Buda
With the excitement of the marathon over we now start to explore Budapest, spending the day at Buda.
Now we have been in Budapest for 3 days and we are starting to feel comfortable with the transport system, we catch Metro line 1 to Vörösmarty tér, which is the terminus in the heart of Pest on the east side of the river.
From there we walk through the streets to the Széchenyi Chain Bridge. Andy knows this bridge well from the marathon - it spans the Danube from Pest to Buda.
Our walk continues to the funicular which connects the Danube and the Buda Castle, the Funicular (Budavari Siklo) has been in service since 1870. Unfortunately the queue for tickets was so long we came to the conclusion we could walk up Castle Hill before we our place in the queue could buy a ticket - so off we went.
The walk up didn’t take very long and was quite easy - well for me - not sure about Andy, good for stretching his legs ? It was well worth the walk - the view from the top was spectacular.
On the top of Castle Hill the first building we went to view was the Sandor Palace (Hungarian Presidential Palace) the building houses the Office of the President of the Republic of Hungary and it also serves as his official residence.
Entrance to the palace is through the Habsburg Gate (a name that has been recurring through our travels). The Turul statue sits on the river side of the gate entry. The Turul is a mythological bird of prey, mostly depicted as a falcon in Hungarian tradition.
After looking around the castle are we walked towards Matthias Church, Fisherman’s Bastion and the Holy Trinity Statue. These structures are amazing. The holy trinity statue was built to protect people of Buda from outbreaks of the Black Plague.
All in all a lovely day, we could have done more up on the hill (such as Buda Castle cave tour) but we enjoyed being outside stretching our legs and the viewing the amazing sights.
Fun Fact: the name Budapest was formally adopted in 1873. Before this, the towns comprising what is now Budapest had sometimes been referred to colloquially as "Pest-Buda".