Today is our last day in Budapest and we took a morning tour with AMA. We went to the market yesterday because it was not listed on the itinerary of the tour for today, but it turns out that it was on the tour today. No worries! We got to take our time yesterday and today allowed me time to take more pictures.

Great Market Hall

Meat counter

locals shopping

turkey parts

sausages

stomach or intestine

peppers

fruit

veggies

truffles

We had a lovely local tour guide today. My guess is that she is about our age as she referenced growing up under communism. After the market we went on a bus tour through the main part of the city, end up at Fisherman’s Bastion and St Matthias Church. We went here (actually, we took this exact same tour with AMA) the last time we were in Budapest, but it was at the end of our trip and we were tired and I felt like I missed too much of it.

Cave Church…just walked by this

Street by the hotel we had stayed in

Old architecture next to communist architecture. Our guide said that buildings damaged in WWII or later were not allowed to be replaced by anything decorative so you see these plain communist era buildings mixed in with old architecture.

Heroes Square. A monument to Hungarian heroes including a tomb to the unknown soldier

Heroes Square

Flower boxes

Fisherman’s Bastion (Halaszbastya in Hungarian) was built between 1895 and 1902 as part of the Hungarian millennial celebrations. It was built in a Neo-Romanesque style and has 7 towers to represent the 7 Hungarian chieftains who led their tribes to establish what is now Hungary in 895. It is part of the castle hill complex and gives a great view of the Pest side of the river. It did sustain some damage in WWII, but was repaired by the son of the original architect. While the current bastion is more decorative, there is a historical Fisherman’s Bastion that has served here since medieval times in a real defensive terms.

Fisherman’s Bastion

View from Fisherman’s Bastion

View from Fisherman’s Bastion

View from Fisherman’s Bastion

Next to Fisherman’s Bastion is the Matthias Church. There has been a church at this site since 1015 when St Stephen, King of Hungary, founded the first church here. The current church was built in the late 1200s and was named after King Matthias from the 1400s. Multiple kings were coronated here, including the last Habsburg king, King Charles VI, in 1916. The roof of the church is covered in brightly colored Zsolnay ceramic tiles. These tiles are Hungarian pyrogranite tiles that are made to withstand weather and even the heat of fireplaces. It really is a stunning roof. I went in the church last time we were here so I did not pay to go in again this time.

St Matthias Church

St Matthias

Tiles of St Matthias Church

View of Parliament as we sailed out of Budapest

We had the rest of the afternoon off. Paul napped and I caught up on this blog. This evening we set sail from Budapest, heading towards Slovakia. After dinner we sat on the deck of the ship for a while. The sunset was gorgeous! Later in the evening, the cruise director mentioned that we were passing by some town that I didn’t catch the name of, but he said we just had a few minutes to catch it so I went out with my camera. I managed to get a couple of night pictures of the Esztergom Cathedral. It was impressive along the river and all lit up.

Sunset

Sunset

Esztergom Cathedral

Esztergom Cathedral