Budapest

At the end of July, we had our friends, Chelsea and Dan come visit us in Prague! We showed them all the typically sights and ate some amazing Czech food. On Monday we headed for Budapest. When we arrived we went straight to the Hungarian baths. We went to Szechenyi Thermal Bath, which is one of the largest spa complexes in Europe. It was also the first thermal bath of Pest. The bath was constructed in 1913 and is filled by two thermal springs from the area. These springs supply 1,600,000 gal of hot water daily. The water contains sulphate, calcium, magnesium, bicarbonate, fluoride and metaboric acid.

The next day we did all of the major site seeing. Up until 1873 Budapest was actually two cities (“Buda” and “Pest”) separated by the Danube river.  Our first stop was the Hungarian Parliament Building. It is one of Europe’s oldest legislative buildings and the 3^rd largest parliament building in the world.

Then we walked along the Danube River and we came across some shoes that were cemented into the concrete. We are were extremely interested but didn't have any wifi figure out what it meant so we stopped at a cafe on the river for a beer and to do a little research. We found out that these shoes were put there as a memorial to the Jews who lost their lives in the war. At that spot along the river the soldiers would line the people up and shoot them. They would fall backwards into the river and they would be carried away but their shoes would still remain on the banks. 

We then crossed the Szechenyi Chain Bridge, which in 1849 opened to connect “Buda” and “Pest”. After crossing the bridge, we climbed up to Buda Castle. Buda Castle was first completed in 1265 for the Hungarian kings. The castle is situated on top of a hill and can be seen throughout the entire city. It seemed to remind us a lot of Prague Castle.

Our last stop for the day was the Fisherman's Bastion on the Buda bank of the Danube River. The building was built in 1895 but was nearly destroyed in WWII. The building takes its name from the group of fisherman that defended these city walls during the middle ages. 

Matthias Church