We start our "Leopold Town Walk". Just off the electric bus, we find the parliament building, which now is triple the size necessary since Hungary lost 2/3's its territory after aligning with the losing side in two world wars.
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Walking around the backside of the parliament building, on the Danube River once again, we look across to "Buda" (Budapest was once Buda on one side, the north, of the Danube, and Pest, a town on the other side of the river), seeing many old towers.
A wide view of the premises - we need to walk to the other side of the river in the coming days to see the bestest view.
Supreme Court building, the runner-up design in the parliament building design competition, just across the street.
Statues of "revolutionaries" from the mid-1800's against Austrian royals lording over them.
Panorama view of "Buda" across the Danube.
Artsy reliefs on the side of a nearby building.
Nearby, just a bit down-river...
The Shoes on the Danube Bank is a memorial erected in 2005 to honor the Jews who were massacred by Arrow Cross Party Fascist Hungarian militia in Budapest during the Second World War.
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In strange, and somewhat interesting ways, statues of Ronnie and George have found their ways here to "Liberty Square" commemorating the evolution of the decline of Communism in Central/Eastern Europe.
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Modeled after Greek architecture, an elaborate pediment adorns this building.
An art nouveau "book" slid in between other buildings from 1903. There's so much interesting architecture all over Budapest, unfortunately many not as as well maintained as this building, but still hanging on as evidence of past glory.
A neat fountain with sensors to allow entry to the middle without getting splashed - we watched, in a short few minutes, many people trying it out.
Next to the fountain, a memorial to Nazi fascist aggression, disregarding the fuller context of what happened during WWII. An informal "free speech" installation is permitted to remain between the fountain and the memorial.
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A youth group pauses in front of a nearby basilica.
Looking out from the basilica, a nice square, actually created by opening up the space, removing an unsightly parking area, and putting it just below where you drive your car down a ramp onto a pallet and it robotic-ally is moved to a slot within the underground spaces.
Pizza-time again - the woman behind is working on our very selection - yeah, we're here to see a lot, but local cuisine is not an experience we're looking for here, as we knew going in. We could find many different, well concocted eclectic international selections, but when we're on the move checking out so many sights, we just cannot get ourselves to hunker down for 90 minutes of restaurant culture. We've had satisfying traditional Hungarian food in smaller towns, but here the offerings are too touristy and it's just easier to grab quick familiar bites to get our calories.
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Checking out an early incarnation of subway/metros - built supporting the 1896 festivities commemorating the arrival of the original Hungarians 1000 years ago, in a migration of people from just west of what is now Mongolia. This subway had horse drawn carriages in the early days.
The Hungarian National Opera:
A concert hall near our lodging...
OMG - it's free beer today - it has always been free beer...tomorrow, until today.
This beer was not free - but the price matched the quality, well worth it.
We end our touring day with a brief run into the Buda side of Budapest, riding the train across the Danube.
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