Our walk this morning was along the path of the Millennium Underground which was the first subway in Mainland Europe and completed in 1896 which coincidentally celebrated the 1000th year of Hungary's existence (hence the name).
The walk commenced at
which at the time of its completion in 1885 was considered a masterpiece of public planning. It is a World Heritage Site and tourist brochures champion it as the Champs Élysées of Budapest but it failed to live up to that in our humble view.
One of the first impressive buildings along the Utca is the State Opera House
(opened 125 years ago) and at the next intersection there is Budapest's Broadway
The Moulin Rouge and the Operett Theatre are virtually side by side.
One of the features around Budapest are the various life like figures in various
poses invariably being hugged or leaned on by tourists. In this area there is what
might be Hungary's walk of fame. Moving further north along Andrassy Avenue
there is an intersection shaped like an octagon & not unsurprisingly called the Oktogon - a bird would get a better appreciation of the shape than we did at ground level!
The next intersection is Kodaly korond which is encircled by four town houses & is
also difficult to photograph as my effort shows.
The avenue ends at Heroes' Square, the largest square (ter) in the city and known for the Millennium Monument erected in 1896 to commemorate the 1000 year
history of the Magyars. On either side of the monument are two substantial
buildings - on the left side is the Museum of Fine Arts and on the right side is the
Art Gallery. Crossing the bridge behind the colonnade takes one to City Park which houses
Vajdahunyad Castle. In the grounds of the castle a group were practicing for some
concert so we enjoyed a few minutes of their practice performance. We also saw a
guy playing the Hang, a unique instrument developed in recent times by a firm in Switzerland.
The Hang (the inventors say it is not a drum) gives off a unique sound as the YouTube clip at http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=related&v=9oEskFSLxSU demonstrates. When we googled to try and find out what the instrument was we found that it can only be brought directly from the manufacturers and then you have to go to Bern to have a personal appointment - no wonder on Ebay one being sold had a bid of $US4000 and that bid had not triggered the reserve!
In the afternoon we wandered around the inner city area of Pest and walked along the banks of the Danube looking back to the area in Buda we had been yesterday.
We wished to get a tram to move about 3 kms further east along the river but could not find anywhere to buy a ticket - even around 7 or so different locals standing at tram stops that we asked didn't have a clue where to get them - and we were unwilling to test whether we would get away with travelling without a ticket so we walked to where we had intended to go.
A message for the transport operator here in Budapest - make it easy for tourists and locals to buy tram tickets and you may find your revenue increases!
One of the challenges of touring like we are is not being left with useless coins in the pocket as you move from country to country and the currency changes - but that is another story.
Tomorrow we move on into Serbia for two nights - could/should be interesting.
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