Day: January 2, 2007

This year to ring in the New Year, we went with a big group of friends to the historic Hungarian city of Budapest. Lonely Planet calls Budapest the Paris of Central Europe. I certainly agree with that description, there is culture, history, art and spectacular architecture.
The Danube River dissects the city and on one side is Buda with it’s castle district and the other is Pest with shopping and the impressive parliament building.
We began our exploration with a visit to one of the famous thermal baths. This one is in the Hotel Gellért. One of the more popular spots (especially for tourists). It was built in 1918 in an Art Nouveau style.

Here is the outside of the same hotel.

Just outside, there is a hill, over which this statue stands sentinel.

Here is a sampling of the city’s wonderful architecture. First, is one of the city’s main bridges.

Next is the gargantuan parliament building.

St. Mathias Church dominates the skyline on the Buda side of the Danube.


This is King St. Stephen, who was the first king of Hungary and ruled 997 – 1038 AD. He fought against pagan forces to control the country and with his victory assured Christianity’s dominance. He planned to abdicate to his beloved son and spend the rest of his life devoted to the church, but his son died unexpectedly in a hunting accident in 1031. Upon his death in 1038, his people mourned him for three years. He is still revered as the father of the country and his image is on the 10,000 Forint currency (roughly equivalent to $50 in 2006) and his feast is celebrated on August 20th and is one of the largest holidays in Hungary.

The statue of the king stands in front of the Fisherman’s Bastion. It’s a fairly modern building (built between 1895 and 1902).

A view of the parliament building through the arches in Fisherman’s Bastion.


As it grew colder at nightfall a soft blanket of fog fell over the city and made for nebulous images. These next few are from the Buda Castle Quarter. We also toured the Labyrinth beneath the quarter (which is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites).




St Matthias Church and Fisherman’s Bastion.

More sites of the city.


We gathered with a group of people on the bridge to ring in the New Year. If it hadn’t been foggy, we would have seen the large fireworks display. Tons of smaller parties were simultaneously going on in this city of nearly two million people. In fact, they had a lovely Christmas Market and three different concert stages set up (at least that we saw).

Although there were over 20 of us on this trip, we split up into smaller manageable groups. Here are the girls with me and Ken.

Happy New Year!


Sparklers are always fun to play with.

Here we all are walking back through the streets of Budapest.


So, that was our little trip to Hungary. It’s a fascinating country and we both loved our experience there.
So, until the next adventure…
–Jim