Good morning and welcome to a sunny beautiful but a very cold winter
Budapest
I hope you're having a wonderful day and thank you for joining me on today's trip
as we have a wander around part of Budapest
Now Budapest, I don't know if you know it's like two cities, Buda on one side
Pest on the other with the river Danube dividing the two and the chain link link
bridge linking the two so today I'm gonna focus mostly on the Pest side and
have a walk around and show you what there is to see there. Let's start.
And what better place to start the day than on Heroes Square. Now this was
commissioned in 1896 to celebrate 1000 years that's right in millennia of a
country being here and is 1,000 years in 1896 that is amazing on the center paper
still have got the angel Gabriel and either side in the two colonnades
flanking it are chieftains kings and freedom fighters from throughout hung
Hungary's history. It's a big open platza it's free to wander around and
either side you've got the Museum of Fine Art over there and the Hall of Art
on this side. Let me show you a little bit.
Now heading out of Heroes Square you go into the gardens which are also very
beautiful behind our we are going to look at Vajdahunyad Castle right over there
Vajdahunyad Castle sits in the park by the boating lakes, and at this time of
year an ice rink. Now it's an unusual castle because it was built in 1896 as
part of the Millennial anniversary but it was built to showcase the evolution
of Hungarian architecture through the centuries so you have styles from
everywhere you've got parts of the Middle Ages blend with Gothic
Renaissance, Baroque with Romanesque it creating a beautiful eclectic Palace and
it's set in these beautiful gardens which you can wander around and also our
next point is very close by over there, the Széchenyi baths.
The Széchenyi Thermal Baths. Now these are Budapest the biggest and most popular
thermal spa baths and they've been providing soothing healing for over 100
years now. You can choose from a selection of 18 different thermal,
geothermal pools, some inside and some outside, you can
have a massage, you can go in the sauna, you could work out in the gym or just
relax in the pool with a glass of wine and a beer
everything is thoughtfully provided right here at these beautiful healing baths.
Now you should be totally relaxed after your time at the baths but now it's time
to get a move on and see some more things.
We are going to head back to the metro
station now, get the yellow line, go five stops in towards the city and get off at
opera station
Now just five stops down the line from where we got on the Metro you get off at
the Opera where you go, guess what, the Hungarian State Opera House it was
opened in 1884 and ironically at the moment it's closed for renovations until 2021
These buildings do need maintenance. Operas are still ongoing in Budapest at
the Erkel Theater so you can still catch an opera while you're here and
they'll be running there until the renovations are finished in this beautiful
opera house that has some of the best acoustics in Europe that have made it
so popular. Come back in 2021.
Now from here it's a straight walk almost straight down this nine nice wide
Boulevard for twelve minutes to see St Stephen's Basilica
Now from the Opera House is a pleasant 12 minutes walk to Siant Stephen's
Basilica, the largest church in Hungary, big enough for over 8,000 people inside.
It took 54 years to build and during that building nearly 20 years of
construction had gone by when the main dome collapsed, now that must have
caused a mess and a half. Now the architect who designed the Opera House
was brought in and the building was completed now and it's finished the dome
stands 96 meters high, now the city ordinance limits all buildings in the
city to be a maximum of 96 meters high and is exactly the same height as the
Parliament Buildings here which symbolizes the balance in Hungary
between the church and the state.
Let me show you.
Listen to the bells, it's beautiful.
Now that was beautiful, and just a short walk down the street here to the end
less than five minutes and we are heading to Erszebet Garden to see the
Budapest Eye.
Another short 5-minute walk takes you to Erszebet Park and the Budapest Eye reaching a
high of 65 meters it offers great views of the city especially the Basilica
which is close by and is a relaxing way to look over Buda,
Pest and the Danube River.
And from here it's only a five minute walk round, just just down there
to Vörösmarty square.
Located at the end of the quite touristy shopping street of Vaci Utca Vörösmarty
square is named after the renowned Hungarian poet by the same name, whose
statue is in the middle of the square
Now from here it's a 15-minute walk down to the river.