Budapest: Boats, Bridges, Buildings and Buses- the Pest Side

    Budapest is a twin city much like Minneapolis-St. Paul. Until the mid 1800's it was two separate cities, Buda and Pest. Until King Charles could not get across the Duna  (we know it as the Danube) to see his dying father as there was no way across other than ferries so he built a bridge linking the two cities, the famous chain bridge. Here it is at night from a boat cruise.

 
On the Pest side is a marvel of architecture and splendour. This building, the Hungarians Parliament, was built with so much money it could have kept 33,000 people fed and housed for life. It survived the different empires, was bombed in World War I I and had a Red star placed on the top of it's dome during Communism. Here are some pictures that show its opulence. Gold, gold, gold. Being a student of politics it was an interesting tour we took of this magnificent building.

The halls are all GOLD

The Parliament from our night boat cruise.

The Communist Star

Outside of the Gothic building.

From the river out can see the life of the city. On the edge of the river there is a tradition of 'the shoes' on the water's wall. They are a memorial to the city's Jews that were lined up and shot there by Nazis.

A walk down the Promenade at night had us come across this enormous wedding feast down by the river. The father of the bride must have been a rich man but poor now, I'm sure.

We took the Hop on, hop off bus tour which allowed use to see more sights such as the Heroes Park and the Jewish Synagogue. 

Tomorrow we will explore Buda.