Budapest yet again

 Budapest yet again.

I transferred ship 100 metres along the river bank from the Avalon Artistry II to the River Discovery II.

I had already been in Budapest for several days and it was a new group of passengers and the first tour would be a tour of the city. Many of the sights that we drove past I had seen before but I still went as some bits would be different and it would be a chance to get to know some of the other guests.

The Opera House. The city didn't have an opera house and didn't have the money to pay for one. So the prime minister asked the Emperor of Austria for some money which he provided on condition that the building was not larger than the Vienna Opera House. 

The building is in fact smaller than the Vienna Opera House but it is more ornate and the Emperor saw it when it was opened and left and never returned to it again.   

                                       
Further along the same road is the House of Terror. It is a museum and monument to those who were arrested and tortured in the basement. The overhang shades the building but also spells out the name of the house. The brown rectangular offering in front of the house are rusted iron chains.

Also under the road is mainland Europe's oldest underground railway line. The oldest is in London.

At the far end of the boulevard is Hero Square with the Museum of Fine Arts overlooking one side.

Below the column is an empty tomb to remember all those who died fighting for freedom.

Beyond the square is City Park and Vajdahunyad Castle with its own moat and lake. The city was founded in 896 and although built to look old, the castle was built to celebrate the 1,000th year of the city and completed in 1896.

On the opposite side of the lake is a restaurant and cafe complex. The lake freezes in winter and becomes a skating rink.

Th design of the castle is aimed at representing many of the different styles of architecture found in the country and are typically reproductions of other famous buildings.

Some were difficult to see through the trees...

...but many styles are represented, Medieval...

                                                     

...almost Disney like with its multiple turrets....

...a copy of a real church...

....baroque.

The anonymous scribe.

And ore different styles. It was originally made of wood and planned to be temporary but it was so popular that the wooden mock structure was replaced with something more permanent.

Inside the park are more modern structures such as the House of Music.

It is a fascinating building but there was a function being held there and we were not able to go inside.

A statue of George Washington, erected here after a statue of a well known Hungarian and the first foreigner to be honoured with a statue erected in Washington.

Through the trees is the Museum of Ethnology, exhibiting traditional items in a modern building with a green roof.

The most famous restaurant in Budapest.

The entrance to the zoo, one of the oldest in Europe.

The circus.

The Biosphere, modelled n the Eden Project  near St Austell but not yet open to the public.

The Shoe Monument...copies of shoes made from iron the remember the Jews who were shot here and thrown into the river.

The funicular from river level up to the royal palace.

The portal to the tunnel that cuts through the hill that the royal palace sits on.

A common sight on the water once I had walked along the banks for several days...a jet boat ride along the river.

And despite being thousands of miles from Santiago de Compostela, along one of the roads I walked, I saw the unmistakable sign for pilgrims.