Good morning and Happy New Year everyone. Here’s hoping you had a great holiday with family and friends. Peggy and I enjoyed our family time and consumed far too many calories. Now it’s back to work, so to speak. There are blogs to write, trips to plan, and left over holiday goodies to eat. Peggy just tempted me with one of our daughter’s brownies. My resistance was zero. I followed it with a second.
I’m starting today with where I left off before Christmas. The photo above is of the Hungary/Budapest Parliament Building, which happens to be one of the most popular destinations for visitors to Budapest. For good reason. It’s one of the most beautiful buildings in the city. This photo was taken when we arrived in Budapest and were still on the Danube. The early morning light was responsible for its fuzzy, ethereal, greenish-blue look.
An early morning view from the Danube River of our arrival in the Budapest. Shortly after docking, we journeyed up to Matthias Church where we had great views from the Fisherman’s Bastion overlooking the Parliament Building.
By the time we finished visiting Matthias’s Church, the sun was beginning to light up the Parliament Building. Unfortunately, a church steeple was busy photo bombing us, making it impossible to get a clear shot of the whole building.
We were able to minimize the steeple but our best solution was to photograph the building by sections.
The Parliament Building was inaugurated in 1896 in recognition of of the nation’s 1,000th anniversary and the 1873 uniting of three cities: Buda, Pest, and Obuda. Forty million bricks went into its construction, or so they say. Whatever, it was a lot of bricks. Approximately half of the building is used for today’s Hungarian unicameral legislature, while the other half is used for a variety of purposes including offices, conferences, ceremonies— and tours. If you feel the building bears a strong resemblance to Britain’s Westminster Place, you’d be right. Hungary wanted to emphasize its close relationship to Western Europe and England at the time.
Buda Palace, once the home of kings, provided another early morning view from the Danube River. Originally dating back to 1265 and later destroyed, much of what you see above was built in the mid 1700s. That, in turn was severely damaged during WW II and then rebuilt during the Communist era. The buildings in front add a nice dash of color.
A closer look.
Our favorite view of the palace. Like Matthias Church and the Fisherman’s Bastion, Buda Palace is located on Castle Hill.
Our drive into Pest from Matthias Church provided a final view of the Palace. Shortly after this, we were crossing one of the bridges across the Danube and on our way to Hero’s Square, which, in addition to providing recognition for a number of Hungary’s heroes, also features an art museum and a castle.
Our first view was the Palace of Art. We didn’t have to guess which building it was. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to explore it. One of the disadvantages of most organized tours is that there is rarely time for any more that a cursory exploration of what you are seeing.
On the other hand, many of the things we see don’t require a lot of time. For example, this monument representing the seven Magyar chieftains who led the Hungarian people into the Carpathian Basin in 896 was hidden behind scaffolding.
I found the two matching colonnades behind the Magyar Chieftains to be of more interest. The figures on top represented important aspects of Hungarian life and virtues. The bottom statues were of important historical figures.
Here, the man with the scythe and the woman sowing seeds represented labor and wealth. As to why a man would choose to go out into a field of grain and whip around a large, sharp object while being totally naked is a total mystery to me.
That this represents war makes more sense. But wait! His whip is a large snake. Various coats of arm and the ever present naked cherubs are on the pedestal.
Facing war on the opposite colonnade is Peace with a palm frond and a billowing robe. We missed Wisdom and Glory. Darn.
There were too many statues of Hungarian nobility and heroes to include in this post so I chose Gabriel Bethlem to represent them. He’s up there because he concluded an important treaty with Bohemia for Hungary. I didn’t choose him for that, however. I chose him for his mustache and hat.
I couldn’t resist.
Vajdahunyad Castle is located in the City Park of Budapest just behind Heroes’ Square. It certainly looks like one of the historical castles we’ve featured from time to time in our posts. But looks can be deceiving, right? Originally it was made of cardboard and wood as part of the 1896 Millennium Celebration of the foundation of Hungary. It was so popular however, the stick and cardboard castle was torn down and replaced with real stones. It was designed to feature elements of several prominent castles from the region and illustrates Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque styles.
Two more views. This one…
And this, which concludes today’s post. Next we will be featuring miscellaneous photographs we took while exploring Budapest by bus and river boat.
A night shot of Buda Palace taken while on an evening cruise.
Wandering through Time and Place 
Wonder how they keep the pigeons from perching on Gabriel Bethlem’s mustache. It seems ideal for that.
I think pigeons view their statue decorating talents as one of their major purposes in life. We often see the little spiky gadgets that are designed to keep them off.
A pigeon decorated my head once and led me to change careers. I thought of it as a message from god.
Happy new year folks! It’s good to see you back on the travels! I especially like the Palace of Art. I will go online see if I can look inside! The buildings are all so exceptional and overall, it is kinda of overwhelming! Looking forward to your new travels. I am going down to Centralia tomorrow…20 minutes away…out and about! Take care and love to you both!
Thanks, Wendy. I love how the internet takes you into museums and other locations these days. It opens up a whole new world. Nothing wrong with 20 minutes. When I lived in Oregon, I really appreciated I could walk out my back door and be in a national forest, which I did several times a week. .
Lots left on our Danube trip.
We are off to Sacramento tomorrow. One of my long term friends passed away and we are going to a Celebration of Life for him.
Since we are on the West Coast, we decided we might as well pop on over to Hawaii, for a month. Grin.
Sad that you have lost a friend. This is time of our season. Popping over to Hawaii…reminds me of so long ago and wondering on a weekend in Germany where to go. Oh…let’s go to France today! I am so grateful for all the memories! Travel safe.
It was a wonderful celebration of his life. We told stories and laughed a lot. So much more positive than a funeral.
Peggy and I like traveling that way. The decision to go to Hawaii wasn’t totally spur of the moment, but close!
Budapest is indeed a beautiful city with a long history. You have taken in so much in this very interesting post.
why the man is portrayed naked is a mystery indeed unless he was one of the gods.
Poseidon, the Greek God of the sea is a huge statue . The reason for the nakedness is that they are not humans and are therefore portrayed in true form. In Gothenburg there is an enormous statue of him – Gothenburg being a seafaring city – . It used to be a popular card to to send home to whichever country tourists came from.
Miriam
There wasn’t any claim of him being a god in the literature, Miriam. Maybe the artist simply wanted to show off a well-proportioned body, like Michelangelo’s David. 🙄Or the ancient Greeks and Romans.
Thanks on the post. Wandering around in the city was quite interesting.
I’ve known Budapest has fantastic and amazing architecture, it sure seems you two found them all, eh? Thanks for the tour!
At least of the ones that were along the Danube, G! 😃
Wonderful city.
Yes it is Cindy.
Just imagine: “inaugurated in 1896 in recognition of of the nation’s 1,000th anniversary.” I once arrived in Dornhan, Germany, during their celebration of 1,100 years. And we think we have a history.
Your mention of the cardboard castle that was replicated in stone made me wonder: has anyone made Lego models of any of these buildings?
And I’m impressed when I find a petroglyph that is a thousand years Old!
Looked it up and found one Lego calls the Bucharest skyline. It was simple but I recognized Buda Palace.
Bucharest or Budapest??!!
I heard that when Michael Jackson came to Bucharest he said he was glad to be in Budapest. Identity crisis!!
Thanks, Steve. Would you believe I was doing the same thing on my next post! You saved me twice. Next time I see you, I’ll owe you a beer.
I love that you keep helping me to identify what I took pictures of when we did the river cruise!
My pleasure. Grin.
Thanks for reminding me of our visit to Budapest.
We enjoyed so much our time in Budapest as well, and the sights of Buda castle and the parliament at night from the river cruise were amazing!
A unique place, for sure, Christie. Fun, my blog tomorrow (Monday) includes a photo of Buda Castle at night!
The Parliament Building is gorgeous, Curt. In that morning light it’s stunning. I love the sculpture and guess that if my time was limited I’d spend it there. Love the naked farmer and that magnificent … mustache and hat. He he. You and Peggy inspire me. Happy Travels in 2025!
Thanks, D. Peggy and I in Sacramento, now. Tomorrow we are off to Hawaii for a month and one of my activities will be to download your book and read it!
Awwwesome, Curt. I hope you have a great time on all counts!
We are! We are in a small house surrounded by Hawaiian vegetation. The ocean is about a mile away and Kilauea is busy spewing out lava abut 30 miles away. We went up to Volcanoes National Park on Friday to watch it. Wow!
Wow. I’ll bet your camera’s getting a workout!
It’s working hard! For example, between the two us, we took over 200 photos of the volcano. 😵💫
LOL. I knew it!
🤪
Thank you for taking us along on your beautiful adventure, Curt. Wow, I loved the balmy beauty of the photos and crisp clear of others. The Parliament is just stunning. I’d love to go someday. This has me laughing “Here, the man with the scythe and the woman sowing seeds represented labor and wealth. As to why a man would choose to go out into a field of grain and whip around a large, sharp object while being totally naked is a total mystery to me” and wondering too! hahahahaha.💗🥹😛
Laughing, there wasn’t a lot of logic was there. Budapest was beautiful. Peggy and I are happily ensconced in our small house in Hawaii with the ocean about a mile away and Volcanoes National Park 30 miles. On Friday we went up to check out erupting volcano! Quite impressive.
Hahaha how couldn’t you bes since you’re the one that brought it to light! Well at least you’re out of harm’s way in Aloha land …. ahhhhh so lovely! It’s been years since I’ve seen an active volcano in the very land you are stepping. Enjoy every minute and how would you not!!! 💗
We have been, we are, and we will continue to!
🌺🌴🌊📚