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| ussie with the ship and the Chain Bridge in background |
As I looked through the photos from day four, I have lots of pics of the pretty buildings, but you can google Budapest and you'll see all the pretty buildings much more beautifully photographed. I'll focus more on things that caught my attention.
At the end of the last post, Lizzie and I had returned from our night cruise of the Danube. What I forgot to say is that when everyone was back on board, the ship moved from the temporary dock to the regular docking place. We stayed up a little while to get the feel for the moving ship, but we had to get to bed. When we got up in the morning, the ship was docked right under the Chain Bridge, a pedestrian and vehicle bridge that spans the Danube, of course, and connects the two sides of the city. Buda is the older, hilly side of the city where the castle is. Pest is the more modern, flat side of the city. The hotel we stayed in on the first night is in Pest.
A cool thing about Viking cruises is that there is an excursion included every day you are in port. Usually it is a motor coach or walking tour of the town. I figured out that if the description includes the word "panoramic," you're on a bus. We took the Panoramic Budapest tour. The bus drove us around Pest, including the street where Lizzie and I had breakfast, past the Opera House and St. Stephens and s all the way down to Hero's Square. Then we crossed the river on the Elisabeth Bridge and up to Buda Castle. I learned that when we're talking about a castle, it's not necessarily a single building like Sleeping Beauty's castle. Usually it is a compound made up of many buildings and palaces, although there is an actual Buda Castle. Matthias Church is part of Buda Castle. We were able to get off the bus there and walk around. The roads in that part of the city are extremely narrow, and there's no way a bus could navigate. Here's a pic of our group, plus others being herded toward Matthias Church.
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| walking in Buda |
I want to take a quick minute to tell you about Matthias Church because it is so unique. The tiles on the roof were surprising to me because they are so colorful and not the norm on neo-Gothic churches. Another thing is that it is not called
St. Matthias Church, which is also unusual. I can't remember the reason for that; maybe because it was once used as a mosque. The building has been through a lot of changes. The inside is unlike any Catholic Church I've seen because of all the patterns on the columns. I think it's left over from Ottoman times, but you can google it if you are interested. I thought it was all marvelous.
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| Matthias Church (check out the roof tiles!) |
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| an interior column, Matthias Church |
As you might imagine, Lizzie and I were eager to get away from the crowd and explore a bit on our own. Here's some photos from that time.
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| a cool door and windows with flower boxes |
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| this was our view when we called Mom |
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| a nice street |
Soon enough it was time to get on the bus and go back to the ship. We had lunch, then we decided to explore on our own. We walked across the Chain Bridge and back. We would have taken the funicular back up to the castle, but the funicular is closed on Monday for maintenance. We walked down the river to see the Shoes on the Danube memorial.
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Shoes on the Danube
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(The Nazis made the Jews take their shoes off, then the Nazis shot them and the bodies fell into the river. Now there are these bronze shoes along a section of the riverbank to commemorate that horror. It is very moving. There are all types and sizes of shoes represented. Dark history.)
After this sobering sight, Lizzie and I were faced with a decision of what to do next. It was a hot day, in the 80s and the sun was bright. Should we go back to the ship and relax? Should we walk into the Pest and find a chimney cake? I wanted to buy a couple of souvenirs, so we decided to go to Pest after we had a drink at an open air terrace bar on the river's edge. Here's a quirky thing: we had to basically rent the glass the beer came in. When we were done, we took the glass, which was actually really heavy-duty plastic, back to the counter and we got our two forints (HUF) for each glass. Cuts down on garbage, and if you walk off with the cup, you paid for it, I suppose.
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| a pedestrian only street in Budapest |
The walk back into Pest near St. Stephen's Basilica only took about 20 minutes. We did find a souvenir shop that was air conditioned (!) and we bought some postcards and stickers and a t-shirt for T. Our main objective, though, was to have chimney cake. Lizzie had found a place that had good reviews, so that's where we headed. The interesting/funny thing is that I'd seen the place on Saturday night when we were in St. Stephen's Square, and the place was packed, so it must be good.
What is a chimney cake?
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| chimney cake |
It is a sturdy pastry dough that is wrapped around a cylinder about the length of my forearm. The cylinder is then placed on a spit over hot coals and cooked until the outside is crispy and the inside is done. I'm not exactly sure when the "seasoning" goes on it, but it must happen when it's hot because the sugar and cinnamon are stuck right on it. There are different flavors you can get; cinnamon, vanilla, and walnuts are the three most common and authentic. You can also get them filled with ice cream or Nutella or cream, but our guide begged us not to do that because it is not traditional. Chimney cakes used to be special Christmas treats, but now, because of tourism, I guess, they are available year round.
How did it taste? Well, the first bite was kinda different because we didn't know what to expect. It was cinnamon-y and sweet. Kind of crisp on the outside, and tender on the inside. It wasn't like a cake or like a pastry - it was some kind of magical mixture of the two. We didn't think we would finish it because it was as long as my forearm, as I mentioned, but you know what? We did finish it and it was damn good.
Back on the ship, we went to the lounge where the captain and the officers welcomed everyone on board with a champagne toast. The Program Director, Adrian, gave a little talk about our next destination, then it was time for dinner. That night I had a Caesar salad, a generous crab cake along with sweet potato fries, and a lava cake for dessert. It was all delicious!
We started sailing as we were eating dinner, so we passed all the beautiful buildings that I had sort of seen the night before on the drunken Danube excursion. Lizzie and I decided to keep a tradition that MT and I have when we sail of toasting the place we are leaving, so we raised a glass to Budapest and marveled at her beauty. She is a spectacular city.
There was a full moon that night, and there was a lightning storm happening inland. I took a jillion photos trying to capture the lightning. Most of them were just dark, but here's one I like:
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| lightning in the clouds on the left and a full moon on the right |
Here are a couple of pics of my travel journal pages:
Up next: sailing through a lock and an afternoon in Bratislava, Slovakia.
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