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| Lunch at a sidewalk cafe on the banks of the Danube with the Royal Palace on the hill in the background. |
WOW!! What a beautiful city, and what friendly people! I took Gabor's advice from last night and used the Hop On/ Hop Off double decker bus to get a good overview of the city and its major attractions. The ticket also included a boat ride on the Danube. It was spectacular!!
The first stop on the bus tour was the funicular which provided access to the Royal Palace, referred to as the Buda Palace since it is located on the Buda side of Budapest. As you may know, Budapest is divided by the Danube River, one side is Buda, which is mostly hill, and the other side is Pest, which is flat and where just about everything is located. In just one day, I have a good idea of where things are and how to get around the city by using the subway system, which is the second oldest in Europe (after London), and the streetcars. The real trick is to pay attention to signs, which is not easy if you are not familiar with the Hungarian language. It is very unlike any Romance language, so there is no easy association in trying to figure out what a word means. For example, "ut" means "street." But that is half the fun of traveling to new places!
The WiFi here at the hotel is very slow, so I will try to post some photos from today's sightseeing and continue with more photos tomorrow. There are so many I have to choose from, since I took about 250 today.
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| The funicular, one of the oldest in Europe! |
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| View from the car going up, as the other is going down. |
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| View of the Danube and Chain Bridge from the top platform of the funicular. |
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| One of the palace gates. |
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| Buda Palace, which is now an art gallery and museum. |
It is now past midnight. It has taken over an hour to upload these few photos. I will post more tomorrow from my adventures today, including my boat ride on the Danube and visit to St. Stephen's Basilica. Stay tuned....
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