Castle District - Buda

Budapest is actually a city that combined two different city along the Danube River. One city was called Buda and was located on the south side of the river. Pest was located on the northern banks of the river. At some point in time, they joined to make the city we know today. Hungary has a long history of various invaders and rulers taking over their country. The Mongols (remember Ghengis Khan I wrote about a couple of years ago???) made it out this far in their quest for dominance. The Castle district was really established when the royal court moved her in the 15th century. Buda, the side of the city with the castle became one of Europe's most influential cities. Of course, things couldn't remain that way so the Turks invaded followed by the Austrians. Little was left of the district when they were through. However, the Hungarians are definitely stubborn and they began reconstruction immediately, however, WWII again destroyed the area. It has been reconstructed in the same style and with many of the architectural features from the medieval city. 

The first two pictures here are of a long wall at the top of the hill, following the course of the river. It's called the Fisherman's Bastion. The story goes that the wall was built to defend the castle. The fishermen, who spent the day on the river below, were in the right place to run up the hill to defend it if foreign forces were to arrive. It's actually very picturesque, both the structure and views. There are seven turrets along the wall, representing each of the seven tribes of the Hungarians. 

The last picture here is a picture of Matthias Church, taken from the top of the Bastion. The tile work on the various churches is outstanding - the amount of work to create and place all of these tiles is unbelievable. The color is spectacular - sorry it didn't come out better in the photo. 

Budapest Video

Budapest Take One

Check out these quick views of Budapest. Stay tuned...more will be coming. Click on the "Budapest Take One" link above to see the video.

Budapest Opera House

The Opera House in Budapest was built in the late 1800's in a Renaissance style.It is not the largest in Europe but it is said to have high quality acoustics and is one of the first few opera houses in the world.
The current approach to the Opera House has lost some of the elegance that was present when it was first built. Gone are the longer approaches and greenery, replaced with a bustling street and lots on concrete. However, the evidence of the grandeur is still apparent. There was the main entrance area with wrought iron lamps and stone sphinxes guarding the way as well as a private entrance for royalty. Even inside the dual approach to the auditorium was maintained.  
The entire building has been restored - and it is gorgeous. Everywhere you looked, paintings have been painted directly onto the walls as frescoes (the wall was "wet" when it was painted) or secco where the plaster was dry. Even the presence of a frame doesn't mean that it could be removed - countless paintings were done on the wall and a frame added to finish with. The details everywhere is unbelievable. The picture inside is taken looking up the stairway, catching one of the gold medallions that line the arches and a small fresco 3 stories up. Jeff took some great pictures - I'll add a photo album of our travels which will include more of these pictures. 
The auditorium itself was quite a bit smaller than I had anticipated. It holds around 1000 people but it doesn't look like it would. The seats are still older wooden seats and, I've been told, have an interesting air-conditioning system where outside air is directed under the seats! They have 3 layers of balconies with opera boxes and a huge one in the back for royalty, along with two smaller ones connected on the sides for the bodyguards to use. 
The opera house is used daily and, as we toured, the men were on stage setting up the set to be used that night. They don't do the same performance for a long period of time, they do a different performance every night!!! It means elaborate stage changes every single day.

Apartment in Budapest

We have arrived in Budapest. Since we're here for about a week, Jeff searched out apartments where we could have our own space. He found a wonderful one, near the metro lines, good restaurants, a washing machine, and easy walking to many destinations around town.
The apartment is on top of the building so we have a great view of - more apartment buildings! Actually, we can look out the dormer windows (in the front room and bedroom) and check out the surrounding area. Particularly cool when there's a thunderstorm coming in - we had a beautiful vista of the approaching clouds and thunderous lightning display. We were glad we had returned from our outdoor dinner at the Mexican food restaurant just minutes before the display started. This time of year many of the restaurants have outdoor seating areas to enjoy the warm evenings. A great place to dine IF there's no threatening rain.

Vegan Restaurant

I was in Vienna for one day...heck, one hour, and I already found my favorite restaurant, the Loving Hut. Believe it or not, it was a vegan restaurant right next door to the hotel we stayed in. The hotel was nothing to write about but the restaurant! It was wonderful!!! I honestly had a terrible time deciding what to eat, everything looked so good.
Jeff is indeed having a beer...but it was an alcohol free one, much to his surprise. He enjoyed his meal also and, when we return to Vienna at the end of our journey, I will definitely be returning to this place.

Strange Things

I have never in my life seen anything quite like this. I have seen "tricycles" before, but they have had a single tire in front with 2 in the back - and usually a huge bike with a driver that means business. This one is just odd. It is actually a scooter but the two wheels in front is really odd looking...

Then there are these various statues found all over the place. Now some fit into the building style of a particular period - gargoyles and naked statues are found frequently - but then there are other things that just defy the imagination...

Vienna - Saint Stevens Church

OK...I have to admit I know very little about Saint Stevens church...let's see...first, it's old, quite old 'cause it was built in 1100 something. It's also a cathedral (just found that out). The interesting piece here is the cleaning that is going on. The top of the spire has been cleaned, you can see the light colored stone trailing into the sky. Compare that with the very dark roof to the lower left. It relaly is very black and waiting its turn to be cleaned.

Now comes the interesting part...the lower tower. You can't just cover up a national treasure and not let the tourists see it in its beauty so...they have taken a picture of that portion of the church and used the greatly enlarged photograph to cover up the church portion that is behind cleaned...literally behind the "scenes". The contrast truly is quite striking.

The interior of the cathedral is spectacular. They have 2 organs in the church, the one in the front, just barely visible on the right side, has a gorgeous sound. We were fortunate to be there to hear a young man playing on it. He may well have been tuning it but it sounded wonderful anyway. There's a second huge organ in the back that takes up the entire width of the church. I'd love to hear the sounds that one puts out.

The interesting thing about this cathedral is the placement of the pulpit. I must admit I am accustomed to finding it located in the very front of the church. This one is about midway in the seating area and raised quite high - a very different placement that I expected.