May 24, 2016
It was a rainy cool day in Budapest. Mark and Jen took an Uber (there was a dance mix of Simon and Garfunkel’s “Sound of Silence” playing in the car - it was so cool) to the Central Market - take Cleveland’s Westside Market and put it on steroids. This Market built in 1897 is 3 levels consisting of 10,000 meters squared. The Market sells all things Hungarian including treats and treasures from meats to cheeses to spices and souvenirs. Once we were done enjoying our early trip to the Market we walked down Vaci Street, a pedestrian street filled with fun shops and cafes. Then we headed back to the hotel for Jen to meet up with Jim.
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| Central Market Budapest, Hungary |
Jim and Jen had a high noon tour of Parliament lined up. We walked down the hill and across the Chain Bridge (I hope you are seeing a pattern by now of the distances we traveled each and every day). The Hungarian Parliament is tied for tallest building in Budapest with the dome reaching 315 feet tall. This house of Parliament is the 3rd largest parliament in the world - behind Great Britain and Buenos Aires. Inside the house of Parliament all the gold-colored decor 3 meters + higher is actual gold! While we were on our guided tour of Parliament we had the pleasure of seeing a dignitary from the Russian Orthodox Church. Fun fact – The Chandelier hanging in the dome of the Parliament building is stationary so to change the light bulbs or dust a person has to climb into the chandelier from the outside of the building while suspended 315 feet in the air. As a side note, every other chandelier in the building can be lowered by a pulley system for ease of light-bulb changing and cleaning/dusting.
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| Hungarian Parliament Budapest, Hungary |
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| Hungarian Parliament Budapest, Hungary |
After the tour we walked outside along the Danube and saw the “Shoes on the Danube” memorial. During World War II, Jews were gathered by the river and told to remove their shoes and place all their valuables in said shoes on the riverbank. Once they complied they were shot and their bodies were carried away by the water. This is a heart breaking memorial which fit very well with the weather for the day.
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| Shoes on the Danube Budapest, Hungary |
We grabbed sandwiches for lunch at the Anna Cafe on Vaci Street - it promptly began to rain. We walked through the drizzle over to the Holocaust Memorial Center. The Memorial Center followed four Hungarian families starting before the war and ending at the liberation.
It was still raining when we got out of the memorial center. However that did not stop us - we walked home - over the Chain Bridge and up the Castle Hill - in everything from a drizzle to a down pour. By the time we got back to the hotel we looked like drowned rats. It was bad. Jim and Jen had a little time to change out of the wet clothes and work on drying off. The in-room towel warmers came in very handy!
Dinner was at Vagon Etterem not far from our hotel that is actually in a train car! Once again dinner was great, we indulged in the chicken and the pork with a spontaneous splurge on a side of pickles and potato pancakes for the table – look at our wild side! The rain subsided and gave way to perfect weather for a walk back to the hotel.
Here are our stats for day 2
Steps - 33,707
Miles - 15.42
Stairs - 99 flights