Wednesday was our last day in Budapest. We would be leaving by train for Prague in the afternoon. We should have had another full day here, but as happens too often, I managed to be confused about the dates when I made the reservations. Since Andrea had been to Budapest before, she was more excited about visiting Prague so it worked out. Our train to Prague wasn’t leaving until 3:30 so we still had time to take in more of the sights of Budapest.
We were a little slower to get up on Wednesday, but a big breakfast helped to get us going. Our first stop today would be the Buda Castle area. To get there we went through the tunnel and then had some stairs to climb to get up to the castle. Along the way there was a location to stop and take in the views of the city. The higher we went the broader the views became.
We also were able to cross the path over the funicular. A funicular is a way of going up a steep hill. It travels on a rail up the side of a mountain. I first experienced one in Barcelona, but also saw one in Porto, Portugal this last spring. They are rather expensive to ride, but it is a unique experience. We were able to stand on the path over the funicular as it went up and down.
The actual Buda Castle is now a museum of art. We did not go into the museum but just wandered around the outside taking in the views. We also saw some of the statues around. One in particular intrigued me. It was a modern statue of Mary holding baby Jesus. However, it was at the end of a narrow section of the wall that jutted out. From the wall all one can see is the back of the statue. To see the front is challenging because it’s so high up. I tried to get a good shot of it, but it was difficult.
After wandering around the top of the wall, we went down to a lower court area, and then took a long set of stairs down to the bottom of the hill. We went through a round building with a spiral staircase before exiting out into a garden. The garden area included a wall of columns which has grape vines growing on it. The grapes from last year were still hanging on the vines that grew around the columns. At the street entrance a Christmas tree provided holiday spirit and another lion statue marked the entrance.
Back at the edge of the Danube River, we walked along the river bank. We noticed the river seemed higher than it was even the day before. Yesterday we had noticed that the river was very close to the top of the embankments. Today the water was lapping over the bank and had surrounded some areas of benches. We were surprised because it had not rained at all since we had arrived. In fact we had beautiful weather with nearly clear skies.
We walked down quite a ways passing Elisabeth Bridge before arriving at the Liberty Bridge which we planned to cross. Built in the 1960s the Elisabeth Bridge replaced a much more ornate bridge destroyed in WW II. The Liberty Bridge is very green and had some interesting details. We crossed here to get to the public market which was our next destination.
The market was a huge building. When we found it, the first thing I noted was the roof. It had a similar pattern to the roof of the church I had seen the day before. It was really quite unique.
When we entered the market, we walked around the bottom floor which was basically all the food stalls. Here one could find butchers, vegetables and fruits, candies, and other things to eat. On the upper level we squeezed through a very crowded section of people selling mostly traditional handcrafts. These were things like ceramics, embroidered linens and laces. Because of the narrow aisles, if anyone stopped to admire something, it was hard to get past them. We decided to leave that area as it was too overwhelming and claustrophobic. Even the market area downstairs was crowded so we didn’t stay long.
Before we left Budapest, we wanted to see one more site, a memorial to the Holocaust victims. The memorial consists of metal shoes that are placed together near the river bank where Jews had been killed. The location is near the Parliament Building. As we headed in that direction, we saw how much the Danube had risen over night. The area where we had boarded our cruise the night before was now under water. Workers were busily building a platform through the water for customers to use for the cruises scheduled for that evening.
The water was also covering the shoe memorial. When we got there, we could see none of the shoes. On a short wall by the river bank, we saw some candles that had burned at some point to honor the victims, but no shoes. Here’s a link to have more information about this memorial along with photos since I have no pictures to share.
With that we concluded our activities in Budapest. As we were walking back towards our hotel, traffic seemed really heavy and concern was expressed that we might miss our train if we left at the time we had planned. We then changed course and got a cab right away to take us to the train station. The station was a little strange as there was no actual terminal like most train stations. It looked like they were working to reconstruct the terminal building. All the information boards and kiosks to buy tickets were outside. Since we were now early, we grabbed a bite to eat at a nearby mall. We then made our way to the train.
There was no one at the train to help locate seats or cars, but we managed to figure it out and found our seats. We had seats facing each other with a table between. Our trip would be about six and a half hours. The first part of the trip followed along the Danube River in places, and the sunset was spectacular with some deep orange colors. Sadly the windows were dirty and the light inside the car kept me from being able to get very decent pictures because of the reflections. Although we couldn’t take good photos, we could see evidence of flooding along the river’s edge despite the darkness.
The train made frequent stops and people got on and off. At the very front of the train was a concession area so we walked through most of the train to get there to buy some drinks. It was interesting to see the various cars and how they were laid out. One car had private rooms in it. First class had lots of space. Overall the train ride went well.
We arrived in Prague in the evening. Andrea had read that it would be good to have a cab standing by to take us to our hotel. She had booked a cab online which we expected to be waiting for us when we arrived. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find it. The main missing piece was a Burger King. The cab company said the cab would be by the Burger King, but we didn’t see one anywhere. We didn’t have phone service to be able to figure out what was going on so in the end we just took a regular cab that was there. The driver used his phone for translation as his English wasn’t the best. However, in the end we got to our hotel.
Andrea tried to get her money back for the cab, but the driver insisted he was there waiting for us. He said the Burger King was inside the train terminal. We hadn’t gone into the train terminal as we didn’t expect the Burger King to be there so we couldn’t dispute that. One more learning experience.
We would be in Prague for the next three days. I’m looking forward to sharing our experience with you. In the meantime thank you for your support, and I always appreciate your faves and comments. If you aren’t receiving notice of the posts in your email, be sure to sign up. It’s easy to do. Until next week…
Interesting Xmas market . You are a woman of the world. I bet by the time you are 50 you have had seen pretty much.