Family Life

This morning dawned sunny and clear. Not warm enough for shirt sleeves, but positively balmy when I recalled the foot of snow covering the ground at home. My feet protested when I stepped out of bed, still sore from yesterday’s hike. Better get used to it, feet. There’ll be a lot more walking today.

Breakfast at the hotel was lovely. The hotel was in an old downtown building, beautifully renovated, and in the breakfast room everything looked antique, even the curtains. “Old” has a different context here though. To the locals this would be a fairly modern place, built in the 1800s. The truly old dates back to the 13th and 15th centuries, or before, although it’s hard to tell what’s original and what’s rebuilt. There are sites built in the 1200s, rebuilt in the 1400s, rebuilt in the 1800s, and rebuilt in the 1960s after the devastation of World War II bombing. The two most recent building sprees have tried to retain the original structures and decorations as much as possible, restoring medieval murals, for example. Other things, such as tiled mosaics, have been rebuilt from scratch based on remaining fragments and pictures of the original. The blending of old and new is very well done, although when the new stuff is 200 years old it all looks ancient to a layman like me.

I felt at home when I set out after breakfast. From yesterday’s exploring I knew where I was going and how to get there. That familiarity gave a friendly feeling to the day. Sunny blue skies helped too. The streets were mostly deserted as I walked down to the Danube and across the Chain Bridge, heading toward Buda Castle. I’d seen the castle from afar during yesterday’s walk, and while large it didn’t seem very castle-like. High walls, turrets, archery slits, that sort of thing. In the olden days Buda Castle was the only settlement for miles, prominent atop Buda hill. Today the city has grown all around it, modern buildings crammed up against ancient walls. The city hides the scale and magnificence of the old fortress.

You can walk up to the castle. But why spend the effort when you can take the train? There’s a funicular railway, carriages hauled up the slope by a cable. I stepped into the front of the carriage, camera in hand, feeling 100% tourist.

At the top I walked along the castle walls, at the oldest part. Now it felt like a real castle. Up close the walls were high, thick, massive, with huge iron portals. There were something like three separate walls, one inside the other, with enough room between walls to drive three cars side by side. More than a castle, it was a fortified city, with palaces, churches, houses and plazas within the walls. It’s hard to imagine an army of foot soldiers getting past all those walls, but the Turks conquered the fortress in the 1500s. Jericho also thought it was impregnable, and look how that turned out.

The biggest building on the hill was the Royal Palace, a landmark visible from anywhere in the city. It has been converted into a museum and art gallery, the #2 tourist attraction according to my guide book (#1 being St Stephen’s Basilica, which I visited yesterday). I had no interest in visiting the museum though. Philistine that I am, I can only take art in small quantities, however historical it may be. The guide book talked about spending a whole day there. Not for me, thanks. I do like old buildings however, especially huge, imposing ones, so I walked around it, took photos, and felt satisfied. The palace was a good vantage point to take photos of Budapest. It was quiet, deserted, peaceful. Later in the day it would be crowded and noisy, but in the early morning I relaxed and enjoyed the solitude.

The place I really wanted to visit was M

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