The Buda and The Pest

Tried to sleep in a bit longer.  Not having much of a plan, we started out on foot to explore our final city.  The Danube divides the city in two - Buda on one side, Pest on the other.  We hiked to the bridge but before crossing over we walked up the Citadel and took a peek into the church carved into the rock.  Great photo ops from high on top.

Crossed the bridge to the Pest side and continued down to the old city. All of the bridges in this city were destroyed during WWII and they rebuilt all of them.  Quite a feat, since there are numerous bridges. The one we walked over in the morning had the locks on it like the Amsterdam bridge. We found one with our initials on it.  When G & I get home we are going to put a lock on the Fairhaven/New Bedford bridge and see what happens.

Did some exploring, heard some music and finally bought a metro ticket so we could use the public transportation instead of walking so much.  Went to the Synagogue which unfortunately was closed.  This is the second largest synagogue in the world and Europe's largest.

We really weren't into doing the tourist stuff - this place is full of tourists - so we just walked along the streets taking pictures of buildings.  We found a great coffee/shakes place that has free wifi and took full advantage.

Walking over the Chain bridge, we eventually found our way to Castle Hill taking the tram up to see the Palace and the ruins of the Buda Castle.  Lots of shopping ops up here as well.  More views, more pictures.  At the bottom is a big sculpture of a zero km - all distances from any city in Hungary are measured from this point. I have to say that either we were too tired to figure stuff out or the pubic transit system here is much more confusing than other cities.  We spent a lot of time just trying to figure stuff out and winding up in strange places.  Not always a bad thing, but when we wanted to get back to the hotel, it took one bus and 2 trams because we just weren't sure where everything was going.


Made it back and In front of the hotel, we saw them loading up the our trusty bikes to take them back to the tour company.  Probably could have used them today.

Richard was sitting in the lobby when we walked in. We exchanged stories and said we will try to hook up for dinner later but weren't sure.  Up in the room, it was time to get organize and repack.  Got back down to the lobby around 7.  Looked for the group and found most of them in the restaurant.  Mark & Gail are still MIA.  Had another wonderful meal.  I would have never guessed that Hungarian cooking would be so good.  Maybe its the paprika!  For lunch I just ordered a hamburger (which I never order).  It has to be the best hamburger I have ever tasted. I can't even explain tonights meal.  I just ordered a soup which was to die for and G had some kind of chicken thing with farmer's cheese and all kinds of stuff.  Tres yummy.

We all split up tomorrow.  Lee and Joanne are on their way to the Munich Octoberfest, Bonnie & Jim still have one more day in Budapest and get home Tuesday.  Richard leaves early tomorrow morning.  And I am not sure about Gail & Mark but I think they leave tomorrow some time as well.  We are not checking out till noon.  Don't know if we will get in any sightseeing or not.

Next time...The Long Road Home