Around The World Without Flying: The end of the river cruise - Budapest Part 1

It was with great surprise that I learned that there is really no such city as Budapest. It is virtually a twin city. ‘Buda’ is the name of the city on the west side of the Danube River, while ‘Pest’ is the name of the city on the other side of the river. (But of course these are the English versions of their proper Hungarian names.) The two are connected by a number of bridges.

On the last full day of our river cruise, we explored both sides of the river. However, in this post I will just talk about ‘Buda’. We visited an old medieval fortress high up on an embankment overlooking the river. What seemed to be all that remained of it - a long wall with turrets and towers and a walkway - had been restored to its former glory. It was a beautiful, imposing edifice.

In the square just behind the wall was a tall cathedral with the most magnificent, brightly patterned roof tiling. We did not see inside the cathedral, but instead climbed the steps up onto the walkway along the wall to see the view, and in the process saw more of the cathedral’s amazing roof. What a feast for the eyes in every direction!

You will not only see photographs of this edifice below in this post, but also you can see its photograph all lit up at night in my earlier post about the ‘magical kingdom' we saw that night when we cruised through Budapest on our last night, starting at sunset.

However, along our walk to the cathedral from where our coach was parked, we also saw the remains of devastation caused by the bombing by the Nazis in WW2. This is not a wealthy city, so progress on all the restorations required as a consequence of that period is relatively slow. We saw where some Nazis has stood on the wall and aimed their cannons at the church spires in Pest for target practice, knocking off one beautiful spire. To this day it has not been restored. To see that speaks louder than words about the mindless destruction and sorrow that war brings.

So, this is a city of heartbreak as well as of hope. Our guide, who perhaps would have been in his mid-seventies and remembered the war and its aftermath, was clearly profoundly affected by this dark period of its history. He told us how the Germans overran the much smaller Hungarian Army, called them out to surrender and when they did, shot every one of them. The entire army was annihilated in just a couple of hours. He also told us about the memorial of five thousand shoes. These shoes are in memory of the five thousand Jews who were brought out of their homes, made to walk into the Danube then shot where they stood.

I did not see that memorial of shoes but I did see another profoundly moving memorial in Pest, which I will show you when I talk about that side of the river.

The only good outcome of all the bombing was that it happened to knock the outer shell off a building down the little street leading to the cathedral, and exposed a much older and much more traditional building inside. I include that in my photos as well.

Then the Soviets took over, and Hungarians yearned for freedom from their brutality and rigid control. The Russian general who supposedly ‘freed’ the city had a top Hungarian artist install a sculpture on top of the highest point on a hill above the city to celebrate them ‘liberating’ the city.

When the Hungarians finally threw off their yoke, the city leaders at first wanted to destroy that statue, but then they devised a better plan. After all, it had been created by one of their own. They completely covered it with fabric that fluttered in the wind. Soon the fabric began to tear, exposing little bits of the statue. That was deemed to represent the ghost of Soviet oppression leaving Hungary. Eventually it was entirely gone, as was all Soviet influence. The statue now represents their freedom and is known as the Liberty Statue.

What a wonderful story! I looked up at the Liberty Statue standing tall and upright way above me whilst I was standing on the wall and, in my mind, I cheered!