The Ham Nomads

15 Jul 2015. <HU> Budapest —

Budapest had a big storm a few days ago —
much of the debris is still waiting for collection

Today we became full tourists in Budapest. We had bought a two-day ticket on the Giraffe Hop On-Hop Off bus tours but, having been here before, we realised that the castle area could take a lot of time. So, because the bus ticket ran for 48 hours from first use, we instead took the Metro into town, to Ferenciek tere, and then walked slowly along the pedestrian area, Váci ulica, just enjoying the shops and doing a little people-watching. About half-way along, we dropped into — you guessed it — Macca's, for a coffee.

Nagyvârad tèr Metro platforms

Mot only the station's name,
but all the next ones on the station wall

Lie-size model chefs or waiters
are a feature of many restaurants

We then continued along until we came to the Chain Bridge (Széchenyi lánchíd). This bridge, built by the English engineer William Tierney Clark, to be opened in 1849, this linking for the first time the two cities of Buda and Pest. One, possibly apocryphal, story about the bridge is that the designer was so proud of his work that he declared that if anybody could find any fault with it, he would jump into the Danube — and not long after one of the workmen remarked that the lions had no tongues! Luckily he was a good swimmer.

The lions on the Buda side keep watch on the tunnel beneath the castle

The Royal Palace from the Chain Bridge

Arms of the Kingdom of Hungary, 1880 (near base of the Buda Castle funicular).
The motto "Bizalmam az osi erenyben" is "The ancient virtues of trust"

We walked across the bridge from Pest into Buda, and came to the base of the famed funicular, up to the castle precinct — the world's second oldest urban funicular railway. We took the funicular up — no, not being lazy, just wanted to experience it again (we used it before in 2007).

The raven atop Matthias Church

We then took our time wandering the Castle precinct. The Royal Palace is now a complex of museums and, because we visited them last time, we decided to concentrate on other areas. But one thing we remembered from our previous visit was the raven holding a gold ring. According to legend, the mother of the 15-year-old boy Hunyadi Mátyás sent him a raven carrying a ring to summon him back from Prague. He was crowned King of Hungary and Croatia in 1458, and assumed the name Matthias Corvinus(corvinus is the Latin for 'raven'). The ring-bearing raven became part of his family crest.

The guards at the castle were doing it hard —
it was a stinking hot day!

Last time we were here, the Matthias Church was closed for renovation/restoration. The renovations are now complete, and the church can be seen in all its glory. We were planning to spend abut an hour here — but three hours later we were still exploring the church.

In the middle of our exploration, we found a restaurant in the Fisherman's Bastion, so we settled in for lunch to the tune of a zither, with a view to be relished, up and down the Danube. A light lunch consisted of Goulash Soup (a local speciality) for Suzie, and Chicken Caesar Salad for Warren, washed down with a lovely Hungarian Riesling-style wine.

The view across to Pest

After this, we joined a tower tour group, to climb the 197 steps to the viewing platform at near the top of the spire of Matthias Church. We thought Suzie might be the slow-poke in the climb, but a six-month pregnant climber and an even slower non-pregnant (no excuse) woman were the laggards! At least their partners kept them company! The view at the top was worth the climb — but Suzie maintains that the rooftops we saw were boringly perfect!

We came down and, after having a cool drink in a nearby alfresco cafe, explored the interior of the church, which was so beautiful as to take our breath away. This is one church that has to be put on anyone's bucket list. The paintwork is somewhat reminiscent of the Catherdral in Albi, but the light is so much better that you get the full impact of the decorations.

Some of the frescoes could almost be Pre-Raphaelite!
The test reads "Poverty — Cleanliness — Obedience"

There is a museum associated with the church, which we explored, and found that it led out through the same door we left the tower tour — and as we came out, we met up again with our guide, who was most interested in our opinion of his favourite place.

A replica of the Hungarian crown
made from photographs while the real crown
was still in the hands of the Russians!

A statue of Empress Elizabeth (Sisi),
consort of Franz Joseph I

From here, we wandered down to the northern end of the castle area, before turning about and finding pur way back to the path down through the gardens to the base of the funicular. In the way, we found a lovely little coffee shop, Walzer Cafe in Táncsics Mihaly ulica, whose hostess was most eager to please. She wanted to know how we had found her, and we had to answer that we just noticed the place as we walked past, and that it looked inviting! You may think that a lot of these places are 'tourist traps', but in a lot of cases thay are trying so hard to please!

We walked back into Pest, basically backtracking. We wanted a bottle of wine to share with David and Carol before they left tomorrow, And Suzie was desperate for a haircut. We achieved both aims, returned to Ferenciek tere and hopped the Metro back to base.

We went over to David and Carole at their van, and spent a couple of hours communing with our Brisbane friends before retiring for the night. A great day!

Distance driven — today, nil; to date, 24,200 miles ( 38,946 km )