two couples whose company we would enjoy the rest of the cruise: Alfred and Christine Gladwin (from London) and Brian and Linda Roberge (from Nashville). That evening was just the first of many delightful evenings we shared that week.

Then it was off to bed, our first full day of our first river cruise under our belts. And don’t forget to check out more of our photographs of Budapest here.