Budapest, Part I

On August 18, 2014January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe4 Comments

Chris and Janene, good friends from back in Florida, told me that they were going to be in Budapest, so I timed one of my own trips to spend a few days hanging with them. They flew in from Florida, and I took the train into Keleti station on the same day.

One of the first things I learned as I arrived in Budapest was that the city is much, much, much larger than I thought it would be. The next thing I learned is that Budapest is actually made up of two cities- Buda and Pest. The cities are separated by the Danube river, and were united into one larger city in 1873.

I spent much more time in Pest than I did in Buda. Keleti Station, seen below, is on the Pest side. So was my hotel, and many of the other things seen in this post.

There are a large number of photographs in this post, in no particular order, Starting with the Budapest Opera.

This is one of the stations in the Millennium Underground Railway, or M1. Built between 1894 and 1896, this is the oldest line in the Budapest Metro, and the second oldest underground metro in the world. The oldest metro is in the London Underground.

This is Heroes Square. If you take a good tour, you’ll get a lot of very interesting explanations for each of the statues.

We kept seeing Budapest information staffers- they were always around to help tourists find their way. Stylish wheels, too!

This sign was very amusing. We expect signs to point us to attractions and restrooms, but free Wi-Fi? Amazing.

Thermal baths are located in various places around the city. This is the front entrance to Széchenyi Baths.

This is the view inside Széchenyi Baths. Széchenyi is reportedly the largest spa in Europe, with multiple pools and saunas.

This… was some delicious freshly made strudel from the First Strudel House of Pest, just down the street from St. Stephen’s Basilica. One of them is apple, the other rhubarb. So, so delicious.

The streets around the Basilica are lined with places to eat.

Here’s a far view of the Buda Castle Funicular, taken from the Chain Bridge.

This is the Chain Bridge, locally named Széchenyi lánchíd. The large building to the left is the Buda Castle, which has been converted to a museum.

Here’s a close-up of the Funicular I showed earlier.

This is the view from the top of the Funicular, looking back over the Chain Bridge into Pest.

This is another area on the Buda side of the river, Fisherman’s Bastion and lookout terrace.

The Fisherman’s Bastion provides amazing views of the Pest side of the river, including the Hungarian Parliament.

This church at Fisherman’s Bastion is called the Matthias Church. Several coronations occurred here. It’s under reconstruction at the moment.

Many religions are represented in Budapest. On the Pest side of the river is the Dohány Street Synagogue, a Jewish synagogue built in the 1850s with 2,964 seats (1,492 for men and 1,472 for women.)

The most well known of the churches in Budapest is St. Stephen’s Basilica, known locally as Szent István-bazilika.

Yes, you can climb it.

From the top, there’s a pretty fantastic view back toward Buda.

I never did figure out which building this is, but it’s nifty looking. I thought perhaps it was the Museum of Applied Arts, but they’re not quite the same patterns.

This is the inside of St. Stephen’s Basilica. We went there for an organ concert.

Here’s the organist, Miklós Teleki. He was pretty good.

When we left the concert, this is how the Basilica was lit up. I did absolutely no color processing to this photo- I simply cropped and resized it. This is how it looked without the camera.

There were lots of interesting statues around Budapest. The man standing on the bridge is Imre Nagy. Nagy was chosen by the people to become the new Prime Minister during an uprising in 1956. When the Soviet troops invaded he was arrested and executed along with thousands of others.

When we walked past the Hungarian Parliament, we caught a changing of the guard ceremony. It was very ceremonial, with lots of spinning rifles and whatnot.

When we were at the top of the Funicular, we caught a similar changing of the guard ceremony, but this was a different set of guards. The dark uniforms above are at the Parliament, while the light brown uniforms seen here are at Buda Castle.

This giant bird is a Turul. The Turul is considered a divine messenger, and it’s heavily woven into the origin mythology of the Magyar people. I was looking for this Turul statue because on the train into Budapest, I saw an enormous Turul statue on a mountain near Tatabánya. It was so large that it was easy to find information about it- it was the last of three giant Turul statues. It’s the largest bird statue in the world, and the largest bronze statue in Central Europe.

This Turul, sitting in front of Buda Castle, is not nearly so large as the one on the mountain. It was still pretty big though.

In one of the earlier photos showing the city, you might have noticed a ferris wheel. This is how it looks at night.

This is how St. Stephen’s Basilica looks from that same ferris wheel during the daytime.

The love locks phenomenon is everywhere. The “Big Nose Hearts Big Face” one made me laugh. And the big silver one next to it says “Michu Pich & Laddi Waddie,” which is kind of great.

I have a difficult time believing they can really transport a patient with this ambulance.

While we were walking toward our evening entertainment, we briefly followed this pair of children. I couldn’t resist snapping a photograph on the sly, because these two look like the flashback sequence of every buddy comedy movie I’ve ever seen. In a movie, this night would surely be followed immediately by a “fifteen years later” caption.

Have you ever been to Budapest? Which side did you prefer, Buda or Pest?

Brussels, Belgium

On May 12, 2014January 26, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Europe8 Comments

My trip to Belgium included a bunch of time spent in Brussels, the de facto capital of the European Union. It’s a fascinating city. I arrived via high speed train to the city around 5:30 in the afternoon. Walking to my hotel from the station, I found something interesting in less than ten minutes- this building’s angel/demon stone-work was just fascinating to me.

After I dropped my stuff off at the hotel, I went back out with my camera to see a bit of the city. I also had a specific goal in mind, but I’ll get to that in a moment. On the walk into the city, I found this Pop-Up Restaurant. It was set up temporarily in front of the Le Monnaie De Munt, a rather nifty looking theater. The Pop-Up Restaurant was set up so they could film a television show, according to the signage. I briefly considered trying to get a table before moving on.

Walking further toward the Grand Place, I spotted this rather amusingly named restaurant. It had pretty typical food on the menu and I almost had dinner there one evening, but changed my mind at the last minute. Also, I thought the eggs were regular decoration, but they were just there because it was Easter weekend.

I wandered from there into the Grand Place. It’s pretty hard to miss this enormous square. The Town Hall has an enormous pointy bit. I did not climb the pointy bit, as you had to make a reservation in advance to do so.

I mentioned above that I had a specific goal in mind for my walk through the city on the first evening. Most everyone has heard of Manneken Pis, the famous statue of the little boy peeing. That statue is widely associated with Brussels, and is one of the symbols of the city. There are two more peeing statues, though: Jeanneke Pis, a little girl peeing, was put up in 1987, and Zinneke Pis, a dog peeing, was put up in 1998. I decided when I left the hotel that I wanted to find all three before sundown.

Zinneke Pis was the first one I found. The tile Space Invaders art drew my attention to the corner before I spotted the dog on the corner.

Someone asked me if it was a male or female dog. I can say with authority that it is most decidedly a male dog. You just can’t see it in this camera angle.

Next up is the Manneken Pis. This one is marked on sightseeing signs and tourist maps, because it’s the most famous of the three. This fountain was erected in 1619, and they dress it up in various costumes several times per week. There was no costume while I was there, which surprised me because it was Easter weekend.

This is not the only Manneken Pis; there are others in various cities in Belgium, and one in Tokushima, Japan which was a gift from the Belgian embassy.

I saw so many replicas while I was in the city, including one made all of chocolate, and this one dressed up for the World Cup later this year.

Moving on from the Manneken Pis, I found my way next to Jeanneke Pis, erected in 1987 very close to the Rue des Bouchers, which is a narrow street full of restaurants. Jeanneke Pis is not far from the Grand Place, and it is regrettably behind locked iron bars which makes getting a good picture of her somewhat difficult.

Jeanneke Pis is basically across the street from the Delirium Tremens Beer Bar and Cafe, which made this a perfect time to stop for a nice Belgian beer before dinner.

I tried the Delirium Nocturnum, a strong delicious dark beer with an 8.50% alcohol by volume. Did I mention it was delicious?

After leaving Delirium, I decided to look for some dinner before retiring for the night. Passing by it, I saw the Beurs, the Brussels Stock Exchange, which is the location of the Art of the Brick Lego art exhibit. I’ll come back to this in another post, because I checked out this exhibit right before I left Brussels two days later.

The next day, it was time for my actual tour of Brussels, led by a professional tour guide. It started in the Grand Place, so here’s another view of that large plaza.

While I was waiting for the tour to start, I had a Belgian waffle covered in powdered sugar. The powdered sugar made me cough, which caused me to be completely enveloped in a cloud of white powder.

Delicious high comedy.

Moving on, we walked past the Cathédrale des Saints Michel et Gudule (Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula,) which was completed in 1519.

This is a monument to King Leopold I, the first king of the Belgians. He ruled from 1831 to 1865.

This is at the base of a very tall monument, but none of my other pictures came out very well. The structure is the Colonne des Congrés (the Congress Column.) The four corners are statues representing the four freedoms of Belgium- Freedom of the press, of religion, of education, and of association.

The flame is atop a Belgian Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, from World War I.

Moving on, we visited the Parliamentarium’s visitor’s center, which is all about the European Union’s Parliament and how it governs. It was pretty neat, actually. This first section represents the main structures in the three governing cities of the EU- Brussels, Luxembourg, and Strasbourg.

How far is it to your home city? Vienna’s only 917 kilometers away…

The exhibit had a detailed model of the European Parliament’s seating arrangement. Interestingly, the seating is not by nation, it’s by political affiliation.

I missed all but the last three minutes of this film about how the Parliament makes decisions because I was fascinated by shiny objects on the other side of the hall. It looked interesting, though.

On the way back from the Parliamentarium, we passed the Triumphal Arch in the Parc du Cinquantenaire, but alas, we didn’t actually go into the Jubilee Park, so this is the best photograph I took of the Arch.

This… this is just an enormously large flower pot that amused me.

I ate at two different restaurant chains that I quite enjoyed while I was in Brussels. The first was called Quick. The face of the restaurant was emblazoned with a giant lit up sign that said “Quality Burger Restaurant,” and the sign made me skeptical enough to try it. (“Challenge accepted!“) It turns out that it’s got all the soul that McDonald’s has given up over the years, and the burgers were delicious beyond all reason. The other restaurant that I tried was a healthy chain called Exki. This place was utterly delicious- it was a little like the Pret a Manger and Eat chains that are all over London, but with more hot prepared foods and a few other interesting choices like the Ubuntu cola in the picture below. (It was decent, but Coke is still better.) They name their sandwiches with people names, so my lunch as pictured below was John. The chocolate brownie in the background was so delicious.

I am excited beyond reason that they’re opening an Exki in New York City. You have no idea.

My next-door neighbor Lori sent me a link before I left for Brussels with a list of the top ten places to get a great view of Brussels. One of those places was a parking garage called Park 58. Entrance is free (because it’s a parking garage, not a tourist attraction,) and the elevator will take you right to the tenth floor. From there, you have a fantastic view in almost all directions. This is the view looking back toward the Grand Place.

On the other side, you can see clearly all the way to the Atomium. The Atomium is really cool, and I’ll talk about my visit there in another post.

This statue is near Grasmarkt. I didn’t remember to catch the plaque that explains it, but I quite dig the man’s mustache and his friendly dog.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza? Yup! I’m not sure why it’s in Brussels, but it’s in Place D’Espagne, and it’s a replica of the original statue in Madrid.

Last, but certainly not least, Brussels is another city full of art. I kept noticing that the exposed sides of buildings were painted all over the city. I only snapped pictures of these four, and there was one more of a swashbuckler that I wanted to go back for, but I didn’t have time. I love that the buildings have this much character. These four are in different places all over the city:

Have you ever been to Brussels? What was your favorite thing about the city?

Leipzig

On April 14, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany6 Comments

I went to Leipzig on my way back from Dresden. I didn’t stay overnight in Leipzig, I just took a few hours in between trains on the way back so I could see a bit of the city.

My first order of business was taking the number 15 tram to the Völkerschlachtdenkmal, known in English as the Monument to the Battle of the Nations. This is a monument to commemorate Napoleon’s defeat at the 1813 Battle of Leipzig.

I only wish I’d had better conditions for photography. The sun was behind the monument, which made getting a clear shot very difficult. There are some really beautiful pictures of the Völkerschlachtdenkmal on the Internet. Mine isn’t one of them.

Coming back into the center of town on the tram, I stopped by the Panorama Tower, seen on the left. It’s the tallest point in Leipzig, and for three Euros, you can go to the observation level at the top.

I was there on a really hazy day, but I still got a few nice shots from the top.

The tall church visible in this photo is the Nikolaikirche (St. Nicholas Church).

The Leipzig Hauptbahnhof is absolutely enormous. I noticed the size of it when I arrived, and thought that perhaps it was the largest I had seen. It turns out that I was correct- according to Wikipedia, the Leipzig main station is the world’s largest railway station measured by floor area. Here’s the outside, as seen from the Panorama Tower.

Here’s my attempt to capture the inside of the Leipzig station. It was simply too big for even a single photograph to capture.

In every city I’ve ever visited, someone has been playing music for money. Leipzig was no exception.

These next two photos are of statues inside the Auersbachs Keller Leipzig which were interesting to me. The statues face each other. The first depicts students bewitched by Mephisto.

The second depicts Mephisto and Faust.

Walking through the city, here’s Nikolaikirche up close.

On the side of the Nikolaikirche, opposite the Bach museum, is a nice statue to Bach. Between Bach, Mozart, and Goethe, I’m collecting the whole set.

I think this is the New Town Hall.

Even if it isn’t, I liked the clock in this tower.

Have you ever been to Leipzig?

Hans Hummel

On April 3, 2014May 30, 2020 By StevenIn International Travel - Inside Germany4 Comments

While I was waiting for my train out of Hamburg, I noticed an interesting statue- a man in an oversized top-hat carrying two buckets. A moment later, I noticed another one- identical in shape, but with different colors. Within a few minutes, I had found four of them in that part of the station.

After I returned, I learned what was going on with these statues. They depict Hans Hummel, the last water-carrier in 19th century Hamburg. In 2003, one hundred identically sculpted statues were painted in different ways and then spread out throughout the city. Some of them are still on public display, including the four I saw in the train station.

They’re numbered. If I had known that sooner, I would have gone hunting for the others.