Day 8 October 15th Budapest

We have had two full, interesting days in Budapest and I am now catching up with the blog on the train to Prague.  Hopefully it will all be completed in time.



gallery at heroes square

We had an arranged full day tour 

Archangel Gabriel

for Tuesday and it began bright, sunny and dry – always a good sign.  We were up, breakfasted and on the coach by 0845.  We began by visiting Heroes Square with its colonades, statues, column with archangel Gabriel and tomb for the fallen.  We wandered round, took photos of the square and the adjacent galleries and roads before realighting the coach.  We had been to the square o a previous visit when we concluded a river cruise at Budapest but it was good to see it again.

 



inside St Stephens cathedral

We then went to St Stephens

St Stephen and fishermens bastion

 cathedral which the major church of the city.  We had a quick look round and then went for a coffee before getting on the coach to cross over the Danube using the Elizabeth Bridge.  The coach climbed the hill on the other side and we 

fishermens bastion

had a guided history of the fortress, palaces, 

view of parliament from bastion

fishermans’ bastion and the St Mathias church.  All impressive buildings with tremendous views across the river to the Pest side of the city.  We had some free time to wander around, photograph and grab a picnic before regrouping.

 



childrens railway

We continued on our coach to our next destination which we were very much looking forward to.  We were going to the “childrens’ railway”, this is a narrow gauge railway going through the forest on the outskirts of Budapest with the difference that the guards, 

some railway children!

ticket collectors etc were local children.  Our very good guide for the day had served on this venture when she was a child. For safety reasons I have not included any pictures of the children on the blog but rest assured they did a very good job and we were convinced it would stand them in good stead for later life.  We had thoroughly good trip through some quite thick forests.  We came to our terminus, had a short wait and the enjoyed the return journey.

We eventually arrived back at the hotel by 1700, had a quick time of r&r and then went out to a local Hungarian restaurant for our evening meal.  The meal was good and we were serenaded by some live jazz musicians which added to the occasion.  It was a very, full good day with so much to see and do and we eventually retired in a near state of collapse!