The Traveling Twosome: 34 - 6/3/2015

Wednesday, June 3

Budapest has a superior transportation network, by our observation. Not only are there subways, trolleys, busses, trains and ferries that mesh seamlessly together, but also frequency. Except for the ferry, it seems that anything you miss will be coming by again in three or four minutes, sometimes less. This builds confidence in switching between them to suit the moment. Today we each again bought a one day ticket good on all modes for 24 hours.

We hopped a trolley to the foot of Castle Hill which is on the same "Buda" side of the Danube as our hotel. It is where "Buda's" main sights are located. At one end is the huge Royal Palace while at the other is the Mathias Church. To save a steep walk, we took the funicular to the top and back down again.

Great views from the top. After the photo we turned back around:

Looks like a Disneyland castle at the top of the funicular:

Considered Budapest's best church, Mathias Church was renovated at great expense in the 19th century and restored after WWII.

Mathias Church interior:

We were there for the changing of the guard ceremony:

After that we boarded the commuter ferry at a dock near the funicular and took it back and forth on the Danube, seeing the city from a river perspective. It was nearly empty the entire trip. When we finally disembarked it was at an outlying stop pretty far up river, away from things. We simply got off on the "Pest" side of the river and accessed a subway station located less than a sixteenth of a mile from the dock. About nine stops brought us back to a connecting hub where we caught a trolley and "rode the lines" for awhile just looking at the scene as it passed by.

Parliament building, built in 1896 and inspired in its design and river location by its counterpart in London, as seen from the middle of the Danube:

We saw this tourist bus/boat floating by:

One trolley stop we made was at the Great Synagogue, the largest in Europe and second largest in the world (after New York). It's quite imposing and contains some items atypical of synagogues, such as a nave, pulpit and pipe organ. Our guide explained that if it resembles a church inside it's because it is reformed and was built in the 1850's at a time when Jews wanted to feel more integrated into the community. To that end they hired two non-Jewish architects whose design backgrounds were with churches. Restoration to original appearance from WWII damage was carried out in the early 1990's after the Soviet domination of Hungary ended.

The Great Synagogue:

Interior of the Great Synagogue.

We concluded our day by relaxing at the Gellert Spa which is part of the hotel/spa complex. We donned our swim suits and terry robes and walked from our room directly into water wonderland. As of January, things flipped from nude bathing as the norm to bathing suits required. Now we have to hope our suits dry by tomorrow when we pack up. Certain spas yet to be visited are managed in a less restrictive (constrictive) manner.

Wave pool on the right, thermal spa and Finnish sauna on the left with garden cafe in the middle. We felt like we were on a large cruise ship.