We arrived as we were eating breakfast, very pretty buildings and bridges right along the river. We took a tour of both sides, Old Buda, Buda and Pest by bus. We stopped at a square in Pest first at Hero's Square and then to Matthias Church. It is a beautiful city, very different from the rest, with their history of communism so recent and affects of WWII so devastating. They have one of the oldest city tram systems, operating since 1866. Their subway was 2nd only to London, being built in 1896.
After the morning tour we went back to the boat and grabbed a cookie and left again to head to the parliament. This is one of the first buildings that really stands out when you arrive in Budapest. It is an amazingly large building that would compare to our white house and was patterned off of the British parliament building. The real crown jewels are housed in this building, they were stored for 30 years in Kentucky at Fort Knox and then returned to Budapest under Jimmy Carter.
The building the symmetrical, for a bicameral government, they currently just have one House of Lords.
Cool!
Cigar holders that are numbered so that they know what one to come back to after they go in to vote.
We ran into a Gay Pride demonstration that stated at the Parliament building as we were touring. It pretty much shut down that part of town. We saw hundreds of police everywhere and really struggled to get back to the boat because everything was so blocked off.
On the way back we also saw several wedding groups going from the church to the receptions. There were dancers performing on the streets too!
The market, it was closed by the time we got there. :(
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