Budapest: 5th June

Budapest as a city was created by joining the two towns of Buda and Pest, on opposite side of the Danube, in 1873.

Buda is hilly whilst Pest is flat, and we’ll start with Pest only because the Hop-on Hop-off bus goes there first, and we’ve just hopped on the bus.

From the bus, plenty of elegant buildings drift by that could just as well be part of any European capital. The yellow taxis could be from New York.

We sail past the Gresham Palace, a fine art nouveau building finished in 1904 by a British insurance company. It is now a hotel.

Budapest was occupied by the Turks for 160 years from 1526, so leaving some particular legacies like the Szechenyi Turkish baths. The front looks like a royal palace, and it appears that a favourite pastime, while wallowing in the water, is to play chess. It’s mixed sex, too, so you could take your Czech mate.

This is a building with a more sinister history. First, the HQ of the Arrow Cross fascists in WW2, the Hungarian Nazi Party, then the AVO, alias the KGB, under the communist regime. Now it’s a museum called The House of Terror that commemorates the inhumanities that were committed there.

Hosok Square constructed in 1896 is the area for big meetings and parades. At other times it’s the domain of a few skateboarders, rollerbladers, and pedestrians. That forlorn emptiness could easily be filled by parades of Hop-on Hop-off buses.

Now for some modern architecture. But the ING building looks like it’s cracked into segments and been repaired with bits of wire. Not perhaps the solid image an investment company like ING should be striving for.

 I’ve been neglecting the churches. This is St Stephens Basilica that contains the mummified right hand of St Stephen. This is paraded through the streets on his saints’ day Aug 20^th  when the devout can engage it with a “high five".

The Jewish synagogue here is the second largest in the world, after New York. It’s pretty impressive with an elaborate front and gilded towers.

There can be no doubt that the most stunning edifice from any era here is the Parliament Building, completed in 1904. It has 691 rooms and is 315 feet tall: the largest building in Hungary, and the tallest in Budapest. Not that any of this make for better parliamentary decisions or integrity.

We visit Buda the next day, on foot this time, so we’ll see you tomorrow.