Monday, January 11, 2010

Buda looking at Pest


So far we've been only hanging out in Pest except for the day's excursion to Szentendre. Szentendre is accessible by taking the HEV train from Batthyny ter which is on Buda's side. It is also possible to take boat from Budapest up the Danube to Szentendre or by a bicycle path which our Canadian friends did. We met them in Szentendre and later we met up in Pest, they had ridden their bikes down. We told them about our hotel and we met up again in our hotel. The next day was our chance to tackle Buda and to visit the castle quarter of Budapest. We took the bus up to the castle quarter which unlike Prague is too big to be handled on foot. It was busy with lots of tourists milling around. The church, St Mathias was closed for the noon time service. So we sat and waited in the park area nearby. We chatted with an older American couple who were on a Danube cruise. We saw the cruise line moored on the Danube dock area when we waiting for the bus to come up here. From on top the castle area, we looked down at Pest and saw the beautiful stately Parliament building. Budapest is truly beautiful and has this stately air about it. There are lots of bridges linking the 2 sides of Buda with Pest. The biggest and most famous is the chain bridge. There are lots of trams that run up and down both sides of the Danube and some cross over the Danube to link the 2 sides.

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