Budapest

Budapest

Our last day of cruising before reaching Budapest.

Looking up the Rhine at dawn. This was a long stretch with tree covered banks.

There were just a few boat houses along the shore.

Not easy to see from the ship but many of these structures were built on stilts to protect them from flooding.

The outskirts of the city with some of the communist era blocks of flats. The walls are the for cheapness and neighbours can her each other through the walls, useful for the secret police but also expensive to heat in the winter.

                                       

The Margit bridge built by Eiffel of Eiffel tower fame which links Margit Island on the left to both sides of the river.

                                       

A details of some carving on one of the piers.

                                      

A view of the Parliament Building, designed to look old but it was only completed in 1904.

                                      

Another view.It is open to the public when parliament is not sitting.

One of the many bridges over the river but this one is undergoing extensive renovation and it is closed to traffic which has to follow diversions and makes the traffic situation even worse than normal.

The Four Seasons hotel set in an old but beautiful building but hidden by trees..

In contrast next door is the Intercontinental in an ugly modern concrete carbuncle on the water front.

Several museums are housed in this building.

One of several art nouveau buildings.

The Elizabeth bridge, Empress of Austria, Queen of Hungary and the only Habsburg to learn to speak Hungarian, also known as Sissy. This bridge was built by an English engineer and behind on top of the hill is the Liberation statue erected by the Soviets although the locals would call it an occupation leading to the 1956 uprising.

One of several spas and one of the older spas for which the city is well known although this one has been extended with a modern wing to the left.

One of many art nouveau buildings...

...and another...

...and another.

The church in a cave, the facade is stone built but the worshiping area is in a cave behind.

There are many grand buildings that can be seen from the river.

The university.

The Whale, two old market halls with a modern curved structure linking the two.

The Comedy Theatre.

Hero Square.

The Art Museum currently hosting an exhibition of Bosch. 

A view of the cathedral.

The west entrance to the cathedral.

The Ferris wheel.

A bronze of a fat policeman.

A bust of Liszt. 

The evening meal, sauerkraut soup, Hungarian salad...

...followed but goulash, blood, liver and pork sausage and a vegetable goulash.

Schönbrunn Palace

 

Schönbrunn Palace

There were two things that I had wanted to do in Vienna, one was to go inside the Spanisches Hofreitsschule. I had ridden Lipizaner horses in Spain on the Costa del Luz but had not see the inside of the famous Viennese school. And the ships schedule did not coincide with the opening times so I had missed out.

The other was to visit Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the Habsbergs set in the country outside of Vienna. The Habsburgs had ruled Austria for over 600 years and had caused many wars including the Wars of the Spanish Succession. The assassination of Franz Josef started the First World War and the last emperor was forced to abdicate at the end of the war and the First Austrian Republic was proclaimed.

It is a huge place with over 1,400 rooms but we were only going to visit the top 20 Imperial rooms but these included the reception area, the fabulously decorated main banquet hall plus other famous rooms such as Napoleon's room, the Chinese Room and the Millionaires Room,  which are all richly decorated in the Rococo style. The start wasn't quite what I had expected as the courtyard in front of the palace was set up for a concert and obscured the view of the palace.

Looking back across what is usually open space to the two columns with golden eagles on the top which is the entrance to the courtyard.

This modest side door ti the left of the building is the visitors entrance. No photos are allowed inside as this is Austria's most visited tourist attraction hosting 8 million visitors a year and people taking photos delayed the movement of people through the rooms and caused blockages so it was banned.

But the gardens are free to visit and many locals walk in them for exercise and leisure. Some of the acres of glasshouses used to grow exotic fruit, now used to grow bedding plants in the gardens or unused.

One of the tree lined walkways in the gardens.

One of the entrances to the private gardens on one side of the palace.

                                        

The other side of the palace is unrestricted viewing and shows how deep the wings are.

                                         
A view of the back of the palace. The architecture and details are identical to the front facade but without the protruding side wings.

Turning around there is a spectacular fountain.

Up the hill behind the palace shows the building and some of its flower gardens and whilst it used to be in the countryside, the city has since expanded to engulf it.

In the woods going up the hill are more treasures such as this fountain.

The top of the hill is crowned with a gloriette or a fancy gazebo.

Vienna

 Vienna

We were driven through the streets of Vienna by coach and had so many buildings pointed out that I can't remember them and none of the photos on a bright hot day taken through a window were worth keeping.

And once we were on foot it still wasn't easy to take photos as the streets are narrow getting a good perspective, the traffic busy and it was the last week of term and it seemed that every school in the country had a school trip to the capital and the streets were corded.

A view of the Opera House.

The Sacher Hotel, which invented the Sacher Torte which was on the menu the night before due to a special request from another passenger.

On the corner of the Sacher Hotel was another view of the opera house.

And we moved on to a square.

The National Library.

Part of the palace.

The inner courtyard of Die Spanisches Hofreitschule, the Spanish Riding Schools showing the stables on the ground floor that house 70 Lippizaner stallions.

A closers view with several horses heads looking out of their stables.

St Michaels in St Michaels Square.

 

The entrance to the Holberg Palace, the winter palace of the Habsbergs.

The house of the baker to the Habsburg. A pretty fancy building for just a baker.

An interesting merchants house.

The savings bank with a bee motif on the top front facade but the lower part of the building as obscured by renovation works.

A fabulous monument in the main Graben shopping street.

The streets were narrow and I couldn't get a good picture of the whole cathedral but this is the one completed spire.

A side on view of the west facade.

The date of construction picked out on the roof between the transept and the alter.

The unfinished spire.

It was a quick tour and took less than an hour and then we had some time to ourselves such as to visit the cathedral on the inside or one of the many museums but I hadn't planned anything so just wandered some of the back streets to look at the architecture.